Restoration.

[Springsong]

Alan this is very good of you. The existing piece of wood is 28" X 10.25" or in foreign 711 X 26 mm. Thank you in anticipation.

[ranworthbreeze]

Hello Barry,

We had a local timber yard that up to a couple of years ago had their messurements in metric feet!

I use what ever is the nearest measurement on a tape these days. Coming from an engineering back ground a mm is too large a measurement after being used to thousandths of an inch.

Needless to say you will have heard the old story of how a Company from the USA sent the worlds smallest drill to a company in Sheffield, the Sheffeild company drilled it, tapped it and put a nut and bolt througth the drill and sent it back!

Length and width in old money should not be a problem but what is the thinkness you are after?

Regards

Alan

[jimbo]

I'm loving this thread Barry Keep up the good work!

[BuffaloBill]

you will have heard the old story of how a Company from the USA sent the

worlds smallest drill to a company in Sheffield, the Sheffield company drilled it, tapped

it and put a nut and bolt through the drill and sent it back!

I believe you are talking about Rolls Royce Alan?

I heard about that when I was doing my engineering course at college around 1967!

[ranworthbreeze]

Hi Bill,

That sounds about the correct date there abouts. Whoever (assuming it is correct and not a myth) it was one in the eye for the yanks.

When I was an apprentice about the same time as you, Sheffield engineering was second to none I can remember walking by the sides of lathes over 100 foot long where the operator would sit on a seat above the machine head, sadly most of these companies were gone by the 80's or merged with British Steel. In the early to mid 60's you could walk past companies where they were still drawing steel by hand complete with greased tracks and guy's in clogs catching the steel.

Regards

Alan

[Springsong]

The port side tanks are in place now although the holes in the decks have yet to be cut. The large forward tank of the two is the diesel tank, this of course has to have a breather fitted and two take offs for the engine and the diesel fired water heater / hot air heater and I think an earth strap of some kind. I shall of course be taking advice on all things electrical.

The starboard side tank is one big water tank. This you may remember used to be two tanks. This seemed to us to be rather pointless so Alan made a new support and we had Ken Nevard make us this rather splendid large tank.

Ken very sadly is unable to work now so Martham Boats have bought some of his equipment and have made this engine drip tray for us. I am hoping it will be fitted and the engine back in by the time I next visit on Saturday and hopefully the boat back in the diy shed.

The bay I have been working in will have to be vacated in the next couple of days as the shed is beginning to fill up with winter storage customers who are regulars. The worktop I have bought is so heavy we couldn't actually lift it, so Alan went and measured the galley again and we cut the top in half which made it much more manageable. The idea of the 960mm deep top is for it to go right under the deck each side. On the port side where the cooker stands it is not as wide as the sink or starboard side. Neither side is 960mm so with some judicial cutting we will hopefully have enough wood to make upstands to finish it all off..

[Springsong]

The repainted engine is now back in awaiting its new hoses, 90 amp and alternator. I have to gather my thoughts together over the next week for a visit to Brian Ward for amongst other things a new temperature sender. The old gauge was a capillary type and the new one electrically operated. I also need lights and electrical sundries. I really must make a list.

This is her first outing into daylight since everything above deck was replaced and painted / varnished, it of course had to rain, or rather drizzle.

This all took place on Monday so when I go back on Thursday it will hopefully have dried off and I can clean it off and put the new dust sheets I have bought over the tops before the winter sanding and repairs start in here. These will be very useful when we finally end up in the wet shed to keep the dust off in there.

[Springsong]

Since we moved back into the DIY shed I have been concentrating on getting the galley in some sort of order. I have almost finished putting the the tongue & groove up on the bulkheads. Before I fix it too permanently I have to work out all the lights with their corresponding switches and relevant wires. I have found a piece of oak faced ply I had forgotten we had so as you can see from the photo I am going to use it along the hull at the back of the worktop. I have just glued some patches to the back where I shall be drilling some ventilation holes, this will reduces the chance of the ply splitting.. I just have to come up with a design for the holes, something like a flower head perhaps.

