North Devon Redux

There really only was one thing for it after spending a manic week getting the van finished -  time to tour! With a good friend of mine living in Lynton the ideal opportunity made itself known as the four hour journey would be a good test for the van.

I got there in good time and with only one problem, the inverter didn't work when i hit the button, turns out the positive wire to the power button had snapped from its connector so a soldering iron and some solder later and the problem was solved - stand aside Tesla!

With the van fully loaded it does sit pretty low, no problem other than the fuel economy going out the window, got the awning out for the first time too, pleased to say the composite backing plates in the roof are doing their job as the whole thing can support its own weight although i did put the legs out not wanting to tempt fate.

Whilst there i went to one of my old hanuts, Ilfracombe. Very odd scupture on the quay and i don't understand what its about - never mind, the fish and chips are excellent so after sitting on a bench munching away playing spot the Westerly i moved on.
Incidentally theres quite a few Fulmar's in Ilfracombe as well as the older stuff which brings me to a certain sailing club up the road.

Some of you will remember a couple of years back when Dylan was looking for a Centaur that i came across a fairly knackered-looking one called Spindrift, well its still there rotting into the ground as it was two years previously, shame really. Also Centaur number one was there looking in very good fettle considering the boats age, just hope it doesn't stay in the yard too long and end up like the other one.  

Behold, The Drawers of Destiny!

Well thats what i care to call them, damn impressive to look at anyway, seeing as the work contract i was supposed to start last Monday has been put back two weeks, i thought i'd push on finishing the van conversion. 

This last week has seen my debit card take a right hiding as i purchased all the necessary components to outfit the van with 240VAC and 12VDC, still after having calmed down from the initial financial hit i soon found myself engulfed in cables and shiny things.......mmm i like shiny things.

Have to admit this was one job on the Centaur i wasn't looking forward to not least of all because of the costs but also my complete lack of knowledge, and made all the more worse as i possess almost every book available on the subject of boat electrics and imho they all assume a level of knowledge.

The one that didn't was Don Casey' Sailboat Electrics Simplified, this book has such a great easy-to-read style that even a fool such as myself couldn't mess it up. What i like most is the illustrations and the way the information is broken down into simple concepts. So armed with my multimeter and a heap of parts i set about electrifying the van (and not myself).

In the end i went with a 190AH battery connected to a voltage sensitive relay with a Ctek MXS 10 charger permanently attached via the AC side, on the DC side i have scope for 10 loads via a Ripca fuse box switched through 10 corresponding 12VDC rocker switches. 

I looked at purchasing a ready-made panel, something i will do with the Centaur but looking at the costs for some of these aftermarket van panels.......well, i thought the marine world was steep but it would appear the campervan world isn't much different as to have the components i actually purchased but all fitted into a piece of brushed allie / stainless doubled the cost - no thanks - i'll do this myself, and so i did with no help from anyone.

Decided to - and it was frustrating to start with - sit in the shop and play around with the battery and wiring making basic circuits just to understand how it all works and now have quite a good basic grasp of electricity.

The cabinets meanwhile were all made from mdf, not the most durable but for this application fine, realised i needed a heap more drawers as i always seem to add a couple of plastic tubs on certain jobs full of fasteners and fittings so i decided to build the ultimate drawer unit and nextdoor to this somewhere to keep and heat food.

I'm glad i did this and yes i know the van has sod all to do with the boat but everything i've bought and installed is directly applicable to the Centaurs systems only now i have the confidence to do it all myself.

Cheers

  

Not really boats though is it Rog?

True, but i'm trying out different ideas on the van that are directly applicable to the boat such as fitting led lights which took a great deal of head scratching. Mainly due to the fact i know nothing of the voodoo that is electricity, still like alot of things in my world i got there in the end.

Figured it would be good practice for the boat so dug out my multimeter and re-learned a few concepts via the internet and some youtube vids on wiring. The led lights themselves are quite bright and since all six only use 0.75 amps - was quite impressed.

