Renovating Casper

Alicatt

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Warming up the engine for the oil change today, half astern please Number One...

Impellor changed along with new fuel filter and oil filter, a couple of the galleries in the exhaust manifold were blocked so those have been cleaned out and now the water is flowing better, so the service took a little longer than usual.
Engine started up no problem after being still since last November.

Things are coming together and we should be ready for the opening of the season on the weekend of 10/11 May in Maasmechlen, we have 10 boats going from our haven to Maasmechlen Village, a distance of about 79km from where we are, for us that's about 10 hours at cruising speed, we have been advised not to do it in one go but to stop along the way, possibly in Bree or Bocholt as they have havens for passing traffic.
 

Alicatt

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Been away spending drinking vouchers, new sink and gas hob, also a water strainer for the raw water for the engine arrived today.
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Other bits and pieces were bought too, new gas fittings from gas locker to galley, pots, pans etc. floor coverings for the cabin, the fake teak for the cockpit should be here next week… hope I will be ready for it
 

Alicatt

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Water tank rinsed and sterilised, floor laid in the lazarette.
Engine mounts arrived, they are about 5mm smaller than the ones that came off, so, need to space them out a bit to raise the engine slightly as the sump would hit a crossmember if using the new ones, grr!
Wife has been cleaning the inside of the hull and getting it ready to paint next week when it gets a bit warmer, the bits we have at home have been painted but they are taking a long time to dry in cold weather we are having.
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Bouba

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It looks like an easy boat to work on.....a lot of boats you have to cut them up to get big pieces out 👍
 

Alicatt

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It looks like an easy boat to work on.....a lot of boats you have to cut them up to get big pieces out 👍
That's a nice big hatch, would be easy to lift the engine out of it and put something larger back in it's place.... :D
But I would miss the 0.5 litres per hour consumption at cruising speed, 120 litre tank @ 8km/h gives more than a 1500km range with a good reserve.

Just planning the trip to Maasmechlen on 8th May for 5 days and will be booking stops along the way, in Belgium it seems that traveling by night is not done, unlike the Dutch that sail all round the clock, here most lock gates and opening bridges only operate between 6am and 6pm
 

Alicatt

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Grrr! Tech drawing with the sink was wrong, it was 15mm too narrow to let the sink fit in the hole, thank goodness the sink was larger than the hole :)
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It's hot today and there was a lot of movement on the canal it's a holiday here tomorrow so people taking the time to go for a sail ... lucky persons ;)

The Navy Cadet's old gunboat/patrol boat was motoring past heading for Leopoldsburg, a nice sight and I did not even have my phone to hand to take a pic.
 

Alicatt

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The “Betonplex” will be replaced with stainless steel when it arrives.
Shelf still to go in above the sink and hob Mrs Catt is painting it up at the moment. The original shelf looked good but it was rotten in the core so I made a new one this morning before coming to the boat.

Betonplex is used for shuttering for concrete and is very tough and waterproof, it withstood 17 years of abuse in my trailer so should be ok for a few weeks on a boat…🤣
 

Alicatt

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Mrs Catt has been busy today the insides are all painted, at least in undercoat, some top coat to go on in some places, all the old carpets are up and removed and are being used as a template for new vinyl flooring, we got the end of a roll, it was supposed to be 1.75m wide x 4m and we only wanted 1m x 3m, when they measured the roll it was only 1.5m x 4m so they gave us that for €40, normal price was €24 per sq m, it will be getting laid shortly, been cleaning the old glue off the floors and steps.

New gas and water pipes have been run and tested and no leaks, good pressure on the water tap too. after making the replacement shelf, which fits by the way, Mrs Catt decided she would like a protective panel to the right of the sink, sigh! The shelf will now not fit so it is back home for a little "adjustment".
Table leg was removed as it was sitting on top of the carpet and it goes down through the moulding for the floor, looking through the hole it is dry but stinks of diesel ... suggested throwing a whole bottle of shake n vac down the hole but the response I got was "What's Shake n' Vac"? :)

Radio antenna has been fitted and wired, fitted the holder for the handheld and then realised much later that that's where the throttle leaver goes for full gas, will have to move it tomorrow.

Got 40m of 16mm rope for mooring lines and I am splicing up some loops with 16mm waterpipe over it to hold the loop open so Mrs Catt can lasso the bollards when we come in for docking.
Tomorrow is Mrs Catt finishing the painting then I can get on with laying the vinyl and then there is some wiring to replace and fit a mosquito net over the vent louvers in the heads.

No pics just now, it came on thunder and lightning and it was a rush to clear up and get everything under cover.
 

Alicatt

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This morning was called off, had to go to the doc with an infected mosquito bite I got on Wednesday, leg is red and swollen and now on antibiotics.

While Mrs Catt did some painting in the cabin I rubbed down the window rubbers with some silicone oil to see if it will restore some flexibility to them and give a better seal, it's temporary until we get past next week and hopefully some better weather so we can remove the windows and measure them to see what size of rubber we need, going by what I can measure they look to me about 6mm thick and hardened glass and the fibreglass looks to be at least 5mm thick, the rubbers are 30mm wide.


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Mrs Catt at the painting

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looking a lot cleaner in white, wonder how long that will last...
 

Alicatt

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Galley fitted and tested all working and no leaks Phew!

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Hand held fitted beside the helm and able to connect it to the vhf antenna
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Some rewiring was required for the air horn and a new DAB+ radio installed

After rubbing down the the front and starboard window rubbers with the silicone oil we had a heavy thunderstorm last night and the windows didn’t leak, so did the same with the remaining two windows which are above the galley and they had leaked slightly last night. Now we wait and see if it was effective on them too.
 
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