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Daydream Believer (Long Post)


Mike1951

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Spent 3 hours at Colecraft on Thursday. Lots of details to sort out. Paintwork is coming on nicely, just the final topcoat and the coachlines etc. to do. Engine went in on Friday. Engines is now changed to a Vetus M4.45 42HP due to delivery issues with Beta. Looking like mid- to late-March for completion. All the parts seem to be there now. All the woodwork is done. Just being varnished before installation.

Jan & Mike Daydream Believer 03022022 small.jpg

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  • 1 month later...

Final visit to Colecraft before handover and launch at Calcutt next week. Just the rear steps, cupboard doors to be fitted and the windows and oak surrounds for the duck hatch doors and the bow doors. There is a short uncommented and unedited walk through the boat here :

 

 

IMG_5902.jpg

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  • 2 weeks later...

Well she is finally complete and launched. We are very pleased with the boat. Even in the recent cold nights, it has been  very cosy with the diesel heating and we have had to turn the radiators down, so we are not sure whether we will go for the stove. Here is a short video of the the launch day. I will do a walk through of the interior once we have finished tidying up!

 

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24 minutes ago, Mike1951 said:

Well she is finally complete and launched. We are very pleased with the boat. Even in the recent cold nights, it has been  very cosy with the diesel heating and we have had to turn the radiators down, so we are not sure whether we will go for the stove. Here is a short video of the the launch day. I will do a walk through of the interior once we have finished tidying up!

 

 

Enjoy. Thats going to be a great boat.

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Gongrats on your great achievement and amazing adventures to look forward to, i am sure you must be so excited and happy.

 

Apart from Birthday dates , and I still forget those of my friends and family, two of the dates I always remeber, my services number and the date I took over my boat.  

Great looking boat.

Enjoy

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1 hour ago, Mike1951 said:

Thanks to everyone for the good wishes. We are moving it down to the K&A in stages over the next couple of weeks as time and family commitments allow

Daydream Believer Small.jpg

That looks fairly well moored up for a short stop on a water point.

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1 hour ago, Rob-M said:

That looks fairly well moored up for a short stop on a water point.

 

Looks like the bottom of the Napton flight to me, plenty of room still there for other boats to fill up on the two water taps! 

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19 minutes ago, MtB said:

 

Looks like the bottom of the Napton flight to me, plenty of room still there for other boats to fill up on the two water taps! 

Yes it was. We were there less than 13 minutes to fix a small problem. Couldn't fill up with water because they didn't give us the key to loosen the filler cap. They suggested I use a 50 pence piece but I didnt have any change on me, so I tried tapping it with my contactless card - no joy.

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2 minutes ago, Mike1951 said:

Yes it was. We were there less than 13 minutes to fix a small problem. Couldn't fill up with water because they didn't give us the key to loosen the filler cap. They suggested I use a 50 pence piece but I didnt have any change on me, so I tried tapping it with my contactless card - no joy.

 

Quite a lot of Monkeeing about then, eh? 

 

 

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2 hours ago, Goliath said:

Looks temporarily tied to me with a few turns of rope around the bollards. 

It was a bit tongue in cheek really, given it was moored on a water point, fenders down, no hosepipe out and looks like no one on the boat.

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5 minutes ago, Rob-M said:

It was a bit tongue in cheek really, given it was moored on a water point, fenders down, no hosepipe out and looks like no one on the boat.

I know  😃

looks deserted and abandoned 

 

leave your boat like that on the K&A and you’ll soon find someone will use it for a sleep over. 

 

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12 minutes ago, Rob-M said:

It was a bit tongue in cheek really, given it was moored on a water point, fenders down, no hosepipe out and looks like no one on the boat.

Well there are only 2 of us and one was taking the photo! The other was walking up to the lock

Just now, Mike1951 said:

Well there are only 2 of us and one was taking the photo! The other was walking up to the lock

Sorry the cat was aboard

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22 hours ago, Mike1951 said:

Well she is finally complete and launched. We are very pleased with the boat. Even in the recent cold nights, it has been  very cosy with the diesel heating and we have had to turn the radiators down, so we are not sure whether we will go for the stove. Here is a short video of the the launch day. I will do a walk through of the interior once we have finished tidying up!

 

That I believe was last Tuesday, as we were just getting the boat ready to go out, and I noticed the crane by the slipway, and the boat on the pumpout was heading back to his mooring as we were going out of the marina.

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2 hours ago, Mike1951 said:

Yes it was. We were there less than 13 minutes to fix a small problem. Couldn't fill up with water because they didn't give us the key to loosen the filler cap. They suggested I use a 50 pence piece but I didnt have any change on me, so I tried tapping it with my contactless card - no joy.

 

The first time I got to a water point on my boat (in Ely), I couldnt find a key for the filler, and I ended up using a thin file from the toolbox.

 

The same thing happened the first time I tried to fill up with diesel, and that time I used a dinner knife. 

 

18 months later, I still dont have a dedicated key for either filler cap, despite the issue being tabled half a dozen times to the Operational Management task force. 

 

These people have no shame.

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1 hour ago, john6767 said:

That I believe was last Tuesday, as we were just getting the boat ready to go out, and I noticed the crane by the slipway, and the boat on the pumpout was heading back to his mooring as we were going out of the marina.

Yes you are correct. Why the boater chose to go for a pumpout when he could see our boat hanging from the crane - only he knows!

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Just an update on the boat. A few little snags. The dinette upholstery didn't fit well, so they sent the upholstery contractor to look at that. Also they had received a notice from the manufacturer of the water pump about one of the plumbing fittings, so Colecraft attended to change that first thing in the morning before we started cruising. They also found a small diesel leak dripping into the bilge, from the fuel filter and fixed that at the same time.  Very satisfied at the level of service from Colecraft.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Completed the delivery trip  108 miles, 4½ furlongs and 75 locks from Calcutt Marina to our home mooring, without any problems. We love the boat and it is very well built and works wonderfully.

 

However, the issue with the upholstery has escalated somewhat. We had withheld the payment for it, as it was not ready when we took over the boat and we refused to pay for it until it was rectified, the upholstery contractor came to the boat and did a "quick fix" by trimming the foam with an implement resembling an electric carving knife. He took too much off and had to go to Screwfix and buy some spray adhesive, to stick some of it back on! He informed us that there had been a 30mm discrepency in the original measurements, so he had decided to make it larger by 30mm as it would be easier to correct afterwards, than making it smaller (presumably rather than re-measuring). This of course meant that the covers no longer fitted properly. It did look just about OK when he had finished and smoothed it out, but once it had been used, the ill-fitting covers became more apparent. As we wanted to use the boat, we decided to pay anyway, but I thought I should just call Colecraft and warn them that the job was not up to their usual quality standards (mainly to save future customers suffering the same problems). The person we spoke to originally said "no" she wanted us to be completely happy with it and and she would get the upholsterer to sort it out. He then phoned me shortly afterwards and accused us of "messing him about" and that we were "happy with it when he left". I then phoned Colecraft and spoke to the MD, who took the contractors side, got angry and accused us of "never intending to pay for it". and that we should return the cushions for a credit. We were happy to do this, but the contractor phoned us the next day and admitted that the job wasn't good enough and he would take it back and remake it. He then called Colecraft's MD who refused to cooperate and said that he still wanted a credit note and he also wanted the faulty cushions back. So the upholstery will be collected this week by the contractor and we will have to get someone else to make it properly. Hopefully at less than the £3K that Colecraft were charging us for 6 cushions!

 

Daydream Dinette Upholstery small.jpg

Edited by Mike1951
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