May 2007 update

Been doing various maintenance and improvement jobs of late

Paintwork was polished using Mer

Chimney cover for summer use when I dont use the stove with satellite dish mount to right.

Brass chimney in place, its bolted on with coach bolts to deter theft

New roof colour RAL Coral Red gloss. New deck colour RAL Oxide Red gloss

Solar panels in background with newly painted hatch decoration

New corner shelves with drawers below

"D" shackle and mount bolted to bulkhead

The chimney is in the centre, about 1 ft high

Free heat from the engine, under cupboard heat exchanger

Paintwork

Its that time of year again but finding the right weather is not easy. I put 3 coats on the roof, only intended 2 but the second one went matt in places due to me painting it in the evening and the dew coming down and spoiling the paint finish. Nothing for it but to rub it flat and give it a second coat. I repainted the decks and roof, both different although similar colours to those before. Also painted the two hatch covers. very difficult to get a good finish when doing the painting outside. I used enamel paint with some "Owatrol" paint conditioner, foam roller then laid off with brush. Has some brush marks but it the best I could do and am quite pleased with the finish

Chimney

I made a brass chimney from a large artillery shell case, (must take a picture of it in place). In the summer I use the base of the shell as a cap over the stove flue as I don't use the fire except in the winter. You can see the chimney and its liner ready for fitting. Both the chimney and the cap are bolted in place to deter the thieves. I am really pleased with how it looks. There is a risk of knocking it off but as the tug is low in the water and the chimney not tall I should be okay, just have to watch it

"D" shackle

Just a fancy bit of finishing, no real purpose to it, but it looks good. I found this solid steel bracket that fitted the shackle and drilled and tapped the fixing

Bedroom

Internal to the bedroom I have added shelves and matched them in the the drawers in the corner scumbled finish to match the main doors. Also have carpet tiles the floor (picture to follow)

Solar panels

I added 2 flexible solar panels to the roof that I picked up at reduced price, they have been glued in place, the output is not great, probably no more 5 amps per day at this time of year, not decided yet whether they are worthwhile for this size of panel output yet, will know more with the longer days to come

Engine heater

I have made a heater that is located under the kitchen units that blows hot air into the saloon. Its quite a long run of heater hose from the engine but all works fine however I don't think the heat exchange units I used are big enough. Will probably try and find bigger ones at some point