update before finishing build

I have half an hour before having to go and meet Eilah's home education inspector in a local park.

Over the past 6 weeks we had a communication breakdown with the builders and some issues stored up. We have now sorted them and the build is running 16 days over schedule. Not a big issue for us really but more of an issue for ray as he wants the boat out so he can start the next one.
We organised a meeting and worked out that although we changed the plans on some things the extra work we created about balanced out with the things we decided not to do. This meeting also made it clearer to everyone what we wanted done before painting and in which order and what were extras. In the end the extras were about 4-5 days labour to be done after painting and as a swap we got portholes and wood for poppy and kev's own build. The extra time included making footings for the wind and solar on the roof and also building the battery box under the stairs. to save days we decided no stern rail and no hatch over the bath although we may save and do this later. we also went for opening hatches on the sides which do not cut into the roof (kidney) we can still get in them just not so easily!

It is difficult to get lorry and crane hire and co-ordniate it with another boat or two to save cost-a day of lorry is £600 & crane is £800 for a whole day so if we share with 2 others the cost is considerably less seeing as we need to go from builders to fitters to water.

The back of the boat looks fantastic but Andrew and i have some reservations about the bow and it is not the Barbara Mac thats for sure. Andrew asked for a prow to be welded on and now it looks like a real barge! the cabin sides at the front bulkhead are straight up and down and i had hoped for a curve and an overhang. ah well, i will grow a creeper up there to hide the bluntness of the sides.

Another issue that has caused us major hassle is the height inside! First Andrew measured it wrong and I spent the whole day working out how t compensate. then on remeasurement it was found that only 1.5 inches internally is missing and therefore we are not having any battening on the floor and only 25cm celotex on rof again with battening in between no more sticking up. We are insulating the metal strengthners along the roof with 3 layers of Insuladd ceramic paint and on top of that thinsulate tape (like a wet suit ).The ceramic paint is going o the inside asadouble layer which andrew and i will do when build finished and also on two of the three outside paint layers. it simply mixes i with the paint . Hopefully it will help insulate up to 15% more and keep the roof from getting too hot on the outside in summer.

the reason the cabin space got reduced is that andrew decided to make the railings be water channels which was an addition to our original plan. kev had no problem doing this but did not tell andrew that as box railings are made from the sides of the cabin metal it would reduce internal headroom- andrew did not know this - but in the end he would still have asked for these railings . it may mean he has to stoop in the back cabin only where we may need to add more ballast . it is not impossible to add more than the height of the metal on the roof and floor so the boards are also going straight into the metal. we were going to go for marine ply then when we could afford it add boards on top but now for height reasons it has to be just boards as who wants to spend £800 on marine ply floor and rip it up to put in floorboards later?

The solar panel fittings are straight forward and the windmill just needs a pole mount and we got a winch so it will be on a 4m pole which will come down over the roof when we move. we decided to make out chimney extra high too and it too will be manually taken down when on the move and all summer!



we also decided finally on colour- dark indigo on roof and bulkheads and a sandstone on the rest. We will paint coachlines ourselves later. We think we would like this to look matt rather than gloss.

My daughter is being looked after for a week after the paint is done so andrew and I will zinc oxide the inside with insuladd added to the paint and put in the thinsulate tape .Then put in the windows!

a new name

A lot has happened in the last 4 weeks. A glitch which stooped communication for a couple of weeks , a sorting out, the windows cut , paint colours chosen and a finalised version of what we feel we want help with when the boat is moved to the fitters.We have also now chosen another new name for the boat!!
We are calling her TIKKUN.
It is Hebrew and it means to repair and restore the world and that comes form the magazine of the liberal- progressive movement but is a tenant of Judaism.
We think she will now be finished 3 weeks later than first thought- middle of June.It is now the Tuesday 12th June and it may be ready to paint next Monday. It has been hectic and I will post again at another date the cruscial last few weeks of the build.