Little Venice catch-up

The problem with trying to keep a blog as a full record as that the more you do, the more behind you get on documenting it all... anyway, Tortoise is back at Iver after a couple of weeks away in town. Cathi had a course very close to little venice ten days before the IWA cavalcade itself, so I broought Tortoise in as a portable hotel which went very well, including an evening in the Prince Alfred and pizza afterwards at Red Pepper over the road.


Meanwhile I'd been able to do this with a big surge of furniture building; kitchen unit and the three bed assemblies have all been constructed out of 2x2 timber and seem pretty solid - here's a quick view of the kitchen under construction - it's good to have a working sink again (and inspiring cupboard doors on Paul's boat 'Chuggamuffin'), and a view towards the front of the boat with the doors lined, temporary shelves in place, and beds, and even one set of curtains.

The week before the cavalcade, Delaware Terrace filled up; Protea, a 45' shared owndership boat asked if they could moor up outside of me, which was fine by me, although got a little awkward on the Friday when I wanted out and they weren't around - would have been fine only the towpath gap was shorter than their boat...

Friday afternoon (having affixed vinyl name stickers I joined the random melee of boats moving into the basin, after meeting up with a lot of Iver people who'd come over that day. I had a plum position on the east side of the basin, Rembrant Gardens; hardly any distance by water, but a long way round by foot. I was only a few boats away from Jim & Mary, prevous owners of Tortoise, now on Heebejeebe, who'd brought Salad days in for the CC many times. I had a pretty good view from the front, too - in fact Sunday night Jim & Mary joined me for the illuminated boat parade, watching front the front deck. I wasn't too far from this 20' Sea Otter - immaculate inside & out, but you'd expect that for the price...

Sat morning I did a guided tour of Paddington led by Isambard Kingdom Brunel, although he was recognised as 'Andrew' at one point. Highly amusing, although it was sponsored by Paddington development corporation and lingered alittle too much on newer buildings rather than older ones for my taste. he also failed to mention Hadar moored in Paddington Basin - having looked at their posted I realised I'd seen Hadar's crew about, but not on Hadar herself...

Saturday afternoon I was offered a lift on Moontiger up to Camden & back, not realising I was going to be lock monkey; perhaps they thought I could cope with being heckled by goths (in fact very few goths in evidence, mainly just drunk wannabees and a capoeria troupe). Amusing to see a younger passenger being shown the canal traditions, but Foster's? Oh well.

Later than night (after another trip to the Warwick Castle) I spotted that the Pirate Club had pressganged one of the Paddington Arm statues into membership.


Sunday was mainly spent elsewhere; Monday half the boats had left, but that afternoon was my 'open house' day, I think the maximum number of people at any one point was 14, but back down to 9 or 10 when I moved the boat back to Delaware Terrace before I got too drunk. ;-)

Tues I had a short notice day at work (grrr), but came back to the boat late Tues night, and set off first thing Weds morning - left 7.30 and got into Iver at 1pm, including a stop at Sainsbury's; a little quick for 19 miles, but technically legal, thankfully.

So now back alongside Breeze; electrics, engine and domestic, and next, I think, and finding someone to restore the gas. very solid, tangible, progress, and also very usefully cruiseable, more importantly.

(a lot of links above are also pictures)

Little Venice

Proper progress update shortly, but Tortoise is currently hanging out in Little Venice; we did the run in Sunday; that section of the canal's getting nicely familiar, as is the vegetarian section of the Black Horse's menu.

I've managed to blag a late entry to be in the basin for the Canalway Cavalcade at the Bank Holiday weekend, but since a friend from out of London had a course very close to Little Venice, I thought I'd bring her in early.

Obvikously if anyone's around that weekend, come & say hello, although I may not be around all day every day; Monday may be the best bet daytime.

Noise annoys

Another aspect of my life crashes in - yesterday I was looking after the sound for a charity/awareness gig in Brixton. One of those frustrating events full of good intentions, but failing at every hurdle - too many self-interested bands, far too little time for soundchecks let alone for me to get, my head around the gear and find everything I needed to, and being let in late wasn't a great start. Due to start at 3, it eventually kicked off at 4 and went on to 11, eleven hours slog for me. Nearly every band stood around chatting until it was their turn, ignoring the previous acts, and then left - not yet aware that to get anywhere in the music business, you have to at least pretend to take an interest in other people. Thankfully a couple of good acts - one an old friend - gave a bit of fulfillment. That, and the knowledge I can hold together a gig of 8-plus acts on a sound rig I've never seen before, although I much prefer the little acoustic gigs I do with my bicycle powered sound system.

