Tordino – Books

27th January 2020 – A museum is more then just working aboard to show artifacts to people. Last Saturday I got a collection of over 100 books. They all need to be put in the inventory. This evening I started this job.

Tordino – Insulating the ceiling

25th January 2020 – The easy bit of insulating the ceiling is just opening the hatches and unrolling the packs of insulation. After two hours the ceiling was well insulated and we continued on the inside. Mother put primer on the t&g, I made some planks for the ship models.

Tordino- Ceiling and insulation

19th January 2020 – My father finished the insulation of the sides. Now I can finish the walls. I’m halfway with the ceiling. The deadline at the end of the month is impossible to make.  But this is something boat people are used to  live with: no deadlines on a ship.

Tordino -Ceiling

18th January 2020 – We started with the ceiling. Same thing as the last two conversions. Cutting the wooden planks, lifting them up and sliding them into the frame. The nice thing about this job is the result. It looks finished from the moment you put them up.  I went halfway the hold. The rest will be for another day.

My father continued insulating the hold. Nearly there… 

Tordino – Building the frame around the old lifeboat

13th January 2020 – A last difficult bit is building the frame around the old lifeboat. I can’t get to it, but I can’t move the boat either. It took me some time, but I managed to build the wall and building the top side was easy since I could stand in the boat. A lot was done this evening.

Since the lock in Bruges was broken, a pusher came  alongside with a pontoon. They stayed for the night.

Stern – Cleaning

12th January 2020 – I got the keys of the Stern. My thought went I started and when I left were the same: where to start.  The engine started and this was the best part of the day. I got a diary of the previous owner with all the journeys and issues. There are a lot of things to fix. The hull is fine, but some parts of the deck are rotten and even the sides are not that good of the upper structure.

The bilges look reasonable dry and the interior has to go as quick as possible.

Before…

After…

I took out my high pressure cleaner and started removing the old paint, dirt and rust from the ship.  The deck is, besides port side, in a very good condition. I removed the old blue cover of the roof. I know it will  be leaking a bit more, but at least it looks better to the public.

Totally wet and cold, I left Ghent and went to Tordino to do some further conversion in the hold.

Tordino – Insulation and painting

4th January 2020 – My parents came to help me. Father did the insulation and mother did some painting. In the meantime, I continued building the frame for the rest of the hold. I hope this conversion is over quickly so I can continue running my museum. It is the last bit of the ship that needs converting. With the experience of the rest of the hold, I try to create as much space as possible to put objects and television screens.