NB 'Talpidae'

[cheshire~rose]

Wow!

 

That looks really great!

 

what a makeover!

[bottle]

Way to go Moley.

 

Looking superb.

[wrigglefingers]

Way to go Moley.

 

Looking superb.

 

Seconded! Talapidae looks brilliant.

 

Shep

 

PS we nearly came to find you yesterday as we were in Wordsley, but after heavy boat business was completed daughter demanded a whizz round the Merry Hell Centre to refresh her memory, will text early next time and get the booking for a cup of tea or beer in first!

[Scotty]

Great work, what a transformation.

[HYBRID]

Hats off to you man, that’s just the sort of job that inspires me to get off my back side and find a project.

One thing though

I notice from the last picture the renovation of your boat has aged you a bit

[Moley]

Hats off to you man, that’s just the sort of job that inspires me to get off my back side and find a project.

Thanks, but of course, if I'd had a fuller understanding of what I was letting myself in for ....

 

One thing though

I notice from the last picture the renovation of your boat has aged you a bit

 

that's father-in-law , enjoying a beer and making sure we don't take any wrong turnings.

We chugged down to Stourport and had a pootle on the Severn, and without Taid's help we'd have gone over a weir, at the very least.

[real_vibes]

Hello Moley.

 

As other have said and others will say again. Amazing job. Very energizing.

 

I am about to embark on a life at float on a 1997 Reeves Narrowboat. Witch is currently quite live-able but will need a lot of work over the next year or so.

 

First job to encounter will be the external paint. She was shot blasted and painted with Red Oxide 2 years ago and has had no other work since.

 

Here is a very poor photo (considering my topic but the only I currently have access to):

 

 

Most of the oxide seems to be in good nick, however there are some 'flaps' where it is peeling off (in small areas maybe the largest being the size of a couple of inches). Having just enjoyed all of your blog! I just wandered if I could ask your advice / for more detail on how you tackled painting her. As my ethos is similar to your (happy to spend money where needed and to do the work myself whilst always striving to do the best job).

 

Can I sand down the flaps, apply new oxide and paint over the top? or is it best to sand sand sand and then re-oxide the whole boat and then paint?

 

Also I am interested in how you went about painting you customary circles and diamonds? Did you make templates?

 

Any advice would be great!!!! And congratulations again.

Edited June 27, 2010 by real_vibes

[Moley]

Hello, do you remember me?

So on Tuesday 7th May a rather scruffy looking narrowboat was craned out of the water and perched on railway sleepers.

The hull was pressure washed to remove the crud, algae and most of the old bitumen. The following weekend I was away for a homebrew forum social event and the weekend afterwards I couldn't do much because I was waiting for a hull survey, which flagged a couple of minor concerns but was generally ok.

The long bank holiday weekend and last weekend were glorious and I worked all hours. The hull got a good coat of red oxide primer below the waterline and wherever the old bitumen had come away, then three fresh coats of the black stuff.

As time was still on my side and the weather remained warm and dry, I sanded down and red oxided the roof and repainted most of the topside.

I even cleaned, dried, scraped, wire brushed and repainted the injin'ole:

A mobile crane is brought in on the first Monday of every month, except that 6th May was a bank holiday ....

.... so yesterday morning the crane arrived and a much smarter boat was returned to the water.

As the blunt end of the boat sits lower in the water than the pointy end, any water in the cabin bilge drains to the back of the boat. If we have torrential rain blowing in the wrong direction it's not uncommon for some to run down and under the back door, so there's an inspection hole cut into the back of the cabin floor and I have a bicycle pump with the piston reversed so it sucks rather than blows, and which I occasionally use to suck the odd couple of pints of rainwater out of that inspection hole.

I pumped out a couple of pints. Then a couple more. The next half gallon I pumped into a water bottle and it became sickeningly obvious that there was too much of it and it was canal-coloured. I emptied the inspection hole a few times but it kept filling up again, so there was no option but to crane her back out again.

Craning has obviously cracked a weld somewhere, but neither myself nor any of the boat yard crew can find any obvious fault, so I now have 4 weeks in which to strip out the flooring in order to locate and repair the source of the leak.

As the floor went down first (with no thought towards removal) and everything else was built on top of it, this means that much of the side linings, furniture, cupboards, fridge, cooker and woodburner will also have to come out.

It's looking like re-refit time

[RLWP]

Bugger!

 

Can you put in more water to see where it leaks out?

