Refurbishment begins - at last!

 

Return to Gweek, not such a nice day and the welding has taken it's toll on Xavier's paintwork! 

Finally in November 2022 Xavier arrives back in Gweek with a new bottom but a rather dirty greasy and rusty top!  But we do have a wonderfull boat whose size and shape attracts many comments.  The structure for the canvas conservatory is in place and the new companionway entrance looks smart with a new full size oak door.

We can't wait to start work on the boat and we love the workaday atmostphere of boatyard.  The real work can now begin on the fit out of our beautiful 30 metre boat, which so many have said is the most beautiful barge in Cornwall if not the UK! 

So many things to do, where do we start! We now have a pretty well empty shell. The outer hull is new and the inner hull has been sealed with wax oil to protect it.  For hundreds of years, the inside of metal Dutch boats has been protected with grease.  Its messy and there was a lot of it in Xavier.  Wax oil does the same job but it dries hard. 

We have decided on the new layout which is pretty much the same as the old layout but with less small rooms. Before we put up any walls we need to rewire and replumb everything.  Julian is an absolute stickler for building regulations and every bit of wiring rests on its own tray under the floor of the salon and is secured every 30 cm and labelled at both ends.  This seems a very boring and never ending task.  

Wall partitions and wiring going in.

Hard to avoid the power tools.

The service room is laid out with all the technical boxes and the water tank and this is where all our laboriously laid wires end up.

In the forward section where there were 4 cabins and one toilet there will be 2 cabins a bathroom and a separate toilet. When the wiring and the plumbing is tested we can get on with insulating everything.  We then construct room dividers, insert electrics or plumbing where necessary and then finally begin to get some paint on the walls! 

We want to retain the beautiful original brass port holes and we have streamlined the boxing in to provide the maximun space. 

WC is taking shape

The main bathroom is well underway. 

We absolutely love our mooring spot!  The views and the wildlife.

Oak floor installation begins

Ceiling boards go up after insulating.

Master bedroom almost finished.  Roof lights and skylight.

Electrics checked and labelled.

Kitchen Instalation begins

We're getting there!

Spring has sprung and the hard work over the winter has paid off with a boat that we are finally able to live in.  We are also enjoying our neighbours!

Very tiny cygnets hatched just near the wheelhouse.

Happy in our home!

Enjoying the Gweek Silver Band on Wednesday evenings

Work on House in Falmouth Summer 2022

We have spent the summer refurbishing a house in Falmouth for our daughter.  Although we are desperate to start work on the boat, the summer months were ideal for the outside work required.  We've had fun with the grandchildrens visits.

Nearly there

Picnic in front garden

We did all the external painting ourselves including errecting scaffold.  Neighbours impressed!

As the summer turns to autumn we are keen to finish and to plan our work on Xavier.

Dry Dock work in detail - whilst we enjoy Cornwall in the summer

The decision to have further work carried out has been made easier for us as we are not relying on the boat for our accommodation.  So in July 2022 Xavier took to the seas once again and captained by a skipper from the Penzance Dry dock, it made the voyage to Penzance.  

We are refurbishing a house in Falmouth and are also living there. So after everything is arranged with Penzance Dry Dock, we are busy working in Falmouth whilst making regulr visits to Penzance to keep up to date with the work going on there.

Note that in this photo taken before going into the dry dock,  the companion way entrance and the well deck canopy supports have yet to be constructed 

Xavier waits at the side of Penzance harbour

Xavier is carefully settled on supports under and to the side and the water is drained away.
No canopy or companion way yet.

Work begins stripping away the paintwork

As soon as Xavier was settled in the dry dock, our surveyor was able to have a good look at the condition  of the hull .  The hull was steel rivetted and whilst it was considered sound by our surveyor in the Netherlands, due to the work and expense involved with working on a boat of this size in the UK, we have decided to have the entire hull overplated so that we can rest easy that we had a solid hull for years to come.  Our surveyor marked out exactly where the 6mm steel plates were to be welded on, and where 8mm was required, mainly down the spine of the stern. Penzance Dry Dock moulded steel plates to fit each section and welders carried out the uncormfortable task of welding under the boat in about 1 metre of space!

Sand balast is removed from the internal hull seen here on the welldeck.
Attempts are made to protect the superstructure from sandblasting of the hull. See the blue tarpaulin.  

Chats with project manager Bluey in the dry dock.

Steel plates are welded on. Priming and painting begins.

Meanwhile Julian and I take the opportunity to explore the Helford Estuary in between our work on the house in Falmouth.  Whilst we were desperate to live on board, we were happy with the programme of work we had agreed with Penzance Dry Dock and we were also happy to take some time to explore the area and enjoy visits from family and friends.  There would be plenty of time to work on the internal refurbishment in the Autumn and Winter of 2022/23.

The Shiprights Inn at Helford.

The Ferryboat Inn, Helford Passage

St Michael's Mount and Marazion with Rachel.  We can't resist organic cucumbers. 

Planning work at Penzance Dry Dock - a lot more than we bargained for!

 

Off again - this time to Penzance Dry Dock 

We bought Xavier from Holland in the middle of the Covid pandemic and so we only got to see the boat once before we bought it.  As a project boat, our concern has been that it is fit to cross the chanel and arrive in Cornwall. We realised that work would be needed before we could refurbish the inside and replace the continental electrics and the plumbing. The survey in the Netherlands had stated that the hull had 'no corrossion'.    

Now with the boat in our possession we were faced with the reality. As we began to uncover the layers of chipboard that covered the inside hull, to inspect it for ourselves, we discovered that despite our surveyor in Holland giving the hull a clean bill of health, there was actually a good deal of rust on the inside. This had to be removed. Although the hull was of thick steel and very solid, we found that there was corrossion inside and pitting which is in effect small pits that are weak spots on the exterior.  We needed professional advice.  

