A float on Miracle - 20ft narrowboat

27.07.2012

Planning for the future.

This morning I sucessfully passed a very important milestone. I passed the Life in the UK test and will now be eligible to recieve my UK Citizenship.

I could not be more pleased.

Last night, after realising the Miracle was NOT likely to become a money hemmoraging concern in the near future, I gave myself permission to er, splash out if you will.

I have allocated a small amount of money for "boat beautification."

Originally, I intended to move off her within six months.

Originally, I thought a lot of things, like that I would purchase a bigger boat by now.

But this has been coupled other realisations, like:

• Miracle is, unusally (it seems) nicely fitted
  
• she's got no major issues
  
• nothing is about to go "BOOM" or surprise me
  
• everything works as it should
  
  

In short, I've really landed on my feet with this boat. The "other rookie" of last winter was my now good friend, the OC teacher. OC Teacher also bought a Springer.

**They couldn't be anymore different. **

OC Teacher has already had to replate 3/4 of his hull. He has entirely gutted his interior. The wiring was a tangle of 20 years rewiring by amatures, none of which worked. His gas doesn't work.

Despite all of this, he is one of the most upbeat and positive people I've ever known. This morning when I saw him he hung his head.

*What's wrong?
I've got a leak in my water tank.
Oh.
And my stern gland is fucked, again.
Oh.
And my deisel is dripping.
Oh.
And the new hatch is letting in water. *

No wonder he's down.

All of these things are managable, one at a time.

To wake up and realise you live in a empty shell and ALL of these other things need attention before you can isulate, is like being hit with an avalanche.
He's scared, understandably.
More than that, he's overwhelmed.

I walk back to my boat. I'd always wondered if he' d gotten a better deal than I did with that boat. Now I know.

I was incredibly lucky with Miracle.
She's something I can handle.
I now know a bigger boat will have to wait. I am not they sort to take on a project like OC Teacher has. That means either being incredibly lucky, again, or saving quite a bit more to get a bigger boat that is in the same sort of solid condition that Miracle is.

So, what's my boat beautification fund getting?
I've decided on retro-fitting a hatch.
I've found a ship builder who does this and brings the fitting to you.
I'm very excited.

Wooo! Congratulations!

Looking forward to seeing Miracle in the flesh sometime.

Just seen this!

Good work - you got the chap back on the water!

Back when I was looking to get a boat back from Birmingham, some of you mentioned you'd help out locally.

Would any of you be willing to meet up with my mechanic friend - ie go for a cruise, make tea or help set up locks?

He is bringing his "new" vintage engine boat from Northwich through Brimingham - from thursday next week.

Questor Thews is the name of the boat and if anyone can help out, please let me know! (i'm not publishing his mobile but will pm)

You'll be in good boater hands, Darren is one of the most solid / honest people I've met. Its not necessary for you to know how to sail, and he's got plenty of space to store bikes on the boat if you ride out to meet him.

I'd be grateful and I know Darren would be too.
Even if its just someone to make cups of tea... he drinks a LOT of tea.

I've decided on retro-fitting a hatch.
I've found a ship builder who does this and brings the fitting to you.
I'm very excited.
I saw your thread on another forum talking about doing this. Good luck with it, hatches are a handy thing to have in the kitchen.
FWIW I know someone who had 2 additional side hatches added and reckoned the work was better than that done for the original hatch by the boat builder.

@ardicius - your FWIW is very reasuring. I'm pretty positive that the gent's work in question is pretty amazing stuff. The pictures ooze quality...

He's coming next Friday to measure up for me. When we spoke on the phone, I got a really good vibe.
I'd really like to video it and do a 30 second speeded up version to show people. By all accounts so far it seems to take just over an hour, which totally amazes me.

Glad to hear that. Always good to be able to see someone's work before they go making changes that you can't undo.

Does that hour include fabricating the hatch doors, or just to cut the hole and tidy up etc?

Definitely be interested to see the video too.

@arducius - he's coming for a one hour consult (free) with a sample. Then he'll measure and we'll agree the look, size etc., When its fabricated and red oxided he'll bring it back to me and with his team here on the tow path they'll cut her and fit her. Apparently the cut and fit takes around an hour.

The Norwegien is going to sit in on the consult and is thinking to get two hatches himself.
It could be a very good day for that gentleman's company :)

7.02am Sunday 29.07.2012

River Rats.
**
I am NOT a great morning person.**

There's some boisterous lads close by.

