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The build and fit out of Julynian 2004


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At last some decent weather has enabled us to get some more work done. we managed to affix all the gold striping, I bought a 10 inch polisher to revamp the paintwork following the winter and to achieve a perfectly clean surface for the striping. We also repainted the roof where the grippy bits are.

 

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Nearly there now just the stern seats and painting the cant and the bow, should be done in a week or so.

 

There's a few fiddly bits internally mainly woodwork, and work on the fitted generator project should start next week hopefully. As soon as that's fitted we'll get the BSS sorted and arrange to get on the water.

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A nice paintjob makes a huge difference, it would be great to see her finally in her element again, it's good she's not made of wood, as she would leak like a sieve for a while after launching.

 

Hope you'll get some good weather and time for the finishing touches.

 

Peter.

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Well for once we're ahead of schedule, the painting now almost finished, just the cant and the stern deck which will be Cream deck paint. Also some Union Jack colouring on the stern seats and tiller and of course fitting the Iroko kidney shaped seats. Oh and boat name in rear panel which we'll keep simple & cheap with Vinyl.

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Both sides finished although the hand rail needs painting, we can't decide on a colour though, might leave this job until on the water, it's quite high at the moment and awkward to get both sides, although it's doable from the gunwale.

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The cratch & bow is also finished, Decided on granules for the cratch floor and painted it in Cream. Gas locker lid is Green and rest of bow Satin Black for future easy maintenance.

 

Next job is fitting the Outback controller in readiness for the solar panels. Also fitting the small diesel engine in the engine room for driving alternators for battery charging.

 

We have a holiday booked in Scotland too, so it's looking like End June on the water.

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What a fantastic job you have done, will be great to see her on the water when finished. This is a good bit beyond my abilities but i always like to see first class work and this is most certainly of the highest standard. I cant wait to get my boat, starting to look but will be a few months yet as looking to retire early and spend full time on the water,

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What a fantastic job you have done, will be great to see her on the water when finished. This is a good bit beyond my abilities but i always like to see first class work and this is most certainly of the highest standard. I cant wait to get my boat, starting to look but will be a few months yet as looking to retire early and spend full time on the water,

 

Cheers wullie

Just finishing touches now, rain is holding me up at the moment, was planning to fit our Iroko stern seats and finish off some painting.

 

I'll get the BSS sorted in a couple of weeks, I have a small engine to fit for power generation and the Outback controller & solar panels and that's it basically, just a matter of organizing crane lorry and somewhere to put the boat in LOL

 

In fact I might make some enquiries now.

  • Greenie 1
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Well the sun came out today, in fact it was drier more of the day than not, and about time LOL

So some painting touching up has been sorted and I’ve got the stern seats fitted at last.

I actually made these about 5 years ago from Iroko which is a very durable wood Iroko does not require regular treatment with oil or varnish when used outdoors so it’s low maintenance.

The wood seems pretty hard so I decided to fit them using 6 x M10 Stainless Steel bolts @ 40mm long on each seat. These would bolt up through the 5mm steel seat plates.

I drilled all the holes in the steel 10.5mm and 9mm holes in the Iroko. I then used an M10 tap and cut a thread into the Iroko. Checking as I went I noted the bolt was screwing in quite easily and loose, so I only cut the thread 20mm into each hole. I then used one of the S/S bolts to thread the rest of the way another 15mm, this was a much tighter fit.

They all lined up perfectly, I used a sheet of 3mm thick Neoprene between the Iroko and steel plate, the bolts tightened down a tread compressing the Neoprene easily by 50% so no water ingress will occur.

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I’m going to finish the stool poles and tiller in Red White & Blue painted bands The stern deck in some Blakes Cream decking paint to match the gunwales.

Also finished the cratch, some photo’s to follow soon.

Edited by Julynian
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More good weather yesterday, managed to finish the bow and now almost finished stern also. I might do the hand rails now as I have time on my hands for a change.

 

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Also the Brass pole & plank holders fitted.

 

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And even gave the chimney a fresh lick of paint.

 

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  • 1 month later...

Well one of the last hurdles completed, BSS now passed this evening with flying colours, just needed to replace one fire extinguisher which the examiner happened to have some spare replacements in his van. So we're nearly ready to roll. Just a valuation needed to insure the boat, crane and lorry provisionally booked for the 22nd August.

