Moley
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Posts posted by Moley
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Slow down a bit!
I joined this forum many years ago because we had bought a 44ft Calcutt / Colecraft in need of much attention. There's a build blog somewhere about NB 'Talpidae'. If I was able to share knowledge or experience about other stuff, so much the better. That's how it worked elsewhere.
On the homeBREW forum, I knew far more than most about country wine making, which I've been doing since 1975. As I learned more about brewing, I could share that on another home WINEmaking forum. I have never been an expert on either, even if I have won prizes for both.
Lately, I have been doing very little wine making, and have reverted to a simpler 'brew-in-a-bag' method of brewing.
As we have now sold the boat and left the waterways community, I'm probably not the person to be drawn into this thread, and have only been lured back here out of curiosity.
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I was told, at a speed awareness course after being nicked for doing 38 in a 30 zone, that the lowest speed limit which was legally enforceable was 20 mph.
Is this why he got a ticking off but not a ticket?
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Thanks folks, and especially to Keith for the link. Damn, that's a shame, so it's back to being floor mounted under the bed.
Peter, carpets front and back and vinyl in the middle might have the occasional tack where necessary but aren't fully fixed and can be easily lifted. Previously, carpets were nailed every six inches and ceramic tiles were glued down in the galley and bathroom. That was a real PITA as I had used a very good tile adhesive and they had to be smashed off in tiny pieces with a hammer and chisel. All flooring panels can be lifted after removing one or two stainless M6 bolts. Where furniture is built on top of the flooring, inspection panels will be incorporated. With improved ventilation I hope this will get rid of the permadamp conditions which existed before, but I will be keeping an eye on that.
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Re-refit is coming along quite nicely, and further to another topic where I asked about a product called Ecosheet (link), I've even got rid of the 'temporary' OSB cruiser deck (which has been down for about the last 3 years).
This stuff is 100% recycled and 100% waterproof. It doesn't seem to get slippy when wet and although there's a bit of bounce to it, one cross brace under the largest panel seems to be more than adequate. I will be very interested to see how this stuff stands the test of time.
Inside, mostly new flooring has been laid. It has been cut back so that it doesn't meet the side steelwork but extends only a quarter of an inch or so beneath the wall panels. Those have also been planed so that they don't quite touch the floor, and therefore flooring can be lifted in future without stripping out the whole damned boat. When I decide what furniture to build, vents will be cut into the flooring beneath any storage compartments so that the whole thing will get a chance to breathe.
I was told some time ago that once a boat reaches the point where you can go out and start using it, that is often the point at which any interior work ceases. Combine that with the fact that I am the sort of person who never quite seems to manage to finish any DIY job, and Talpidae never really stood a chance. Contrary to that, I am very attentive to detail on the bits that I do finish, so for example where trim strips have been fixed to cover joints and screws/nails in the tongue-and-groove ceiling, all of the screw heads are aligned down the length of the boat, it's just that I never quite got around to covering all of the joints.
This time around I am trying to finish all of the bits I never quite got around to. It's not just decorative touches, I never quite got around to fitting a door on the bathroom, for the last 8 years there's just been a full length curtain on a wire. Now there's a door.
New worktop has been fitted, with the sink draining board on the high side to satisfy Mr. Newton.
Existing kitchen unit carcasses have been re-used but wood-look plastic coated MDF doors and drawer fronts will be replaced with real wood when funds permit.
Furthermore, I have visited the empororium of messers Block and Quayle and at great expense have invested in some of their Prestige drawer units which do not slam shut, but rather close quietly yet positively, requiring a modicum of effort to then open them again, such that Mrs. Mole's drawers shall no longer be rent asunder at the whim of any passing hire boater with water skiier in tow, or should multiple persons attempt to board simultaneously.
New front step hides water pump and accumulator, shelving unit (hiding inspection hole, stop tap and water filter) is likely to be replaced by 'L' shaped seating / single / double bed, while on the left hand side plans are in hand for 2 seats / small Pullman dinette / single bed, i.e. one double or two singles.
At the blunt end, back wall (previously bare OSB) has finally been clad and I have even built a box plus door over the lectrix panel. New back step hides a big inspection hole. I'm not entirely sure about that Ecosheet stuff being used as a new back door, even when I get around to painting it, but the old plywood one needed replacing before it completely fell apart.
Blunt end really is a blank canvas. Where there was previously a fixed 4ft not-quite-a-double bed I am now planning to build a 5ft cross bed. We went to IKEA to look for ideas, they had a 10cm thick king sized mattress reduced to £50, so that's currently on the floor.
