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15/12/2006 BELLE is ours - NOT……………. Some bad news - we have been denied our handover for this
weekend. The lads are still
adding the finishing touches to the interior – basically we are now
waiting for the first layer of varnish to go off in most rooms so that
another two coats can be applied.
As things are, handover must now wait for Thursday next week. More sleepless nights to contend with! So, just like us, the gallery update must also wait. Another concern is the state of the River Trent at Alrewas – we must cross this in order to access our
mooring at Hunts Lock, Fradley.
Albeit that British Waterways had not put up any warning signs and
pad-locked the lock gates when we visited the area on Wednesday this week, we
reckon that things were a bit too lively for a safe boat crossing. Getting things ‘out of
shape’ here could have disastrous consequences, with us pinned up
against the buoys/chains across the weir and/or sinking and/or some nasty
bashing and scraping whilst trying to enter the lock on the Alrewas side of the river. As such, we might have to stay
at Barton Turns Marina until the River Trent calms down a bit. Not so bad, assuming they have space
for us, otherwise we will be on the towpath somewhere. What an initiation eh? We have fastened some tyres to the Armco at our mooring
in readiness for when we ‘broadside’ it. Having said this, we might struggle to
make contact with them - this is because we have been told by one of the
locals and the BW moorings officer that we might experience some silting
problems. Something else to
contend with, but hopefully not that difficult to overcome if we can scour
the length of our mooring using the main propeller. RED DIESEL - are you aware that there is a petition on the go? As others have said, whilst reversing
the EU decision is most unlikely now, influencing the tax to be levied by
Gordon Brown is a possibility.
So, please go take a look at the petition and, if you agree, please
sign-up. Hit the ‘Seeing RED’
link >>>>>> |
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11/12/2006 BELLE is launched……………. Yeeeeehhaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa! What a fantastic day! Suffice to say - A monster sized “THANK YOU”
to Dawn, Gary, Mark, Jim and Dean for doing a fantastic job of work –
all of their skill, effort and care has come to fruition and they have
delivered a spanking new boat to a pair of very proud owners. We are stumped for words – go take a look at the pictures! |
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08/12/2006 Bad news - Red
is dead.................., or is it? So, the governmental fuckwits (sorry, but that is the
best way I can sum them up at the moment) have done it again and, by all
accounts, our engine fuel and/or heating fuel costs are about to double! I am still on the ceiling having
learned this, but will be down soon with a view to collaborating with other
interested parties to see what can be done about this EC decision to not
renew the derogation. I imagine
that Gordon is rubbing his sweaty little Danny’s together already. However, I propose that the MD at
Eberspächer should not rub his/her hands together yet thinking that this
could be the answer to boiler fuelling woes! Regular readers will know that we have two tanks on
Belle. Can’t say that I am
actually looking forward to barrowing jerry cans of fuel for the heating down
the towpath every few weeks though, assuming that we are within striking
distance of a suitable heating fuel stockist and that such fuel remains
competitively priced. I share the
concerns of most of my regular correspondents – more likely than not,
canal-side fuel stockists will probably just stock DERV soon – think
about it! Are YOU ready for what’s to
come……..? How’s
your barrowing technique? Should we postpone Belle’s launch and rip out the Lockgate stove and fit a solid fuel burner? Maybe rip out
the Eberspächer as well?
Seeing as we have not actually used either of them yet, are we in with
a fighting chance of a refund do you think? The MD at Lockgate
should not be too concerned at this news because they cover solid fuel
burners – Eberspächer on the other hand? I really do feel like bashing the nearest
politician’s head in at the moment. Back soon. |
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05/12/2006 Progress………….… Well, this is it then – we are on final countdown
and launch will definitely be at Barton Turns Marina on Monday 11 December 2006.
The cranes and truck have been booked.
Our insurance has been sorted and we just need a few items of
paperwork to show up and then we can apply for the BW licence. We go to see Belle for the last time
in the workshop tomorrow and our hope is that she is sitting there ready and
waiting for her big day. Bump,
bash, crash; we are back to reality – what’s the betting that the
lads are still working frantically in their endeavours to get things finished! Tradition dictates that Belle will be ‘christened’
with a bottle of brown ale. Might have some pictures to upload tomorrow night,
depending on how things pan out.
If not, then (depending on how a few other things go in what’s
left of this week) they will be uploaded this coming weekend. The plan is to take a load of decent
photographs at the launch and following handover and before we move all of
our clobber on board and mess everything up! Watch this space. |
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18/11/2006 Progress………….… All the internal doors barring one are now in place
– just a bit of work to do to complete the frames and the handles to
fit. The bathroom is looking really good and the shower cubicle is nearing
completion – now that the large mirror is fitted, this room looks
almost twice as big as it did on our last trip! We will upload some pictures of the
bathroom when it is finished. The steps for the side doors in the day room are nearly
finished – these steps are mounted on a heavy-duty slide and they
neatly stow into a cupboard unit when they are not being used. Glass panelled doors have been fitted
to the high level cupboards in the galley and the saloon and the glass
shelves for these cupboards are cut to size ready for fitting. The main TV has been fitted into the
saloon cupboard unit and the flip-down TV has been fitted to the ceiling in
the bedroom. A note for those
considering one of these flip-down TV’s – make sure you get the
angle of the base unit right, otherwise, even with the screen fully opened, it
will be difficult to see the picture.
