17th November 2020 – Working on a ship is more then just doing the technical planning. There needs to be done a lot on the mooring as well. There is no shore power. I’m using cheap extension cables for my yacht, but once there is proper houseboat, wee need enough power to run the ship.
Secondly, I contacted the Belgian survey company. It is only possible in Belgium or Germany to get a CVO survey done on an old ship…
16th November 2020 – I’ve just painted the outside of the wheelhouse, the living and bedroom. While I could still ‘open’ the windows, I wanted to paint as much as possible.
16th November 2020 – Sadly enough, I could not be with the transport. I have seen it before years ago with the Frantsis… The truck was late and transport took much more time than expected.
15th November 2020 – I was not happy with the join between the living room and wheelhouse. Also I wanted to reuse the original hatch. On the other hand cables were running through both sides of the wheelhouse and taking a lot of space. I also want to have full access to the dashboard in case I need to add extra cables. What I had done yesterday was not a success.
The entrance to the living room is a bit smaller now but I think I will manage that. After hitting my head enough times, I’ll get used to it!
I experimented with oil on t&g for the dashboard in the wheelhouse. Slowly I’m getting there….
Late in the evening, I gave the kitchen doors a second coat of oil. I will have to go for a darker oil to match the door of the living room.
15th November 2020 – We made the Pettersson ready for transport. Putting covers, rope and foil around her to protect this beautiful ship during transport. It is not the fact it is built in wood, but the shape that makes her look beautiful.
14th November 2020 – Mainly worked on the electricity, sorting out the cables and connecting them to the right fusebox. In the afternoon, I finally got some hope the cabling will become ok. It is only a few months ago I put in the wires but by changing the location of the fusebox and building the new wheelhouse, I lost control….
I added some new sockets, like for the coffee machine and the battery charger. I continued removing the old wires and started the engine. It is still running, but the ventilation system isn’t. So I cut away to many cables…
In the evening, I tried building the join between the living room, dashboard and wheelhouse. I tried several things, not sure yet what I will take as a final solution.
12th November 2020 – We had another meeting with the architect to make a final plan and yes we did. How simple it looks, I would never have come to certain ideas and certainly not so quickly.
12th November 2020 – If I continue working like this, electricity would have become a nightmare. I drilled through two cables already, had to break open several corners to get to cables. Not how I want to work. So I decided to do the cabling first. At the end, I managed to get five cables through the dashboard paneling: cabin lights, navigations lights (only two), VHF, horn and the depth meter.
11th November 2020 – I’m building a box to have an easy access to the batteries and to put my feet on when steering from the skipper’s chair.
11th November 2020 – Today we cleaned the decks of Tordino, worked in the museum hanging out new objects, adding more labels and lowering an one cylinder Bernard engine.
9th November 2020 – Yesterday I was cruising on the water with and old boat, today I’m working on my own little yacht Stern, sleeping in my houseboat and thinking about how to paint my museumship. This is pretty much what I’m doing lately. Working on my own ships or talking to friends and making even more plans. I’m glad to have a good hobby, certainly in periods like this where everyone is a bit more down!
The only bit I am missing are those maritime events in Holland…
9th November 2020 – The contract was signed today for the Stad Rotterdam. A major step forwards in the project!
8th November 2020 – I quickly repainted the red wall in the kitchen and the back metal part of the wheelhouse. It was already late in the evening but the air and metal were dry.
8th November 2020 – A beautiful day, nice weather, no wind and not to cold. A perfect day for a trip. After some hasle with batteries, the engine started and we went of from Oudenburg to Nieuwpoort to Diksmuide and back. I had never done the trip from Nieuwpoort to Diksmuide. Marvelous!