Question: I've lost any fitting instructions long ago, can a Whale Gulper be wall mounted vertically like that? It was only tacked temporarily for the photo. -
Sorry Tony, I saw your PM on this question but couldn't reply at the time .... and then forgot
Yes, I would still recommend Vactan plus one or two coats of some kind of paint, but with perfect 20:20 hindsight I would ensure that there was some ventilation going on below the flooring.
That is precisely what I've done this time around, except that I've used red oxide instead of the bitumen coating I applied before.
I will try to get around to updating this build blog shortly.
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Your post seems to imply that Stourbridge dry dock doesn't ?
Other than that, there's a dry dock at Stourport, phone Limekiln chandlers to enquire about that, or try Ashwood Marina for a crane-out, I'll PM a contact number.
Ashwood definitely allows DIY and I'm pretty sure Stourport do too.
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That tutorial has a life of its own now, over 30k hits so far and has introduced many people to home wine making.
My favoutrite is white grape with a mix of orange and pineapple, or I use red grape and cranberry to make a pleasant vino pinko.
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Thanks folks, I don't even begin to understand "flexural modulus" but that was my only slight concern with the product, it does seem to be a bit "more pliable than plywood".
However, I have previously used phenolic ply for deck boards and although I initially treated the cut edges I didn't keep up any regular re-treatment, and when the water started getting in to the boards they deteriorated and needed replacing after about 5 years. The 'temporary' replacement was cut from 18mm OSB board which now soaks up water like a sponge and looks absolutely dreadful. It does get hidden under an interlocking neoprene material on the rare occasion when we're actually using the boat but that's impractical as it has to be unzipped and folded back when you need to get to the stern gland greaser or weed hatch.
I'm going to give this stuff a try, my largest panel will be 740 x 1210mm and I can easily fit a couple of cross braces.
Oh, and thanks for the greenie.
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Has anybody on the forum used Ecosheet? A search brought up nothing.
It's stated as an alternative to plywood but it's a plastic material, 100% recycled and 100% waterproof. It's also available from my local timber merchant.
I'm thinking of using it for a new cruiser stern deck, and possibly for new front and back doors.
Price comparison:(8ft x 4ft x 18mm)
Hardwood ply, £45.24
Phenolic ply, £67.50
Ecosheet, £58.68
There's a data sheet (pdf file) here:
www.ecosheet.com/files/8513/6681/5676/Ecosheet_Specification_Sheet_v5.pdf
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Surely better to invest a bit to stop them getting nicked.
This problem has reduced considerably since both Tesco and Sainsbury started chaining their trolleys up, you have to insert a pound coin or a token to release one and then you chain it up again when you've unloaded to your car.
If I recall correctly, Tesco's also have wheel locks which trip if you cross a red painted line and try to take the trolley beyond the car park, while Sainsbury's have metal plates at the access points from car park to towpath into which the wheels engage so you can't push the trolley across (and which is a PITA when you actually want to off-load directly to the boat).
However, the problem hasn't completely gone away because yoofs can insert tokens too or carry unchained trolleys across any obstacle, I try to keep the boat well away from the sides in that area, and if we want to moor outside a supermarket I always approach with caution and cut the engine well before we touch.
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Does this mean that the skips around your neck of the woods will, once again, be raided as they were all those years ago?
Cheeky sod, I know that I was attempting to fit her out on a fairly tight budget (and that's not going to change this time around), and I know that I made good use of some free hardwoods donated by my father-in-law (a builder and carpenter winding down towards retirement), but I don't think that much actually came out of skips, apart from the solid beech worktops which were being thrown out by a kitchen company.
Any time you need any single malts assessing, I'm your man.
I can't make whisky but I've been doing quite a bit of brewing in the last few years, so I would be interested in your opinion on my beers.
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Well I thought I had almost finished, except that Steve ground bits out of my fresh blacking to attach some chunky rubbing strips at the front.
It has always concerned or niggled at me that our floor has never been flat. There's a 3x2 inch angle iron welded the full length of the boat along the centre line, and then half members are welded to that every 30" or so. Over time, many of the welds where these cross members join what I think Steve called the keelson have broken, with the result that when the boat is afloat the water pressure underneath the hull pushes the base plate up at the centre line, by about an inch. I hoped that a new baseplate might reduce that, but took the opportunity to have Steve re-make the centre welds, with reinforcement pieces where necessary.
All done, with three coats of bitumen.
