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.
23rd June 2012 – I finally finished the top bit of the bulkhead between the bedroom and the wheelhouse. It took some to get the curve, bend the metal and weld everything to a solid construction.
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!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
13th June 2012
12th June 2012 – I’ve started raising the fuel tanks. I dropped them in the engine room a month ago. I should have made the supports before lowering them, something I really regret now! It took me all day to create a solution.
24th May 2012 – In the afternoon we moved the Hornblower of its mooring to the neighbour. The little yacht followed in the evening. The Watergeus is now free to move around.
16th May 2012 – I continued welding the floor in the wheelhouse of the Hornblower. It’s taking a lot of time and it becomes boring. I want to finish this job before I go to the yard. I’ll see how far I’m getting…
12th May 2012 – The bedroom is divided from the wheelhouse. Since I want the ship to has it strengths again for when another ship would more alongside, I’m extending a part of the bulkhead to the ceiling of the bedroom. A second reason for this metal part of the boat is that it can now carry some floating cabinets for my clothes and other stuff.
While welding the plate, some sparks must have touched dust in the engine room. The bilges were on fire in no time. Gray and black smoke started appearing out of the boat. I had nothing else but some buckets of water to kill the fire. It is certainly not recommended pouring water on oil, but it helped. The damage is reasonable seen to the flames that appeared.
A few pipes of the engine melted and everything is in black smoke. It will take some time to clean the engine room. It could have been much worse!
In the afternoon I gave up welding and cutting. I did some wood work for a while till I had enough of it for the day!
15th May 2012 – Converting a boat is expensive. Last weekend I had to buy some L-shaped metal profiles. When you look on second hand sites, you find a lot of stuff. I found some profiles, but they were meters long. I bought eight of them for half the price of what I paid last weekend in the shop. It was not very practical carrying them on my roof rack but I made it safely back home!
11th May 2012 – I prepared most of the thing so I can finish the floor in the wheelhouse tomorrow.