Chapter one: in which Pegasus is named

Choosing a name for a boat is not easy. Andrew finally had a divine inspiration in the form of a dream so I could hardly argue-therefore after 8 months and two changes , Pegasus it is!

At first we thought-'The Holt' as I have always wanted a home by that name for my otter child and I . That quickly changed to the quirky 'Belightful' -a play on words which many thought 'twee'. (I agree it suits a smaller boat!)

So after almost a year our boat is nearly ready for part fit out!

We spent 5 months living aboard a 63 foot narrowboat (me visiting at weekends). In that time we invited ourselves into many boatees pads and got lots of ideasand cups of tea. We also met people we very much liked which is always an important decision -the neighbours are great -and if we tire of them we can move on !

We pondered fixing up a beautiful old butty with an old working engine called Almighty on the Kennett and Avon but deided we were too novice for the job.

In the end we wanted a wide beam as Andrew is large , I am not getting any smaller and my daughter , Eilah seems to be accruing many friends who will want to visit. We also at any given time have a dog and a few puppies .

Our first idea was a wide beam which was a narrowboat butty shape with a long black tarp covered hold -basically a very traditional boat which happened to have an extra 3 foot section through its middle.However, convincing anyone who was to build it , that this was a good idea was difficult- narrowboats should be narrowboats -not wide beam. Canal folk can be rather funny about what's acceptable and what is not. I am all for preserving heritage but in the end did not feel that when creating something new it has to fit that mould (So sue me!)

Getting a build slot at our price also prooved to be tricky. Several boatbuilders and promises later and we finally found Ray and Kev who had just opened up. Both have experience with the canal life and Kev had previously worked welding and boat building for another local boat builder. The price was right , the guys were great and Kev also wanted to be able to put some of his own creative ideas rather than have to weld cookie-cut hulls- so we signed the contract late December 2006.

Our final boat was based on the exact design of practically the first boat weever saw on the K&A- the Barbara McLellan-a trip boat which sits low on the water and does not look as obtrusive as some other wide beams. She was staring us in the face all summer so maybe it was her colours that put us off the scent.

Our boat was meant to be 65ft by 10.5ft but has ended up being 67.7ft by 11.5 (Kev thought it silly to trim the excess steel and waste it and I personally think that once you go big; the bigger the better! Andrew , I think , wishes it was a tad smaller! ) - correction- turns out to be 67ft by 11ft!

The swim has to be long ( over 15ft?)to help with the directional stability and hydrodynamics especially as we have an electric drive of 15 horse power (48v). we will see how that goes and we may need another motor making a total of 30hp but more depends on the torque and the shape of the boat and as i recall only one horse used to pull the narrowboats and possibly 2 horses for a barge.

There is total height from base plate to roof is 213cm- enough for Andrew.

Since December we have spent a lot of time and I mean a LOT of time buying bits off ebay trying to save about £5-10 ,000 to bring the project in on budget (£80,000- i.e. all of Andrews savings after his divorce and 23 years in the Navy)

i had a stake in being as thrifty and frugal as posible , spending time saving money -Being a Jew and a Scot, this has come as s econd nature to me but it does feel good to know that i contributed not only by saving money but also by completely submersing myself in the details. after all, you cannot buy a calorifier and pumps if you do not know how much your needs are and how fast you would like your water to flow etc etc.

We got 20 inch aluminium portholes for £40 each and larger square windows -all with two or three openings from an old cruise liner but needing much renovation from Trinity Marine , as well as a beautiful tiller and a fantastic submarine sink which simply empties overboard and then folds up into itself-of course on the submarine it emptied into a trough which took all the white water to a holding tank.

One idea I saw and loved was a boat that had one huge window looking into a kitchen filled with interesting looking jars .The window had no frame but was stuck straight onto the side of the boat .It came down to the gunwhales but we decided not to do this in order to enable us to walk right round the boat using the gunwhales . We got a sheet of double glazed toughened glass which has a reflective screen which keeps the warmth in-good in winter , maybe not so good in summer-we shall see. It is 6ft by 3 ft and one of things I think will work really well .

We got a spiral staircase on ebay for £290 and plan on using it in two sections -one for the back entrance and one shorter bit for one of the side hatches (if it works)

We picked up a 1970's semi circle sofa on ebay for £150 which is smaller than the modern ones so fits nicely in tot he corner of the planned living room and we also got for £500 a 1960's Daintymaid kitchen-several units all original and all 10cm thinner than the regular kitchen units you can buy .

our kitchen table was given to me years ago for free. it was huge and ugly but we took out the middle section and made it just over 2 ft wide so it fits nicely and then we stuck it in a vat of potion that stripped it of its ugly varnish and now we have a beautiful 'rectory' table!