And this morning she was hooked up
And up she went. The base plate has also had a coat of red oxide and a coat of bitumen, including jacking her up and moving the sleepers. Painting underneath was not a great deal of fun, at times it was almost impossible to attempt to twist to re-load my roller without blacking my own shoulder.
And in she went:
And the water stayed outside, apart from the rainwater which is dripping from the bottom corners of 3 of the windows.
And the floor stayed flat
Leaving a one inch gap where the bathroom walls used to meet the ceiling
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One side is finished:
The other side, not quite there yet:
The front end of the back plate still needs lifting and welding:
And all of the bungs have got to go back in:
But I'm beginning to wish I had shares in a red oxide paint factory:
But while I've been cleaning base sections, chipping off rust and treating with Vactan (and then more red oxide) I've punched another hole through the side, thereby proving that our survey wasn't worth the paper it was printed on, and as Alan said, we've made the only sensible decision we could have. This one's about 2cm wide and again, below the floor and just above the inner base weld.
Finally yesterday, the first coat of black stuff went on the finished side.
Oh, and that tarpaulin, well at the moment the boat isn't quite level on the railway sleepers, neither is she back end down as in normal use, she's slightly nose down so and any rainwater on the roof isn't running towards the blunt end and harmlessly down the sides, oh no, it's running towards the pointy end, onto the front deck, and then quite a bit's getting under the water tank inspection cover and into the cabin.-
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Yes i can weld, yes it is out of the water, and i am asking for links to see how it is done properly. Is it done in one full base plate or can i do it where its needed.
Take a look at NB Talpidae, page 13, half way down.
Currently being overplated with 6mm base and sides, almost finished now and I need to upload a few more photos.
The base has been done in three sections, the first being tacked all the way around and then properly welded at both ends before the other base sections were offered into position. Each section also has two small (2-3" dia) holes cut out on the centre line where that is also tacked to the old baseplate before the bungs are welded back in.
Side plates were chamfered on their lower back edges to clear the base plate tacks before being welded all around.
Everything has been done with jacks, brute force, crowbars and big hammers.
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Hi Peter,
Yes, I have a definite case of deja vu here, the front end of the boat seems to be exactly as I left it when I screwed the flooring down but the middle to back is exactly as I found it 8 years ago.
I would still recommend that rust converter and am using the same product this time around, but I don't believe it was guaranteed against and has certainly not stood up to 8 years of permadamp.
Lessons learned: My new flooring will not go right up to the sides, there will be provisions made for ventilation and I may even fit a couple of computer fans to get some air circulation going below our feet. The concrete slabs are no longer required and have been removed from the boat.
Side panelling will be trimmed back so it's not hard against the floor, and floor panels will be in smaller sections and removable for occasional checking.
So what's it like under your floors?
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So to recap, we had the options of either spending a few hundred pounds having the worst pits filled with weld, some new shoes attaching and re-launching on the first Monday in July, but wouldn't know how long those repairs would last before we were back in the same situation, or we could spend a few thousand on the full overplating job but were told from the outset that wouldn't be possible for a few weeks. However, the marina's July crane-out wasn't fully booked so the boat could stay out until the first Monday in August.
As I removed side panelling and lifted or cut out the flooring I found that all the paving slabs were wet and some of the flooring had white mould growing on the underside. Quite clearly, through condensation, rainwater seepage (I have discovered a couple of leaks around windows and damage behind panelling) and maybe even the start of some slight weeping through the hull, it has been permanently damp below the floor for quite some time, particularly in the back half of the boat. We found another suspicious looking pit on the other side of the hull, also about an inch above the base plate, I tapped it with a nail and it went straight through.
As I scraped, wire brushed and shoveled sheets of rust away it rapidly became apparent that option 1 had expired and that most of the damage has been coming from the inside.
When he has had some spare time in between other jobs, Steve the welder has ground off anodes and made a right old mess of my new blacking below the first rubbing strake.
He has compounded the felony by cutting a sodding great big hole in the back end, because if there's any slight air space between the new steel and the existing skin tank, it's not going to cool the engine.
Last Monday the steel was delivered and the first section of the new base plate was levered, hammered, jacked into position and tack welded.
On Tuesday that was properly welded across the front end and the second plate offered into position, jacked and tacked.
The chair is only to stop people from walking into it and cutting themselves off at the knees. We are thinking of leaving the wings for extra protection in locks and to see if we can get her up on the plane.
A couple of side panels were also cut and tacked into position.
On Wednesday the new back plate was positioned, jacked and tacked ....