Much more akin to a canal mindset. ;-)

I'm used to seeing plenty of wildlife from the boat, but it's good that I'm getting more in my own back garden, mainly due to the fewer number of cats around nowadays. I like to think this robin is the same one I've been seeing for a few years; this winter I've hung a bird feeder from the cherry tree, and he's been pretty good about chasing off any other customers... a bully, but a tiny cute bully, I guess.

Boat trip back to Langley is possible this weekend, if anyone is interested...

It's a steel front deck! A nice job too, unsurprisingly. Doors & stove to follow, rain permitting.

Meanwhile, I did some long overdue measurements on the alternator. It gets to 14.0v - barely adequate (and when the diode splitter was still in, no damn use at all), but only at fairly high revs, possibly even higher than a slow cruising speed. This is something I'd been idly considering away from the boat, and on inspection, it could certainly do with a smaller pulley wheel on the alternator (largwe one visible top left in picture). One of the problems with using them human powered is getting them to run fast enough., Slower, it doesn't generate enough power for it's own field coils and the voltage drops drastically. The previous owners had the previous alternator changed, presumably on some very bad advice, to solve charging problems. There's some curious voltage drops within the instrument panel and ignition switch; as soon as I rewire & rebuild all that the better. I also intend to investigate modifying the alternator to get closer to 100% charge, hopefully including some kind of automatic system to switch these out to go back to a better 'float' charge level.

Fingers crossed, there's a new steel front deck & front doors going in as I type, replacing that lovely bit of shuttering ply you can see above. It'll probably rain, though, or something.

I did a trip into Paddington on Tuesday to Travis Perkins - despite being right next to the canal, once I'd found the one guy who knew anything about wood (not to mention customer service) they don't have any trollies, and he had to get special permission to help me carry a big sheet of ply down to Tortoise. I wanted to get some timber too, but found it easier to buy it in B&Q the following morning and carry it over myself. Anyway, that, and the 12.5% central London markup they add will mean I stick to Warrens or Albion Timber in Brentford as usual. I did get to dispose of some rubbish in the skip, though, and hoisted out a lovely set of metal drawers of all sorts of shapes & sizes, which turned out to be Mick's which he dumped a few days ago.

Having acquired the ply, I could replace the temporary side floor in what was to become the toilet 'room'. Having done that (and got the battening from B&Q) I put in the only internal bulkhead on the boat, separating kitchen from toilet - a simple frame of 34mm sq timber around the edge and a couple of cross braces (one in the right place to support the Morco water heater, too). I also fitted a plinth for the loo itself (the outer thirds of the boat floor slope, remember). I can't help speculating how long it'll be until I put a proper door on this - coud be a while - but an old shower curtain will do fine for now, right? ;-)

Once the front & the stove are welded, and I can finish off the lining around the front, and hopefully rationise the stash of bits of new & old ply I have - especially old, which however have come in useful over the months. After that it'll be building the galley unit and she'll really start to feel homely again. I'm keen to build the galley base as a unit removeable in one piece, rather then bodged together screwed to otherbits - of course it'll be screwed in, but I like the idea of it being removeable easily if necessary. I'm not entirely sure why as there'll be easy access to all services (run under the gunwhale bar the waste outlet, of course), but at least it'll make sure it's solid.

I've also been reading up about lead acid batteries & alternators; I need to do some volatge measurements, I think. I've also been working on stuff for the cycle powered sound system which is eriely crossing over into this territory...

When I bought the boat, one of the small rear windows was already broken, covered internally with wood. This was a low-priority job, but once I'd stripped out the sides etc and decided on the new window layout, it was worth getting it sorted. First attempt was a local glazier, who said they could do it, but ended up fitting a wonky piece of laminated glass that cracked, and the frame was out of square. I was reluctant to drill holes for it whilst in that state, so it stayed half-fitted for a long time. Recently I got on the case again, swent it off to Channelglaze who have redone it properly, albeit it at six times the price of the local job. So today I was able to seal it in, removing the ugly peice of ply that's been screwed over the hole for the kitchen window. Finished result visible, the most central window.