 

Richard

[Chris-B]

Mr Mole

Good to see you and the good ship are still around..although in need of repairs

beer o clock sometime I think is overdue

all our best to the rest of the moles...

C n L

Edited June 4, 2013 by Chris-B

[Mick_B]

A complete bummer after you slogged and got so much done Moley. I also know exactly what you mean about problems relating to removing the floor.

[bottle]

Moley, good of you to pop back in.

 

As usual you never do anything by halves.

 

Good luck with finding the leak.

[Moley]

Thanks folks.

Apologies for the extended absence but interest in the waterways had waned somewhat, Ben's away at Uni, Vickymole doesn't want to know, when we did go out for a jaunt down the Severn in the direction of the Droitwich we got as far as Stourport when the drive plate failed, which ended up with me spending a week in Stourport (and I can think of worse places) while wife & kids went to the seaside!

Other than that, I spend most of my time on another forum devoted to home brewing and winemaking, and where I am one of the site crew.

And yes Richard, at the moment the plan does seem to be to lift the floors, fill the cabin bilge with water and see where it comes out.

[carlt]

Good to hear from you Moley but sorry to hear of your boat woes.

 

Regards to Mrs Mole and the Molelets.

[RLWP]

Being an Owl rather than a Mole - and consequently more cavalier and less cautious - I'd bung a load of water in without lifting the floor first. You should be able to get a couple of inches in before you get the wood wet. That should be enough to show a leak. Then you can lift less floor and be boating quicker

 

Richard

[carlt]

Being an Owl rather than a Mole - and consequently more cavalier and less cautious - I'd bung a load of water in without lifting the floor first.

Or you can cut inspection hatches out with a router incorporating a lip so you can drop a replacement piece back in without it falling straight through.

 

I think we should introduce a forum home brew section so there is no excuse to stay away.

[Moley]

Some of the innards needed a re-think anyway but things were never going to get changed until something like this forced the issue. For example the galley area has always been wrong with the draining board towards the stern, and the ceramic floor tiles were a bad idea.

I'm not saying it's a blessing in disguise, I really could have done without this and dread to think what it's going to cost, but there could be a flip side.

I think we should introduce a forum home brew section so there is no excuse to stay away.

There's nothing to stop you visiting ours

[carlt]

 

There's nothing to stop you visiting ours

 

any Intro quiz?

[Peter Reed]

Good to see you back Ade. Can you post a link to the homebrew site please.

[Moley]

With pleasure Peter, it's thehomebrewforum.co.uk and we offer help and advice for beer, wine and cider from absolute beginners to craft brewers, kit mixers to microbreweries.

 

Here's a beginner's guide to a quick, easy and cheap white wine, which is very popular.

[madcat]

Hi Moley, sorry you have this problem and I hope it will be sorted with the minimum of bother. What has your surveyor said ,is it one of the areas of concern that's decided to upgrade to oh shit status.

When you add the water is there any coloured of fluorescent dye you could add to make the fault show up better.

Good luck and all the best from madcat and Boris.

[cheshire~rose]

Great to see you posting again!

 

Such a shame you are having problems Moley but good to see you back - have a word with BSP as she has some sort of special pink crack testing fluid in her bilge - if you send her a keg of home brew she can empty it then refil it with her special pink bilge fluid and return it for you.

 

I do hope you get it sorted out as quickly, cheaply and easily as possible.

 

If you do need to refit then please can Mrs Mole have drawers that don't drop open every time visitors come on board?

Edited June 6, 2013 by cheshire~rose

[Nightwatch]

 

If you do need to refit then please can Mrs Mole have drawers that don't drop open every time visitors come on board?

Bit personal me thinks.

[carlt]

Bit personal me thinks.

The pink crack testing fluid could come in handy though...

[Moley]

What has your surveyor said ,is it one of the areas of concern that's decided to upgrade to oh shit status.

When you add the water is there any coloured of fluorescent dye you could add to make the fault show up better.

Thanks madcat, surveyor said that a short run of weld needed fixing before the boat was relaunched. “Short”, in this case, is defined as “less than 1cm” and that was repaired. Last night I exposed the inner of that seam, and no, that isn't the culprit.

Surveyor also said that chines were badly worn in places, but didn't call for any immediate repairs. No cracks are visible from the outside, even with a magnifying glass, but this is why I am trying to inspect the inner welds.

I already have a couple of bottles of red food colouring which will be added if we decide to flood the baseplate.

Hi Jan, I think a change of drawers is long overdue for Mrs. Mole.