We asked a trusted surveyor to inspect the boat and he agreed that remedial work was necessary but that first the boat needed to be out of the water to inspect everything properly.  In the end our worries were confirmed when a small hole opened up and rather than plug this and any other holes that might appear, we decided to move the boat to Penzance dry dock immediately for remedial work.  In the end this turned out to involve overplating the entire hull and some way up the sides with 6mm and 8mm steel.

We were so reluctant to leave our mooring so soon after we had arrived and considered how we might tackle the problem in situ at Gweek.  In the end we decided that we needed to be totally confident that the hull is ready for another 100 years of service.  Penzance Dry Dock is near to us and we had already commissioned them to construct a canopy frame for the welldeck as well as a companionway entrance to improve access into the decksalon.  Although all this work is going to be expensive, we need the peace of mind that will come from a thorough professional examination and new steel to cover the hull. We had budgeted for the work hoping it would not be needed. If it was needed, so be it.

After many discussions about how to approach the problem, we decided the only safe way for us to proceed was to have the entireall hull overplated with 6mm steel and 8mm thick steel in some areas.

Overplating on the rivetted hull

Extra thick plates on the supports in the middle

Steel plate shaped and craned into the dock ready for welding.

Thank goodness we had a myriad of disctractions!  The house in Falmouth needed total refurbishment inside and out.  Including scaffolding and repainting the outside.  We were well and truly busy this summer and this helped as our minds were not then completely absorbed with the work on Xavier.

We still had regular site meetings and regular payments to make, but we could see the work with our own eyes, unlike the experience in the Netherlands, and we knew that this would give us the confidence that patching holes could never do.

We also pledged to rebuild the boat with every part of the hull below water level visible and accessible inside!  

Arrival - first 2 days work

By 6pm Thursday 16 June, almost high tide.  Alan started to bring Xavier round from a spot sitting on the mud outside the Seal Sanctuary round the corner to where the river opens out just below Gweek. 

He was impatient to get going and did not want to wait for Simon and the crew from the boatyard to accompany and assist. He can be very stubborn! There were a few slightly awkward moments and exchanges!

The boat was turned and manourered through a narrow gap to its place alongside the quay.

The boatyard crew were on hand to deploy fenders where necessary as it made its way past several smaller boats.

Our first working day has finally arrived where we are in control of what happens and not dependent on anyone else. Phew!  Our first task is to remove the metal disks from portholes.  These need to be ground off, cleaned sanded and repainted.

There is also an awful lot of the previous owners posessions to remove.  Masses of flat pack furniture and other rubbish.  Many trips to the recycling centre and advertising stuff on Facebook marketplace, free to collect. Occassionally we have a rest and enjoying the view.

Alan and Annette visited today and gave Julian some tips.

Sian came to visit with the girls and they both slipped.  One of the deck and the other on the steps. Lessons learnt by all!

When we got home Julian ordered some two part epoxy blacking paint

Annette and Tom

Well earned fish and chips from the van that visits the village green every Wednesday.

Xavier leaves Mylor Creek - destination at Gweek. Home!

For the past two weeks Xavier has been on a tidal mooring and waiting for the high tide to take us up the Helford River up to Gweek.

Mylor is a perfect spot, so picturesque.  But we could not get anything on or off the boat except what we could carry on our backs as the boat was moored front on.

We also found water in the bilges, from her time at Geertman's.  They said there had been a leak from a water boiler under the sink. Several gallons of water had been sloshing about in the bottom of the boat for several weeks!

Cockwells Boatyard Mylor Bridge

The hull was pretty well covered in chipboard when we bought the boat and finding the water from the boiler made us realise we needed to be able to see all the inside of the hull and how important it was to ensure that everything was sound in the bilges before we focused on the upper part of the boat. 

Xavier is a spot in the distance Carrick Roads

 

We really are aboard! - but not in Gweek

Getting aboard is a little tricky at the moment, 

Xavier is finally in Cornwall and at its temporary mooring at Mylor Bridge boatyard.  The boat arrived at Mylor on Sunday 29 May

We are on a tidal mooring next to the barge you see above on the left, and we have started to get to know the boat.  Julian has been looking at all the technical stuff and thinking about how we will get hot water, solar panels and shore power and all the comforts of home. I'm thinking about how we will renovate the interior.  

I have been desperate to remove the peeling varnish on the wheelhouse exterior, so that's what I'm focussing on, using paint stripper (trying not to get the scrappings on the painted deck or in the environment).  Many of coats of paint stripper are required and each needs scrapping off, followed by scrubbing with a metal sourer and finally sanding before applying a thin coat of Indial Rosewood Coloron wood dye followed by Osmo UV protention oil. The maintenance on the wheelhouse has been neglected, but the wood is all hard and there is not a sign of rot, except on one cornern of the wheelhouse roof, which is not the actual wheelhouse and we are going to replace the roof.

Here is a video of the boat coming to rest on the tidal mooring.  Note the hand signals from the bank!

https://youtu.be/MEDFc3WHwoE?si=SnDdtIh0T20nD96n

We have had two days of brilliant sunshine, but today it is cloudy and wet, so we are going over on our bikes, it's just a few miles from Falmouth, to have a tidy up and wash the decks and side rails.

We are at this mooring waiting for a really high tide so the journey to the top of the creek at Gweek will be easily achieved with plenty of water to manouver in.

Meanwhile we are enjoying Gweek and looking at the other barges moored here including another 30 metre long barge moored up by the bridge.  We will be next to the cafe.