Interior spruce up (lots of pics)

[rr_123]

Decided to spruce up my interior for the season, have been working hard to get it ready for the Easter Cruise to Chelsea/St Kats (hence my earlier post asking if anyone had experience of Chelsea Pier), however as the weather is so cold and wet I am at home posting pics instead of out cruising.

Oh well, all done for next time!

After a winter on the hard, being cared for and pampered by the professionals at the boatyard, she came home looking a bit sorry for herself:-

Bit moldy and horrible:-

Wasn't so keen on the fur lining:-

So out it comes:-

all of it...

Into the conservatory

Start on the boat, bit of sanding...

bit of carpet

bit of paint

bit of midnight oil

bit of upholstery

And we have a regular

Little

Home from Home

Add a sizable bank of batteries (and a 1.6Kw inverter/charger)

and give the outside clean

Then sit at home in the snow cos I haven't put the webasto heater in yet )c:

 

[SimonA]

Is that new headlining, or have you painted it? Did you do the upholstery yourself?

My interior is looking a little tired at present. But I don't have much money left having paid £3k for a new gearbox, prop, shaft seal.

 

[rr_123]

Headlining = 2 cans of Hammerite Satin (about £15 the pair), upholstery was about 12 metres of fire retardant stuff from John Lewis at about £15/m plus a few evenings with a staple gun (which included covering the two berths in the aft-cabin).

Sanded the woodwork and gave it a couple of coats of danish oil which gives a lovely finish, and a couple of 20W 12V Halogen spots from "lightingsuperstore.co.uk" which are a bit cheap really, but they look good and give a lovely warm light!

Very pleased with the result, more of a spruce than a refit, but it is v.cosy!

spent a fair bit more on the electrics though...

 

[rr_123]

It's been pointed out that i might have to be careful with a sign-written transom:-

in case some wag comes along with the white spirit and tippex:-

 

[Gavi]

Like it /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[ianc1200]

So did you go to St Kats? A friend phoned from the TMYC trip to St Kats yesterday, wouldn't be my idea of fun!

IanC

 

[rr_123]

didn't go, no )c:

we were still on "reds" on Friday, not sure about Saturday, but it was v.cold and horrible (so abandoned a game of golf instead...)

went out and pottered around locally. One of my greatest "philosophies" of the inland waterways is that it isn't about getting somewhere, it's about being somewhere!!

R

 

[Andrew_Fanner]

Looks lovely Rob. Be interested in a bit more on what you have donw with the electrics.

 

[rr_123]

Not sure if this post would have been better on PBO, but All Gold is quite well known on the Thames, so it's here ...

I've removed the two domestic batteries and replaced them with the 5*120AH units in the photo (sited in the footlocker which used to contain spare warp and mooring pins which are now under the step into the after cabin). The output from the alternator goes to the existing split charge unit (not sure if this is a voltage sensitive splitter, am assuming so for now) so that the engine start battery is recharged first, then instead of going to the battery2/battery3 switch that was there before, it goes to the "bank".

I've rerouted the shorepower so that it now goes via a "victron easyplus" (here)

The easyplus is an inverter/charger, very clever one, the 240V output goes back to the existing 240v main, but the inverter manages whether that power comes from shorepower when available, or from the leisure batteries when not. It can also be set so that it doesn't trip shorepower units in marinas, ie you set it to (say) 5A and if you are using 4A on board, 1A will be going into the batteries, if you are using 6A on board, 1A would be coming from the batteries.

Because I moor at home, shorepower is always available during non cruising time, so even without the output from the alternator there would be about 3.5 KWH available from the leisure batteries, which should be enough to run a small LCD TV/DVD player (frequently have 12yr old son for crew!), toaster, kettle, microwave etc for the weekend (praps not all the same time, the easyplus will deliver a constant 1.6KW, peak 3, but the battery acid might just boil away into the ether...)

It's a bit experimental for me, but I am pretty pleased with the installation, looking 4ward to testing it out...

need to add a calorifier and a diesel heater for my "perfect" setup

/forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif