Jump to content

Tom and Bex

Member
  • Posts

    761
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Blog Entries posted by Tom and Bex

  1. Tom and Bex
    Managed to finally get the water tank to fit on Friday after cutting away some insulation from under the well deck and using the lowest profile 1/2" fitting I could find for the breather pipe:

     
    Also got a final coat of paint in boatman's cabin including behind weed hatch. Saturday was spent putting coat of grey floor paint on bilges and floor of boatman's cabin:

     
    Then continued with insulation and battens on the cabin sides creating a lot of mess in the process!

     
    By the end of the weekend and with a good tidy up it was looking much better. Insulation and battening was completed on the cabin sides (and insulation only on the roof) from the front back as far as the side hatch including insulating under the gunwales. All exposed metal has been covered - 25mm celotex used and 3mm foam used on any exposed steel angle/box etc. then all joints and 3mm foam covered in foil tape (still some tape left to put on) to provide a complete vapour barrier. Hopefully that lot will keep condensation at bay!


     
    Only got 1 week back at work then a week off so hopefully next update will show quite a bit of progress!
  2. Tom and Bex
    As can be seen from previous entry Diesel and Dust is now back on hard standing.
     
    Work this weekend concentrated on cleaning up as much as possible including sweeping down the outside of the boat and painting the boatman's cabin. After cleaning the rust was treated in the boatman's cabin on Saturday and after masking up was sprayed with 2 coats of red oxide - not easy working is such a small confined space while spraying and getting behind the new weed hatch was very difficult and may need touching up by hand next week as well as a final coat next week.



     
    Sheet of celotex was cut to form a temporary door to keep the engine room from getting covered in a red mist!

     
    Making a base for the water tank to go on all cut by hand as forgot my power saw, its hard work cutting 18mm ply by hand! Base plate was uneven at the front so needed careful positioning of battens to make sure ply base was evenly supported.



     
    Water tank was a very tight fit - particularly as I had insulated under the front deck!

     
    Unfortunately it was a bit too tight and couldn't get the vent pipe fitting on so water tank will have to wait until next week since it was already gone 8pm and still had to drive back to Somerset. New fitting was also much taller so will have to resort back to original and even then the insulation needs "adjusting" to get it to fit!

     
    All in all not a bad weekends work and hopefully next weekend will go well.
  3. Tom and Bex
    All the welding has now been finished by Debdale Wharf and Diesel & Dust is back on the hard standing again. It was nice to be round the back again with less distractions and feels easier to work round there without disturbing people and less coming and going to distract you!

     
    The work they have done is filling some of the deeper pits with weld, plating the front hull from well deck drains back on both sides:

     
    Repair the front bulkhead and drainage channel in both front lockers where it had rusted through:


    Repair to inside:

     
    Fit new welded in chimney collar at the front as the cast ones are prone to leaking:

     
    Replace the bottom of the door frame for the side hatch:

     
    Repair hole in boatman's cabin roof where the drainage channel is and had rusted through. Very good and nearly invisible repair!


     
    New rear doors and sliding hatch and new rear chimney collar:


     
    Extend weed hatch up to meet back deck and to create new lifting hatch in back deck with drainage channels:

     
    New anodes fitted front and back:

     
    New stern gear and rudder shaft with rudder welded back on and extended slightly - new top and bottom rudder bearings:


     
    Prop has now been refitted and new stern gland, rear prop shaft, bearings etc. as shown in previous entry.
     
    More photos and account of work completed this weekend to follow!
  4. Tom and Bex
    Back to work on the boat again so soon which is nice. Just wish I could have every weekend off but don't think work would allow it! Glad to see work Debdale are progressing well with the work they are doing for us.
     
    Started on Friday evening by painting a first coat of blacking in water tank space under front deck. It's a very tight space to be working in with all the fumes from blacking!
     
    Saturday and its time to put some insulation up. After thinking about the various options I decided to use laminate floor 3mm foam insulation from B&Q cut into strips to cover the steel roof stiffeners and glued on using spray glue, then filling the gaps with 25mm Celotex glued up with a bead of general grab adhesive around the edge and cut to be a tight fit in the gap.

