Ready, steady......

[Lesd]

After two years of research our long planned boat build is due to start tomorrow !!!!

 

I've enjoyed and learnt so much from the various build blogs I've read on CWF that I always said i would publish my own log of progress when our time came, at last that day is here.

 

So let me layout a few brief facts;

 

The boat.

'Narrow boat' style widebeam, 58' x 10'6'', 10/6/5/4 spec, spray foam insulation, cruiser stern, reverse layout (kitchen at stern).

Engine; Barrus Shire 65, PRM 260

The boat will be 90% fully fitted. We will 'finish' ie tiling, final sanding and varnish/oiling of all woodwork.

 

The builder(s)

The steelwork will be build to our design by 'Lambon Hull' (www.lambonhull.co.uk). Some background; the company has been going for some 2 years now, run by Ian Hillsden and Steve Lambon, both ex Pinder Boats, Steve has 18 years of steel boat building experience (narrow/widebeam and Dutch barge).

 

Build for the hull is due to take approx 4 weeks. The completed shell will then be moved next door and will be fitted out by 'Cutwater Marine'. Cutwater is a JV company set up between Lambon Hull and Daddys boats (www.daddysboat.co.uk). Rich Hubery of Daddys boats will be fitting out our boat. Fit out due to take 3 months.

 

Layout

 

As you can see its reverse layout, twin berth (smaller guest room doubles as an office). The boat will use gas for cooking only, she'll use solid fuel as the main heat source (Morso Squirel or similar) and will be backed up with a deisel central heating system (webasto). The boat will be equipped with solar panels (2x130w Kyocera PVs) and a Rutland 913 wind gen to suplement the twin engine alternators (160a and 50a). Lighting will be LED in the main, refrigeration 12v Shoreline. 240 v ring supply via Sterling 3Kw pure sine inverter. 12v storage will be wet lead acid, 5 x 110a domestics, 1x 110a starter and 1 x 110a for Vetus 95Kgf bow prop (dont say it !!). All of that lot will be distributed and monitored using gibbo's smartbank and smart guage. She'll have lowered floor bracing and cruiser hand rails to maximise cabin height which will range from 6'4'' at edges to 6'9'' at the centre. Paintwork will be midnight blue with cream coach and cream roof. No name as yet !

 

Thats it for now,we're due up to see progress in a week or so, I'll publsih some photo's then. Hopefully the builder will email some of the baseplate going down tomorrow !!!

 

Les

Edited June 19, 2007 by Lesd

[Barry]

Gosh you must be excited

 

Good luck Les and Heidi - I hope it all goes well for you

 

I'm not jealous at all - not one little bit - not in the slightest........

 

Yes I am!!

[Lesd]

Relly really excited Bazza, its occupied virtually all of our time for nearly two years, not only the search for the builder, learning about a million things etc but getting ourselves and the finance in place, it's been quite some task but we're here and our grins are ear to ear !

 

Anyway, they started today, we really are underway now.

here's the 2 piece 10mm baseplate going down........

 

 

 

Edited June 19, 2007 by Lesd

[Barry]

well it doesn't look much like a boat yet but it will soon I expect

[blackrose]

The boat.

'Narrow boat' style widebeam, 58' x 10'6'', 10/6/5/4 spec, spray foam insulation, cruiser stern, reverse layout (kitchen at stern).

Engine; Barrus Shire 65, PRM 260

The boat will be 90% fully fitted. We will 'finish' ie tiling, final sanding and varnish/oiling of all woodwork.

 

The builder(s)

The steelwork will be build to our design by 'Lambon Hull' (www.lambonhull.co.uk). Some background; the company has been going for some 2 years now, run by Ian Hillsden and Steve Lambon, both ex Pinder Boats, Steve has 18 years of steel boat building experience (narrow/widebeam and Dutch barge).

 

Build for the hull is due to take approx 4 weeks. The completed shell will then be moved next door and will be fitted out by 'Cutwater Marine'. Cutwater is a JV company set up between Lambon Hull and Daddys boats (www.daddysboat.co.uk). Rich Hubery of Daddys boats will be fitting out our boat. Fit out due to take 3 months.

 

As you can see its reverse layout, twin berth (smaller guest room doubles as an office). The boat will use gas for cooking only, she'll use solid fuel as the main heat source (Morso Squirel or similar) and will be backed up with a deisel central heating system (webasto). The boat will be equipped with solar panels (2x130w Kyocera PVs) and a Rutland 913 wind gen to suplement the twin engine alternators (160a and 50a). Lighting will be LED in the main, refrigeration 12v Shoreline. 240 v ring supply via Sterling 3Kw pure sine inverter. 12v storage will be wet lead acid, 5 x 110a domestics, 1x 110a starter and 1 x 110a for Vetus 95Kgf bow prop (dont say it !!). All of that lot will be distributed and monitored using gibbo's smartbank and smart guage. She'll have lowered floor bracing and cruiser hand rails to maximise cabin height which will range from 6'4'' at edges to 6'9'' at the centre. Paintwork will be midnight blue with cream coach and cream roof. No name as yet !