 

We also bought a lovely Ash pole 1 & 3/4 inch x 12 f/t from Midland chandlers, delivered yesterday, lovely pole for £37.50 we also ordered 3 large 22mm mooring pins and the lot was delivered for just £8.50 Not a bad deal I thought from Midland Chandlers.

 

Plenty of jobs to get on with though, mainly small niggley jobs The Outback controller arrived a few days ago, so that will be fitted shortly. Solar panel array is all ready to install and currently stored in our warehouse. 6mm Cable and joiners all here ready too wire through roof and ready to connect up with the Outback and solar array on launch day, basically a plug together job.

 

It's a nightmare trying to work in this weather though, some small bits of painting needs finishing off, might have to work a couple of evenings to finish this off.

 

I have an engineer who's now assisting me with the diesel 12v generator, this might not be finished by launch time but it's not urgent especially if the sun keeps shining like it has been, we'll probably end up running an air con unit with all the excess energy LOL

 

Will have plenty of photo's of the launch, I'm mainly hands off on crane day and leaving it all to the pro's, so I'll just be overseeing with camera in hand.

 

More updates soon.

Edited by Julynian
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  • 5 weeks later...

Well we're almost there, should be on the water by noon on Thursday.

 

We've been doing loads of final checks following BSC pass.

 

Ran the engine for 40 minutes and have checked everything I can think of, oil water lights etc. Ran the boat in gear forward & reverse and got the engine up to temperature. Considering the diesel in the tank is 6/7 years old the engine runs like a dream.

 

Decided to repaint the upper half of the engine room, it got pretty grubby and marked over time. Fitted an air filter too. Hopefully all will be well on Thursday.

 

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I also checked the stern gland packing, it still seems pretty solid and intact and moist with grease so I'm risking it will be ok rather than starting from new.

 

The Outback is connected up except for the Neg to battery cable which is on order and should be here tomorrow. As soon as we're on the water the solar array will be carried on to the roof and connected up.

 

Will have all this area cleaned up and finished tomorrow.

 

Almost all the jobs on the final jobs list are done. The hand rails need painting but we'll leave this until on the water as the boat is quite high and it's awkward to paint.

 

All essential jobs done though. Boat will be insured on Monday + sort boat licence.

 

I'm sure we've thought of everything, I bet there's something though, we'll see!

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  • 1 month later...

Well we've made it on to the water. We're now 6 weeks on the water and everything is going extremely well.

 

We went on to the water on the 22nd August, for those following this blog here's a link to launch day we posted on the main forum.

 

http://www.canalworld.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=59399&hl=craning

 

So now it's time to relax, well almost, we do have several projects up our sleeves, so I'll be posting on those soon. First up will be an additional 240w solar panel which will be mounted on a newly designed swivel ball better suited to single solar panels. Much easier to construct with cheaper materials. We should have this finished middle of next week so will post the construction method.

 

Also our Kubota Diesel engine generator is being worked on as well. It will drive 2 x 90 amp 12v Bosch alternators for bulk charging our 700 amp battery bank. This will be mounted inboard next to the boat engine and have it's own fuel supply and exhaust. With electric start it's planned to set the generator up to come on automatically when battery voltage reads 12.2v We'll also run it when using the washing machine. Anyway we're hoping to get this done by end of month.

 

Project 3 will be a home solar collector made from left over 10mm copper pipe, some remaining Oak, a sheet of Glass and Aluminuim, a 12v pump and some clever electronics to create system for supplying hot water to heat the calorifier.

 

Hopefully it'll be a mild winter and we can get all these things done. I've also posted some previous project ideas on the forum here too

 

http://www.canalworld.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=214&page=10

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We made a start early week on our additional 240 watt solar panel. We want to set it on a ball again like we did with our main array as this has proven to work extremely well. This time though with the single panel, we'll be able to tilt the panel at a much higher angle than our original so to hone in on the low winter sun. Of course a full swivel action as well.

So this is the method I came up with.

First off fit 2 lengths of hardwood across the centre of the panel at 21 inches apart (Oak in this case) 15mm thick 70mm wide. These are fixed to the Aluminium frame at the ends with stainless steel button head Allan bolts with S/S washers & nylocks.

