Shipyard blog-7 !!!
These pages are designed to share the work in progress on the shipyard. They cover the work that needs doing to restore and convert our lightship. We decided to do some work ourselves, and leave the "heavy work" to the shipyard people who are much more capable than we are with steel work and such. On these pages you can follow our progress and frustrations...
This blog is split into SEVEN pages now, since it took too long for all those pictures to load at once! This is the most recent page. For the previous one click HERE Enjoy!
By the way: feel free to leave comments on our project HERE!
31 Aug 2010: The shop area is starting to look like... well.. a shop. More and more of the cabinets and even de counter find a place. And this week Denise joined us again! She is doing the stock management systems so that the shop will be well filled, the till is programmed and everything is accounted for. Agnes can be found painting all over the ship: here she is painting the stairs to the treatment rooms. Yes, even areas of the stairs you will never see are covered with paint so it will last forever.
28 Aug 2010: Mark is having a great time constructing supports for the shop cabinets. Since the deck is tilting backwards and also curves sideways, the cabinets have to be supported by a level artificial flooring. To get it all straight, Laser technology comes in handy! Don't ask me how he does it, but Mark makes it all happen. Have a look at the fall over just 2m in the last picture!
27 Aug 2010: The tiling in the bathroom is going very well and transforms it completely! Still a bit to go, but Richard is doing a stunning job. And after working with us for many weeks, Sam worked hard on his last day on the ship. He is starting College next week in Strout. We would all like to thank Sam for his excellent work and superb attitude, and we wish him well with his study!!
26 Aug 2010: A new tiler came on board today: Richard started on tiling in the main bathroom. Not an easy job since there is hardly a straight bit to find! And weird noises were heard all around the ship when Ryan from Force-3 commissioned the fire panel. All detectors were automatically "found" and tested. Barry made frames for the double glazing in the staircase well to the treatment rooms.
25 Aug 2010: The Training room is finally ready for painting. It took the Chippies a lot of time to get all the panelling finished on both the walls and the ceiling. Adam kept on installing all sorts of electrical bits and pieces. Here he installed an old Bakelite light-switch with new, but old looking wire to keep it all in style. And the work in the treatment rooms is going strong indeed! Painting of the ceiling is in full swing indeed.
24 Aug 2010: Panic has set in on board! We have set a date for the ship to move to Gloucester and it isn't far away.. We are working closely together with British Waterways to sort the details out. We can't share the exact date yet, but we will as soon as we can. But it means a LOT of work needs to be done to get the ship ready. The electrical systems in the cabin area is almost completed and the whole ship is smelling of fresh paint. Rooms and hallways turn nice and bright all the time! And the shop walls were varnished looking really good indeed.
16 Aug 2010: A BIG day today!! For the first time since 12 years, heating was back on inside the ship. Pete and Chris from Shackleton & Wintle ltd fired up the new boiler for the first time. A lot of work went into getting to this stage: a complete new central heating and hot water system went in, together with all waste water systems. The new oil fired boiler started up without a glitch and soon the radiators started to put out heat. Great on a day when the outside temp was above 23C... Mark is back from holiday and completed the painting on the inside of the restored lifeboat. I also purchased an historic engine to go into the lifeboat today through Ebay! And yet another volunteer joined us today who started on painting projects in the upper hallway and the ceiling of the wheelhouse. Welcome Debbie!!
15 Aug 2010: Today, Simon aka "Elvis" left the building. He is heading back North to Scotland after working with us for almost 3 weeks. As the 4'th Chippies, he helped out with various projects in the shop area and worked on restoring the hatch from the Cabin Hallway and several doors. Thank you so much Simon for your hard work and contribution to our project!!
13 Aug 2010: We've got another volunteer on board and although she didn't want her picture taken, here she is in-between Agnes and Sam: welcome Julie! Two of the Chippies started on some out-door activities. Barry is working on the hatches on the living-room and Lee started fitting the teak window frames on the wheelhouse.
