Tag Archives: narrowboat

Beeston Canal

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I’m enjoying a couple of days out along the Beeston Canal, only a couple of miles from my home mooring but it’s a change of scenery. I was going to continue to Beeston today, all of a mile away, but it has barely stopped raining all day so I decided to stay put, check through a few things on the boat and do some writing instead. So, in spite of the weather or perhaps because of it, I have had quite a productive day. I’ve checked and run the central heating (I’ve not run it from the batteries without the backup of the mains connection before) and the inverter (a device which converts the 12v battery power to 240v mains power). Both functioned exactly as they should, the first reheating the water tank and the second recharging the laptop. I bought a 12v laptop charger last year and haven’t tested it out yet, on checking the specification I noticed it draws up to 12A. I’m by no means certain that the 12v wiring running through the boat to the outlets is up to that sort of current so I’ll have to install a socket near the batteries to use it. That’s a job for another day.

As well as doing some writing I also spent a bit of time reading a superb ‘how to’ book, Writing The Breakout Novel by Donald Maass. I can thoroughly recommend it, a very accessible and practical guide. As I read each chapter I immediately become aware of things I need to improve in my work in progress. It’s leading to more rewriting but well worth it. By the time I’ve finished reading this book I’ll have completed another half dozen rewrites of my own, and it’ll be better for it.

After so much rain it seems only the water based birds are happy today, this family wandered past earlier, presumably looking for their next meal.

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Refitting the table Desmo legs

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In common with most boats, caravans and motorhomes my table is fitted on Desmo Legs. These are 60mm (2.5 inches) diameter metal legs that fit into sockets in the floor and on the underside of the table. My boat had been fitted with the underside of the table sockets on the floor as well as in their normal place, this left me with two 60mm high lumps of metal in the floor if I took the table down. These didn’t look good and always seemed to be in the ideal place to trip you up so I decided to install the more functional and aesthetically pleasing recessed sockets into the new flooring. In the process of fitting the new flooring I found there are metal ribs running across the width of the boat every metre of so. These give extra strength to the base plate, this is good because it keeps the water out but guess where one of them is. Yep, right under one of the Desmo legs, obviously this is why it had the surface mounted sockets on the floor instead of the recessed ones.

After due consideration I decided I much preferred the recessed sockets so I opted to move the position of the leg affected by the steelwork. After much careful measurement I set about my lovely new floor with a holecutter.

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Only once drilled could I be absolutely sure that the holes missed all the steel and everything would fit, they did. The recessed sockets look a lot better than the old ones, well worth the effort.

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The other result of the new sockets was that the table was now about 50mm (2 inches) lower than it used to be, the sockets for the legs are now below floor level not above it as they used to be. I could just fit my legs under the table but I certainly wouldn’t want to try to get up in a hurry. A quick check on the price of new, longer legs persuaded me that was not the way to deal with the problem. Desmo legs come in pre-cut lengths which cannot be altered, they have a taper at each end and the sockets have the equivalent taper to accept the leg. If you take a hacksaw to the end of one of these legs it will end up not fitting in the socket properly. The easiest option for me was to put spacers between the top sockets and the bottom of the table. I removed the sockets from the underneath of the table, fitted suitable pieces of timber, 44x96mm (what used to be called 4×2), and reattached the sockets to these. I once again have a usable table at a sensible height. Now there is no excuse for not setting the computer up and getting on with some writing.

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More Flooring

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Another day’s progress on the flooring project. The kitchen (galley, if you speak boat) has proved quite tricky, as I anticipated. Lots of not-quite-square angles and difficult gaps to plan out.

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I made a template/jigsaw initially, to plan out the spacing and gaps. I wanted to have a level floor under the fridge  (important for it to run smoothly) and under the oven.  The oven is supported on the sides, so this is for looks rather than functionality. After several hours work I think all has been achieved.

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There is still plenty to do to finish the job, all the trims and little finishing bits that will take nearly as long as the main part of the job. And the corridor and bathroom, they will have to wait until tomorrow. Speakers of ‘boat’ will know the bathroom is known as the heads but I’m writing for the English speaker here. The term heads apparently comes from the Navy, when ship’s loos were a large room with cubicles having four foot high walls, thus you saw a row of heads in the room,  just in case you wanted to know..

On the (Engineered) Floor

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I had been thinking about replacing my worn out and rather tatty carpet for a while. After a lot of research and thought I opted for engineered wood floor, this is interlocking planks made up of a plywood base and a layer of real wood laminated on top. The experts claim it is less susceptible to temperature and humidity changes and is thus suitable for use on boats.

The job is now underway, carpets and battered lino are out and new floor going in. Yesterday started with this

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And today has finished with this. The right hand side (in the picture) was easy enough but there was a lot of cutting in and difficult angles to work out along the left side.

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So that is the living area done, tomorrow will see the kitchen being transformed, plenty of awkward fiddly bits to tackle there.

Red sky at night

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Another red sky at sunset, this evening’s was high enough in the sky to be reflected on the water, rather dramatic I thought.

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On a completely different note, I’m thinking I’m going to have to sack my chief engineer for allowing the diesel tank to run dry. So, having got the diesel powered central heating working, it now won’t work because there is no fuel – not good. The chief engineer has to take responsibility for such a simple error, only thing is … this is a one man crew. Doh!

Warmest day of the year – so far.

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What a glorious day it’s been, some warm sunshine, clear skies and almost no wind, a real treat after the drab, cloudy, wet winter we have experienced this year. With almost no clear frosty weather to break the monotony we were ready for some spring-like weather. The marina has started to come to life, there are people around, everyone is stopping to chat and there are boats moving, which is good to see.

I’ve spent some of the day planning my change of flooring, I’ve decided to replace the rather worn carpet and lino. I’ve bought engineered wood flooring, essentially wood veneer, giving the benefits of real wood but also, an important factor on a boat, a good tolerance to changes in humidity. This is achieved by having the grain of the base layer at 90 degrees to the grain of the top layer, giving better stability. Or so all my research tells me, I hope it is correct. It will probably be next weekend before I start to fit the flooring, I’ll update on progress then.

In the meantime here is this evening’s sunset;

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Central heating

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After about four months of hassle and problems varying from not starting at all to boiling up after 30 minutes, it looks as if my diesel central heating system is finally working properly. In those months I have had much of the system in bits and learned a lot about it. It has been run for three or four hours nearly every day without any problems.

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The manufacturer, Mikuni, was very helpful, it’s difficult to diagnose these problems over the phone and they always tried to help. Although it has been very frustrating, it’s also satisfying when the problem is finally solved. Satisfying and warm.