.... and most of the other side fixed in place.
My main concern has been the bathroom, which I really did not want to have to strip out. If you remember (or go back to the first couple of pages of this blog), I insulated below the gunwales with two inches of Rockwool, but I had also painted the inside of the hull with a domestic bitumen paint. The Rockwool should be inert, I have previously tested it by holding a blowlamp against it, but the paint was a worry. Well it seems to bubble, melt, smoke and stink a bit, but hopefully behind the Rockwool it is starved of oxygen.
I removed some insulation after a test weld and it shows some scorching, but hopefully that's as far as it goes. Steve seems happy with that, but I won't be happy until he has finished welding the sides.
On Thursday he did most of the final welding along the chines and they fitted and bent the tricky bit at the pointy end.
And by Friday they had had enough, or did something else, somewhere else.
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Intercom - back deck to saloon (70 footer) handy when you need a brew or all hands on deck!
or...what I used. A WIRELESS doorbell. I rang. They came running.;-)
Isn't that what the horn's for?
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Wherever does the time go?
It's strange (and somewhat frightening) to think that young lad pictured above is now fully grown, away at University and starting to forge his own way in the world. For the record, we're quite proud of how he's turned out.
But Ben, I hope you can now understand why I didn't like the idea of you and Emma taking the boat out over the Summer holidays. It's not that I wouldn't trust YOU, but she's an old and delicate tub with structural weaknesses and mechanical foibles, and I wouldn't trust ANYONE else to take her out.
When we've had the work done and she's toughened up again, then you might be allowed to borrow her.
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Bringing someone else in isn't an option. Besides which, when she was dry docked in Stourbridge and we were questioning the need for overplating then, it was Andy-the-gas who called Steve (from Ashwood) in for an expert opinion.
If the work needs doing, she's in the right place with the right man. I will be seeing him today to discuss our options, and need him to give us a firm quotation, but the figure he has guestimated wasn't as scary as we expected.
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Thanks Allan, but the chines aren't the only concern and angle irons or shoes might not solve the issue.
That leak pictured is about half an inch above the chines, and I've now poked a key into the hole and made it even bigger. I will discuss options with the boat builder / welder tomorrow, but probably not until I've whacked a few of the other deepest pits with something hard and pointed. There was another weep at the front right.
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So what's the deal here?
3 moles should be dropping in on the Saturday afternoon, I've got a vague idea where Pelsall is but where do we find anyone?
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Oh dear, I'm gutted, and so is my poor boat:
Now with indoor paddling pool:
... and outdoor water feature:This was only a rapid drip before I dug the corner of a scraper into it.
Survey commented on worn chines and some fairly severe pitting. If you remember, the last time she was dry docked and blacked we found some horrible electrostatic pitting, and then discovered a voltage difference (1.2v) between our mooring pontoon and the water itself. I stopped using a chain between boat and mooring cleat, and this pitting now appears to be dormant.
However, a few of the other pits must be deeper than our surveyor thought, and pressure washing has blasted through at least one of them.
So, do we spend a few hundred pounds getting the worst pits filled with weld, or do we spend significantly more and get angle irons welded along the chines, but how long is it going to be before any other pits break through, and we're back in the same situation?
Or, do we bite the bullet and get her overplated now?
This is largely rhetorical, we couldn't sell the boat as she is, we could cut corners now and be in the same situation in another couple of years' time, and we wouldn't have any confidence in using the boat as she is or would be terrified of scraping (for example) the Shroppie shelf.
I think we've decided it's bullet biting time. -
Fiddlesticks moors in Stourport basin, and we've met NB ‘One for the Vine’ a couple of times while out on our travels - that's a Genesis reference.
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Bit personal me thinks.
Not really, in this case, you had to be there.
Yes, we're talking about the tea towel drawer, the drinking glasses and spare mugs drawer, and the other drawer full of clingfilm, tin foil and all the other galley odds and sods. When several people board the boat at one time and come down the side corridor, the resultant list sends the drawers flying open with a fairly alarming crash.
Mrs. Mole's drawers have been the butt of many wise cracks ever since.
That tutorial has a life of its own now, over 30k hits so far and has introduced many people to home wine making.
General Homebrew Thread
in Recipes
Posted
Nothing left in our local branch, I did call in to see if I could pick up a spare fermenting vessel but there were only a few packs of yeast and finings left.
Sold a load of mine and gave a few more away, so I'm down to about 20 as well but haven't used them for years. Moved on to 15 and 19 litre water cooler bottles.