Another boat-related activity is fitting a VSR and second battery which i want to do so i can charge tool batteries and phone and keep some food onboard, this means i'm truly mobile should i work away from home and save a few quid along the way.

Having priced a few things the grand total for cables and bits is somewhere around the £250 mark so will build the system into some custom cabinets i'll make soon, at present i want to get the rubber flooring down over the new floor i fitted just a month ago as its started falling apart already!

If i could take it out and get a refund i would but i can't so the best i can do is cover over and make good, another one of those modern day Grrrrs! 

Still the rest of the van looks pretty usuable.

Honestly everything's fine..............

Having changed the blogs title to, "A Gentleman's Folly - A multi-year savings reduction plan." I thought it an accurately witty title of what the projects become, only thing was a few of you (very kindly) emailed me asking if i was okay. 

I do apologize as i don't always realise the gravity of my words, especially as i 've been particularly negative, ranting and not altogether cheery in recent times  so have put the original title and description back up.

Things are pretty good at the moment what with working on big classic boats and boats in general, i've given up on the contract work for the time being as its a race to the bottom in terms of earnings - how little are you prepared to work for and how far will you travel for it?

Out of the three companies i priced work for one actually got back to me and  said no thanks, one kept sending me rather cryptic emails with charts and specs with no message or writing in any of them, and the last firm nothing - no reply, so i took it as a bit of sign to leave it all behind.

It was just as i was getting miserable that the call came in to go work on some boats so as the saying goes one door shuts another opens, admittedly the jobs not permanent, but is any job really these days?

What else............I've got an agreement with a family member that if push comes to shove and the boat looks like not being ready before the bungalows sold the money will be loaned to me to get it done to be paid back from the proceeds of the sale so a bit of relief there.

Spent yesterday (Saturday) striking a waterline on the Robert Clark sloop, it proved a little tricky as 

a) the boats waterline is a good 7 to 8 ft off the ground,

b) its sat on the trailer over to port which makes getting the line symmetrical problematic &

c) the tripod stand my laser attaches to broke.

Got there in the end after much taping, then walking over to the other side of the shed to see if the line was fair or not, The waterline down the side proved simple enough but trying to bring it around her bustle took several attempts with boss man on tape and me stood down the other end of the shed directing, got it done and a tie coat around the water line so all's good.

Tuesday i'm hoping to get the final fairing done then time for topcoat, anything to get off the longboards, having too many flashbacks of doing mine.........................................

Well thats different.

Still waiting for word on work but in the meantime got an interesting call Wednesday from a fellow wood butcher and good mate Lakey as to how busy i was. Having told him i was mid conversion on the van, he asked do i fancy working on a classic yacht?

Fuck yeah! And it turns out its 20 minutes down the road, turned up Thursday to a barn in the forest to be greeted by a 50 year old Robert Clark sloop, very imposing it is too. Overall shes in pretty good shape, just the external condition of the hull needs seeing to. 

So tools out and straight to work, the first day was spent drilling vertically through the newly fitted toe-rail and fitting a series of bolts via galleries cut into the hull, i understand its to provide a bit more strength locally in that part of the boats structure where the genoa cars attach.

Without sounding too cheesy its nice working with hand tools too, shaping and profiling various bits and pieces to attach to the boat, yeasterday i got to cut and shape some timber to plug a couple of old skin fitting holes and then spent the rest of the day re-instating the cove line around the top of the gunwale where the new toerails been scarfed in. 

Theres something rather satisfyiing about finely sanding a cove (half round) into solid teak and more importantly being left alone to get on with it, much prefer to do this sort of work then site carpentry if i'm honest, i'm there next week and then see where we're at but for the time being i'm loving the change in disiplines.

Lets go camping!

