Have you seen the mess snails leave behind? Yes, yes I know, inappropriate but my house, my rules. Anyway, there’s a point to the joke. The previous owner hoofed on what can only be described as a shack making the boat look like a cross between a boat, a snail and something from the favelas of Brazil. As a result, the boat’s unofficial name for a few weeks was “The Snail”.
Now, I had a small dilemna, absolutely no one but myself knew about the boat at the time and I wanted to make a start on the boat but I had promised myself no power tools on the boat without the express permission of Zed, the project manager for the previous boat. You can read about him here.
With the benefit of writing this post way after everyone found out about the boat, I can report he gave himself concussion when he threw his head into his hands at hearing the news. But I digress.
Clearly the first port of call was to explore the boat and get a feel for what little tasks lay ahead for me to complete without having to use any sort of destructive tools. My first decision was to rid the boat of that awful godforsaken shed off the back of the boat. Armed with just one or two screwdrivers and a bit of brute force I started taking the “shell apart”. It took the better part of the day but the result was so worth it. Take a look:
Much sexier, innit bruv? The following day I went back to the boat and decided to have a massive clear out and salvage whatever I could. Unlike the last time I was a little less careless about what I kept and what was going to go on the ever increasing pile of shit next to the jetty. Last time I threw pretty much everything away with gay abandon and with no thought of the consequences further down the line.
Here’s what the boat looked like inside before my clear out and then after:
A vast improvement wouldn’t you say?