Narrowboat Alacrity

The weekend saw most of the remaining bits finished leaving a small amount of scotia to fit and the varnishing to do……I even managed to service the engine…… with loads needed to be done at home before the holiday, it was a flying visit.

Tuesday 12 August 2008 

Thames-locks - epetition reply

I wonder if there will be a glass or two raised in the NB Caxton camp as today is the birthday of William Caxton the first english printer.

I thought that I would have finished by now but its all the small fiddley things that take the time. Work tends to get in the way as usual. The weather has been so bad that I’m having to cut most of the plywood in the galley area……..lots of mess…..

So what am I left with to do…………well there is two sets of cupboard doors to hang, the brackets for the folding chairs to make and fit, loads of sanding and varnishing and the tv surround and shelves to make and fit (those can wait……..) I will sand and varnish while we are on holiday.

I have been watching a boy fishing on the next pontoon in the marina, he hauled out a reasonable sized perch and on his next cast pulled out a very large and angry crayfish……..his mum said it was destined for a sandwich………………………

As I was carrying some timber back to the landrover I spotted NB Debdale passing under Butchers Bridge……..so only one weekend left before our holiday………………and an engine service to do………. 

If you are having problems loading the Canalplan AC website and you are using Internet Explorer 7 its due to problems with this and other sites using Sitemeter…………………….

There is a fix for this its simple………. If you go into your internet explorer security settings and add the following to restricted sites then the page loads.
Go into tools - internet options - security - click on restricted sites and click on sites then enter http://*.sitemeter.com  click add then close then click ok……….close internet explorer then re open it ………..Job done

You should now be able to see Canalplan AC and other sites that were affected………………

Well that time has come around again………….. Yes Insurance time………..

I have always had the ” Fully Comprehensive ” insurance for Alacrity. Her first policy was with Michael Stimpson, real personal service. Then he merged with Mardon Marine who are now part of Towergate. Up until now I have not changed my brokers………..so what made you change I hear you ask……..Well when I looked at how my premium was put together I found that first there was the actual insurance cost plus an arrangement fee then get this a voluntary donation to their charity………….there was a note later on saying that I could deduct the charitable amount if I wanted to.

My view is that they had no right to add this amount even though I could elect not to pay it, It is the assumption that annoyed me. I regularly give to charities that I choose to support and donate items to charity shops.

I don’t like tin wavers or people who accost you in shopping precincts and try to shame you into donating.

I will donate to who I choose, an amount I choose, and at a time I choose…………………………………………….             

I now insure through Craftinsure online ……………………

I was watching this mornings 6am Breakfast programme on BBC1, in their review of the papers the Daily Mail reports on:

  “The new age of the canal: More passengers now than during the 18th century heyday”

Ray Massey writes that:

Now however, 200 years after their heyday, they are booming again. A report reveals today that the number of boats on Britain’s waterways is greater than at the height of the Industrial Revolution.And this time round leisure, not business, is driving the boom. In place of the old horse-drawn barge there is the refurbished narrow boat, cruiser or sailing dinghy.

 Shhhhhh dont tell everyone……………………………………………………………!!!!

Read Ray Massey’s full report in the Daily Mail here

Report from British Waterways Newsroom (Going With The Flow - 60 Years Of Public Service)

The Full Report from British Waterways http://www.britishwaterways.co.uk/annualreport

To make best use of space we decided to fit a folding dropdown table to the saloon side of the galley bulkhead. This will give us somewhere separate to eat, use the laptop play cards etc.

I had already cut the old table to a suitable length but was having problems thinking of a support to make it stable.

I saw this leg for a caravan table on ebay for £12 so I thought I would try it, if its not suitable I can always bung it back on ebay. and as for chairs we chose these from IKEA.

With seat pads these are comfortable and stow away easily in a small space.

So far with the refit I have fitted eight packs of solid Oak flooring (Twelve Sq metres) using three litres of Evostik PVA adhesive.

Before I get told off Jo did all the matching of lengths so the overlaps and colouring looked right (she’s good at jigsaws).

We had planned to fit the flooring in the Saloon, Galley, Corridor and Bedroom……………………….

but little unforeseen things happen…….I forgot about under the fridge…….how would we get it out if I floored up to it………so we removed the fridge and I fitted the floor into the recess but now the fridge was too tall to fit so I had to replace the wooden battens which support the worksurface with steel angle supports ……..the fridge now fits again.

“John”………err….yes?……………wouldn’t it look nice if we had wood flooring in the bathroom……………..

The bathroom now has a fantastic looking floor. A lot of time was taken cutting and fitting the planks to allow for the expansion gaps which were filled with cork strip and will be conceled with oak scotia strip to finish it off. The other time consuming bit was rehanging the sliding doors in the bathroom and bedroom and adjusting the track so it ran free. At the rear of the bedroom I have fitted a trapdoor to allow me to remove any water that accumilates at the lowest point of the cabin bilge ( there has been non to remove in 19 years ) and to enable me to adjust the trim with more lead ballast.

Where the L shaped part of the dinette was I have fitted a cupboard and bookshelves, which as you see Jo has already started to use. I plan to fit the doors next week and re varnish the saloon sometime in the next few weeks.

Having just read Lesley K’s post about her new washing machine not fitting on Caxton reminded me about when I changed the fridge on Alacrity. The original fridge was an Electrolux RM360 gas, 12 volt and mains which was seriously losing its will to chill.

Taking careful measurements of where the new fridge was to go and of the size of the front door I visited John Lewis in Welwyn Garden City. Tape measure in hand I measured up all their fridges……………(The staff were very helpful to an obvious lunatic muttering and measuring) and yes I found one, a Lec, perfect fit……………………..

Guess what I hadn’t taken into account……….the curvature of the bow, on Alacrity the front door is set to the right and not in the center………………………Oops…….every way we tried to get the fridge through the door the bow curvature caused it to catch on something.!!!! the air turned blue even the ducks blushed………….later after removing the front door, the door frame and some interior trim we got it in. There was only just enough space to tape some paper to protect the paint.

I also nearly came unstuck last week when I was laying the new oak plank floor…… space above fridge 15mm oak plank thickness 18mm. the result was I had to remove two wooden support battens and replace them with angle brackets to keep the ventilation space………….I told Jo that I had calculated for that……and yes, she didn’t believe me either……………someone was looking down on me favourably that day…….