They're exited.

Laughing and yelling at eachother in another language.
I groggily look out my window.
**
Nothing.**

I look out down the river, there's a man on the bank yelling.
I can't see who or what he's yelling at.

It goes quiet.

I fall back into my bed.
My alarm goes off.

I've been cheated out of my last 10 minutes of sleep and hit snooze.
It is sunday afterall.

Then the laughter and loud talking suddenly begins again.
I ignore it.

They seem like they're right outside my window.

Impossible.

It would mean they're IN the river.
Suddenly there's a great crashing sound.
It sends me verticle.

WHAT WAS THAT?

I'm up.
I open my window.

Four big men are in a row boat and they've struck Miracle with the ore.

Guys! It's 7am.. I was sleeping!
Sorry miss, they call out.

My alarm goes.

I grumble, there's no way I'm going back to sleep now.

I get up and put the kettle on and open my curtains.
They're rowing by.
My angry glare follows them down the river.
It's only then that I notice the boat.
She's a beautiful red wooden row boat with a heart shaped stern.

**I know this boat.

It's not their boat. **

I climb out of Miracle and look down river.
There are no signs of life from the other boats.
There is no sign of the boat's owner being up.

**They've stolen her. **

I'm half alseep but quickly walk down the tow path to the owners boat.

I knock.

An equally sleepy head pokes out.

*I know *he says..
I caught them stealing her.
Oh. I'm confused.
*I told them they could use her. I didn't have a choice really, but I gave them permission becaue now they won't smash her up.
Oh, ok then. *
I trundle back home.
The kettles whistling.

I keep my doors open and watch the theives. They're zig zagging across the water and laughing loudly.
I sip my coffee and begin to feel human.

Sure enough, when I'm on my secoond cup of coffee they're coming back up the river toward the owners boat to return her.

would you see a cute car in someones driveway and take it for a joyride? no.
i'm not sure why people assume they can just take your boat.

Oh shoot, Jacqui. Really sorry to hear that. What horrid people!

Did you take any photos of them and your wee boat to show the police?

Hugs xx

That's terrible. Does the boat owner know if they have done this before?

My cousin has had similar experiences of people on the towpath thinking of her boat as 'fair game' including asking to come inside, getting on the stern without asking and generally treating it as public property. This culminated recently with a couple of people requesting to come aboard, outstaying their welcome and then robbing her laptop whilst she was out the next day!

@ideal standard - unfortunately what your cousin experienced happens quite often. The Norwegien had the exact same thing last year, the person came onboard, scoped his stuff and the next day the boat was ransacked - stole a 2k generator out of the boat and smashed his windows, when they couldn't bust in the door. *its an impessive 2inch thick iroko thing..

In london its bad. People board your boat often, the trick is to try and suss if they're the naughty ones or just ignorant to the fact that the boat is your home.

Pretty boats get boarded a lot for pictures. When you explain that what they're essentially doing is walking up to your door step and taking a picture they seem to get it.. because they can see how weird it would be if it happened to them.

Miracles retro fit.

I've met with Martin, the man who will carry out the retro fit of my new steel doors and my side hatch.
Martin is exactly the sort of person you want to do work on your home.. we were walking up the tow path toward Miracle and he began sussing me out.
"So you've been on your boat a while?"
Since October last year.
He nods, so you've done a winter, that's good.

Yes, and I'm planning on being on her for a while. I'm not up to a big project and my budget means I'll be saving for a bigger boat longer than I'd originally thought. The doors and hatch will make it doable.

He nods again.

I know this isn't your main business, so what is it that you really do?

Have you heard of Black Prince?

Its my turn to nod.

I build them. I've been building narrowboats since 1972. The retro fitting is my hobby. I saw a gap in the market, most yards hate doing hatches, they're expensive because they take so much time. But most yards dont have our advantage. We've a system, it takes us 2 weeks to build each boat, and we clock out at noon on Fridays.

I absorb this new intel. Black Prince are the hire boats, very nice hire boats. Miracle is a Springer, known throughout the waterways as the Skoda of boats. Black prince are more like the Jaguars of the water.

So, my Skoda is getting Jag parts... it's a bit of overkill.
I couldn't be more pleased.

I've missed a few posts on here - just spent a very enjoyable 15 mins catching up!