We are lining out in polystyrene sheets . Foam stinks (fumes) and costs so much more that when we compared the insulation value we could not justify sprayfoaming. Would love to be able to afford Thinsulate £m but alas not in this build. The polystyrene should cost about £600 but if my ebay skills work ,soon we shall have it for just over half that price including the £100 postage of 15 seperate parcels of the sheets-now to persuade the seeler that he does want to parcel 360 sheets into 15 parcels ! stop press- found some foil back cellotex 25mm sheets on ebay as seconds (i.e. cut already to perfect between batton size ).cellotex is a better insulator than polystyrene but usually 3 times more expensive. ours came in at less than polystyrene if we bought the polystyrene new.

Today we finally picked up our 'hot-tub' a cut off plastic water storage container which is 3ft10 in diameter and 29 inches high. we plan on fitting a shower above it with shower curtain but can also just use it with cold water on a hot day and have asked Kev to cut a roof hatch just above it. stop press- discarded idea once i saw a 'buy it now' wooden bath on ebay for £95.

How can we waste so much water filling it? we need about 200L-we tried it today in the front garden. Andrew who is 6ft 4inches , myself and my daughter had a blast. it needs 200l to get to my nipple height without freezing Andrew or drowning Eilah!- We have designed the boat so that it collects rain water in both a front and back tank (remember no engine so loads of space!) the tanks hold 2 cubic meters at front and one cubic meter at back.

The most interesting thing about Pegasus , as alluded to above, will be that she has no engine-she is entirely wind and sun driven. Lynch motors turn the propellor .We have a 1kw wind generator, 700watts of solar and so many batteries(11kw) we do not need ballast at the back! that is not quite true but we will find out at the end of the build how much ballast we may need !

We will also need a generator as back up but we will wait the first year out and see how we go.Also there is some doubt as to whther 15HP will do it but we can add another 15HP drive once we have added about £2000 to our bank account. We will not be able to go much over 2MPH though as each mile per hour drains the batteries three times more. The whole kit and kaboodle including the drive, batteries, solar panels, wind genny ,electrics and inverter and some help working out how to attach it all together and do the maths , came to £12,oo0-cost as much as an engine being put in .once we heard that the government had decided not to allow boats the 'red diesel' prices, we reckoned we preferred alternative energy witht he 25% reduction on license fees each year. As Andrew plans on setting up his couch and doingsome helaing from the boat we will need a business license and possibly a leisure license if we are to rent it to 'aquaintances' for 4 weeks a year.
The license is £1300 approx.

On board, for me , will be a washing machine, a dishwasher and a dryer (although like at home i do not think this will get weekly use). infact i am fine with not using any of the above for a week or so if we want to actually cruise far (more than 5 miles a day) as the batteries will need to recover .

We saw her two weeks ago when the below gunnels, stern (trad size) and bow had been finished but no above gunnels or roof. You can hardly see my friend ian from the front when he stands at the back -he looks like a wee dwarf-Pegasus is HUGE!

On Monday we will go and see the sides up and the roof being started. In 6 weeks she will be ready to be fitted out by Andrew and Roy but i do not feel ready and the portholes certianly are not ready-they have sea damage to the glass which canot as far as we have found out, be made to look better and the aluminium frames need a lot of work.

Andrew the fitter may not be able to hide his distain. Our boat is anything but traditional- not a jot of brass, castles or flowers in sight.Lets just hope he does not decide that he cannot 'sign his name' to fitting out such a monstrosity!

We thought in the end that if we were not going for the traditional narrow boat , hold and all, we may as not try and pretend- in fact our motto has been self sustainability -and Pegasus will certainly look unconventional. many will hate it -but we will love it as she is our only home and all ours!

After I have seen her this week I will write about some of the other features we have chosen-including a nifty alternative to the slippy wooden plank that gets you on board!

My dog, Anan is a vulnerable breed -A Glen of Imaal Terrier. one of the first things she did as to chase a duck who was peacefully sunning itself canalside. i yelled at her and as she turned to look at me to see wat the problem was, she omitted to stop chasing and plunged straight into the water. The Glen of Imall is a dwarf legged breed and huge body so as fast as her little legs could go she paddles but even faster, her weight pulled her down. neeedless to say she now stayswell away from the edge of the canal and HATES walking on that slippy wooden plank to get into any boat.

We have decided to try and get folding down steel 'planks' on each side at the back enterance with slight (2inch) rails so she feels safer.

i will write more about how it is going once I have seen pegasus with her roof on which should be in the next couple of weeks.