Prior to fitting we drilled and fitted 4 x 130mm x M8 S/S bolts through the Oak at 4 pre measured points which we'll attach the flat board to which will eventually hold the centre ball. The centre ball is an 11 inch diameter buoy. The long bolts have Nylon M8 x 22mm spacers to create a gap between the solar panel and board. This is to allow room for the eye of the buoy and an opportunity to attach the buoy in place using the eye.

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The board has had a 25mm circle routered out from it's centre to accept the buoy's circumference at a quarter way down. This routered circle is also bevelled to accept the buoy snugly. 4 holes have previously been drilled to the boards corners corresponding with the 4 bolts already set in the Oak struts and the corners nicely rounded off.

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The board can now be fixed to the ends of the 4 bolts and the buoy offered into the hole. A strip of Oak holds the buoy in place by passing through the eye and gripping on to the back of the 2 oak struts.

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With the buoy now set in place it's just the box base with stainless steel bowl fitted that's required to accept the buoy. Unfortunately the S/S bowl arrived but not the right size, so we popped along to a garden centre where a plastic hanging basket pot fitted perfectly.

The box is made from some off cuts of premium quality hardwood ply I managed to get from a joinery workshop F.O C. The box is just 5 inches high and 16 inches square. Rather than having the hassle of countersinking and filling holes where the box was screwed together, I decided to use S/S M6 x 50mm screw bolts, pre drilled with a 5mm drill they lock this box together extremely well so it makes a very sturdy base, especially being glued as well.

 

The top of the box is routered out to accept the 32 cm bowl which the buoy fits nicely into. A good dollop of grease will enable easy movement of the panel in any direction.

All the timber used is treated/coated with a Sadolin fern Green decking paint.

We have some 6mm S/S chain to secure the unit to the boat roof.

We managed to get it fitted on the boat today. So now we have 740 watts of solar up and running, luverly jubbley the tilt is also superb at around 70 degrees so will get square on to the winter sun. Even this evening with the sun now really setting low we're getting 5 amps.

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Will be interesting to see how much we glean at sunrise to if it's sunny of course.

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  • 2 weeks later...

That is a fantastic idea for the solar panels.

 

Had a quick look through all build photos and you must be very happy with the progress.

 

Thanks JC

 

Yeah over the moon at the moment they're working really well, there was some sun here yesterday with clear sky and we got over 40 amps for quite some time, had they not been tilted I reckon about under half that considering on how low the sun is, sunny ish this morning too, sun is really low and were getting 25.2amps at 10.30 am and batteries must be nearly full as volts in is 14.3v

 

I reckon winter on solar isn't going to be too bad.

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Well I've spent most of my spare time since yesterday afternoon reading the whole of this and what with reading the linked pages as well it's been a while, but thoroughly enjoyable, the boat is a gem and an absolute credit to you and your hard work. I'll be watching for any further updates. Ade .

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Well we've made it on to the water. We're now 6 weeks on the water and everything is going extremely well.

 

Also our Kubota Diesel engine generator is being worked on as well. It will drive 2 x 90 amp 12v Bosch alternators for bulk charging our 700 amp battery bank. This will be mounted inboard next to the boat engine and have it's own fuel supply and exhaust. With electric start it's planned to set the generator up to come on automatically when battery voltage reads 12.2v We'll also run it when using the washing machine. Anyway we're hoping to get this done by end of month.

 

http://www.canalworld.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=214&page=10

The auto start function sounds interesting. I would be interested to see if our Kohler genny could be modified in some way to autostart. It has the usual protections for low oil pressure and high EGT auto shutdown so would lend itself to that.

How would you stop the genny starting automatically at (say) 2am? Or in fact any time between 8pm and 8am for that matter!

 

Ken

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Well I've spent most of my spare time since yesterday afternoon reading the whole of this and what with reading the linked pages as well it's been a while, but thoroughly enjoyable, the boat is a gem and an absolute credit to you and your hard work. I'll be watching for any further updates. Ade .

 

Hi there

 

Thanks for the comments, it's been a journey for sure. We'll be updating on all future improvements and projects

 

The auto start function sounds interesting. I would be interested to see if our Kohler genny could be modified in some way to autostart. It has the usual protections for low oil pressure and high EGT auto shutdown so would lend itself to that.

