Blacking the water tank.

This is a bit out of sequence - there are some more recent pictures from inside the boat, but on the other camera. 

Today I painted the inside of the integral water tank, which is in the bow.

After a couple of hours in the water tank cleaning, sanding, drying and painting, I came out covered from head to toe in bitumen paint, and with a brainful of solvent.

One problem was painting the floor where I'd been standing..

Lining, Ceiling, and the first few pipes...

The walls are lined and the ceiling is finished. Loads of headroom - somehow it seems taller than it did before the ceiling was in!

The lights sit nice and flush, and they need less than an inch of depth to sit in. Bedazzled LED are really helpful with advice for installing LEDs. Don't be tempted to downgrade the wiring thickness because of the low power involved - this has apparently caused problems with BSS checks in the past.

 Bulkheads are in for the bathroom, and the window apertures cut ready for the hardwood frames to go in.

Windows, Engine, Ballast and Foam.

Simone, from inside the water tank.

The sprayfoam is all in, and the floorboards down, and the first few boards for the lineout of the walls are on.

We're so chuffed with the front and back doors - there's no stooping or squeezing to get into either. The front door is almost full height, and the back have a lovely long sliding hatch and are a good width.

On one side, there's no window in the bedroom. This is the side we'll generally try to moor up when possible - the shore hook up and the step into the front deck are on this side. Should give a little more privacy, but we're open to the idea that we might decide to add another window one day.

The wires in the foreground are there for potential future solar panels - watch this space.

"Uh oh," he thought, as the his hair brushed the sprayfoam...

Our first guest!! And she didn't even get a cup of coffee - let alone any cake. We are bad hosts!

Almost done, from the stern and bow.

Windows are now in, and the engine will go in early next week.

River Folk

The boat is coming along and the sprayfoamers are booked for the 16th, which gives us some idea of progress as batons will be in/on and wiring done by then. But aside from the actual boat - one of the most exciting things around the whole experience is the number of lovely river folk we're meeting. We recently met up with John and Jackie, of wb Pippin who were lovely and let us take their home for a spin, John very kindly helped me turn the boat at Baits Bite. Recently we also spent some time with friends who have a 70 foot nb which Chris turned into a headwind - rather him than me, and on purpose I should add. Even though we are not settling around these here parts, it has been so wonderful to meet some fabulous people who have provided good company and been very generous with their time and advice. So thank you. Our builders are probably not so grateful and we often leave these rendezvous and peoples' boats heaving with new ideas and, having seen some smart solutions, amendments to the plan. The calls normally begin 'If it's not too late...'. We're trying not to do this too much to be fair to the builders and regarding the structural stuff - it nearly is too late.
So here's to steel being finished and Stuart starting on Monday - and all the lovely folk we continue to meet.

Happy Days

 Sitting in the sunshine making fenders. This one took 2 hours, so I'm not quite ready to start doing this for a living...

A week or so to go...

Today we went to see our boat! Even having seen it, and put our hands on it, we can't quite believe it's ours. We think the builders have done a fantastic job so far. It's objectively beautiful (and we can say that because we haven't done it!).

At the front, we've put the water tank in the bow locker where the gas would normally go, so we've been able to drop the front deck to give almost full headroom under the cratch, and a nice big front door. The shape of the gunwale around the deck is really elegant, which is lucky, since it is taken from a rough line on a plan that was never really meant to be the final design.

At the back, we decided to drop the gas lockers into the deck to make them more convenient heights to sit on, and we're really pleased with the way that the builder has done these.

Because of the gas lockers, you won't be able to open the doors all the way back so they've given us a nice wide door. They're going to sink the first step into the deck, down to the level of the base of the gas lockers, which, combined with a nice long hatch, should make getting in much less of a squeeze than it would otherwise be.