    As can be seen this leaves no exposed steelwork to gather condensation and the joints can be sealed with foil tape to complete a moisture barrier. The timber battens for the roof lining will then be screwed to the steel leaving the foam sandwiched in the middle.
     

    Insulation being cut to size. After trial and error I realised that each section was a slightly different size and not even square so had to be measured and cut individually taking much longer! A cheap disposable knife with snap off blades seems the quickest way of cutting the Celotex as you can extend the blade long enough to cut through in one. I discovered that I need more Celotex than I thought as they are only 2400mm x 1200mm not as I thought 8ft x 4ft (2440 x 1220). That 40mm x 20mm means 3 less sections per sheet I'm sure I can use up the off-cuts somewhere though
     
    Saturday evening and I took the floor up and gave the whole front section including water tank space a second coat of blacking:


    Here you can see the insulation progressing slowly as well. It didn't help that I had to dry off each section as I went due to condensation - time for a dehumidifier!
     
    The rest of the weekend was spent with a trip to B&Q for some more glue and a bargain dehumidifier (also very useful at home to stop the bedding getting damp in the caravan); and continuing with insulation; and a third coat of blacking on the front floor and water tank area on Monday.
     
    The boatyard were working hard on Monday and have nearly finished. Only have the propeller to put back on, rudder to weld back onto the new rudder shaft and some extra welding I found for them in the front lockers! They promise to be finished and have Diesel & Dust back on the hard standing by mid week!
     
    Here are some photos of work done so far bay Debdale:
     

    New rear doors and hatch
     

    Repair of hole in Boatman's cabin roof
     

    New chimney collar and roof section welded in (old roof was too rusty under old chimney collar to weld to). New collars have been fitted front and back as recommended as they will never leak!
     

    Box of new bits waiting to be fitted on Monday
     

    Prop shaft and new stern gland all fitted and accurately aligned - just one bearing left to make support for.
     

    New weed hatch funnel up to back deck and drain pipes (old weed hatch was very close to water line - this will prevent any water getting into boat even if weed hatch leaks or is not secured properly.
     

    Weed hatch viewed from above complete with drain channels and hatch in back deck.
     

    New top bearing for rudder shaft
     

    New rudder shaft and bottom bearing. Also new stern gland welded in and new rear prop shaft - just waiting for prop and rudder to be fitted. You just see in the photo that I was able to black the tube the rudder shaft passes through before they fitted it but only had time to put 1 coat on.
     

    View of Boatman's cabin showing complete prop-shaft, rear doors and weed hatch complete with dust and dirt! Grinding dust gets everywhere and will take a while to clean up.
     

    Old wooden doors thick with dust, steerer's step waiting to be welded back on, and closing plate and bolts for new sliding hatch that bolts on the front and stops it being removed.
     
    Next weekend Diesel & Dust will hopefully be back on the hard standing and can be cleaned throughout and all that grinding dust got rid of! Then its time to tidy up and do some more painting! All being well I can give a complete list of work done by Debdale next weekend.
  5. Tom and Bex
    A very quiet New Year this year for us - a bit different to our usual Hogmanay celebrations in Scotland!
     
    Not many photos this time as the camera was broken.
     
    We arrived late afternoon New Year's Eve having driven up in the camper and the van so we could have the luxury and heating of the camper and leave it up there until the boat was a bit more comfortable to sleep on. Unpacked the tools I thought we'd need from the van and showed Becky the progress as she hadn't been up for a few weeks then settled down for a quiet evening with just the two of us in the camper - wasn't quite our first new year aboard Diesel & Dust! We saw the New Year in in bed listening to the radio with a glass of wine.
     