6 Aug 2010: Today, our kitchen desktop was installed.CMS Construction spend a whole day to fit the Corian. This magical material had to be installed in several pieces due to the restrictions on the ship. It was then glued together in such a way that cannot been seen, even if you know where the seam is located! The guys spend all day glue-ing, sanding and polishing. The result simply looks stunning!
3 Aug 2010: We have a new additional Sparky on board! Murray helped Adam with the installation of the cable tray in the cabin hall area. Lots of cables that give that "industrial" authentic look and feel. Mark is making excellent progress on the life-boat: he made patches with anti-slip material and the final top coatings will go on after he returns from holiday (what's that word?!?) In the mean time, Sam started Sugar-soaping the walls in the main hall as preparation for painting. He proves to be a jack-of-all-trades and helps us out a lot!
1 Aug 2010: Hard to believe it is August already.. Time flies for sure! haven't been very active updating the website recently; simply too busy with all sorts. So have a scroll down: I have updated the page as from July-26. We had Denise on board for a couple of days who continued painting on the windlass. Agnes and Sam covered all the cabin walls in plastic sheets as preparation for the painting of the ceilings. They are doing a great job those two down below!
31 July 2010: Mark started work on the life-boat. It is worth spending time on it since this was one of the first ever fibre-glass life-boats made, so it has got historical value. Replacing the old wood is not easy, but Mark has the patience and skills to turn it into a first-class job!
30 July 2010: CMS Fabrication came out today to make a template of our kitchen cabinet top section. It will be made from Corian that can be moulded around the various ribs and pipes that stick out here and there. Everything was marked precisely. The templates will be used to make the Corian sections in their workshop so that it can be installed next week.
28 July 2010: Dan almost completed a difficult job replacing various hatches above the engine room and the galley whilst Agnes and Sam worked away down in the cabin area painting the ceilings and walls. Mark and Barry made good progress in the engine room, boarding up the ceiling. It starts to look very different now!
26 July 2010: We have yet another Chippie on board, this time a Scotsman named Simon. We call him Elvis, since he looks a lot like the young Elvis. He is also part of the existing Chippies clan: these four guys worked together on many ships before. Also, our life-boat was turned around again so that work can start on the inside and surrounding wood. Mark is ready to go!
23 July 2010: For a moment it looked rather dangerous on site: a pallet of lookalike dynamite was delivered on the quay side! It proved to be the hanging anodes that will be installed on the side of the ship to protect the hull against corrosion. Here's Sam carrying them on board. And a smiling Adam, with a lot of patience, is re-wiring light switch locations in the shop.. Agnes changed her mind again it seemed! ;-)
22 July 2010: The ship is having high-tech cameras installed by Force-3 Security. They appear everywhere, both outside and inside! Big Brother has arrived.. is that you Ryan? The white surroundings will be painted red later on to blend in nicely.
21 July 2010: Testing of the fog-horn is in full progress!! Dan and I are trying our best to make it work to its full potential. Not that easy: playing around with pressures and such. BUT.. we got some good, short blasts out of it! Listen to a sound track by clicking HERE. A door was placed by Lee in the shop to the staircase leading to the treatment rooms. Seems like he's proud of it! And we found a rather black-faced devil on a scaffolding in the Training room.. Weird place at times..
