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The shell build at Alexander
Boatbuilders [09 March 2006 – 10 May 2006] Click on any of the thumbnails for a higher
resolution image. All pictures Copyright © 2005 - 2006
C J Wells |
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Shell completed – transferred to Sandhills Narrowboats Limited on
10 May 2006 BELLE was transferred from Alexander Boatbuilders
to Sandhills Narrowboats Limited by truck on 10 May 2006. Here she will undergo fitting out to
the stage possible / practicable on dry land. Thereafter, she will be transferred
into the water at Hanbury Wharf on the Worcester & Birmingham Canal where
her trim will be checked and her ballasting adjusted as required, a few small
finishing jobs carried out and then she will be commissioned. If all goes according to plan, then we
should take delivery at the end of August / early September 2006. We had a brilliant day watching it all
happen – thanks to Jim, Dean, Dawn, Gary and Mark for accommodating
us. We tried our best to keep out
of the way, but we have to admit to behaving like the paparazzi from time to
time! We biked over to Alexander
Boatbuilders in Stourport-on-Severn early morning so that we could take a few
photographs / video of her before she was loaded onto the truck and then we
watched the loading itself. Its
amazing what you can do with a fork lift truck and a couple of tubes to act
as rollers – that’s all that was used to get her out of the
workshop ready for the lifting straps on the crane. Inevitable thoughts whizzed through
our minds - Will the straps be strong enough? Will they be spaced far enough
apart to keep her balanced? and, and, and.. - Just leave it to them to get on
with it and keep taking the pictures! Tried to convince Stelle that she should
sit ‘backwards’ on our motorbike [you know; like those doing the
camera work at the BELLE arrived at Sandhills Narrowboats
Limited workshop unscathed. The crane
had left in advance of the truck and was ready and waiting at Sandhills to
unload her again. Shortly after
she had been unloaded, attention was then turned to moving ‘Jay’
[the boat just finished] out of the workshop. This was another feat of shoving and
pulling, this time with a small Caterpillar digger, before the straps could
be offered up ready for craning.
Jay was loaded onto the truck ready for transfer to Photographs of some features that have
been finished during the last couple of weeks:
Grilles have been fitted to both ends of
the bow thruster tubes to keep the logs out. Sacrificial anodes have been fitted
under the swim and there are two more to be added to the bow. The gas locker cover can now be seen,
as can quite a lot of stuff around the stern [e.g. taff rails, rudder and
tiller, weed hatch, mooring studs, fuel tank filler splash-backs and the main
access cover in the counter, etc.].
The access cover in the counter is arranged so that it will not lift
unless the stern doors are open.
You cannot see the stern doors; they are lying out of harms way inside
the boat, along with all the other doors. The removable gunwale sections have
been cut / plated – not shown here, but nevertheless will be fitted
eventually are some retaining pins to stop these removable sections moving
upward if they should happen to be pulled using a boat hook, etc. You can now see the brass runners
fitted to the stern roof hatch – as such; this hatch slides back and
forth very easily. If you look
very closely at the cabin roof, you will see that a loop has been added for
attaching the centre mooring rope. |
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General views showing shell build progress as at 28 April 2006. The stern bulkhead is now in place and there
has been a great deal of welding going on since our last visit. All of the portholes have been cut
– two of the roof hatch apertures have been cut / formed and the third
is well on its way. Frames have
been added to the side door apertures and the stern door aperture. The stern hatch frame / rails are in
place – these rails will be topped with brass ‘runners’ in
due course, ready for the stern hatch itself. Note the small steps at the stern [one
on each side] – useful for when you fall in the cut and need a foothold
whilst grabbing the tiller or a taff rail and hauling yourself out
again. This of course is only
possible if your legs have not been ‘chewed off’ by the
propeller. So, we are now at the stage where most
of the steelwork has been done.
The remainder of the steelwork will be carried out next week and then
BELLE will be fully fettled and cleaned ready for her first coat of primer
and blacking in readiness for transfer to Sandhills Narrowboats Limited for
fitting out – transfer is now scheduled for 10 May 2006. Today was the first opportunity to stand
on the counter to get a helmsman’s view of the bow – it’s
an awful long way from here to the sharp end! |
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General views showing shell build progress as at 13 April 2006. We now have cabin walls and a roof! We think it would be fair to say that
BELLE is now actually taking on the appearance of a narrowboat. All the portholes barring one have
been cut in both cabin sides, as have the side door apertures. There is still one porthole to be cut
on the starboard cabin side [the one for the toilet] – this will be cut
when the two main sheets of steel that form this side have been fully welded
together. A handrail has been incorporated into
each cabin wall where it overlaps the front bulkhead and fender eyes have
been incorporated into the gunwales.
The flanged box pictured [bottom row] is the one we mentioned 27 March
2006 – the bow thruster will be mounted into this box and the whole
sub-assembly lowered into the flanged box just visible through the cut-out in
the well deck at the bow. Stiffeners have been added to the
internal surfaces of the cabin wall and the roof – apologies but no
photographs of these yet, owing to the sparks flying and welding flashes on
this trip! |
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