Our base unit will come off again this week so that a suitably angled
plinth can be inserted between it and the ceiling. Considering BELLE is inside a steel
clad workshop, the reception and picture quality on both of these TV’s
was pretty good using just the aerial on the cabin roof. We heard the engine fire-up today for the first time and
eh, guess what – we now have a launch date: 11 December 2006! Internet
access………….… We have been scoping out various ways for gaining
Internet access over the last few months ready for when we move onto
BELLE. Wi-fi
is the fastest when it comes to mobile data transmission speeds and usually
much more competitively priced when compared to mobile data using
3G/GPRS. However, in our
experience, finding wi-fi hotspots can still be a real
pain. No doubt things will
improve in time, in terms of both speed and price, but we need something
dependable now. Therefore, having
scoured and found no better deals on offer, we have invested in a T-Mobile
PCMCIA data card and a ‘web-n-walk’ account. This card interfaces directly with our
laptop and for £29/month provides us with 3Gb of data via 3G/GPRS plus
300 minutes via BT Openzone. We encountered a few problems last
week whilst loading the software, but they are behind us now and communications
performance so far is pretty good.
We shall see what happens when we move on-board. It might be necessary to rig an
external aerial for the data card now and again – we shall see. Using a Bluetooth link between our
laptop and our existing 3G |
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09/11/2006 Sorry, but there is not much new stuff to report or show
for Belle at the moment We went
to see her again today expecting that she would be nearly finished. Nope. The internal doors / frames have been prepared,
but this little lot is still in the workshop awaiting installation. All of the bevelled edge mirrors have
arrived, along with the frosted glass for the shower cubicle. We have added a nice little touch to
the glass in the shower cubicle door - pictures of it installed on our next
visit, we hope. Next visit is Saturday 18 November 2006. |
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28/10/2006 Progress………….… We now have a vanity unit in the bathroom (see gallery).
Don’t you just hate it when staying in a hotel, etc. where space
might be at a premium (like in a boat for instance) and you cannot get your
face in the wash basin and/or you keep bashing your forehead on the taps?
We’ve been there, done it and got the tee-shirt. So, with this in mind, we selected the
biggest wash basin that we felt we could get away with in here + a mixer tap
with a relatively ‘short’ reach. We did not actually fill the wash
basin with water today to try it, but we reckon that we will be OK. The space between the vanity unit and
the shower on the opposite side of the bathroom allows you to walk through
with ease.
The cupboard unit above the desk in the day room is more
or less finished (just needs the handles). This has been sized so that it will
accommodate 10 lever arch files at one end, leaving plenty of space at the
other end for office stationery, etc.
Add to this the drawer and cupboard space under the desk and the total
should be more than enough for our needs. Might even ‘borrow’ some
of this space for a few non-office things. Electrical
energy consumption………………….
The electric iron consumes about 1800 watts – there
must be a better way, I thought.
How about using a couple of these instead? Do you think that Stelle
will like them? I knew that the
hot plate on top of the Refleks stove would come in handy for more than just
boiling the kettle now and again. Suggestions welcomed from any of our ‘more
mature’ domestic engineer readers as to the best way to
‘black’ them? |
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21/10/2006 Progress………….…
Most of the progress this time around has been realised
in the utility room area. The
domestic batteries (5 x 110Ah) and the engine starter battery (1 x 95Ah) have
been installed, along with their respective isolating switches, into a custom
made tray located alongside the engine. An electrical equipment cupboard is taking shape in here
– the doors for this cupboard are awaited but it already houses a
12v.dc / 240v.ac MCB and distribution panel, battery charger controller and
display unit, Mastervolt combined 2.0kW Much of the loose wiring that has been congregating at
this end of the boat for the last few weeks has been interconnected and made
off. Some more photographs of this lot will be uploaded soon.
You might be interested to learn that we have opted for
this design of programmable controller for our Eberspächer Hydronic 5
boiler. As well as performing the
basic control functions for the boiler (e.g. on / off events per day,
constant on / off, etc.), this particular controller will allow you to
interrogate the diagnostics built into the boiler unit itself and display any
fault codes. This controller will also allow you to readily check the
boiler ‘hours run’ – you may wish to note that not all
Eberspächer controllers currently include this feature. As to how you are supposed to readily
comply with the terms and conditions of the Eberspächer warranty, etc.