 

Nice spec... I think that was 2 years well spent.

[Machpoint005]

Looks great. One point I'd make (long before it's too late!) is that I wouldn't relish cruising towards the sun with a cream roof. I know the light colour prevents it getting too hot inside the cabin, but a midnight blue top wouldn't give the steerer a headache from the eye strain.

[Lesd]

Thats a good point, one I hadn'tconsidered. Im very concerned about too much heat build up (mainly because of our dog) so that was the driving factor on roof colour choice. Will the cream be that bad ? Will my designer shades save the day or not ??? I now have a nagging doubt lol

[blackrose]

Thats a good point, one I hadn'tconsidered. Im very concerned about too much heat build up (mainly because of our dog) so that was the driving factor on roof colour choice. Will the cream be that bad ? Will my designer shades save the day or not ??? I now have a nagging doubt lol

 

No problem there. I have approx 468ft sq of cream roof in front of me and I don't suffer from any glare problems because it's a matt finish paint (International Interdeck). Perhaps a cream gloss would be a bad idea, but then any gloss paint on a curved roof is a bad idea. Cream is an ideal colour for the roof in my opinion - just make sure it's a non-slip finish.

 

Light colours on tops and also the sides of steel boats are actually far more practical during summer because they absorb fewer wavelengths of light and thus create less heat on the steel. However, I heard on the forum that that light colours also work best in winter because surprisingly they radiate less heat. Apparently the only reason domestic radiators aren't painted black is due to asthetics.

 

I've discovered the impracticality of dark colours on my boat as a result of having black cabin sides which can get very hot in the height of summer when the sprayfoam has a hard time dealing with the heat. I would change the colour but the black looks great and I'm far too vain!

 

Anyway, whatever paint scheme you choose, I'd recommend not getting a dark coloured roof.

 

Edited to add: Don't get cream bow/stern decks! I made that mistake. You want a lightish deck colour (eg. light grey) so that it doesn't get too hot if you happen to step out with bare feet in summer, but cream shows the dirt and will just look filthy from about day 3.

Edited June 21, 2007 by blackrose

[Machpoint005]

I'm not picking an argument, and Blackrose is quite right about black body radiation and heat reflection from light colours.

However, I would have thought that a reasonable amount of cabin roof insulation would counteract the extra solar gain (warm in winter, cool in summer), but for me there's no substitute for a dark colour in front of the steerer. Perhaps I have sensitive eyesight, I'm not sure. It's not so much the glare as the sheer quantity of reflected light, and the contrast between that and the dark bridge'ole you can't see through.

 

You can always repaint it later, though!

[John Orentas]

Yes, as Blackrose says it is the optical quality of the paint texture that is more important, deck deck paints are ideal for the cabin roof and a light coloured one is better still for reasons of heat absorption.

 

On top of all that, nothing looks worse that a gloss paint finish on a cabin roof, I have yet to see a roof accurate enough that you can get away with it, many look like a ploughed field.

[Carrie]

Congratulations Les and Heidi on starting out on your exciting journey.

 

As for roof colour, I've got a pale grey which I don't much like but which does seem to stay pretty cool compared to the deep blue of parts of the cabin sides. I've been considering repainting it the cream I have on parts of the cabin sides but reading the above comments has made me rethink! Truth is, once you've got your panels on and plants and all the paraphernalia people tell themselves they'll never have on their own roofs, there won't be a lot of colour to see!

[Lesd]

Thanks all for your kind wishes and comments on the paint, I'll look into this a little more before deciding (we're a good way away from that point). We're off to see the builder in 5mins to pay the first payment and look at the progress so will post some more pics tonight !

Les

[Lesd]

We visited LambonHull yesterday. After truely horrible near 4 hour journey in the rain and traffic jams we arrived to see a lot of progress.

 

This is a picture 3 days into the build that Ian had taken for us, as you can see the sides / gunnels are up, much of the vertical bracing is in place, two rubbing strakes in place, stern and swim plating ready to bend into shape. As you can see at this stage some of the construction is fully weled, some tacked. The emphasis is on getting the structure into place before completeing all of the welding;

 

 

 

Now a picture from our visit yesterday, day 4 of the build. As you can see the swim has been formed as has the counter plating (which has a slight rise). The bow plating has been pulled into shape and is tacked in place. The detail of the bow to form our specific design will be incorporated later. Rubbing strakes now fully welded top and bottom. Apparantly Steve stick welds everything below the gunnel for extra strength.

 

 

We're really pleased with this progress, all this after only 4 days !

Hey Bazza, it's starting to look like a boat !!!

 

More next week.

Les

[Barry]

Hey Bazza, it's starting to look like a boat !!!

 

Isn't it just!!! - in only 4 days too - I'm impressed - and you must be pleased

[anhar]

Good luck Les now you are actually on the way. I like the spec. of your boat. Front bedroom like mine.