    Next morning we were going to go for our usual New Years Day walk but the weather was so cold and wet we started work with the grinder instead and cut out front bulkhead so we could remove the water tank to treat and paint the rust. Eventually got the bulkhead out but finally killed the grinder doing so! Gearbox was noisy before starting but was so bad by the end I nearly had to give up due to fear of it breaking up completely. Didn't help that the top cut I made was exactly where the old front deck had previously been removed so in places I was cutting through 1/2" of old weld!
     
    Tank was tight fit but managed to get it out and after scraping the old rust off painted vactan on to treat the rust. By the time we finished it was cold and dark so decided to finish early and start painting the tank area in the morning.
     
    Sunday proved much better weather so decided to have our walk today. Unfortunately the vactan had not dried so crawled in with a heat gun to help the process along! Then left it and went for a nice walk to Foxton Locks and had lunch in the cafe at the top. After getting back the Vactan was still not dry enough so decided to put another coat of red oxide on the roof and one side at of the front half. Used the new electric spray gun this time and it was much much quicker and easier to get behind the angles etc. Only problem was everything in the boat including ourselves got covered in a fine red mist! Managed some photos of the spraying:
     



     
    Monday and still not happy that the vactan was ok to paint on so sprayed a final coat of red oxide on the roof and other side, and also sprayed a first coat on the roof at the back. Also painted first coat of grey floor paint in one of the front lockers.
     
    By the time we'd cleaned up and loaded everything into the van (why does Becky have to bring so much stuff!) including all the rubbish from dismantling the fireplace it was time to head back to Somerset. Still only 4 days and I'll be up again to do some more work and hopefully take some photos!
  6. Tom and Bex
    WE HAVE SET UP A NEW BLOG TO KEEP UP TO DATE THIS YEAR. CLICK HERE. The old blog will be updated to fill in the gap as time permits !
     
    Following Hannah and Craig's wedding we could really get to work and finish ripping out bathroom and bedroom - no need to keep shower in any more!

    Starting to strip out bedroom - no going back now!
     

    Before
     

    After
     

    All that remains of the bathroom is some plumbing
     

    Looking towards kitchen showing the pile of wood growing and our only toilet to use!
     
    Hopefully next time we come up we will be on the hard standing and can make a start getting rid of the wood.
     
    More to follow but in the mean time I have decided to set up a 2011 Blog to keep up to date in 2011. This Blog will be updated to bring the story up to date to Christmas as time permits!
  7. Tom and Bex
    We could hardly contain our excitement when we arrived at Whilton on Friday 27th August to pick up the keys for the last time for what was now our own boat. The plan was to settle in on the boat and move everything aboard we might need for the trip and set off on Saturday lunch time. We also had one of our cats Mars with us as he was recovering from a broken leg and needed to be kept in a confined space for another 2 weeks.
     
    We reconnected the water pipes at the front and proceeded to carefully fill the tank. Unfortunately I had not checked the gas water heater and on turning on the pump, promptly sprayed the whole kitchen with water. Turned out I hadn't checked the drain plug had been put back. After fixing that with some PTFE tape the water system seemed to be holding and all other systems appeared to work, at least enough for us to use for this trip.
     
    We had intended to sleep on this sofa bed that was in the lounge:

     
    However after the first night this proved so uncomfortable to either sleep or sit on that we ended up on the floor and wish we had binned it at the start to give us more room! On Saturday Morning we moved the boat on our own for the first time for some fuel and made a right mess of moving it back due to the wind!
     
    Becky's cousin Hannah and her fiancé Craig kindly gave us a lift to leave our car at Debdale Wharf and about 2.30pm we left Whilton and finally got on our way.
     
    Not many photos of the first day as the weather was very wet but we were lucky and met a very nice family on a shared ownership boat who we locked up Buckby locks with in the pouring rain - although they decided to stop just below the top lock as it was so wet so we carried on our own.
     
    Arriving at Watford Locks about 6pm we thought we were expecting to wait 'til the following day but the lock keeper said we could be the last boat up after the boats in the flight had come down. We entered the bottom lock at 6.45 and exited about 7.30 with me steering and Becky working the locks.