when it comes to servicing every 1000 hours (or whatever) without an
‘hours run’ feature, well, I shall just leave this to your
imagination. Maybe
Eberspächer expects the users of their other controllers to also equip
themselves with a stopwatch, clip-board and a biro? |
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15/10/2006 General
progress………….… Progress since our last visit just over a week ago has
been very good, but we are more or less certain now that BELLE will not be
finished in time for us to cruise from the intended launch site at Hanbury
Wharf to our mooring at Hunts Lock before the British Waterways winter
stoppages for maintenance and repairs prevent us from doing so early November
2006. So, Plan B, i.e. launch and
handover at Barton Turns marina is about to be actioned. Our hope still is that she will be
gently lowered into the temperate waters of the Trent & Mersey around
mid-November 2006. We have added a few more pictures to our gallery – more soon. |
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09/10/2006 Meandering……..…….…
There are a few narrowboats mustering above Shade House
Lock – it looked like most of them were settling in here and preparing
themselves for the forthcoming winter season. It was surprisingly hot for this time
of the year though. So, having
expended all of that energy, we felt that we could legitimately bask in the
sunshine for an hour at the nearby BW café whilst we both demolished a
baguette each, followed by a wedge of very nice chocolate / walnut cake, all
washed down nicely with a fresh coffee.
It’s a hard life init? Had we been staying in the area for a while, then a pint
or three of Marstons Pedigree in the Swan would
have been more appropriate, but with us driving later, we were denied the
satisfaction. Better luck next
time. Shock-horror when we arrived - we thought that
maintenance work had started early at Junction Lock, but thankfully it has
not. These guys were dredging the
lock and they will be moving further along the canal in a few days time
– phew! We did not want to
let this opportunity to spot some goodies nestling in and amongst the dredgings pass us by. So, with things like gold nuggets and
discarded diamond necklaces, etc. on our minds, we scoured these dredgings very closely from the bank under the watchful
eye of the BW man on the other end of the bucket. As things were, we spotted some rusty
old nails and a banana. He must
have beaten us to all the ‘good’ stuff. Oxtail soup anybody?
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05/10/2006 General
progress………….… Progress is still good but we suspect that it will not be
good enough to see things finished in time for us to cruise from the intended
launch site at Hanbury Wharf to our mooring at Hunts Lock before the British
Waterways winter stoppages for maintenance and repairs prevent us from doing
so early November 2006. Plan B,
i.e. launch and handover at Barton Turns marina is looking more likely by the
day. We will review progress
again with Gary and Mark next week, but we think that, meanwhile, we should
come to terms with the idea that we are unlikely to get BELLE all to
ourselves until around mid-November 2006. Oh bugger! Still, these things happen – we
have waited over two years for this, so another few weeks should not make
much difference (or so we keep telling ourselves). We have added a few more pictures to our gallery – more soon. |
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03/10/2006 Advanced Border
Collie Training
Modules….… Beth has been doing really well up to now – she has
cleared all of the ABC Training Modules for knots, navigation skills and
radio communications with flying colours. However, despite a great deal of study
and extra tuition, etc., she has been well and truly stumped by the sheer
complexity of the diesel-fired boiler course. As such, she has conceded that she
simply must leave the Eberspächer Hydronic 5 servicing to us. Are we up to it though?
|
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26/09/2006 General
progress…….. The most noticeable aspect during our visit today was the
fitting of the portholes - we could not resist ogling at these and the effect
that they have had on the appearance of the sign-writing. We are very pleased indeed. The next most noticeable aspect was
the fitting of most of the ceiling lights (recessed / adjustable spots). Gary and Mark have prepared a lot of
woodwork on the bench and this will find its way into its final position in
the boat during the course of this week.
We expect that the galley and saloon will be very nearly finished at
the end of next week. We have
decided which mixer tap design to use in the galley and, after a great deal
of intense debate, the cupboard door handle / knob designs to be fitted
throughout the boat. We have also
decided on the designs for the mixer taps for the wash basin in the bathroom
and the shower mixer taps / shower head.
Hopefully, there are no ‘long lead’ items amongst that
lot. Mark was getting ready to
start fixing some of glossy black laminate in the bathroom as we left, so
this room should also look substantially different the next time we visit
them. Progress on the whole is
good. However, there is still quite
a lot of work to do in the utility room / cockpit area, including fitting the
diesel-fired boiler, battery bank and building a cupboard for the inverters /
controls and electrical distribution panels and connecting these items to the
‘birds-nest’ of electrical cables that are congregating at this
end of the boat. There are loads of items sitting alongside the boat
waiting to be installed, including the sink and drainer for the galley, the
laminate for the galley work surfaces, the two-part mattress for the main bed
and the chromed radiator / towel rail for the bathroom. We think that, apart from the taps,
etc. we described above, most of the equipment and material required has now
been delivered. There is not
really much left for us to do now when it comes to the structure of the boat
– it’s all principally down to Gary and Mark from now on. We must sort out some material for the
porthole ‘buttons’ this week, but that’s about it. We are reduced to collecting the
basics for the galley (pots and pans and that sort of thing) and the bed
linen, etc. rather than leave this until the last minute. Our main concern now is achieving completion and delivery
/ handover of BELLE before the British Waterways winter stoppages for
maintenance and repairs prevent us from cruising to our mooring at Hunts Lock
near Fradley Junction. The
current plan is to have BELLE launched at Hanbury Wharf on the Birmingham
& Worcester canal – our aim is to cruise from here to Hunts lock,
via Birmingham and Tamworth; a journey that should take about 4-days. However, we must pass through Junction
Lock at Fradley and unfortunately for us, this lock closes for maintenance /
repairs on 06 November 2006 and stays closed for about 5-6 weeks, basically
opening again just before Christmas.
