Prime us

With the steel work finished, the chaps at XR&D polished up the boat and prepared it for priming. If we look after the thing, this will be the last time we see its shiny metalic body.

They then used a High Build two-pack Zinc Phosphate primer by Dacrylate, followed by a black pitch epoxy blacking system for the hull. Results can be seen bellow.

Our engine has been placed in it's final resting place, along with the ballast. Finally, our windows have arrived and can be seen through the bubble wrap. They're weighty units both in mass and price, double glazed with thermal break. 'Top Banana', as my neighbour used to say.

Mother's Milk

Today was Emily's Mother's first trip to the boat, accompanied by her Brother. We were quite late but managed to cover a few major details before we left. In the pictures you can see the sliding stern door hatch, the bow doors and window apertures, the dog box, pole & plank holder and the holes for the mushroom vents.

Alpha Beta Gaga

When we visited today, Abdul presented our brand spanking new Beta Marine 60BHP engine to us. We've ordered it with a 'hospital silencer', which is supposed to muffle the noise of the engine and simultaneously make us less of a nuisance on the waterways.

In other news we had our first proper wander inside the new vessel, hopping across the bearers and imaging how it might look fully fitted out into a liveaboard boat. In the pictures below you'll notice the 4 bollards, 2 at stern and 2 at bow. I'm relaibly informed these are called Samson posts and are anchors to tie the boat off when mooring. Also pictured is:

• Our 200 gallon stainless steel water tank, which will be insulated with foam and placed under the fore deck.
• The stern deck railings, which will later be clad in wood to form a bench. 
• The tubular hand rails which run along the roof.
• Our gas locker and storage locker, which double up as steps onto the roof.
• The apperature for the dog box

September

With the boat originally scheduled to be ready around mid-September, we spoke to our boat builders and agreed that a later finish would be more realistic. We were quite thankful for this delay given the various other commitments we have at the moment. So now we're expecting it to be ready by the end of the month, with a plan to transport it onto hard standing (dry land) to fit out in early October.

Today was a bit of a flying visit, but we had a good chat with our main man Abdul, who was cracking on with the 3-piece railings at the stern. After a quick debate we decided that a slightly wider break in the railings, allowing for more space to step onto the stern deck, was the best option. In the pictures you can see the gas locker and the steering console next to it. We can't afford the hydraulic steering right now, but in the name of future proofing, we chose to have the console fitted as we hope to add it in a couple of years. We have asked the guys to stick a lid on the top so we can use it for storage in the interim. You can also see the weed hatch inscribed with XR&D, so we assume this is where they keep their stash.