The refit (part three)

With much banging, painting, sanding and glueing the work on the boat continues on its merry way. It turns out through comments from others that we may possibly have undersold the amount of work that needs doing. Whilst we have been flippantly referring to ‘the refit’ it seems that we have not been as clear as we could have been about the amount of work that is being done.

 

The whole boat needs to be repaired, refitted or redecorated. From stem to stern, side to side and top of mast to under the hulls. There is barely a square inch of boat that does not need something doing to it. That is what we meant by ‘it will be a big project’!

 

Painting the kitchen steps in the summer

 

Anyway, what have we been doing since the last update? As usual there has been lots going on and as sometimes happens with big projects there is not a lot to actually show for it. Electricity has been causing some conundrums as extra, now redundant, wires are being removed and replaced with new switches, sockets and lights.

 

 

The kitchen is progressing. The Skipper has built new shelving for the crockery, fitted a new unit top complete with holes for the sink and draining board and new shelves along the top of the galley. He is also gradually changing the storage boxes to fit the new kitchen storage spaces.

New kitchen table top with sink holes

 

Lots more piping has been pulled out and the water tanks have been replumbed. We have a new, much better, water filter and the pipes are now in place ready for the kitchen sink to move. New radiators have been fitted and the plumbing is nearly finished to connect up the central heating. Currently we do have heating - it is just in a large box. The Skipper has invested time researching types of heating and has chosen a Webasto diesel heater. This will heat the water and pump it around the boat into the new radiators which have been fitted to each 'corner' of the boat. This system will hopefully warm the boat and reduce condensation.

 

The new heating system

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Plan of the heating system

 

 

 



 

Changes are happening in the saloon (living room). Progress has been made on the seating with the general shape and height being changed. Lockers have also been created underneath giving more much needed space. There are lots more changes to be made in this room yet. There have been a couple of hiccups in progress too - the 'front door' which we had planned to replace anyway smashed in the recent storms.

 



The ongoing sifting through stuff continues. More things have been rehomed or recycled and there is a growing pile waiting for next years boat jumble. For now though it is very nearly time to down tools and enjoy Christmas.