Will we make it? We reckon
that it’s going be a very close call indeed! We can already sense the need for a
Plan B, just in case. Our only
viable alternative would be to have BELLE transported by road to Barton Turns
marina just north of We have added a few pictures to our gallery – more soon. |
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19/09/2006 General
progress…….. We met the cratch cover maker at Sandhills today. The cover design has been finalised
– it will not have any windows, but it will have a small roll-up
‘flap’ on each side in line with each of the removable gunwale
sections to aid access / egress.
We have asked for some extension pieces for the aforementioned flaps
– the idea here is that these extension pieces will cover the openings
left by the removable gunwale sections.
This is because we plan to use one or other of these openings as an
aid to our daily access via the bow doors when on our mooring. We expect that there will be
sufficient light admitted into the well deck area via the windows set into
the cratch front piece. The whole
cover can be rolled up if necessary and secured to the cratch plank. There has been some significant progress in most of the
rooms and some of the mocked-up furniture has been converted into the real
McCoy - with most of the mocking-up finished, we do expect a sudden surge in
finished items over the next two weeks or so. The Refleks stove has arrived and this
has been offered into the corner of the saloon on top of a temporary
‘plinth’ – we have decided how we would like this plinth
shaped. You might like to note
that, with this stove being diesel-fired, it must be installed on top of a
‘drip tray’ with upright edges at 40mm minimum. Some of the Refleks installations that
we have seen on other boats recently do not incorporate a drip tray and we
are wondering if said installations will fail their BSS exam when the time
comes? Gary and Mark have agreed
to fabricate a stainless steel drip tray for us that will match the stove. We also agreed the tiling to be used in the shower and
the shelving arrangements to be incorporated into all of the cupboards on
board. Now we must decide on the
taps/shower mixer and, probably what will end up being the hardest decision
of all; the handles and knobs on the doors and drawers! We have added a few pictures to our gallery. We eagerly await the arrival of the
portholes so that we can take some more pictures of the finished exterior,
complete with sign writing. |
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18/09/2006 Odds and
sods…….. We have started collecting some of the essential odds and
sods – we are now the proud owners of some shiny new galvanised mooring
pins / clips, another windlass (a chrome plated steel one this time) and a
“Sea Searcher” magnet on the end of a 10m length of cord. This last item is for retrieving the
aforementioned items from the bottom of the canal (which, you can be sure, is
where they will end up sooner or later!). Oh, and of course, nearly forgot, we
can also use this magnet for salvaging the odd submarine now and again (well,
according to the label we can).
Make sure you get the pins/clips that have the integral ‘rope
loop’ – that way, if the pins/clips do pull off the bank/Armco, then they should stay captive to the end of the mooring
rope.
Spellin misteaks…….. I’ve been having some problems with my spell
checker. Quite embarrassing
really when I discovered just how many errors I have made over the last few
months! Despite carefully
checking the text before uploading to our site, I have still failed to spot
some errors. I guess it’s
because, having written the text in the first place, you then go on to
re-read it seeing what you want to see, rather than that actually
written. Apologies to all of you
spelling and grammar meisters out there. Must do better 6/10. Checker has been switched on again. Greetings to
Bill in Hello Bill – thank you for your suggestion for the
new name for our shower / toilet area, well the toilet (‘head’)
bit of it anyway. I have tried to
email you a few times, but your firewall keeps flaming me for some reason or
other. Cheers anyway. |
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10/09/2006 General
progress…….. Messing about for an hour or so with some 1 metre wide
rolls of black ‘sticky back plastic’ and some masking tape has
resulted in a decision on where exactly to locate the glossy black laminate
on the bathroom / toilet walls – we definitely earned our Blue Peter
badges. The laminate will be
applied as shown in the graphics included in our BLOG on 08/05/2006, except
that we have decided to omit it from the ‘upper half’ of the
walls inside the toilet area, i.e. the area above gunwale level. Having this area fully blacked would
have been OTT. The glossy black
laminate is now on order – we can’t wait to see these rooms
finished. The JVC LCD TV has arrived – this has been free
issued to Sandhills for fitting in the saloon, along with about 30 metres of
data and audio cable to be used for linking this TV to the computer in the
day room. Having been horrified
at the cost of ready made-up data cables long enough to cover the route
between the saloon and the day room, i.e. a 15-way screened cable with a
15-pin D-SUB connector on each end, we decided to buy the cable and
connectors separately and make these assemblies up ourselves. Be warned though, this is one hell of
a fiddly job and one that should not be attempted by those with fingers like
bananas and / or short tempers. The Houdini hatches have arrived from Channel
Glaze– the long awaited portholes should be delivered next week. The Refleks 2000 stove should also
arrive next week. We have decided
which ceramic tiles to use for the hearth area below / behind the Refleks
2000, just leaving the shower cubicle tiling to sort out now. Which brings us to the point –
we really should stop referring to the bathroom as a bathroom, because it ain’t got a bath in it, init? What’s it to be then, shower
room, wash room, or ….? Answers in an email
please.. |
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06/09/2006 CD
Player…….. After a lot of window shopping last weekend we eventually
found a ‘shallow’ CD player; a ‘TEAC CD-X9’. We had to buy this from Currys because, despite an awful lot of searching, we
could not find any for sale in the This diagram shows the intended layout.