20 July 2010: Mark and Lee work together a bit too much I start to think.. Look at them: they look the same way, have the same T-shirts and if you look REALLY close, you can see they are both squeezing their left eyes! Scary... Dan has made the new "tower" for the antenna tuning unit. Both top aerial wires will be connected to it through a big ceramic insulator. Barry is discussing progress in the Training room with Agnes, or at least that's what they told me ;-)
15 July 2010: Well, lots of activities this week! Pic-1 shows Ben who is working on the replacement of the hatches above the engine room. The hinges all need replacement to but it will all work again soon. Another event we looked forward to this week was the testing of the fog-horn! The air receiver was piped up into the wheelhouse where a valve allows the compressed air to the horn. But although we overhauled the diaphone a couple of months ago, it didn't want to go. It needs some fine tuning by Stuart later on. Dan has installed a high-tech rubber hose for the discharge of our grey-water. It took him some hard work, with several connections in odd locations, but we are ready to test the pump and level switches soon. Pic-3 shows Sam who is putting insulation material in the living room's ceiling, ready for the chippies to board-up. They, Mark and Lee, were in the shop area though, doing just that! And down below in the Training Room, our third chippy Barry is making a master-piece of the cabinets and it's bits & bobs. This room is starting to look fantastic!! Last picture shows the captain trying to look intelligent and give the perception that everything is under control..
9 July 2010: This week, a volunteer joined the crew. Sam is helping out with all those jobs that needs doing and never got done. He moved a lot of boxes from one of the containers on board, cleaned out some of the cabins, and helped the Chippies. Here are some action pictures of our new hero!
8 July 2010: John completed a job he was trying to get away from for a while: the final wiring of the local distribution panel in the upper hall. If you only knew how many wires went into it, you wouldn't like to do it either though! But he got the job done! Whilst we are still waiting for bits to come in for the fog-horn, Dan started modifications to the overboard water system. It involved removal of existing piping behind the wall panelling of Cabin-2. New piping to be connected soon! Barry is making good progress with the walls in the Training room. Although an internal wall, we still use Eco-wool as sound insulation. In the mean time, Mark and Lee are sanding away in the Cabin area. Mark is making the lower hallway looking like new, and the last picture shows Lee finishing off his beloved bathroom. Surely this must be THE action shot from the whole project!! Totally safe of course: he could only slide down, and it would have been well funny!
7 July 2010: It won't be long now, the day we can test the fog-horn! Dan is making good progress with the piping that connects the air storage vessel to the horn. It will be operated by a hand-valve and not by the clock. There simply wouldn't be enough air available for several blasts. We will have to pre-warn the people in Sharpness, particular those living around the docks when we do the tests. It will be very loud indeed!!!
6 July 2010: Today, three sideboards arrived that will be converted into vanity units for each training room. These massive oak pieces of furniture weight almost 100kg each! Thanks to the delivery guys on the picture below who carried them down!
1 July 2010: Can't believe we are in July already! So much to do, so little time.. The SBS crew has started painting the superstructure and the whole ship will soon be in her final colours! Adam started the final wiring of the main distribution panel, the electrical "brain" from the ship. Lots of wires that go to local distribution boards around the ship. He promised me it will all work!
30 June 2010: The world-cup doesn't escape the light-ship crew! We have watched some matches with a projector on the big screen on board. And although the English team is out, our Dutch team (yes, we still acknowledge our Dutch roots) is still in! So during a quick visit to Holland over the weekend, we stocked-up on flags, hats and other typical Orange stuff. So the flag is flying high and proud as from this week! GO HOLLAND!!
29 June 2010: Running of cabling inside the ship is nearing completion. The focus is now on data and telecoms cabling and a close-up of a cable tray on the ceiling of the Training Room says it all. In the mean time, Dan has started with the housing of the stand-by Lister generator. First, a drip tray had to be constructed to contain any spill of diesel and/or engine oil. Dan and Steve had to pull some tricks out of their hats to lift the heavy generator without the help of a crane! The SBS painters are also back on board to prepare the superstructure to be painted. More colourful spots appeared everywhere, made up from filler and paint. The walls will be smooth as silk before the final coating will go on.
25 June 2010: The mains cable came in today. Since the cable will be quite long, a BIG cable it had to be to prevent voltage drop. So it took three people, Adam John and Dan to pull the cable on board and into the ship all the way into the boiler room where the main power distribution board is located. With the hot weather we had today, it wasn't an easy job!