I briefly mentioned painting in the last post. A neighbour at the moorings had painted his boat with a roller without laying off, leaving a more matt finish I quite liked. When I went over the roof, I did the same. I'm still undecided about the aesthetic effect, but one point to notice was after a short but heavy shower today, it really showed up the difference - matt on the top right, there. The gloss finish resists water better, and also allows the surface water to flow away, rather than sitting in small patches, as visible here. I think it'll be back to laying off, but it was worth the experiment.

Tortoise is currently lurking in Kensal Green, working her way up the queue for Mick to do more work on her – new steel front doors, and also a steel self-draining front deck. Not only a great improvement for security & structurally, but pure vanity – I won't feel obliged to leave the front cover on, which is frankly ugly; she's a much prettier boat with it off.

It's a nice area to be moored, surrounded by London bridge-hoppers, a great bunch of characters. I realised it would be dangerous to name names (and boats), but they're all there – the snob with the big shiny new boat covered in fake rivets, for a start. He was deriding Tortoise for not being 'traditional' – 'a fun boat' he patronisingly said. My boat is at least twenty years older than his, and I'm quite proud of the fact I'm giving an old boat a new lease of life. I'll have put far more work into her than he'll ever do with his, too. What does 'traditional' mean, anyway? ;-) There's also the student couple, a guy with a falling apart boat, always on the scrounge. Favourites though were the couple with two boats – he has a 20' boat – tiny inside, as it has a semi-trad back deck, space for a bed, kitchen worktop and shower. Someone else mentioned he has to run the small one as she won't let him sleep on the larger one due to his snoring – quite sweet, really.

It's also great to have towpath access to the side of the boat, which I don't normally have, moored alongside Breeze in Iver. So far I've done bits of filling & repainting along the gunwhales, also some work on the roof. After seeing the results on another boat recently, I tried applying the topcoat with a roller but not laying off, for a fairly matt finish. I'm not sure if I like it or not, but it's certainly an experiment worth trying.

Back in January I finally managed to do Tony Brook's engine course; I originally booked for October, but cancelled it to attend (and photograph) a civil partnership. It was well worth doing, and I just wish I'd done it earlier, recommended for anyone who gets a boat, in fact. Bouyed up with the confidence from this course, I seem to have successfully changed the oil in the engine, long overdue. I'd only found expensive electric oil extractors online, but Screwfix - my main shopping venue at the moment - had a hand pumped vacuum one, so that was deployed with a certain amount of strange satisfaction - visible on the back deck above. I still need to do the gearbox, and find & fit replacement fuel & oil filters, but it's a start.

I've long been wary of the engine electrics, but I've now started tracing things through properly. Working out the mess of the wiring in the instrument panel (currently living in it's rickety wooden box loose on the deck), I saw that the wire supplying currently directly to the glow plugs (50A?) was decidedly thin. A quick test of switching them on and a voltmeter between the battery and glow plugs themselves showed a 0.97v drop - that's a lot of wasted power, and certainly not helping the amount of time it takes the engine to warm up and start. I know I'm trained in electronics, but it does amaze me the things that are done to boat electrics; as well as this mess, pretty early on I removed the diode splitter from the charging circuit - it wasn't a sensing alternator, so that's a 0.7v drop on the charging available. The solution to both problems will be a small neat relay installation - one powering up the glow plugs with a healthily butch piece of cable, one to charge the domestic batteries and one on the same drive signal that will provide power to the fridge - if I bother to reinstall it - only when the engine is running - seems a reasonable compromise. Some of this work of course doesn't have to wait until the welding is finished, but I'm hoping that will be a few days away anyway.

