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Kevin won a tender for a part completed shell from the
liquidator of a barge building company. The barge is 60ft x
12ft and a Nick Branson design. There is much work to be
done. This is much more than a DIY fit-out. Kevin is hoping
to complete in 18 month to 2 years. He has his own blog, this
page will give a synopsis of the blog.
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Updates;
11-Dec-09  29-Jan-10
17-Feb-10
14-Mar-10
Oct-10
Now complete See Kevins blog for more photos and details
http://boatbuildblog.blogspot.com/ |
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Introduction (4-Nov-09)
We bought our first boat back in June 2006. A
60' Narrowboat in "working" condition but only just. This
boat has served its purpose in every respect and we still
enjoy it. Once we got the bug for boating we started visiting
the the shows. This was in hindsight not such a smart thing.
Ignorance being bliss an' all. We happened aboard a
Metrofloat. My wife had to be virtually dragged of the
boat! So the seed was sown. The problem was not having
£135k to spend on a boat. Had we, I think we would have
bought it there and then. |
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At the same show was another exhibitor that
would build a shell to any level of finish. I was
particularly impressed with the build quality and that it was
a particular hull design. Unfortunately (or fortunately
depending on how you look at it) this builder went out of
business before we got to placing an order.
About 18 months passed. During a forum chat I became aware of
a part built shell built by the above builder. I entered
into negotiations with the forum member that had possession
of the shell. Right form the outset it was made clear to me
the ownership was in legal dispute and that they would not
sell it until they had full title to it. In credit to them
they could have sold it to us in dispute and not made us
aware of the title problem.
After about a year waiting for the outcome of
ownership I was eventually told we would have to deal with
the Liquidator. The terms of the disposal was by sealed
tender. So as I am writing this I am sure you have guessed I
won the tender. |
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Preparation and the water is on the wrong side
(11-Nov-09)
The boat is being delivered tomorrow. I have
been in the midlands where the shell is currently, since
early this afternoon.
As the shell has been outside for some time it
has acquired about 250mm of water in the main area and the
engine bay was as full as it could be, about 450mm deep.
The outside of the boat is dry its fair to say
the boat has no leaks :-) It took just over 4 hours to get as
much of the water out as the pump would get.
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Transportation Day (12-Nov-09)
What a stressful couple of weeks since the initial news that
I'd have to bid for the boat by sealed tender. Since winning
it I have had to move fast to arrange transport, prepare the
ground to receive the boat, improve the access for the truck
& crane, get the power company to shroud the overhead cables
and a whole host of other things like insurance. Anyway the
boat is HOME. At 8am the crane arrived shortly followed by
the truck.
Just over 4 hours from setting off...... The truck arrived.
Would my preparations be enough to get the truck down? If it
did could the truck negotiate the bend in the middle of the
drive? As I knew the access was tight I paid extra to have a
trailer with rear steering wheels. If you look you can see
them in action. Without question had I hired a standard
trailer this blog would be very reading differently right
now!
So all in all a very successful day. No incidents, no
accidents, no unexpected snags. The transport was done by
Streethay Wharf If you ever need to move a boat or any very
long load these are the boys. I know who I will be calling
when its finished to get it out. |
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Nothing Obvious Done? (21-Nov-09)
There's been no obvious progress on the boat since it was
delivered. I have been up to this week are sorting out the
steel I need to complete the cabin. There are 3 parts for
the front that have to be profile cut. The rest of the cabin
is made from standard steel stock. Essentially the designer
(link below) uses, where possible, standard steel stock
sizes, if you like "off the shelf" parts. What he does is
design the bow and stern which are the complicated bits. The
middle bit of the boat is up to the builder to put in as
require to the finished length or customer requirements.
"Profiling" is where the steel sheet is cut with either gas
flame, plasma, laser or even water jet all controlled by
computer from files supplied by the designer. Not a lot
different to cutting a dress from a pattern, indeed a paper
template could me made for me to cut with a grinder. Its the
same process as used by vinyl cut lettering used by sign
writers.
I have also been working on the internal layout. This might
seem very premature at the moment but its not. Let me
explain. The sides of the cabin can be supplied in one part
up to 12m long but this is not cheap to do it this way as
there is only one company in the UK that can do this length,
also the transport from the Midlands will be expensive too,
so the other alternative is to do it in shorter parts that
can be folded locally which is relatively competitive due to
the sizes involved. Trouble with short lengths is there will
need to be joints. Joints will need additional work to
minimise their visual impact once the boat is painted. To
minimise the the joint area will minimise the "making good".
The best way of hiding the joint is to place the windows in
the joint area, that way only the small amount above and
below the window require additional work.
So to find out where the windows need to go it's necessary to
plan the interior. This is the current plan (below).
Measurements to come.
The blue lines are the windows the red lines are area
divisions. The length of the living space is 12.75m
I have to admit the basic plan is someone else's, but its
mostly what we want so I have used this as a working
example. To make it fit our working area I have had to scale
it to 60.4:1 This is accurate to 4mm over the entire length
of the boat! A tolerance I can happily work with.
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The hatched parts are builder optional
.jpg)
Parts I need profile cut.
The small parts are the parts to make the skeg and rudder.
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Another thing I have to consider is the roof
bracing. As I am going to use 5mm sides these will be self
supporting and will not require additional vertical bracing
to be welded in. Again any welding to the sides, even inside
will cause a ripple so buy using 5mm I can avoid bracing in
this area. The roof bracing will be every 500mm centres. The
water tank will be bigger than this and therefore needs to be
in the body before the bracing goes in. I have been looking
at the options for this. The tank will fit under the
foredeck, the dark area in the photo below.