17 June 2010: The Chippies are going strong! Barry completed the fitting of the cabinets on one side of the engine room. We are now going through different options for the top covering. We have samples of Cork and Leather to go through. Barry can't complete the final fitting on the other side since we are waiting for the mains-power cable to come in that will be running behind these cabinets. In the mean time Lee and Mark working away in the bathroom. It is difficult to see the curves in the picture, but it will be the most fantastic bathroom you have ever seen! Grand-Design eat your heart out!
13 June 2010: Dan is back on board and he is working very hard to complete some jobs. The little pipe sticking up from the deck may not seem much, but it's connected to a heavy duty hose that runs all the way down to the new black-water tank. Dan also welded an internal pipe inside the tank. This whole assembly allows a vacuum truck to empty the tank in future. Dan also welded new strips on the wheelhouse to cover up the old rivet holes that were no longer in use. If all goes to plan, the painters will be back within a couple of weeks to paint the superstructure and wheelhouse so that all paintwork o the ship will be completed. The middle picture shows the removal of the four ventilation hatches to the engine room. They have to be replaced. You can just see Dan sticking his head through the lattice of the tower!
11 June 2010: Although very busy, this part of the project is very exciting indeed: you see some of the final touches coming together. Today, Mark collected the units that make up the cabinets on each side of the new Training Room (former engine room). The carefully selected door panels, made from rustic oak, look like drift wood and certainly add to the atmosphere! Barry did a great job constructing the foundation for the cabinets (NOT an easy job at all) and placed the first units for us to see how it is all going to look. Excellent indeed!
10 June 2010: Agnes couldn't wait to feel how it will be in the new bath tub. So here she is! Instead of having a glass of wine though, it was a cold mug of coffee she was holding, oh well. John was having a ball wiring the local distribution board in the upper hallway together with Adam. You should listed to these guys during the day: a bunch of giggling girls is NOTHING compared to these two! They have far too much fun, but hey: it's a golden team working together so what the heck.. ;-)
9 June 2010: The Force is with us!! This week, Allan and Ryan from Force-3 Security started on board to install the fire- intruder alarm and CCTV systems. It means even more cables appearing all over the place. Welcome guys! Dan is also back on board working away on the conversion of two former potable water tanks into our black- and grey- water tanks so that the plumbers can hook-up the waste water piping. Lee and Mark make good progress in the bathroom. It's not easy to panel it all up with all those strange shapes of the walls! In the mean time, Barry is preparing the training room for the installation of the "wall of cabinets". Pictures of him soon!
4 June 2010: What do you do on a roasting hot day? You look over the side of the ship to the nice cool water.. where I discovered that a bolt holding one of the frames that keeps the ship from the quay side was out. These bolts where not tightened as they should be when they were installed in dry-dock since we knew we had to release them again when we will sail to Gloucester later on. So Matt pulled on his Wellies and ascended onto the frame with a set of spanners. We had to pull the ship off the quay side so our Sparkies pulled from the other side to allow the frame to be slightly lifted for the new bolt and nut to fit. It didn't take long for Matt's Wellies to flood! Shame we couldn't capture his comments when this happened.. Cheers Matt!
2 June 2010: With work in the bathroom progressing, it was time to try to see if the bath tub would fit through the hatches and doors.. Although we ordered the bath taking into consideration these limitations, we knew it would be a tight fit.. But it all worked out as planned and the tub was down at last.
1 June 2010: Yet another new blog-page.. number-7 already! Where does the time go. With the start of the new month, yet another new team member arrived on the scene. Barry joined the team of Chippies making a total of three now. He got the prime job as well: making groves in the ply sheets for the bathroom. Why is it a good job? Since he could work in the sun on the aft deck! He clearly enjoyed it.. Welcome on board Barry! Elly, my sister, also worked hard on board, painting away in the treatment room-2. Two giggling girls on board... Unfortunately Elly flew back home to Holland in the evening. Thanks for your help Elly!
The previous blog page (click HERE) Enjoy!