Boatbuilding........when it stops raining

[inbye]

No longer involved in mining (I'd go back tomorrow if I could) I find myself working as a mechanic/MOT tester, in Huddersfield.
Not such a bad job, I mostly look after the garage's own vehicles, recovery trucks & the like.........OK, but nowhere near as interesting as pitwork.

It's been an ambition to build a canal narrowboat, for a long number of years. I've been working up to it gradually, aquiring a vintage engine, overhauling it, along with various other bits.

Last year I started *for real*, prepared a base of sleepers, bought the first load of steel (about 5 tons) and now have the makings of a decent looking boat. Started last June, worked at weekends till November, when it became too cold & begun again in May. Can't seem to get a good run at it, due to the rubbish weather.........rain & welding don't mix

First image shows the vintage engine "as found". It's an ex crane engine & will weigh approaching half a ton.



Second pic is how the same lump looks today, after being fully stripped, re-conned & brush painted. I'ts mounted on solid english oak bearers, which in turn sit on a massive box section bedframe. I also fabricated the front cross member & the engine to gearbox adapter plate, & fitted a marine gearbox.



The boat itself has a 12mm thick baseplate, 6mm hull sides & will have 4mm cabin sides & roof (aint got so far) overall length is 55'.0" & is approx 6'.10" in width. This image shows the boat in *flat pack* form.



Next image is a general view, towards the end of last year.



Lastly, a view of how things looked last week.



As of yesterday the pattern at the bottom, was replaced by another steel bow plate. It's a lot cheaper to make a mistake on a bit of hardboard, than expensive steel plate.

Hope this is of interest...

[John]

Nice job, that will keep you out of mischief for a while!

[Mick]

Wot a kit lol,please keep pictures coming when you have time.
If we dont get any more members on Forum we should all fit in boat.
Mick

[dazbt]

That's brilliant inbye, not just the concept but the amount of progress you've made so far despite the weather hold ups. Daft question, but has it got a name already or will that come as it grows?
The other thing I have to ask about is your day job, what do you find yourself testing most of, MOTs or Mechanics?

[inbye]

Jul 19, 2008 10:14:35 GMT -5 John said:

Nice job, that will keep you out of mischief for a while!

Hey up John, certainly keeps me out of the pub.........too bleedin' knackered

[inbye]

Jul 19, 2008 14:52:30 GMT -5 Mick said:

Wot a kit lol,please keep pictures coming when you have time.
If we dont get any more members on Forum we should all fit in boat.
Mick

We'll have to Mick...........aint buildin' another

[inbye]

Jul 19, 2008 16:09:08 GMT -5 dazbt said:

That's brilliant inbye, not just the concept but the amount of progress you've made so far despite the weather hold ups. Daft question, but has it got a name already or will that come as it grows?
The other thing I have to ask about is your day job, what do you find yourself testing most of, MOTs or Mechanics?

Cheers Daz, name?, nothing definate. Possibly Lone Star, as in it's a lone effort.........an' I hope it's a star . Another maybe is "Esk". If anyone ever visited Whitby harbour & saw them dredging with a grab dredger (The Esk) my engine powered the grab on the deck (navvie).

Day job.........MMMMmmm. Most of the mechanics are young lads, who just don't seem to be from the same mould as people like us. Part of my day is taken up rectifying mistakes, or just doing the job for them (then showing them all over again, the next time ) Also drawn the short straw on the MOT side. The other two have to be *tested* themselves, once a month. You guessed it......my job.

At least I only "work" 4 days (self employed) so the other 3 is boat building......hopefully.

[inbye]

Just a short update on the boat, been hard at it dodging the showers & blazing hot sun.



Image shows a side on view, there will be an additional plate at the top, which will face inwards.



Looking down on the bows. To give some idea of scale, the new plate to the left is 3M x 1.5M.
Forming that bow has been a struggle, but well worth it...

[dazbt]

Looking good Inbye, it'll take a few tubs of coal to fill that I reckon.
Are you the only one working on it?

[inbye]

Just me Daz, can't be anyone else as daft

I have an old forklift, for the heavy stuff but it's not often I need to use it. Used it at the weekend, as an anchor block, to jack from.



You can probably make out a portable hydraulic ram, between the forklift & the bow plates. I had some real pressure on at one point, the solid tyres were *bending*

[Mick]

Great Pics inbye,looks like alot been done since last pics.
Mick

[inbye]

Aug 5, 2008 13:02:41 GMT -5 Mick said:

Great Pics inbye,looks like alot been done since last pics.
Mick

Cheers Mick, aye, fair bit. The weather's a nightmare.......rain & welding........not good.

That was the good thing about the pit, didn't get rained off......although, in the Flockton, with a non stop rainstorm running off that mussle band

[dazbt]

Although I think you are doing a great job with this ‘ship’, I feel I just have to make comment, as one ex-miner to another, regarding the ‘sprag’ at the sharp end ………………. errrrrr, well done, in getting away with it, faith in friction comes to mind.

[inbye]

Aug 5, 2008 13:23:26 GMT -5 dazbt said:

Although I think you are doing a great job with this ‘ship’, I feel I just have to make comment, as one ex-miner to another, regarding the ‘sprag’ at the sharp end ………………. errrrrr, well done, in getting away with it, faith in friction comes to mind.

;D See what you mean, Daz. *Honest* there wasn't any tension on that. I had used that bit of fence post there, but the point was into the angle, square end against the bottom plate......It's just the way it looks............

[inbye]

Just an update to some of the above work. As the above pics show, I've been restoring an old crane engine, over last winter & part of this.

Finally had it running & made a short video clip...



Hope it displays OK. There's a bit of swearing at the end, where a mechanic walks past & gives me a bit of *banter*. Doubt it will offend, but if it might, please turn the volume down.

Hope it's of interest...

[John]

Looks and sounds good mate, my tractor has a three cylinder Yanmar engine, no thermal heaters for cold days yet starts like a dream everytime even when its well below freezing point!

[inbye]

This was the scene in my *boatyard* about three weeks ago...



Believe it or not, the weather was good enough for me to do the first day's boatbuilding, yesterday. Still a cold wind though, but not complaining...

And if I'm no good at boats.........I can always print Christmas cards.

[John]

You should have seen it here a few weeks back! We had an ice storm, worst I'd seen in the ten years we've lived down here. Over a million folks across several states without power, some for weeks! We lost ours for nearly a week. Thousands of power poles snapped off, roads impassible, brought the whole of this area to a standstill for about a week. Trees snapped off with the weight of ice on them.
We kept our fridge and freezer running off a generator. Now on the lookout for a good used PTO generator for the tractor of around 10Kw.

[inbye]

Just a short update on the narrowboat build. Not quite finished, but not far off.



Above image taken a couple of weeks ago. Just a few more welding jobs to do over Winter, job done.
Vintage engine's installed, stainless water tank inside, just to fasten in place...been working a hard seam, but it'll be worth it...

[Wheldale]

What ever happened to the boat?? Was it finished??