How would you stop the genny starting automatically at (say) 2am? Or in fact any time between 8pm and 8am for that matter!

 

Ken

 

Hi Ellis

 

The auto start gizmo can be purchased, it's basically an engine control panel that can be set up to begin charging when batteries voltage is low or a low SOS this will initiate the starting of generator engine and begin charging the batteries. You can set the shut off time for several options. Auto shut off when batteries are charged to a set level. or engine runs on a timer. You can set the hours within which the unit operates.

 

This is a very basic model which I'll probably use, but you can get much more expensive ones with more functionality.

 

Hi there

 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Wirelessly-Operated-Generator-Controller-Auto-Manual-start-with-PRE-HEAT-/320997810969?pt=UK_BOI_Industrial_Tools_Generators_ET&hash=item4abcf5e319

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  • 2 months later...

Now approaching 2014 I'll add this to our blog but was posted on the forum as well.

 

I decided to make up a chart showing the amps we've gleaned via our solar panels through the solar winter months.

 

Hopefully it will give some kind of guide to other members considering solar for their boats. These figures cover the winter period so far from 01 Nov to end Dec. Jan to end Feb will follow end Feb.

 

This following information relates to how we have applied and operated our panels.

 

First of all our panels are adjustable so the majority of readings are from panels which have a minimum 35 to 65 degree tilt. Our panels also swivel 360 degrees, but through the winter period from November we did not bother as the gain would be minimal. So we just tilted the panels South through the day.

 

We have a total of 740 watts of solar panels. Consisting of 1 x 500w array which can swivel & tilt and a 240w single panel that can do the same but has a steeper 65 degree tilt angle.

 

Over the last 2 months charted we have only laid the panels flat for 8 days. We generally do this if we're away for more than a full day or there's high winds forecast.

At this time of year we've noticed that tilting panels offer a big advantage, especially through November & even more so during December.

 

Between the storms last week we had a lovely sunny day, the panels were tilted South with the 500w array at 35 degrees and the 240w panel at 65 degrees. We were gleaning between 28 and 30 amps with a clear Blue sky at 1pm from the panels. We had go away for the rest of the day and what with storms forecasted, so we secured the panels flat. The amps input dropped from 28 to 10 on the Outback. We do these type readings regularly and did similar readings in November and tilted panels compared to laid flat would generally glean an average of between 100% and 150% more amps.

 

 

From our research so far I would assess that on average 01 Nov to 31 Dec tilting panels will produce over twice the energy than when laid flat. However as the sun rises in the sky through the year this percentage gap lessens and tilting becomes less beneficial. Some readings done in October showed a tilted panel was only between 40% and 50% better than laid flat. and end August to Sept tilted panels were only 10 to 30% more efficient.

 

So to clarify, the readings in the monthly charts are from panels tilted South at an average of 45 degree tilt the majority of the time.

Panels are connected in series. MC6 solar cable & MC4 connectors.

 

The 500w array is of Monocrystalline panels and the 250w panel is Polycrystalline.

 

All the amps data come from the charge controller (Outback Flexmax 60)

 

Through this 2 month period we've only run the engine for 59 hours. This would have been vastly reduced had we bothered to use a petrol generator earlier in the month.

 

We recently bought a Honda EU10i petrol generator. We now use this for regular charging between Nov and end Feb. We've assessed it's hourly running cost at under £50p per hour whilst charging and supplying general power to the boat.

 

 

We now seem to have settled to a nice steady charge routine. On overcast days where little solar has been gleaned, we usually run the boat engine for 1 hour, this copes with the bulk amps in to the batteries and heats up our water. We then follow with a couple of hours charging from the wee Honda which on most occasions get the batteries to a full SOC via a sterling 20 amp mains charger and the 12v 8 amp charger built into the Honda. We have occasionally run the Honda for 3 hours to obtain a full SOC

 

On good sunny days boat engine running can be completely avoided and just some generator running to keep batteries near full SOC.

 

We have calculated the average fuel cost per day for boat engine and generator use is around £2.00 through December. November would have been slightly less.

 

Also to give an idea of our energy usage we have listed appliances as follows.