The hatched area shown at the top of the CD control unit
indicates where the door opens upward to provide access for loading/unloading
the CDs. We shall probably store some
CDs in the small ‘pockets’ above the speakers / control unit. General
progress…….. Despite very significant progress with the fit-out, we
are still not at a stage where we want to release any more pictures. We shall be paying another visit to Sandhills this coming
Saturday to experiment a bit with the wall finishes in the bathroom. We mentioned a while back that we
would like to apply gloss black laminate to some of the walls in here. Our aim is to create a
‘classy’ look by contrasting the black with chrome fixtures and
fittings, but we do not want it to turn out like a dungeon. A difficult call – watch this
space. |
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31/08/2006 General
progress…….. Progress observed during our visit to Sandhills yesterday
was good, but we have still not reached the stage where we would be happy to
publish any more images of the fit-out.
We had hoped that one or other of the rooms would be nearly finished,
but alas, none of the rooms are finished yet. The engine has been fitted along with
hospital silencer and its ‘over-deck’ and the steps
alongside. The area around the
engine is being prepared to accept items such as the bow thruster hydraulic
tank and control valve unit, batteries and the diesel-fired boiler, inverter
and TravelPower control unit, etc. Our next visit is scheduled for
Wednesday 06 September 2006. As for the diesel-fired boiler. Having trawled the market recently for
a potentially more reliable and easier to service boiler unit that would run
happily on red diesel to BS2869 and thus far failed to identify one that
would fit the space now available, we have reluctantly agreed to have the
Eberspächer Hydronic 5 after all.
Our strategy here is to comply with the terms and conditions of the
warranty agreement for the first year and then set about defeating any
features that might effectively impede our own servicing. The sign writing is finished – well, all apart from
adding the boat index number to the cabin sides at the stern (rather than fix
the aluminium BW index plates).
Will has done an excellent job.
The cratch framework is nearly finished. Delivery of the Refleks 2000 stove is
expected any day now, along with the portholes and hatches.
TV for the
saloon………………….. We have decided to purchase a JVC 20” LCD TV for
the saloon. The unit we have
selected (LT-20DA6) includes an integral decoder (Freeview) and it will be
fitted (minus the base) into the cupboard unit on the port side. Our order was placed today with delivery
promised sometime next week – we found one on the Internet priced at
£140 less than the same unit at Currys! More evidence that it certainly pays
to shop around. Our efforts will now shift to obtaining a
‘shallow’ CD/radio unit for installation below this TV. We have given up on the idea of a ‘small’ DVD
player/recorder for a while – we just cannot find one anywhere. This TV will be networked with the
computers in the day room so that we can play/record using the TV decoders
already fitted to these computers and then display the images on the main TV
if necessary. |
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20/08/2006 More
modifications to the day room and galley……..
Our plan showed two rectangular cupboards located above
the galley work surfaces on the day room bulkhead – these two cupboards
will now be slightly deeper and chamfered to improve their appearance. This modification also helps to
‘balance’ the inset panels for the galley and saloon cabin sides,
whilst maintaining the ‘open’ feel for these two rooms. We will probably have toughened glass
in both of these chamfered cupboards to match the glass fronted cupboard at
the bow end of the saloon. The radiator originally shown on the port side of the day
room has been relocated under the desk to make way for an
‘extension’ to the half-height corner cupboard. Gary and Mark have come up with a
nifty idea for ‘hiding’ the steps for the side doors inside this
extension when said steps are not in use. The intention here is to mount the
steps on a robust ‘slide’ arrangement that also includes a
locking device for preventing unintentional movement. The cupboard located above the desk has been re-shaped so
that it no longer ‘overlaps’ the porthole on the starboard side. TV for the
bedroom…………………….. Our flip-down TV for the bedroom has arrived – nice
unit and quality appears OK. We
have offered this up to the ceiling above the porthole at the foot of the bed
and we are very pleased with the result.
We have taken the precaution of juicing it up to make sure that all of
the functions and the picture quality are OK - no problems found. We thought when we ordered this TV
that it would be supplied complete with a 240v.ac > 12v.dc adapter, but it
is not. As it happens, our
intention was to power this TV from the 12v.dc supply anyway, so not a
problem for us, but apologies to anybody misled by our BLOG for 11/08/2006 (now corrected). If you do decide to get one of these
TV’s, then we recommend that you have a really good search on the
Internet for the best deal. FYI
– we paid £167, inc. delivery and VAT. We have seen the same unit offered
elsewhere for as much as £280!
We cannot comment on reliability – remind us in about a year
from now! |
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11/08/2006 Progress with
the sign-writing……………….