 

I've just cruised my new boat home single handed, to West London down the GU from near Napton. A baptism of fire including mostly atrocious weather, cold and rain of near monsoon intensity at times, two long tunnels and a million locks, most of them on the southern GU it seems from memory.

 

regards

Steve

[allybsc]

Blimey, that's impressive, only 4 days, you must be very excited.

[Lesd]

Yes I'm very pleased with progress so far. Steve Lambon has been boat building for a long long time so is pretty well practised in what he's are doing, they also and work really hard, long days etc. I'm told the build will be complete in 4 weeks tops so Im just enjoying watching it happen !

 

Steve, you picked a hell of a week to bring your boat home mate. Baptism of fire sounds about right, I hope you enjoyed it though ?

 

Les

Edited June 25, 2007 by Lesd

[Chris J W]

Congratulations! I'm gobsmacked she's going up so quickly,

[anhar]

..Steve Lambon has been boat building for a long long time so is pretty well practised in what he's are doing, they also and work really hard, long days...

Quite Les, all Steves share this characteristic.

 

Steve, you picked a hell of a week to bring your boat home mate. Baptism of fire sounds about right, I hope you enjoyed it though ?

 

Les

Yes and no I guess. I've never boated alone before, actually I've done very little boating at all before. I did twelve hour days and it gets very wearying doing large numbers of locks alone. I would have preferred company but anyone I would have wanted along was unavailable. Sometimes there'd be another boat going my way to some extent so I'd be saved the work of doing it all myself but mostly I did not see another moving boat. I was amazed at how light the traffic was on the whole GU down to London, this in the summer. I expected to see large numbers of boats on the move but no. The weather was just bad luck, in fact as you'll know it has continued lousy up until now. Who would've have thunk that June could deliver such conditions? One of the wettest on record I heard on the news today. And often it was damn cold too. Then again there were a couple of sunny sessions which were glorious.

 

regards

Steve

[Lesd]

Day 6.

Lots of progress at the stern in last two days, the stern is now fully formed

 

 

He's been busy in the engine bay. The engine and aqua-drive bulkheads are in place, the fuel tank, engine beds, weedhatch and twin skin tanks all complete.

 

 

Im looking forward to my next visit in two weeks, next update at the end of the week

 

Les

Edited June 27, 2007 by Lesd

[blackrose]

Twin skin tanks? Are you having an inboard generator on one or does your engine require both?

[Lesd]

Hi Mike,

No inboard genny. The twin tanks aren't anything I've specified specifically so i'll enquire. The engine is a Shire 65, I've said that I will be on tidal rivers occasionally so maybe they're playing safe ? I'll let you know what they say.

 

OK Day 9 update. The stern is pretty much complete comlete, work has moved onto the bows in the last day or two. This shot shows the stern deck, engine hatch and the overall scale of the boat.

 

 

The bows are now underway, lots more profiling to do but you can see the start of the design in these shots. Also the thruster tube is in (much nearer to the actual bow than many boats, my builder claims this gives a better response)

 

 

 

The bow hatch will give us access to the thruster/battery/weedhatch and a little storage area (water hose etc). The gas is all in a locker on the stern deck so we've kept the locker at the bow reasonably small to increase the size of the bow deck seating / storage area.

Les

Edited July 2, 2007 by Lesd

[blackrose]

Hi Mike,

No inboard genny. The twin tanks aren't anything I've specified specifically so i'll enquire. The engine is a Shire 65, I've said that I will be on tidal rivers occasionally so maybe they're playing safe ? I'll let you know what they say.

Nothing wrong with having two - even if one is unused & blanked off. You may decide you want an inboard diesel genny one day, in which case you have a dedicated skin tank for cooling.

 

The thruster tube is in (much nearer to the actual bow than many boats, my builder claims this gives a better response)

Yes, I'd agree with your builder and I think Vetus recommend positioning as close to the bow as possible. My tube is quite far back to get it deep enough in the water (about a foot), but it still works fine.

 

The bow hatch will give us access to the thruster/battery/weedhatch and a little storage area (water hose etc). The gas is all in a locker on the stern deck so we've kept the locker at the bow reasonably small to increase the size of the bow deck seating / storage area.

Interesting setup. I don't actually have a bow thruster weedhatch but the thruster is positioned about 18" from the port side so if the prop gets fouled (not happened yet) I can clear it by reaching in the tube. Yes I have to get in the water!

Edited July 2, 2007 by blackrose

[bottle]

Twin tanks are generally now fitted so that one can be 'white' and the other 'red' diesel.

 

Reason we will have to use 'white' for propulsion but will still be able to use 'red' for generation (electrical) and heating.

 

This is of course if the marina's/boatyards will be selling both.

[Lesd]

Hi Keith,

Mike was referring to my boat's twin 'skin tanks' used for cooling. Im also having red/white twin deisel tanks for precisely the reason you state.

Rgds

Les

Edited July 2, 2007 by Lesd