1st February 2009 – During the conversion of the Watergeus, the real first project I did by myself, I made a few mistakes in the beginning that could become a problem later. I talked to a few people and they showed me where I made the errors. My floor exists of two levels of wood on top of a wooden frame. Between the two layers, there is insulation. When they are welding, there is enough space between the bottom of the ship and the first layer of wood. Even the wooden frame is high enough. When there would be water in the bilges, I could not be able to reach to it. Therefore I will have to make some inspection holes. My intention was to make two of them, but now I’ve decided to build several ones.
The sides of my interior are around 17cm away from the metal hull. Far enough for in case they need to weld. At the other hand I noticed this week when they were welding some of the insulation started melting a little and smoke appeared. I can look between the hull and the wooden sides, but can’t reach it. Therefore I’m now making side inspection hatches as well. I’ll hope I will never need them, but I like to have them instead of ripping out my interior if something would happen.
Besides making plans for the above adjustments, I cleaned the engine room.