Month: June 2012

Wooden boats

26th June 2012 – A couple asked me to have a look at a wooden ship and the options of restoring her. He had just bought it without realizing the condition it was in. The word salvage would be more appropriate then restoration. I wouldn’t know where to start.

While I was there, and after having a drink with them, I found some older fishing boats in wood. All of them I’ve known when I lived in Ostend as a kid. Nice to see them back!

Hornblower – Green paint

24th June 2012 – The weather is not good at all. When there was no rain, I started cutting up my last metal plate. I want to finish the bulkhead of the engine room.

In the late evening, I made a little experiment with green paint. I have a look tomorrow to see if it is successfully and looking nice.

Hornblower – Some more welding

20th June 2012 – The wall or bulkhead is nearly finished. I cut the last pieces of metal and started welding them. Welding on a partly converted boat, which is full of tools, covers, wood and dust is always a risk. I was very carefully after last month’s fire in the engine room. It took me some time to get a result since I had to bend a small plate over a short distance. Using enough clamps is helping!

Hornblower – Working in the bedroom

19th June 2012 – With the little time I had today, I managed to drill a few holes for the framework of the bedroom. I have to keep moving the ballast all the time. I knew when I got it, it was to early. At the other hand it was free and I had to take it then.

I lowered the wooden frame of the bed to see how much space i’m loosing. It seems to be acceptable.

Hornblower – Bed in bedroom

18th June 2012 – I’m still struggling with the bed. I decided to make a wooden frame with the same dimensions of a normal bed. It gives me then a real impression on the size and the room space. The normal trick i’m using is chalking the bed or furniture on the floor. Only this time, I can’t. There is to much stuff laying around.

Hornblower – Bedroom

16th June 2012 – The hardest room for planning is the bedroom. It is a small area, there are a lot of technical issues and I have no idea how to design it. The biggest issue is the size of the bed. I want to build a normal sized bed. I removed some of the previous made paneling. I will turn the bed in the other direction.

Hornblower – Removing old exhaust pipe

15th June 2012 – The wheelhouse floor must keep the smell and fumes out from the engine room underneath it. It’s just welding meters and meters of L-shape on the floor and the side of the cabin.

The exhaust for the engine is still leaking. I want to put a water cooled exhaust to have less noise and smoke. It took me a few hours to cut up the old one and take it from underneath the bedroom floor. I discovered three holes in the pipes and two more in the silencer.

Hornblower – Strengthening the boat

14th June 2012 – The wall between the kitchen in the wheelhouse and the bedroom is in metal. It is an extension of the bulkhead. I’m welding everything together to strengthen the ship as much as I can. I have the metal, I can do some welding, it is ballast for the boat and she becomes stronger…

In the late afternoon, I got bored of engine room work and welding. I took some gray paint I had left from the Watergeus and painted the roof bits of the Hornblower.

Working on a yacht in Oosterhout

9th June 2012 – Sill busy. I’m working on several projects at the same time, helping people around. I’m still updating the pages of the Watergeus.

Today I went to Oosterhout, helping a friend sorting out his new yacht. It’s an eighties built yacht with a classic look. Metal hull and a wooden top construction.