Operation 'Stealth Camper' is taking longer than planned as work closer to home keeps popping up - no bad thing as i wait to hear on a couple of large-ish contracts but with the van still in bits on the drive i have to use my trusty Renault Clio which isn't designed for hauling tools and machines about.

I now have everything insulated and panelled except the roof as i spent the last couple of days cutting holes in it to fit air vents and three aluminium extruded brackets to bolt an awning to. There's also another reason for this project and thats to try out a few ideas to see if

they might work on the boat.

I wont be using wool for insulation on the boat rather something like Armaflex, but the execution will be much the same, also have some led lights to fit in the back to give a bit of extra light on the subject, all i have left after the roof is fitted is to make a couple of cabinets, mdf naturally (cheap, dimensionally stable etc then bolt the tool vault back in and off to work.

Whats amazed me doing this is how poor the quality of materials seem to be nowadays. The ply that i removed from the walls and floors is way better quality than what i've replaced it with, if it wasn't for the fact the van sweated so badly these last few years and turned the bottom foot of the walls to mush i'd of simply removed said panels, insulated and put back instead of replacing,..... heyho.

The highlight so far's been getting the awning up and on, its a Fiamma F65, bought secondhand, only had to buy the brackets until i realised they dont make them for my Sprinter, so again being the 'innovator' i am i set about modding a set of brackets i bought. This i should point out after phoning many dealers who stock these awnings to be told we've emailed Fiamma in Italy so thats as good as filed under 'B' for bin.

No matter, i wasn't gonna be stopped by such trivialities and after running some well-seasoned teak down to the appropiate dimensions and drilling a couple of extra holes i had what appeared to be a working bracket, plus a further dig around the various fixings boxes in the shop turned up enough stainless nuts, bolts and washers to bolt the lot through the roof courtesy of a tube of PU.

With all this work done the van should be good for another 10 years and seeing as its mechanically sound i have more than a passing interest in converting it fully at some point to a proper campervan but first i should probably concentrate on getting the money to finish the boat........................

Thought i could smell burning?

Was thinking about the various work opportunities that are making themselves available and yet seemingly not so as some are far from where i live.

It was after nearly overdosing on easter eggs late Sunday evening i had an idea, why not make the van suitible to sleep in, i'm not talking campervan quality but maybe insulated and some power in the back to charge a phone and make a cuppa.

Spent Easter Monday watching youtube vids of people converting vans into mobile homes, some good some, well not so, but got a good idea of what was required so set about making a specification be it a minimal one to enable a frost-free sleep in the back.

Then it was to the van to remove everything in the cargo area, a full strip back to a tin shell, surpisingly this only took a few hours, however in true Rog style i didn't think to price up what would be required before stripping the cargo area of the van back to a shell, the shock came as i started pricing things, mainly plywood, flooring and loads of insulation.

Still, the thought of paying travelodge or premier inn in the region of £3-400 a week shook me out of my reluctance to execute the work plus seeing as theres a total dearth of work where i live its almost a practical decison if not a particularly cheap one.

One thing i noticed early on is how quick the van goes with nothing in it, jesus, i've got throttle response and oddles of power under my right foot, normally fully loaded you put your foot down and it just gets louder.

 Still having returned from a number of suppliers i began making a new bulkhead, this started okay with the first piece going in then the second piece needed to close off the cab soon revealed the downside of global manufacturing, as the sheet of 12mm marine ply almost split in two after cutting out the piece i required.

Still after much cursing i though i'd get the new floor down which proved just as frustraing as none of the sheets were square and the finish is pretty crap.

Today i got the first hit of insulation on the inside from top to bottom, did the same to the floor before fitting the ply over the top, tomorrow i'll finish insualting and applying the vapour barrier before fitting the furring pieces and then the ply panels.

All this links be it indirectly to the boat as i've conservatively estimated i need another £15k to finish so as much as i hate doing something i dont want to, the ends justify the means so the life of a traveller beckons all be it temporarily.........................