Although I have a perfectly serviceable BMC diesel engine, I've always had half an eye on electric propulsion, as a quiet, clean and green alternative - diesel is my main 'carbon vice', really, although it obviously depends on where the electricity is coming from. So it was with great pleasure, cycling back to Leamington Spa station along the canal after a quick social visit, to spot Happy Home, the solar electric boat of Richard & Alison, and children Eleanor & Rufus (and indeed Babs the hamster). They pulled in for a chat, made me coffee, and let me peer at their battery banks, and tiny Lynch motor. They get about 10 miles a day cruising on solar alone, the batteries give them a bigger range but would need to be charged by solar or other means to get back up to full capacity. It really shouldn't take much to push Tortoise along at all, with her v bottom and strange sloping swim, she slides through the water very easily. Power against a river, tidal or otherwise would need to be considered, but it may be a good thing to consider, and almost a certainty if the BMC fails terminally.

next jobs - at least rudimentary painting on the new front doors & front deck, and a protective & tiled surround around the stove. Then a custom kitchen unit will allow me to have the gas cooker refitted. I'm really tempted not to bother with the Morco gas water heater, but to install a calorifier for hot water; but it may be as well to refit it for the time being.

I'm hoping to have enough done to be able to take her to Little Venice for may bank holiday; I know Jim & Mary, the previous owners, want to have a good look around. ;-)

Slow progress over the summer; I needed to get Mike to put more steel struts in the roof, but once that was done things were a little more solid. Inside steelwork got nearly as much paint as outside; red primer, 2 coats of grey undercoat and then a layer of domestic gloss. I could then put some battens in - inch and a half for below the gunwhale (matching the depth of the existing strengthening strut) and inch for above, again matching the metalwork. Although I did use grab glue on these, they were all alos held mechanically, screwed in in various ways, some using small homemade L shaped brackets, one arm of which was rivert to the square section metal struts. I've put in lengths of 18mm ply directly under the gunwhales; the sides overlap the gunwhale internally, so the battens could be be screwed into that via 4mm holes in this overlap. I got through a fair few 4mmm drill bits, I must admit.

Again with half an eye on future condensation, I used sprayfoam insulation, a DIY kit. It suited me to do it myself, whilst saving myself some money it is was probably 50:50 whether it would have been worth getting a professional in. Anyway, the tanks were warmed up courtesy of Tony on Highlander's bath, and it went in OK, even under the floorboards in the outer thirds of the floor (some of which may need to come out for ballast in time). I wasn't sure how easy it would be to cut out the surplus, but a large panel saw did the job fine, which meant I could really go for it on the second pass.

It's made a huge change - the boat is now of course warmer, reatains heat for longer - and also quieter. It sounds like other people's boats, rather than a tin box, which of course it was.

I've started on the lining itself, putting in the boards under the gunwhales first. Some of the sheets of ply have got water damaged whilst on the roof (I actually couldn't get them inside until the flimsy front wooden doors were actually taken out completely), so the worst bits have been placed whether they won't be seen when fitted out.

Big changes - after investigation into how rusty the sides were (they'd rusted completely through in a few places just under the junction with the roof - possibly condensation from the inside as much as poor paintwork on the outside) the recommended action was new sides. On the way to a certain well-known Middlesex boatyard for a quotation, spotted a guy who did welding from a workshop boat who also quoted for the work. The upshot being that the boatyard couldn't be arsed to get back to me for a price with the work, so I went with Mike anyway. A month later he'd fitted new sides, and cut a much reduced window layout, as planned. I had the Cowley wet dock booked anyway, so after spending last week in there, she now looks like this:



lack of prep time before getting into the dock was a pain, so the gunwales & upper hull didn't get half the sanding & filling I would have liked, just primer, undercoatx2 and then a coat of black. The cabin & roof had a better time of it - primer, two coats of undercoat and three of topcoat. The Blakes 'Bordeaux Red came out a lot brighter red than expected, but it's the darkest one they do - apparently the now discontinued Cherry Red would have been darker. Oh well - it's a lot, lot better than how it was.

I've finally put in the raised ledges as a temporary measure on the inside - I've had one as a bed for a while, but now they're all the way down both sides, meaning I can not only put thinsg down without them sliding, but I can really start to play with the internal layout, see hgow it'll work - and I think it will work well, actually. I've also got a draining sink again, and somewhere sensible to put the electric cooker... ;-)

Next jobs will be mainly on the inside - replace a roof support strut, then primer on the new metal inside, battens, insulation, and the fun bit of the fitout... ;-)