A return?

Given the lock down and the country' impending bankruptcy i somehow feel a lot more relaxed about getting back to work on the boat.

The old days (highlighted many times here) would have me working on the boat whilst stressing about the next paycheck and where it would be coming from. Imagine my surprise from the fallout of C19 that the entire Western world is in the same boat as myself and many other self employed. And having got a break from the mortgage for a few months (have yet to apply for Universal Credit) kinda thought its now or never. So what to do?

First it was a gathering of information, digging out old sketchbooks and notebooks from the backs of drawers around the shop and looking up where i got to some three odd years ago. I remember where i was when i did the last bit of work as i was fitting foam insulation to the forecabin when the Grenfell tragedy happened, that was - i think June 2017 so almost three years.

One thing, and it'll only get worse with the ensuing economic fallout from the lockdown is the number of suppliers going under or closing depots so either way having to find alternative arrangements seems to be a thing now. At present when the current stock of the late great Reactive Resins epoxy runs down we'll be onto epoxy number three and resin number five for the project having used Polyester, Vinylester, Wests, Reactive epoxies and now probably Mas when i reorder.

So yesterday was a day of scraping back and making a few changes to the saloon. This involved making more access to the keel bolts to starboard and cutting the rest of the remains of the original sofa berth i built back in 2014. 

The reason being it seemed something of an extravagance to give over an entire side of the saloon to a galley in a 26 foot boat. So after much thought and with measuring tape in hand the cooker will go back where it was; to starboard of the main bulkhead door and the sink/icebox combo will go opposite to port against the bulkhead.

This then keeps the saloon free for a dinette arrangement but spun round 90 degrees running length-wise in the boat a la Griffon style. Got the idea after making this for a customer a couple of years back. 

I have just under 6 foot beam-wise to the inside of the coach roof in the saloon so this will just work and make for a more sociable space. The benefits are you can sleep two people in the saloon on either berths with separation especially if they're not that well acquainted and the other via an infill over the floor area; you can sleep beam wise across the the boat in what would be a 6 foot wide by nearly 8 foot deep berth. 

Also found out after all these years i had a marine ply supplier literally on my doorstep, well Verwood but i used to travel to Southampton & Poole to buy BS1088 ply only to find Bradfords builders merchants have it on the shelf so promptly borrowed a mates account and got a couple of sheets of 12 & 18mm last week, that should be enough to get the saloon done.

Paintwise i've ended up ordering 2k car paint to the spec of the Morrells stuff i normally use for furniture so should be more durable given the fact its for cars, like a lot of things at the moment time will tell...........