In between other jobs I have with my very rudimentary woodworking skills built what I hope will serve as a heater box for the engine generated heat, windscreen demister. Due to the generosity of a forum member the Mondeo matrix inside cost me nothing and the fan from e bay at £8.00 wont break the bank. I just have to find some used ducting and a fish tail vent to finish the job. I am penny pinching really but when to buy those two things new will add £30 odd to the final sum of what started as an inexpensive little project. it just seems excessive.

The engine area has all been cleaned and painted, the new drip tray has been fitted and the engine placed in position. 

As you know we buried dear Ken Nevard the other week and saw him off in fine style at a wake at Wayford Bridge. What you may not know is (Iam sure he won't mind me saying on here) Martham Boats have bought Ken's folding presses and ancillary equipment so have the capability to make tanks drip trays etc. 

So you can just about make out our MB drip tray insitue.

Finally looking forward this photo shows under the double bunk up forward. To the left is the wardrobe door then where there must have been a socket. At right angles to this is where I intend to put the heater matrix for the cabin. Now I rather think this maybe rather too close to the socket to be safe which is a shame as I now have a hole to get rid of. Do

[Springsong]

Today with much help from Alan we have started to make the new bunk in the front cabin. The old front cabin side although a little ratty in places will be the basis for the bunk side.

This is a little difficult to explain but if you see the photo in the middle at the bottom is the corner of the chest of drawers. These will form the base of the bunk at the head end.. The bunk will then go forward and curve into the hull and sit on the stringer you see in the photo.

The old cabin side will with the end nearest the camera sit on the chest of drawers and stretch forward. There is actually quite a curve on it so it naturally goes into the hull. The small front window will mirror the new cabin side and will make the opening for a cave locker under the new bunk. The bunk will in fact be 6' long and over two thirds of its length be 3' or so wide. The existing double will still be at least 4'6†across its whole length..There is of course some more trimming to do to make it all fit properly.

The photo shows the cooker (port) side of the galley more or less finished, there will be a s/s plate covering a good proportion of this piece of bulkhead at least it will cover the worst of my repair work. No light to fit on this side just an overhead extractor fan which I will tell you about if I can make it work.

Standing where the sink is looking to the port side, there is just some quadrant to go on between the cladding and the cabin side, and of course the cabin sides to be sanded and varnished and the hopper windows to be made.

[Springsong]

I have picked up the flexible exhaust piping from good “old†Jason at LBBY. This should be more than enough to do the job.

He has also supplied me with a transom fitting which is pretty much what I was looking for. There is only one screw visible, the shiny bit is a shroud for the four screws that fix it to the transom.

Jason is a really good friend, he listens sometimes for hours to my ramblings. On one such occasion the subject was exhaust systems, of course for boats. I originally was going to have one of those plastic silencers in the system, Jason informed me that if one was to have an overheating problem these plastic silencers can melt under certain conditions with boiling exhaust water.

He then told me about Halyard exhaust silencers which are made from fibre glass. These are more expensive than the plastic ones but not hugely so. The plunge was taken and I took delivery at the same time as the pipe.

The engine is a Parsons Pike, basically a D series Ford. The exit from the heat exchanger is 60mm so the silencer is quite large. I had hoped to put it behind the fridge or sink. Here's the rub, the inlet of the silencer on the left of the photo has to be 12" below the water injection on the exchanger. The silence being the size it is I may have trouble getting it low enough, it is almost certainly going to have to go under the thwart ship bunk. Jason tells me the 12†fall isn't critical but we must have as much fall as we can make.

This size of silencer would normally be going into a sea going motor yacht like an Ocean 37 or something along those lines, anyway a boat with much more hull depth than a Broads cruiser.

[Springsong]

I helped Alan clear away boxes, the Mikuni and matrix (s) and all sorts of other thing so we could lift the thwart ship bunk boards. Having done this we played around with the silencer in the available space. I have to say the silencer look enormous outside the boat, once in the space it looked a very manageable size. We have much more space between the bulkhead and the back of the drawer than I realized.

In the picture you can see the propeller shaft running top left to bottom left. The inlet for the exhaust is on the left nearest to the shaft so we will make a hole through the bulkhead to the right of and below the shaft this will be only 2' or so away from the heat exchanger water inlet and maybe have a fall of just about the required 12''. To the extreme right you can just see the old exhaust running top to bottom right.