I can really see these posts in a little book with sketches of Miracle, maybe some technical diagrams of the equipment you're describing.

My little boy Isaac is train mad & I read him the 'Peter's Railway' books.

They have sections of story:

Mixed with technical sections describing the workings of steam locomotives.

I've learned loads from these books, and so has Isaac. I can imagine A Float on Miracle as a more grown book, one that informs the novice about the technical aspects of owning a boat, mixed with your lovely stories of water life.

There is a long list of stuff that I'd either love to do as a hobby, or as a lifestyle, and also things I'd love to do as a career.

Building boats sits quite neatly across a number of these categories.

@lucifer - I'd not considered a childrens book..that'd be awesome!!!

ps. that technical drawing is about as complex as i could handle.

I've looked into the in's and out's of childrens books, and you wouldn't be required to do any illustrations yourself. It is rare for publishers to accept a writer's own illustrations, as they prefer to choose their own artists for projects. Preliminary sketches would be required, nothing more.

I see 'Miracle' as not really a children's book, but more the type of book everyone would read. Your writing style is so clean and accessible, and more importantly honest and not patronising, that anyone could happily pick up such a book a while away an afternoon in it's company.
Many children's books make the mistake of talking down to their audience, but part of the charm of this thread is that you bring us on the learning curve with you, we learn at the same speed as you.

A mixture of 'lifestyle' book, technical manual and adventure story - i reckon it would sell like hot cakes!

well, we'll see.
it would be cool though!!

Mini-Progress Update:

I began by buying all the necessary bits and pieces to take out and reseal my windows and on the morning of my designated start day I decided out of curiousity to have a close inspection of my portholes.

The glass had been set in putty. Putty, unlike Sikaflex mastic eventually becomes brittle and cracks. When this happens the cracks then become water access points.
Turns out the kitchen one was leaking for a while and the bathroom one seems to have just started leaking.
I started with the kitchen one.
I'd done my research so I knew, in theory at least, what to do and why.
When I got to the resealing part, having never used a silicon gun I applied the sealant liberally. I then weighted the glass down on it. I went back 20 mins later to do the second seal.
30 mins later, I was back touching up.
In all I laid 3 beads of sealant on the glass.
She is definately sealed.
It wasn't until then that I realised I'd put the bevelled glass the wrong way around.
It's definately a do-over.

Porthole number two I did yesterday.
When I got to the resealing part, it suddenly became clear how to do the seal effectively and I did so with the reccommended 2 beads.
Porthole number 2 is much cleaner.

I feel like I'm now prepared to do the bigger windows.
WIN.

This is the new porthole that I am contemplating for my bathroom. It opens.Which may be nice as i've noticed the bathroom tends to get quite hot and stuffy.

http://www.trinity-portholes.com/products/28/270/old_style_opening_bronze_porthole_-_14cm/

Those portholes look great. However, I can't figure out an elegant way for the window to open. I assume they open outwards(?) in which case won't they be a pain to pass when walking along the gunwhale?

I'm sure I've spent more time looking for portholes than is strictly healthy.... and I don't even own a boat (yet).

@arducuis, i did see you posting about a boat... :)

the portholes open to the inside. otherwise you're sort of
a) inviting random theives in (in the case of bigger ones.
b) like you said, walking the gunnels to get some air, hitting your shins as you pass.

I originally assumed they opened inwards but then thought I was being a bit dim because if either:
a) hinge is at bottom then window will hold itself open, but as the boat moved might bang againts the cabin side (depending on tumblehome)
b) hinge is at the top so the window always falls open a little bit and is left swinging, and again possibly banging when the boat moves.
c) hinge is at side so window will fall fully open but stick into cabin, meaning (sod's law) you'll hit your head on it.

a) and b) are caused by the tumblehome, but c) will happen on a boat with vertical cabin sides.

Am I just being dim, can't figure it out?

well, I'm not positive but my friend has some reclaimed ones from Trinity and they dont seem to move around on him. they open to the side. We are talking about 4kg of brass on brass..so sort of heavy..I would guess they don't just swing willy nilly

And well the practical side of me thinks that if they did have all the issues you so naturally concluded, they'd not be CE standard and not used for sea going vessels.
(just a thought) :)

^ i have no idea, your points are totally valid, I'll let you know when i order it and it arrives :)