There will be a couple more scrolls added between the two
portholes nearest the bow, but in all other respects the markings and scrolls
will be as shown in our layout drawing.
We are not going to show you any more pictures of the sign-writing
until is finished because we do not want to spoil the overall effect. Needless to say we were bombed out by
what we saw today. General
progress…………. Progress since our last visit has been very good –
we have taken some pictures and shot some more video, but please note that we
will not be updating the gallery yet.
This is because there so much mocking–up, etc. going on at the
moment that we think the photographs may not do justice to the design and the
quality of the work being carried out.
Rest assured that this is a temporary phase and there will be stacks
to look at in about two weeks time.
You will just have to be patient like us! We took this opportunity to deliver the two new leather
armchairs we have had stored here for a while – these chairs will be
offered into the saloon this coming week. Although the saloon was well planned
on our layout, we are taking this last chance to consolidate our thoughts and
to see if we can identify any more usable space for some more or larger
cupboards, etc. The washer/dryer
we ordered has actually arrived – this is good news because we were not
expecting this item to show up for another couple of weeks yet. There have been some more ideas floated about the
‘best’ location for the fridge. We were going to relocate the fridge
in the manner we described in our BLOG for 01/08/2006, but Gary and Mark have
suggested an alternative, i.e. move it to the opposite side of the galley
next to the cooker. This did
initially strike us as a little odd, putting a ‘heat generator’
next to a ‘cooler’, but there is just about enough room to
sandwich a cupboard or set of drawers between them. We will check out the fine detail and
post the outcome on here soon.
The message here is that, no matter how much planning you do up front
of the build, be prepared to change things during the build phase in order to
achieve better arrangements.
We finally found a flat screen flip-down TV that is
‘thin’ enough to mount on the ceiling in the bedroom, so we have
ordered one – should arrive within a few days. This photograph from the
supplier’s website shows the unit fitted in a car and used as a camera
monitor, but it should give you a good idea of the possibilities in a
boat. Our plan is to have this TV
mounted to the bedroom ceiling in line with the porthole at the foot of the
bed. The screen size is
12.1” and, we think, plenty big enough for the bedroom. It can be powered from either the
12v.dc supply or from the 240v.ac supply via a suitable adapter The
Eberspächer saga continues……… Right then – the gist of that learned from
Eberspächer so far regarding their Hydronic 5/10 heaters and that
learned so far from the UK Petroleum Industry Association (UKPIA) about the
‘red diesel’ widely available for purchase ‘on the
cut’:
So, in conclusion, it appears to us that the options
available to us in the present circumstances are:
As you can well imagine, we are pretty miffed that it has
taken so long to get some meaningful commentary from Eberspächer and
that it has also been necessary for us to direct our own enquiries to a
number of major |
|
01/08/2006 Sorting out some
domestic equipment…..
The fridge proved a bit more troublesome. We want a wooden door over the fridge
– we reckon that the appearance in the galley will be all the better
for this. We discovered that, if
the fridge is to remain at the day room end of the galley unit on the
starboard side, then the depth of the fridge must be kept within about
520mm. Unfortunately, despite a
great deal of searching (covering virtually every inch of all of the local
retail parks and several hours on the Internet), we have failed to find a decent
240v.ac fridge at less than 535mm deep.
After a bit of head scratching, we decided to relocate the fridge at
the opposite end of this galley unit where there is a bit more room to play
with. The sink/drainer have both
moved towards the stern to make way for it. Sorted – we hope! That just leaves the two TV’s to finalise. Price of a 20” flat screen TV
has still not reduced to the level we would find acceptable – we
can’t hang on much longer though.
Finding a 12”/14” flat screen of the
‘flip-down’ variety that has an overall thickness less than that
of the average briefcase is proving difficult. One potentially suitable 14”
flip-down monitor available in China at a reasonable price, even when adding
the price of a digital TV decoder, but surely somebody closer to home makes
one? |
|
26/07/2006 Our trip to Sandhills today went very well, even though
blisteringly hot in all our bike gear.