The photo is of the water pump and accumulator for the cold fresh water system. Again there is so much unused space in the corner, as you can see it fits comfortably in there. The black pipe above it coming through the bulkhead is the old fresh water feed which of course will be replaced with modern plastic plumbing. We will mount the pump and accumulator on its own plinth which I think will be on a rubber mounting of some description yet to be designed. You can see the old exhaust and how the new one will feed into the route that the old one took.

There is so much space down there I shall have to see what else we can pack in there, certainly a bilge pump on the centre line on or near the hog.

Back to the new bunk in the forecabin. So in its very basic form this is what it will look like. I think it is going to be excellent when all varnished up and finished.  There is still much to be done, the locker has to be made, the will have to be some work done at the front as the cabin side was particularly moth eaten at this point. Much of the bottom edge will of course be hidden by the double bunk mattress.

Sorry about the lousy photo. I always struggle in the saloon because we are exactly at the height of the shed windows so I am always taking straight into the light.

Anyway this side is now done with the beam shelf between each beam now covered with a piece of ash and some quadrant. It just remain for the cabin sides to be sanded and every thing varnished.

[Springsong]

I have at last started the wiring, this first photo shows the starboard rear bulkhead which has just one light and switch. The T&G is of course not going back as easily as before but I will get there eventually with a little patience.

This second photo is the port side forward galley bulkhead. This as you can see from the wires is a little more complicated, at least for me a complete novice at this boat wiring. The complication arises from the fact that the cladding on the saloon side of the bulkhead is already glued to the bulkhead therefore the wires from the saloon light have to come through the bulkhead to the galley side before returning back to the saloon side again to travel across the boat to the busbar on the starboard side. The negative wiring is not a problem as it is a common negative, but the positive from each light has to have a separate wire meaning lots of wire.

The next problem I foresee is that I believe all wiring must be above the waterline for the BSS. I am not sure I have enough space under the floorboards this far aft to get the wires across above the waterline, it is going to take some careful working out.

[C.Ricko]

Hi Barry,

Its great to see steady progress, Not sure about the wires below water level thing as the bilge pump will be a real Bu**er to get working!

[Springsong]

Hi Clive

I believe the bilge pump is the exception to the rule.With my skills the whole thing is going to be a bu**er anyway.

[Springsong]

For the past few weeks I have been wiring the back end of the boat, at least to start with the lighting which is all LED so the wires are quite thin, even so I am struggling with 20mm flexible conduit to get it all in so I am going to have to run two lengths and in some places three. I have managed to run it all behind existing panels so unless you open the odd cupboard it will be invisible-ish.

When all the rear lighting is in I shall start on the rear AC system. I haven't quite decided where to locate the RCD, it needs I guess to be accessible , I am thinking about a waterproof outdoor one an locating it under the starboard rear deck in the aft cockpit. Originally I was going to put the in coming socket on the port side but this would be in close proximity to the gas cylinder and the cooker, so I have

more or less decided to put it on the starboard side, it means a longer run to the main fuse board but I still think it is the way to go.

[jillR]

looking lovely

[Springsong]

The first light is wired and fitted on its pattress. The blue paint will have to be redone and a few refinements to the edge between the cabin side and the t&g but I shall leave this until I have varnished the cabin sides. The uneven finish to the t&g at the bottom will be hidden by the worktop and the fridge underneath it. The switches and the other pattresses will have to wait until Alan has had time to make them to buy new oak ones would be £9 or £10 each for the switches and the lights would still have to have theirs made to order.

For the past few weeks I have been wiring the back end of the boat, at least to start with the lighting which is all LED so the wires are quite thin, even so I am struggling with 20mm flexible conduit to get it all in so I am going to have to run two lengths and in some places three. I have managed to run it all behind existing panels so unless you open the odd cupboard it will be invisible-ish.

When all the rear lighting is in I shall start on the rear AC system. I haven't quite decided where to locate the RCD, it needs I guess to be accessible , I am thinking about a waterproof outdoor one an locating it under the starboard rear deck in the aft cockpit. Originally I was going to put the in coming socket on the port side but this would be in close proximity to the gas cylinder and the cooker, so I have

more or less decided to put it on the starboard side, it means a longer run to the main fuse board but I still think it is the way to go.

