Narrowboat Alacrity

Ouch…I didn’t get up today I sort of fell out of bed in a groaning heap. All of yesterdays kneeling and bending were taking their toll.

Tim (MD of Braunston Marina) must have pre-ordered the weather as it dawned fine and clear promising a hot sunny day. The smell of frying bacon wafting over from the moored working boats making breakfast a necessity.

As the show wasn’t due to open until 11 o’clock we had breakfast and did a leisurely tour of the stalls. there were all the usual attendees with some great Morris dancers.

Author Geoffrey Lewis was on his stand signing copies of his books, Jo bought three of his books (note… I must build a bigger bookcase onboard).

The number of ex-working boats attending this year far outstripped previous years and at one point you could cross the canal just over the boats.

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.