Part 11 - Building the Boat
On our return home from the Llangollen, we reminded ourselves of the beautiful scenery captured on camera. The picture here was taken from the Corn Mill on the bridge in Llangollen over the River Dee, check the pub out - great food & good beer.
On the final leg of the journey home, we stopped to check progress on the Beer Boat at Granthams Bridge Boats.
It was now the 23rd June 2015, we had been away for around 5 weeks. The Lister engine had been taken out and the Boatman's cabin started...but this was far less than I expected. I thought we would have the replacement engine fitted and the cabin would be finished by this point.
Something I would soon learn: You need a lot of patience when building a boat and this was something I lacked after all the previous problems we experienced. Things would get tense and sometimes very tense during the months ahead, but through all of it, Dave Bixter and his team, just worked methodically on all the boats that came and went during my time there, including mine when they had the time.
Things I had to remember were: they accepted a part-built boat without question; got me booked in quite quickly and also allowed me to start working on the boat myself. On reflection both Dave and Deborah Bixter helped me more than I ever knew at the time and I should thank them for putting up with my constant groaning.
This is The Beer Boat lying in the dry dock at Grantham Bridge. I had checked what work was needed initially, which was to work out where all the electrics and plumbing was going. With my head down, I didn't have a clue where to start but soon I would and kept telling myself this boat would get finished.
Prior to taking the trip to the Llangollen, we were able to take advantage of one of Midland Chandlers "Freaky Friday" sales and was able to get 20% off anything we bought and obtain15% off for the next 6 months. We were able to buy a PRM Gearbox for the Russell Newbery, a Victron Inverter, Morso stove, stove pipes and chimneys, pumps, accumulators, Mansfield traveller toilet, and lots of accessories. Dave picked up all the bits from Midlands and kept them at the yard for us.
We were now at the point in time when the boat should have been finished by Hudson's, but clearly we were way behind schedule... by about 6 months. I asked Dave could I make a start on the wiring and plumbing whilst in the dry dock and he kindly agreed.
I naively thought there would be some sort of wiring diagram available due to the collection of different colour wires coming out of the roof near the proposed fusebox in the engine room, so this prompted me to search for answers on some discussion forums. I was directed towards another Hudson boat owner in Cheshire who kindly agreed to let me view his boat and take photographs. The boat turned out to be "Brigand" and the owner Kenton Lock could not be more helpful, I was able to glean enough information from the layout of switches to equipment fitted to have some idea on what I needed to do. The boat Brigand happened to be one of the boats we viewed at Steve Hudson's yard back in July 2014 which had convinced us to use Steve as our builder, the quality of fit out was superb.
Now armed with some information I looked at the empty shell with wiring hanging out everywhere and wondered where to start first, this picture was prior to fitting all the lights.
I drew a rough plan of the wires, tracing each and every single one and working out the circuits involved, switch points, fuse points, junction points, earth wires, feed wires. In reality my long experience in the motor trade paid off quite well, the wiring was quite easy really, I even drew my own wiring diagrams. Next job I went to Bedazzled lighting and purchased all the Led lights, and to a builders merchant for all the light switches, within a few days all the lights were fitted along with some of the switches and an old battery Dave let me use, now there was light!! I could see what I was doing...next job...plumbing.
I checked all the installed pipework below the sub-floor and managed to work out the pipe runs for the radiators.
Now I was in charge, I even had the choice where to put them - managed to order some decent column rads via Amazon, a bit heavier than planned but lovely and toasty when hot.
A few days earlier also managed to pick up a lincoln stove going cheap. It took two of us - grunting and wheezing - to lift it inside the boat. This one was going to be fitted in the back cabin.
Stoves were a real must-have, back in the day. They would have been used to keep the whole family warm; heat water for washing and cook the dinner. I was settling for the warmth as we were fitting a full size shower and modern kitchen so this little furnace wasn't going to work too hard in the years to come.
As mentioned earlier, the engine wasn't fitted, but whilst I was away for a couple of days, I came back and saw this sitting on the once empty bearers!
To the untrained eye, it doesn't look too impressive, but once it starts up you can feel the power reverberate through the entire boat. The engine I was told is roughly 58 years old (in 2015) and was also going to get a brass makeover which would make it look even better.
Turning round 180 degrees, Liam Smith, the resident joinery man at Dave's, had made some more progress on the BMC (boatmans cabin). The oak used in the majority of his work was all produced on site from raw timber, planed, shaped, smoothed and crafted. Liam knows wood and he is very very good. Also he works at an unbelievable pace, he even sprays all the varnish on prior to fitting himself.
It now seemed like some real progress was being made. I had started smiling again - nothing was going to stop us now. By August the BMC was almost complete, including the bed - cleverly tucked away in the cupboards. Liam had built this following a 1930's drawing he used.
My mind was boggling with all the things left to do but I carried on each day getting little bits done when the other guys had to work on other boats. Liam was going to make a cupboard in the corner of the engine room for the fuseboxes and all the wiring that had to be connected, including the mains. I could now start planning the bathroom because the engine room wall was up, this room was going to be easy as I had plenty of experience tiling and plumbing and from watching Liam, I had picked up a few joinery skills - although I'm sure he would disagree! ;)
Very shortly the hot water tank, or Calorifier as it's known, would be fitted on the floor of the BMC under the seating -then all the radiators and pipe work could be completed up to the points where taps would be fitted etc.
As things were now going well, so I decided to stay a little bit later one evening. Helen was back in London and I was staying on Miss Ellie 1 at Welton Haven Marina about 20 minutes drive from Hillmorton. For some reason, whilst working I turned towards the back door (forgetting the floor panels were missing in the BMC).
It's not a big drop but as I stepped forward I expected a floor, but in a split second as I lost my footing, I put my hand out and just caught one of the door knobs alongside me which as I sunk to the depths of the boat wrenched the ligaments in my right hand middle finger. I could not bend it, I thought it was broken, I couldn't believe how such a small movement had caused so much pain. This is not what I needed, progress was good and now I had to drive to hospital in Rugby.
After waiting for a relatively short time, a quick checkover and Xray showed that nothing was broken just torn ligaments.The nurse offered to dress it to give it support but I declined thinking that I'd be alright in the morning.
Eventually I got back to the boat, heated up some food that Helen had left for me before she went to London. Had a beer, showered and headed into bed.
In the morning, when I woke up, my hand felt like someone had hit it with a club hammer and was still hitting it. After a few hours working on the boat, it was apparent that nothing useful was going to be done by me until the swelling had at least gone down. Have you ever noticed that whenever you hurt somewhere on your body it's always the first thing you bang again when you're lumbering about - the rest of the day was spent swearing under my breath.
The next part of our story will see us creating a working bathroom and planning the bedroom.