I'd mentioned, but not shown any pics of the welding that was being done to correct the exposed base to side-plating join along the boat. We went ahead with welding sections of D-bar, fully seam welded above and below... This required moving the boat on the trailer too, to enable them to reach all of the sections.
Looks good, and hopefully will last the next ten years or so...
I got this all blacked so it had time to dry a bit before being back in the water on Saturday, while Ben got on with finishing the battening in the bathroom and getting on with installing the bath and re-installing the loo...
This was Ben's last day, so it's good to see his hard work coming together...
And I tried to make some progress with the plumbing - very slow work if you're working it out as you go along - it always seems to take more time than you think...
Flue terminal sealed and installed...
Pump installed, and running via a pipe stat, but it's flippin' noisy. Sounds like a screenwash pump! I'll have to do something about it, otherwise it'll drive me up the wall on cold, quiet evenings... Maybe mount it on foam and/or box it in. It's in the return leg to the boiler, as the two ends of the boat are parallel circuits, so it couldn't be inline anywhere else...
More completion of the calorifier pipework, including (without intending too much contention on this) an NRV before the cold feed into the tank - and yes I know the cold in and hot out are on the bottom - don't ask me, it came like this and the fittings don't exactly unscrew easily...
Chimney collar removed from old hole in roof, this will need sealing up with something before the rain gets in!
This is the location of the calorifier, with a wall to go up in front of it. I managed to get the header tank cut down a bit and installed too, to fill the system with, with a vent from the feed leg going up to the tank level...
And, finally, Ben got the travertine basin in place, sitting on the blockboard 'shelf' with a very smart tall monoblock mixer.
In the last half hour of Ben's time, he managed to completely build a bed frame for me, too. This will be covered with removable 3x1" slats, stringed with fabric tape, to keep the ventilation good...
Plenty of space to walk down the left side, as the bed's a three-quarter, at 6'3" x 4'.
So that ended the week on the slipway, more or less, and Ben's time working on the project. I'm trying to convince him to come back for a one day spell to create the under and over-bed storage.
Big thanks go to Ben for all the hard work put in during the week - I don't know whether Ben would consider working on another boat, but if you like the attention to detail and quality of work, let me know and I can put you in touch!
