Thursday 19 April 2012

Another month, another visit.  We would have gone sooner but finishing the re-wiring, moving piles for different destinations about the house and from garage to garage, and starting gas safety all took lots of time and effort!  Also our builder was on shut-down for the Bank Holiday week.  So we went up on Wednesday 18th April to see Archangel for the first time in her primer coat and sited in the Woodworking shed.  The pix won't be much different to those before, but WE took them, so we're there for scale.  And a few more.  So here's how she looked to us.  The boat wasn't moving (it's pretty crisp) so I guess Nik was just moving due to sea legs (we'd did our VHF course on Sunday to allow us to legally operate our ship's radio, and the course is on the floating barge of Commodore Yachting at Gosport).  Then another view
Here you see a high-lift forklift loaded with a lot of bricks they'll use as ballast.  They started unloading these on the afternoon we were there.  That task and adding all the spray foam insulation are next on their list.  Then a view from the highest woodworking platform, which makes her look quite small:

Then for those of you interested in details, here is the back end showing the big steel platey thing meant to help us steer it:
You may just notice that there's something missing, the finny thing that goes round & round.  Well that's because the big noisy thing that eats diesel isn't there yet, and that's a whole new stage.  I can prove it's not there:
See!  That's where I think it goes, and we can see the place they keep the weed (the "Weed Hatch") at the end, the oblong box, tho' why we'd want weed in a box I don't know.  Nice and clean and lots of space, but this area will be pretty full by the end, but still very neat and accessible.  I've not been down there yet, I just risked losing my glasses by leaning over, then point & shoot!
Just in case I was looking the wrong place, I checked the other half too:
Not there!  I expect you're wondering what's that thing half way down on the right?  Yes?  Me too.  I only just noticed it.  It seems to be about where the wall separating the loo and the saloon is.  Ah, I have it, this must be the steel tank for holding the diesel used in the diesel stove.  So the stove sits this side, and the loo in the main bathroom goes the other.  That's cosy, just as well diesel isn't explosive (i.e. backing onto a Thunderbox).  Now in case you were thinking this is really quite a small boat (which in many ways it is) here's a rubbish view from the bow;  it's rubbish because I was balancing and nearly fell off taking it!
You're looking over our bedroom, with the first 'hole' being the skylight (Houdini hatch) lighting the corridor, then the big hole being the pigeon box over the saloon, and the next small hole being the skylight over the galley.  The last big hole is where the wooden superstructure of the wheelhouse will be built, and where we'll probably spend most of our time.
What should follow now is a picture of the really beautiful and yet brand new bronze portholes from Trinity Marine, but guess what?  I forgot to take a picture, so next time I will.  So we spent most of the day going over most of the internal design details with Mark, who's in charge of all that;  he now has Marius's photoshop imagination-led impression of what we'd like, and we've agreed to pay a bit more for some more panelling on the end wall of the saloon, to make it complete.  Lots still to decide, and we dropped into a nearby supplier and picked the materials for the seat cushions in the wheelhouse and in the Side Cabin (small bedroom).  Well, until next time....

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