Better to be safe than sorry though, because skin v tarmac is a most
unsatisfactory combination, especially when it is ours. BELLE has advanced some more –
livery line work is more or less finished as is the pattern around the bow
– we are very pleased indeed with the results. A few other items have been fitted
– see the pictures and supporting text in our gallery. Next trip is planned for 10 August 2006. There might be a quickie before then
because Will the sign-writer may be available to do his stuff. We eagerly await this stage of the
build – all the artwork is prepared now and we just need Will’s
professional interpretation of our requirements. We must make our minds up soon regarding the
washer/dryer, fridge and the TV in the saloon and another TV in the bedroom
and get them ordered, otherwise we will be receiving a boat with space for
all of these items but nothing to fit! |
|
17/07/2006 Advanced Border
Collie Training
Modules….…
‘ABC Training Module 7 (Knots)’ is next,
followed by ‘ABC Training Module 8 (Diesel-Fired Boiler
Maintenance)’ and then, if all goes well, she will move on to
‘ABC Training Module 9 (Inland Waterways Navigation Skills)’ and
finally ‘ABC Module 10 (Radio Communications)’. Watch this space and prepare to be amazed by the skill
and wit of a professional sheep chaser and biscuit hunter. Well, she might as well broaden her
horizons a bit whilst waiting for her new home to arrive. Now’t else to do! |
|
16/07/2006 Day room gets
re-jigged…… Yes, we know we said that we were happy with the layout
of the boat – but… that was four days ago and you can do a lot of
thinking in four days. We decided
that things were getting a bit too ‘busy’ in this room. There was a folding desk with a
two-seater unit and a matching single seat. The idea was that this single seat
would be used when sitting at the desk, or the desk folded away and the
single seat turned around and pushed into the space where the desk was, so as
to make a three-seater or a bed, you see? Never mind – don’t think too hard about it,
because its all changed. Now we
are going for a decent sized fixed desk with fitted cupboards over/under and
a conventional leather office chair that can be pushed under the desk when
not in use. We have sneaked a
small half-height cupboard into the corner of this room as well. So, OK, we have lost the single bed, but we will still
have some space for a guest in the saloon. The two leather chairs we will have in
here are very comfortable. I can
vouch for that because I have fallen asleep in one already, even though it
has not yet found its way onto the boat! As for this room also being an ‘escape
space’, for reading or to watch another channel on the telly (well
computer with decoder in it), etc. - we believe that this is still
possible. This leather office
chair reclines a bit and it is also very comfortable. I can vouch for this too, because I
use it more or less every day in my office! |
|
13/07/2006 Got a confession
to make…… We had numerous contacts with Jim at Alexander
Boatbuilders whilst he was crafting the shell for BELLE. However, we have just learned that we
have been referring to him in our BLOG as ‘Jim Alexander’ of
Alexander Boatbuilders in error.
He is actually Jim Sparkes of Alexander
Boatbuilders. Cock-up on our part
– we apologise to Jim and our readers! |
|
12/07/2006 Progress with
Belle…… We certainly saw more evidence of the work input by Gary
and Mark this time around. They
understood our impatience and that we were finding it difficult to appreciate
how much effort has gone into preparing and painting over these last few
weeks whilst everything else had to wait its turn. We saw the final top coat today
– wow, that is one hell of a gloss finish! The cabin sides are now ready for the
livery lines. The lining-out has
started and temporary bulkheads have been erected – this was very
helpful and we agreed that the layout is indeed OK from our point of
view. We made some slight changes
in the bathroom and the bedroom, but nothing to write home about and certainly
nothing that would show up on our layout drawing. There is still a big hole where the
engine should be though – the engine is sitting alongside awaiting its
turn. We have added some pictures
to our gallery. Our next visit is set for 26 July
2006. Apologies for the irregular blogging – I have been
very busy for the last couple of weeks, with business trips to Paris and
Barcelona and now more work to do to prepare for business trips to Milan next
week and Munich after that. My
only wish is that I had a bit more time to spare for a few tourist
activities, but it has all been a bit rushed. Do you think that my trip to The
Eberspächer saga continues……… I received a response from Eberspächer late this
afternoon – apologies offered, but nevertheless they have been black
marked for taking so long to get back to us, i.e. it has taken them over two
weeks. I would like to tell you
something definitive, but not today I am afraid. The information they have offered in
this most recent correspondence appears to contradict some information
provided to us by two reputable fuel suppliers, i.e. Texaco and Shell –
we are still waiting for BP to get back to us. I fear that I must enter another round
of ‘email artillery’ in my endeavour to get to the bottom of the
‘are the Hydronics compatible with the red
diesel sold on the cut or not’ issues. Watch this space. |
|
29/06/2006 There has been a lot of work carried out on BELLE over
the last two weeks. However, the
bulk of the effort has gone into achieving an excellent top coat and
finish. The dark grey we specified
has turned out in practice to be slightly lighter than we envisaged –
this sort of thing can happen when you select a paint from a small swatch and
then see it applied over a much bigger area and in different lighting
conditions, etc. Nevertheless we
like it and we are very pleased with the workmanship. We discussed the livery lines and how
they are to be laid out and we went through our schemes for the bow pattern. We have decided to make some slight
changes to the bow pattern – that’s a job for this coming
weekend. The engine and bow
thruster kit has arrived from Beta Marine and is unpacked awaiting
fitting. There was no point in
taking any photographs during our visit today because they would show very
little over and above the last lot we took a couple of weeks ago. Its coming, its coming, its
coming…, we keep telling ourselves – we are like two big kids
waiting for Christmas. Patience! Clearly, we have underestimated the
length of time it takes to hand brush paint a boat this size. Our hope is that the aforesaid livery
lines will have been painted and sign-writing set out, engine installed and