     
     
    Day 2: Having moored just above Watford locks we cruised to the end of the Welford arm on our second day and having turned and filled up with water we moored just before the corner above Welford lock. On the way we called in to Yelvertoft Marina for some coal to try out the stove! It might only have been August but it was another day of torrential rain at times and we were both cold and wet.
     
    Moored Just above Welford Lock. Its pictures like these that show why we love boating so much.


     
    Day 3 and we left the Welford arm and headed for Foxton.

     
    We arrived at Foxton Locks at 3.30 on bank holiday Monday and having booked in with the keeper we had to wait ‘til 5pm before we were able to start the locks - not as bad as some people had been predicting. We managed to get down the locks in 1hr despite the number of people around.

    Becky steered this time and I worked the locks. We moored for the night in nice countryside on the Market Harborough arm.
     

    View out of side hatch in the morning.
     
    Tuesday 31st August and we cruised to Market Harborough and back and spent the rest of the day starting to strip out the Boatman’s Cabin.

     

    View whilst working in the Boatman's Cabin.
     


    No more cheap pine stuck and nailed on to rotten wood!
     

    Swing Bridge at Foxton. Becky doesn't like this bridge and nearly demolished it and the boat moored the other side! If you're the owner of the boat she says sorry!
     
    Wednesday and we called in to say hello at Debdale Wharf Marina and let them know we had arrived! However we were having such an enjoyable time we didn't want it to end so cruised past and down to the winding hole below Crane's Lock where we turned and moored for the night just above Kibworth Top Lock. Becky worked the locks going down and I worked the Locks coming back up but Becky decided she doesn't like steering for wide locks so I have some persuading to do for next time! We both much prefer narrow locks!


     
    Finally arrived at Debdale on Thursday and they found us a nice mooring at the end of one of the marina jetties for a few weeks until they could crane the boat out onto the hard standing. We didn't think we would like being on a long jetty shared with other boats but it seems much nicer than most marinas as you have water beside you rather than being inches from the next boat. So much so that we are now hoping to stay at Debdale when the boat is finished if they will let us!

    Luckily we only had to pay the hard standing rate but we certainly made the most of our time in the water and thoroughly enjoyed our first holiday. Can't wait ‘til Diesel and Dust is back in the water again!
     
    The stripping out of the interior continues after attending Hannah and Craig's wedding on Friday 3rd September and don't need to worry about getting too dirty after that!
  8. Tom and Bex
    One final worry was when we arranged to go to Whilton on 17th August to make payment and have a look at what would now be our very own boat. We had a phone call from them just as we were about to leave Somerset to say not to come up as there was some problem with finance. It turned out the previous owners had not paid off the balance of finance and as our offer was less than outstanding finance the finance company couldn't release the boat until it was all sorted out but not to worry it should all go through and they would phone us back in an hour. Eventually after a very tense 3-4 hours they phoned back to confirm we could complete the transaction! Needless to say we were up there straight away to complete before any further problems and Diesel and Dust was finally ours once the money cleared. We became well known in the office at the time due to getting the boat for less than half the original asking price
     
    Now would be a good time to say how pleased we were with our experience as a buyer from Whilton. We particularly like that they will let you have the keys and spend as much time as you like having a good look at the boats you are interested in and as many times as you like! We did visit to look round lots of times before finding our ideal boat. Had we just been given a quick guided tour as at some other brokers we almost certainly wouldn't have bought it. They allowed us to come when moving the boat, and even arranged it for a Saturday so we could fit it in around work. They were also very helpful with guiding us through the buying process and explaining how it all worked.
     
    Our other observation which worked very much in our favour with the negotiations on price was there sales info was not very accurate. In our case it they had several details wrong - engine was listed as Lister SR3 when it was HA3 (quite a difference!); they said it had integral water tank when it had stainless steel; polystyrene insulation and it had rock wool; and failed to mention built in LPG generator in front locker. All things that we picked up straight away on our first viewing. Also they were very honest with us about the fact the owners needed to sell because of outstanding finance and that we were the only ones to express serious interest.
     
    Definately not a Lister SR3!
     