Space for the fresh water tank. The considered options so far
are, stainless steel, plastic of some sort or an older idea
is to use the boat skin to form the tank making an integral
tank. The latter would give the largest capacity and the
least expensive option but would require the tank the be
painted with bitumen every few years so a manhole would need
to be incorporated to permit access to do the repaint.
Painting the inside of the tank is a sh*t job. I might
consider this option but get it GRP'd or have a flexible
liner made.
On another note all the rain this week has started to fill up
the hull. This is actually going to be useful as the boat is
about 99% level at the moment. The water in the bottom is
showing it is sitting level down its length, but about 30mm
high on the port (left) side . I need to find some jacks to
hire to make the fine adjustments and level the boat before
welding starts.
I will be speaking with the designer Nick Branson early next
week to pay the licence fee for the CAD files so I can get
started with the steel order and so get on with the build. |
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At Last Some Welding Done (8-Dec-09)
Since having the boat home the weather has been either too
wet or too windy or more like both. Not the ideal conditions
for MIG welding outside.
Today was different :-) No rain and no wind. So out came
the welder this afternoon. In about an hour or so I had
welded the tops of the rubbing strakes and a weld along the
top edge of the front gunwale. The only real problem was the
damp lodged behind the strakes. As I welded this boiled off
into steam and caused some problems with a smooth flow.
Next time I will blow it out with compressed air first.
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The hose in the picture is draining out the
inside. The pump was stopped because I needed the power for
the welder, but it continued to siphon so I have just left
it. It is slow but that's OK because the pump is too fast to
be efficient now. The bottom of the boat is divide into
section about 5' x 2' x 2" deep and the pump drains them
quicker than new water can flow in thus the pump sucks more
air than water.
I am still wondering about the best way of
doing the cabin sides and roof. The front approx. 2m is
shaped and whilst I have the drawing and files to have these
cut, I am considering doing it myself as I want to change the
way the roof is joined to the sides. More on that in a later
blog.
I may consider buying or renting a plasma cutter and getting
the steel delivered as stock sheets. I need to have a go
with a plasma cutter it think. I am told they are very easy
to use. Failing that it will the trusty angle grinder.
I have now placed an order for the 24 curved roof bearers so
things are happening at last. |
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Worst Of The Welding Now Done (10-Dec-09)
I have been busy welding taking advantage of the good
weather. I have done what I consider the worst part of the
welding. That being the under sides of the bottom rubbing
strake. To do this has required me lying on my back and
welding on my back. This is never fun as you WILL get burnt.
It only takes a small ball of splatter to get stuck somewhere
and this is what happens. Any welder will know exactly what
I mean, If you can wiggle about and keep it moving until it
cools you usually get away with it.
I need to do some drawing tonight as I need intend to change
the roof design. The front profile pats will need to be
modified to suit. More on the roof design change in a later
blog. |
Welding the top of the rubbing strake
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Here is one the right way up
These have been deliberately left long and will be trimmed to
length later. I am keeping a spreadsheet of the weight I am
adding to the hull as I need to have this so I can determine
at how much ballast to add later.
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Hmm! Curvey (11-Dec-09)
Not much done today. I have got some revised drawings from
the designer to accommodate the way I want to do the roof.
The roof beams I ordered on Monday arrived today.
Stored on the bow for now
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Updates 29th January 2010 |
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Steel Arrival
The steel to complete
the shell sides roof and water tank arrived today (28-Jan)
Now all I need is some
good weather a mini-digger to lift the sheets, oh and my
knee to ease up so I can get on with construction. I went
skiing last week and once again knackered my knee. Its
become an annual event over the last few years, so I have
made an appointment to see a knee specialist. I did the
original injury 20 odd years ago skiing. I'll never learn
SWIMBO says.
It doesn't
look much for £2k but there is about 2 tons all cut to size
and some profile cutting.
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Updated 17-Feb-10
Put A Lid On It.!
Well, that's exactly what we did this afternoon.
I had some adjustment to do to the front 4
roof beams this morning. That was all I was going to do. I
wasn't happy with the line they took so after a little bit of
thinking over the weekend I decided on another way of making
it right. |
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Come 12.30 all was going well and the weather was looking
very favorable so on the off chance I rung Frank to see if he
was available to assist with his digger. He was. :-) We had
already tested the lifting method last time Frank was here so
I knew all would run smoothly.
As the sheets were positioned the top of the sides all
started to come true. Once all the sheets on the starboard
side were tacked in place we needed true up the port side
prior to tacking. To do this the trusty ratchet straps came
out again. Starting with the first sheet it was pulled
square and tacked into place, followed by the rest. As with
the starboard side as each sheet was pulled into place the
top side of boat came true. The last sheet has been left
lose for now as there is a lot of trimming and shaping on
this one.
A good afternoons work. Thanks once again
Frank.
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Updated 14th March
Welding In More Detail
So far so I have put 11.250km of weld wire or
very nearly 7 miles!!
Today I finished the port side welding (side to gunwale).
I thought I'd show in more detail the welding
process from applying the weld to the final dressing.
Its not a difficult job but it is labourious.
12.4m again this time took 1 session and 6
hours 4 x 115mm grinding disks and 8 x 115 flap wheels.
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Stage 1 . Apply a good deep penetrating weld fillet
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Stage 2. Grind back to concave with a grinding disk
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Stage 3. Polish with the flap wheel
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Stage 4 (right). Because I am welding outside the wind
occasionally blows away the weld gas which is the flux. This
causes small holes which need filling with more weld
Stage 5. back to stage 3 |
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Updated October
2010
August 2010 - The bottom of the boat now
has 2 good coats of blacking on. That will do to hold it for
the winter
September Partitions |
September 2010. 744kg worth of paving slabs going under the
bathroom floor
October 2010. Topside Cabin Cladding
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More updates soon.
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