the bulkheads will be up ready for our next trip – this has been fixed
for 12 July 2006. We heard a while back that a number of people had encountered
some problems with Eberspächer Hydronic boilers – see our BLOG for February 2006. Having seen some more negative
commentary on the Internet recently, we felt that we should ask our builder
to comment. They have assured us
today that they have been fitting Hydronic 5’s to their boats for the
last six years (both to live-aboard boats and summer season cruisers) and
they have only had one technical problem in all that time and they have not
received any adverse commentary from any of their customers concerning this
boiler and its ability to run on red diesel. Apparently, this one and only failure
was due to an air lock in the boiler that caused it to overheat and
automatically shut-down. As far
as they know, the said boilers are still being run on red diesel – ours
is the first boat they have built with two separate fuel tanks, so there is
very little chance that the owners have subsequently resorted to running
their Hydronic 5’s on another fuel (e.g. DERV or paraffin, etc.). We have written to Eberspächer again this week and
asked them this (our main concern) and we have pointed them towards the Canal World Discussion Forum where they can read about
the experiences of some and the concerns of others regarding their Hydronic
5/10: Would you be so
kind as to provide a written assurance that the Hydronic 5 is suitable for
the application I have described and that it will run quite happily on the
grade of red diesel generally available from UK canal and river supply points
and that, when subjected to what would be considered a ‘normal
loading’ or ‘operating duty’ consistent with living
on-board all year round, boiler services will only be required
annually? We propose that this is in line with the expectations of most
users. May we suggest to you that
it would be prudent to allay the fears and concerns of others with a similar
need by posting some objective evidence in support of your products onto the
aforementioned website and others like it. We will let you know what comes back. |
|
26/06/2006 RSS
feeds…….. We have added an RSS feed to our site – the logo is
at the foot of our homepage. In
theory, this will enable all you good people out there to keep an eye on
updates and changes to our BLOG and Gallery using your newsreaders, etc. This is the first time we have used
one of these RSS thingies, so please be patient if it does not work as it
should – we would appreciate an email from you to let us know if you
encounter any problems. Thanks. For those wishing to follow a similar route, we found the
‘code generator’ section of this site very useful when it came to writing the
‘RSS feed file’. We
then ‘syndicated’ our RSS feed using ‘Feedburner’ and we are currently using ‘Google Reader’. |
|
23/06/2006 Bow
pattern…….. After much head scratching, magazine and Internet browsing,
etc., we have come up with a scheme for the pattern to be painted around the
bow. We have decided that we would like this pattern to
extend right around from the bow post until it is more or less level with the
cabin sides, rather than finish at the gas locker / cratch window. This scheme has been passed to
Sandhills along with a request that they rough this lot out on the bow so
that we can take a closer look.
The scheme is
based on photographs that we have taken of BELLE – we created
the cratch and the patterns by overlaying various shapes using the freeform
line tool in MSWord. This was a
bit fiddly at times, but good enough to get the idea over. |
|
21/06/2006 BELLE has gone
‘global’…….. Andrew Denny of Granny Buttons fame posted a write up for BELLE today and
added a link to his BLOGroll; the ‘B’ list no less!
We thought that was very kind of him. Soon after he did so, our website
statistics went bonkers and we have received hundreds of hits from all over
the planet, where most hits to date have been from the
We check in to Granny Buttons daily to see what’s going on –
Andrew has an impressive site and he covers pretty much all canal related topics,
updating his site at least once a day, including numerous links for those
that want to follow-up any of the topics. We will heed his advice and sort out
an RSS feed for our site – watch this space, although with my website
authoring track record, it might take a couple of weeks before I get it
sorted. |
|
14/06/2006 The build is coming along, slowly but surely – we
have added a few pictures to our gallery. The spray foaming was carried out as
planned on 05 June 2006. This is
a tricky and messy job and maintaining a uniform foam thickness is
difficult. Indeed, it is virtually
impossible and the foam must be ‘shaved’ back here and there to
level it off and to expose the surfaces of the battens so that they are ready
for mounting the cabin wall and ceiling timbers. The exterior of the cabin has now
received five layers of undercoat, all applied by hand and with rubbing down
between layers. That is a lot of
painting and rubbing down and I am glad I am not doing it! Engine delivery is imminent. We more or less finalised the design for the cratch today
and the painting scheme for the cabin roof, allowing for all of the items
that will be mounted up here (e.g. mushroom vents, aerials, plank, boat
poles, etc.). We came away in the
knowledge that we must spend some time in what’s left of this week
figuring out a suitable paint pattern/scheme for around the bow and for the
deck area above the gas locker, because it will not be long before these
areas are painted. We have
already prepared a scheme for the lettering for the boat name and pseudo
trading name/location – this has already been passed to ‘Will’
the sign writer so that he can work the ideas up a bit, ready for when he
gets to do his stuff. Sandhills
prefer to get most of the painting and sign-writing done at an early stage
and well in advance of the cabinet work inside. We cannot abide to see cables and wires strung just
anywhere and clipped around shelves and tucked under the corners of carpets,
etc., so last week we put some effort into planning where we need
interconnections between TV’s and aerials, speakers and computers and
our mobile phone, etc. Whilst
were on with this, we also planned the distribution of the 240v.ac sockets
and all of the lights and switches.
We now have three detail drawings showing all interconnections and
locations. We will go on a shopping
trip to Maplins soon to gather up all the cable and
sundries we need and we will free issue them to Sandhills for fitting along
with all the other cables they are fitting for the 240v.ac and the lighting
systems. |
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