    Stainless steel water tank
     
    LPG Honda generator
  9. Tom and Bex
    Next was arranging survey but as the boat was at Wigrams Turn Marina and had to be moved to Whilton Marina we asked if we could come for the trip. This gave us a lovely day out on 7th August moving the boat as well as a chance to see how she handled and make sure the engine ran ok and there were no major problems. Some photos of the trip can be seen below:
     
    Leaving Wigrams Turn Marina
     
    Braunston crawl!
     
    Working through Braunston Locks
     

    We somehow got to the top of Braunston Locks (after towing a boat off that got stuck) in time to moor up, have some lunch and still get away ahead of the boats queuing in front of us at the bottom!
     
    Waiting at Buckby Locks
     
    Arriving at Whilton - apparently the turn into Whilton is quite tricky but the steerer surprised us (and himself!) with how easy it went round and said the boat handled far better than most boats he moves.
     
    We used Craig Allen for the Survey and it was booked for 10th August. We had an anxious wait for him to turn up but the survey went better than expected and only picked up on everything I had already found when looking round and some plating needed from well deck drains back 4' which considering it was the only plating needed was better than expected. Also deeper pits along side needed filling with weld. It turned out the whole bottom had been replated recently and was in perfect condition.
     
    Overall we found Craig very helpful and he answered any questions we had as he went and even charged less than quoted as it was in better condition than expected! His opinions on the cracks by the front window was the same as mine - that there was nothing to worry about and it had probably been involved in a collision with a bridge at some point causing the welds to crack. It turns out they were not seam welded and the tack welds had cracked - more in a later entry!
     
    On slipway waiting for survey to begin
     
    First thing was to go round the whole boat hitting it really hard with a hammer
     
    Then clean off patches along the length of the boat to take the ultrasonic thickness measurements
  10. Tom and Bex
    After much discussion and asking for advice on here we decided to ignore all your advice and go with our hearts and made a stupidly low offer in July. Needless to say this was refused and the seller said he was insulted by our offer! We then wrote a long email detailing all the faults we found and asked them to let us know if they changed there mind. Some of the faults can be seen in the pics below:
     
    Poor standard of workmanship with doors that didn't open; tiles falling off the walls; messy wiring & plumbing; exposed wiring running across the floor and rubbing on steel; and as seen in photos on first entry, a useless child’s bedroom and boatman’s cabin area.
     





     
     
    Then there were the problems with the boat itself, the main ones being the cracks around front window and cracked porthole glass:
     



     
     
    There was also the potential re-bottoming work that needed doing as a previous survey suggested that the rear half of the boat had already been done but the front half would need doing very soon.
     
    After 2-3 weeks we phoned them up and asked if there had been much interest in the boat and if they would consider a revised offer subject to survey and we were told by the broker that they needed to sell to clear outstanding finance and we had been the only people to show serious interest. We made a revised offer on 30th July which was refused but after increasing it by £2000 we made it clear that was our final offer and we would not be able to increase any further. The broker phoned back 2 hrs later after they should have been closed to say it had been accepted
  11. Tom and Bex
    This is going to be a blog on the purchase and refit of narrowboat Diesel & Dust that we bought from Whilton in August. I'll be making a few entries initially to bring the story up to date then hopefully keep this up to date as work progresses.
     
    To start off with here are some photos from the sales brochure that made us curious enough to view Diesel & Dust.
     





     
    We wanted to know more about this boat and particularly what was going on with the gates in the boatmans cabin! Went to view during our holiday at end of June and surprisingly both really liked it and felt Diesel & Dust deserved someone to look after her and bring her back to her former glory. Our holiday ended in North Wales (we like to travel around a lot!) but decided to go for a second viewing (at Wigrams Turn Marina in Warwickshire) on our way home to Somerset!
     
    We thought a second look would make us see sense and realise it was not a practical project but instead we both fell in love with the boat but didn't think we could ever afford it at that time.
     
    More about the purchase coming soon.....
     
    Tom & Becky
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.