240v fridge 117 kwh

12v 30 inch TV

2 x lap tops 1 x 17 inch 1 x 15 inch. the 17 inch is sometimes used for gaming. both used a minimum 12 hours per day.

1 C/H pump 240v mostly running Nov to end Feb

23 LED lights MR16 usually 6 running at a time

Dab radio 4 hours per day

Washing machine 240v, only used when engine running, only used 2 weekly through Nov to end Feb

Occasional use of 240v hair drier.

We are full time live aboard and semi retired so are on the boat all day most days.

 

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The December chart will e completed next week, it shouldn't affect the stated average by much though.

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  • 4 weeks later...

First class job, congrats on the fit out, it look amazing!

 

I’ve got couple of questions. Regarding shot blasting of the bottom plate, I was wondering, how important is it? I’m asking because my boat has been shot blasted and painted with 2 part epoxy (apart from the bottom plate, which has not even been painted) and even though I’m hoping that I won’t have to take her out of the water for the next 5 years or so (anything can happen in the meantime though), will the bottom plate need attention in the meantime?

Another thing is, do you mind me asking what battery bank did you decide to go for?

 

Many thanks!

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The bottom plate isn't essential. We just did ours as we raised the boat on 3 sleepers and the shot blaster was willing to lay on the floor and blast it off. Many boaters don't bother with the base plate, usually the stern end of a boat will rub on the canal floor and any coating would be rubbed off over time anyway. The base plate suffers less oxidisation as well being lower in the water there's less oxygen too.

 

I would give the base plate a good inspection next time it's out the water though.

 

The battery bank is 6 x 6v 232amp US2200 doubled up to create 3 x 232 amp 12v batteries totalling 696ah bank. The US2200's can be found here.

 

http://www.tayna.co.uk/US2200-Deep-Cycle-Monobloc-Battery-P4117.html

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  • 5 weeks later...

I have to say,,what a brilliant Blog,,love it thank you,

 

By the way how has the 'Solar Collector' come along (i take it it's for the hot water, i must have missed that bit).I am interested in the viability of that myself.

The Solar panel graphics are a great guide.

Yes well done.

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Hi Paul

 

We haven't done the solar collector yet, we're planning to do this in the summer, I have been gleaning the bits to do so, however I recently noticed that the cost of solar collectors were now a lot more reasonable price.

 

These Velux type on e-bay are just over £200 it's likely to be more efficient than anything I can make myself and taking into account the time involved a ready to use panel at this price makes more sense.

 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Velux-Solar-Panel-/221343710629?pt=UK_Gadgets&hash=item33891cfda5

 

It's ball park the same size as a 250w solar panel, ok for our wide beam bit might be a bit big for a n/b roof. Anyway we're not desperate for hot water, but it's a job/project I want to do, and I do post all my on this thread and others.

 

There's some more solar graphics to come also for Jan & Feb

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Hi Paul

 

We haven't done the solar collector yet, we're planning to do this in the summer, I have been gleaning the bits to do so, however I recently noticed that the cost of solar collectors were now a lot more reasonable price.

 

These Velux type on e-bay are just over £200 it's likely to be more efficient than anything I can make myself and taking into account the time involved a ready to use panel at this price makes more sense.

 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Velux-Solar-Panel-/221343710629?pt=UK_Gadgets&hash=item33891cfda5

 

It's ball park the same size as a 250w solar panel, ok for our wide beam bit might be a bit big for a n/b roof. Anyway we're not desperate for hot water, but it's a job/project I want to do, and I do post all my on this thread and others.

 

There's some more solar graphics to come also for Jan & Feb

 

Would the collector require 3 coil calorifier? (taking into account engine, webasto/eber & solar collector) Do they even make them? Regarding the solar graphics, I keep track of mine too and I'm very pleased how February turned out comparing to January, we almost cover our needs just the from solar. Generator is running around 2h a week.

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Would the collector require 3 coil calorifier? (taking into account engine, webasto/eber & solar collector) Do they even make them? Regarding the solar graphics, I keep track of mine too and I'm very pleased how February turned out comparing to January, we almost cover our needs just the from solar. Generator is running around 2h a week.

There is a DIY solar collector article in the February 2013 issue of Practical Boat Owner which you may find useful.

 

Surecal make triple coil calorifiers to order. www.surecal.co.uk

 

Ken

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