Wet..wet…wet! Well that describes the weather. The 4 fold ladder ordered from Midland Ladders via Ebay arrive which provided an opportunity early in the morning to experiment with an idea we have for a gangplank. Some modifications are required.
The first thing you may have noticed is it’s now a 3 fold ladder! Four was just too long. The plan is to pot rivet aluminium plate to the rungs to make a lightweight folding gangplank with a load capacity of 150kg. The second modification was to the boat end of the ladder.
The stabilization bar has been shortened so it will fit across the rear deck. The bank end hasn’t been modified.
The plan is to store it on the roof immediately in front of the rear sliding hatch. We plan to go to Newbury soon and whilst there will look for a suitable lockable bike security chain for the ladder.
Around midday we had a visit from Peter & Margaret. They had just returned from their P&O Mediterranean cruise and were sporting a tan.
They are the owners of nb Kelly-Louise <blog link here> and very kindly allowed us use of her whilst we were waiting for work to start on Waiouru. They were telling us how much they had enjoyed the cruise. Also the excitement of a major crack occurring in the ship when crossing the Bay of Biscay in rough weather. Peter has written about the incident on their blog. We hope to catch up with them once we start cruising and as they are familiar with the Lancaster Canal I asked if they would be interested in doing the Ribble Link with us!
Richard has made significant progress with the cratch board. He has completed the frame and ordered the glass for the windows. The King Plank <correct name?) was made in the afternoon. It’s the horizontal plank which connects the top of the cratch board to the roof of the boat.
View from the inside face
The windows will open inwards and be on ‘lift off’ hinges. We specifically wanted the cratch board made this way so we can gain access to the water filler point and the bow anchor point from inside the cratch. The logic/reasoning behind this decision was the actual area in front of the cratch board will probably be quite hazardous during winter (ice & snow). The cratch board will be painted but the King Plank is made of oak and will be varnished.
I must find some time tomorrow afternoon to give everything at least one coat of ‘Impreg’.
A courier also made a delivery to us today and we are now owners of an ‘Eco’ style fan. It’s not an ‘Ecofan’ but a very similar fan which was significantly cheaper.
It looks very similar to the ‘Ecofan’
We purchased it from First4Spares via Amazon <here> for £73, including free delivery.
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