Over the next couple of months I carried out a few more cosmetic tasks, all sans power tools. Go me! I was averaging 3 visits to the boat a week in the weeks leading up to my 50th birthday.
Can I just say that having to explain my absences to all and sundry was getting more and more difficult? Don’t forget that absolutely no one knew anything about the boat at this stage. In no particular order, here’s a quick summary of what was completed:
- Removed all the wood from inside the cabin – Most if not all of the wood inside the cabin needed to be removed as it had been neglected and damaged. This included the loose wooden floorboards covering the bilge area, The toilet/bathroom wall, the supporting beams for the floorboards. The thin boards of plywood that separated the sleeping berths from the rest of the cabin, a cabinet, the toilet and few other bits and pieces.
- Removed the rope rub rail surrounding the outside of the boat – This involved removing nuts and bolts from the inside of the cabin, some of which were nigh on impossible without a new tool. New to me I guess. More importantly, not an electric tool. It’s called a nut splitter, and just mentioning it makes me chuckle every time. Let me tell you, it took the best part of a day to remove that rope. Can I also add that I’ve never seen a rope that thick, or heavy? You could easily hang at least 3 elephants by the balls with it and it would take the strain. Removing the rope has left quite a few bolt sized holes in the hull which will need to be filled at a later stage.
- Started removing the hull bumpers from the hull – That’s those awful black stripey things that make The Snail look like a floating fucking Zebra. This little task is still in progress, the bolts/screws holding it in place on the hull have been particularly diffucult to remove. Not to mention the bumpers at the back of the boat are attached in particularly difficult places to reach. This too has left bolt sized holes in the hull and like the rope rub rail will need to be filled at some point.
- Pressure washed both the outside and inside of the boat – In addition to this I have scrubbed every accessible inch of the boat by hand. Some of the pictures included below will show the difference that made.
- Emptied the boat of water numerous times – You may have noticed in some of the pictures there are some gaping holes that the previous owner has cut out for some reason or another and these have allowed rain water to accumulate inside the boat. For the most part the water is coming in from the transom and a gaping hole that the previous owner has cut in the cockpit floor to expand the size of the engine bay. It’s only in the last week or so that Zed has suggested using tarpaulins to cover these holes. Why did I not think of that at the time?