[Springsong]

WE have started to remount the saloon windows, the thinking being that if we make the holes for fixing them to the cabin side before varnishing starts we should minimise any scratching that might occur. There is some “beading” to go on the front to cover the mounting holes. I just have to make the decision whether to stain and varnish or paint them.

In the previous picture you can see the black flexible conduit hanging down and the two black pieces going through the cupboard, these then drop down into the cupboard below and out next to the steps. In this photo you can see the steps on the right and the cupboard frame on the left, the conduit the goes through the engine space bulkhead.

[Springsong]

The wiring is coming along quite well, I say quite well because every time I think I have cracked it I have to take it all out for some reason or other to put it all back again ten minutes later. I have chosen to wire her with each cabin having its own fuse and also split port and starboard with the feed wire running full length from the switch to the breaker unbroken. The idea being that if a fault should occur it can only be at the switch or the fuse. The only difference being that on the port side I have used twin cable for many of the runs and if not have run separate earth wires right forward, but on the starboard side I have used a busbar behind the backrest of the saloon seat/bunk.

My reasoning behind this was that I had struggled to get all the wires into the conduit and had used an extraordinary amount of wire and with the starboard side having to run right around the engine space I thought it might be easier and less expensive to do it this way.

This has all been a huge learning curve for me I am finding new bits of equipment to make jobs easier, I bought to do the starboard side a set of rods to bring the cables through the conduit,what a great investment that has been saved me so much time and hair pulling.

The photo below shows the wiring (loom) for the starboard side, this is purely for the led lighting on this side of the boat the galley and aft cockpit on one breaker the saloon on another. I found stretching it out like this the best way to get the cables through the conduit.

I have also fitted the inlet socket for the shore power.

We thought long and hard about all the options for this. I really didn't fancy one of the normal ones that go on a bulk head facing downwards at an angle, fine on a modern plastic boat but out of place in my opinion on a wooden boat, and apart from that I was very loathe to cut holes in the lovely hard wood tonue and groove. So we came up with this solution put it in the locker, on the other side in the galley it comes out under the worktop and behind the fridge. The locker will keep it dry and out of the weather and of course there will be a hood/cover over the cockpit anyway. I shall have to notch out the top edge of the locker front and cross beam so that the lid will trap the wire when plugged in.

[diesel falcon]

Thanks for the update any news when she will be launched??

[MBA Marine]

Just a little advice to anyone restoring or self building. At the point that the boat is at its emptiest, Try running plastic pipes down the hull sides, 40mm(ish) kitchen sink/bath waste polly pipe works well as you can glue lengths together using shorter bits where you cant get a long length in. using hole saw you can cut holes in where cables are to exit.

Feed a string through from the point of distribution to each outlet, then for each cable you need to pull through you can attach to the string and pull through, remember to attach a new string to the cable so you replace the string you have pulled out each time. this method makes running cables later in the build or adding extras later much easier.

Keeps the DC & AC nicely separated, Morse & steering cables can also have their own conduits.

This might help one or two in the future.

[diesel falcon]

http://www.qvsdirect.com/10-x-330mm-Cab ... tAodVW4AWw

These come in handy for cabling aswell

[C.Ricko]

Hi Barry,

Its good to see steady progress, I would say that unless you have already chosen the lighting then it may be worth waiting until nearer the launch as not only are LED unitws gtting cheaper, they seem to be getting better all the time...

I pulled Broadsventure out of the water last week, she has plenty of rotten planks, some are only 3 or 4 years old Wood

mind you most seems to be either mahogany or iroko,, Make sure there is plenty of air getting in and out...

[Springsong]

Thank you for your replies.

DF I was hoping to launch in late June but that is looking increasingly unlikely, as for the rods that is exactly what I bought of Ebay.

Mark there was too much fixed furniture to remove to get to the hull which is why I went with the flexible conduit.

Clive too late I have bought every thing although only four new lights the rest are bulbs.

[Springsong]

Clive I guess that kiln dried wood is just not as good as air dried ?