Narrowboat Alacrity

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………. 

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 ……………………

My cupboard doors have come on well and have had their first coat of varnish. it’s perfect weather for varnishing or so I thought, i’d forgotten to factor in the Thunderbugs

The itching on my neck should have warned me……………….I only turned away for a few moments and the little b*****s had started their own synchronised swimming team on my newly varnished doors………………..

I’ve allways hated them one even got into my flat screen monitor and wandered about like a disembodied apostrophe even highlighting it and hitting the delete key didn’t work.

Oh well back to the sandpaper and midnight varnishing………………………………………

I Started to make the swing out support for the saloon table today, using up some of the timber we removed from the dinette. I have to admit I pinched the idea from a picture in “Waterways World” with a few innovations of my own. My Idea of using a caravan type leg foundered with all hands, as when the table was down it would imprison one of the diners.

The main problem was edging the raw board, getting thin strip dark hardwoods is almost impossible locally so I had to machine some up from larger stock. The DeWalt band saw I inherited from my father is working overtime not bad for a thirty year old bit of kit.

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.

Well I have just got back after a week working on Alacrity’s refit. I took everything I needed with me or so I thought but forgot my laptop so be prepared for an avalanche of posts.

Having had an easy drive up and luckily found a parking place ( as it was the Braunston Historic Boat Rally) Jo and I moved the tools and bits needed to start the flooring over to Alacrity. It still took three trips even with the trolley.

As posted before we had decided to fit a fully floating solid oak floor as this will allow the wood to expand and contract in the varying temperatures and humidity levels found on a narrowboat. So having sorted out the original floor removing the gripper rod and staples and added many more screws to hold it down we laid a thin foam plastic underlay, this is to allow the new floor to move and acts as cushion.

The oak tongue and grove planks are supplied in in varying lengths from 300 mm to 1200 mm so you have to be a bit good at jigsaws to get away without much wastage and to get a decent random effect. Once we had glued and layed the first two rows work went on a pace helped by the use of a pair of ratchet clamps, ( Screwfix £4.99 cheaper than B&Q £12.99) these really pull the boards together far better than just tapping them with a soft faced hammer.

Even with only half the boards laid the effect was stunning. So with my back and knees complaining we decided to stop and give the glue chance to set………ok  ok  a weak excuse but I needed a beer.

I paid a visit to Enfield Timber today and managed to source some Southern Yellow Pine for Alacrity’s window linings.

The staff at Enfield Timber there are so helpful, nothing is too much trouble. They machined up the exact sizes I needed and gave me advice on the best way of preparing the timber for varnishing.

I was supprised that I would need seventy feet of timber to complete the linings but thats nine windows worth.

We started on Alacrity’s saloon refit today, with the removal of the water damaged window linings, its lucky for us just the linings are damaged and need replacement, this was mainly because the boatfitters had used steel nails and these had rusted causing the staining, the steelwork and battens were in perfect condition.

Removal of the old dinette went on apace with Jo wielding the cordless drill to great effect removing even the most chewed up screws with little effort.

We were again lucky that the boat fitters had not glued the support battens to the sapele cabin lining so only leaving us with a few holes to make good before varnishing.

It makes a great difference with the old dinette out, so much space…………