10% Discount ends 31st January
If you've not yet booked, please note that our 10% summer holiday discount offer ends on the 31st January.Time has very nearly run out.
Full details on our web site: www.FreedomBoatingHolidays.co.uk.
Four Seasons.....
Friday 29th Jan and the weather simply won't make up its mind. One minute it's grey and spitting. Sixty seconds on and it's a hail storm and then the pelting of the ice slows on our roof and we can hear again but now it's snowing. 15 minutes late and it's a brilliant sunny day.This pattern seemed to be repeated throughout the whole day and, finally, overnight we had more snow. I awoke to this view from my office at home - anyone who knows the area well will probably be able to work out where this is.
This is such a far cry from the weather on Tuesday afternoon which was just glorious for a winter's day. I was taking Fine Freedom up to Stalham for much needed winter work and couldn't resist a few shots on the Ant.
Not so Fair Freedom
Fair Freedom is in a bit of a state now. Last year, it being our first real season on our own, we had very limited funding in the winter and only did the absolute minmum of work to this boat which has held together very well overall. January/February 2009 saw us ripping out the rear two cabins to deal with rotting floor timbers and bearers. In the process, we refitted the rear cabin as a twin/double conversion rather than the fixed double that it was when we bought the boat, giving the vessel more flexibility for cruising parties.This year the task is equally mammoth with knocks all around the gunnels that need grinding out, strengtheninig and repairing. Half the problem is the lack of care that hirers have over this kind of craft; it's a budget boat that's 44ft long, steers from the front and houses up to 10 people.... Out of all the vessels we have, in the "I couldn't careless, it's not my boat" stakes, Fair scores the highest.
I'm off to the shed later to continue the work else we may never get it ready for Easter!
Tranquil Progress
Tranquil has progressed rather well since my last post, but, as is often the case, the job had got bigger due to "emerging work".The new worktop was cut and profilled a week or two back and prefitted but in doing so, we noticed that the laminates on the wall were rather looser that we first thought. So, we decided the best approach would be to replace them. Once off, it became apparent that the window frames were leaking and that the plywood wall substrates were rotting - oh joy.
Further investigation found that the forward window was in a similar condition. So, now, both windows have to come out, the ply wood walling needs replacing and relaminating and in doing all this, we've also decided to relaminate part of the helm assembly too to pull together that whole side of the boat, visually updating it.
On Wednesday we also noticed a collection of icicles running down the galley headlinings so a large portion of the ceiling is now down too trying to find the source!
2 comments:
Hi Andy
Tranquil looks to be coming on a treat and I'm sure all the hardwork will pay dividends. Really interesting to read how its going and all the extra jobs you are finding. Don't know how you get the skills and knowledge to fix them all.
Wish I had been on the trip up the Ant, looks glorious.
Regards
Terry
It's amazing how a initially simple job just gets bigger and bigger the more your uncover. There's got to be a point that you say "enough is enough".
As for skills and knowledge, a lot of it is common sense. Much of it you can read up on too but mostly it's down to experience. I've lot count of the bathrooms and kitchens that I've fitted over the last 10 years - few in boats, but the principals are the same, just throw away the spirit level and work from measurements. Pete is also very good at what he does (better than me). Much of it is down to propper planning rather than jumping in with a jigsaw and regretting it later.
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