13th March 2010

I'd decided that it was time to remove the old sea toilet that was in the boat, the hole in the bottom would need to be filled, but that shouldn't be too much of a problem.  My plan is to replace the porta potti that was in the bathroom with a composting toilet from The Canal Shop they do a converted one that seems ideal for our boat, the model I'm looking at is Separett Mobile Composting Toilet.

The old sea toilet was a bit of a pain to remove, but I got there in the end, now that the room is empty I'm using it to store the wood that is waiting to be used on the boat.

As Karen my partner will testify Health and Safety and me do not mix... when using a lump hammer and a spanner on a metal toilet shaft you really should wear gloves:

February 2010

I managed to get the remaining vinyl off the boat today using  a heat gun and several stripping knives as I kept breaking them.  Don't know my own strength sometimes!

Once it was stripped I could see the extent of the damage and like most things on the boat far worse than I expected, 40 years have not been kind to the old girl.  I cut the worse part of the rot out, using a circular saw along the joists of the roof, using the screws as my alignment. I then used the saw to cut out the inner parts of the root then using a chisel removed the remainder on the joists, you can see the extent of the hole below:

You can see from the photo below than the ply making up the roof had rotted through a couple of layers and in some cases just de-laminated:

My plan was to mix up a batch of epoxy filler, wet out the roof, pour the filler over and  then over plate the whole roof with 12mm ply, creating a sandwich.  The resulting structure should be solid as a rock and last another 40 years. This seemed to work and I'm more than pleased with the result, I need to fill the edges and sand the edges to create the curve of the roof on the new ply.

While going over her I also found that the deck by the bathroom and also the panel that made the side of the bathroom, plus the timber running up the hull was rotten.  After several hours with a hammer an chisel I'd got the worst of it out.  I'd spent sometime in the past removing the front deck and it took an age, I realised that there must be an easier way, then it hit me, pull all the nails and screws out and use a power plane to remove the timber, then sand it.  

Then it was a simple case of cutting a new piece to length and then use a router to trim the edges, the result is a perfect fit, glue it and screw it in place:

As you can see from the following photos, there the panel was quite large, nearly 4' wide, you can also see the rotton part of the rear panel on the port side:

August 2009

I did very little to Sabrina during 2009, I met a new Partner and we had a damn good time instead, plus we didn't have a mooring for the boat.  However that all changed in August 2009 when a friend of hers saw a sign for a new marina that was being built just outside Audlem. Karen and I arranged to meet the owners at the site one Sunday, we stood on top of a large pile of clay in a recently dug out field, the Marina wasn't even a hole in the ground.

We both stood there and listened to total silence and we were sold, we signed up there and then, planning to have the boat ready for when the marina opened in March 2010.

We have since visited the Marina on each and every open day watching the progress, ever concious that the Sabrina is not getting worked on, but the weather has been horrendous, with Snow and rain preventing any real progress.

If you are looking for a mooring then I cannot recommend it highly enough, its Overwater Marina, the owners are a wonderful couple that make you feel welcome.

The marina is being built more like a large lake, with soft edges than your traditional box shape for parking boats.

10th April 2009

I've been very remiss lately on spending time on Sabrina, mainly due to my longterm relationship breaking up in 2008. Not the best year of my life, still I have a new partner and she is 100% behind me getting Sabrina repaired on back on the water.

We have spent the weekend pumping her out, she had over 1' of water inside her, it took 3 hours and she didn't look in too bad a shape (little did I know how bad things were).

To stop her filling up again I decided to build a canopy for her out of 8' lengths of 3" x 5" timber and securing a large tarpaulin over it using shock cord, this was to prove invaluble and a lot more sturdy than I was to realise.

Below is a photo of the canopy a year later, its still standing to quote Elton John.

9th March 2008

I managed to spend most of the afternoon on the boat as the weather wasn't too bad. As you can see from the photos the front deck is back down, on my next visit I need to grind off the screws that were holding the rubbing strip so I can trim and sand the deck. Once I'm happy with the deck I'll put two coats of epoxy on it and then use epoxy filler and glass tape to cover the joins which should mean the deck can last another 43 years.

Hopefully I can spend some time on her next week, finishing the side panel off, which will be used as the template to cut the right hand side. Before I start to put her back together I will strip off the paint on the inside of the hull and remove the water tank.

I ended up relaying the deck a further two times due to the new one getting damaged due to my infrequent visits to her, the same with the new side panel, although that was more to do with it not fitting right, which I only found out when I started putting her back together and the support timbers went in.

I did plan to use paper to make templates of the panels before I demolished them, but it was a bad idea, maybe I'm just need practise, but in the end it was easier to use the structural timbers assembled on a piece of ply and then draw round them, I've since found that its sometimes easier to use some cheap hardboard or scrap ply to make the template, seems to work a treat.

17th February 2008

I spent the afternoon on the boat stripping half the front deck off and cutting out a new panel to install in place of the rotten piece. I drilled some holes either side of the deck support so I could align the cut, it was just a simple case then of running the circular saw down the line.

Removing the old panel on the other hand took a lot more effort than I expected, like most things on the Sabrina, where she is rotten she disintegrates, where she is solid she is very solid. While stripping off I noticed two other patches of rot on the side decks, where they joined the front section.

The plan is to cut all the new pieces to size, dry fit them and then seal them with epoxy, infact seal all the pieces of wood before refitting. Once refitted I'll put another two coats of epoxy, which will hopefully stop her rotting again in the future,

25th January 2008

There are no photos for this update, I visited the boat after having not seen her since last year and spent a couple of hours pumping her out. Not having a roof on her, but having a tarp in place stops most of the rain, but some still seeps in and its been a couple of months since she was last pumped out.

I spent the day making a paper template of the front side panel, when I pulled the boat apart I deliberatly left the starboard side intack, knowing full well I would have to dismantle it at somestage, but not having any way of make a new panel as the existing one disintergrated when dismantling it.

It took four attempts to get the template right, a lesson learned is not to attempt to do this when stood on the side of a boat, four feet in the air, with a high wind and a 25 metre roll of paper.

One thing that I didn't realise is that the panel, because of the curved shape of the boat is actually at a slight angle. Once I had realised that and split the template in two things were a lot easier.

I then spent Saturday using the template to cut up a sheet of marine ply, I decided to leave a 1 inch border around the paper so that it would allow me to adjust it onsite at the boat, without having to man handle a 8x4 sheet of ply next to the boat.
I also spent the day striping the paint off the root supports, two will need to be remade, plus all the supports for the sliding roof so I will be taking them to Rotherham next week to get remade.

I went back to the boat on Sunday and dry fit the panel, I needed to trim it off in various areas and it fits pretty well, I need to make an adjustment to the front slope of it so that it fits a bit snugger, once I'm happy with the panel I can cut the other one out and remove the rest of the front.