Banking on the batteries

Yesterday whilst we were trolling around the IWA Festival at Shobnall Fields, Burton-upon-Trent we met with PB Batteries to discuss requirements for Yarwood.  As I tripe write this Joe is listing the wattage of all the items that we will be using aboard Yarwood and emailing the list to PB Batteries.  They in turn are going to calculate the size of battery bank we will require and let us know.  Joe has been giving some considerable thought to the type of batteries we might opt for and  his has concluded that a 2volt traction option will suit our needs.
My 'laywomans' understanding of this is; Normal batteries can be discharged safely to about 60% of their rated capacity whereas the traction battery can be discharged to nearer 30% of their rated capacity - in short  we have a longer interval between charges. 

The battery bank will be located in the hold under the tug deck and serve a useful secondary role is stabilising ballast.  When we hear back from PB batteries about the size of the recommended bank I will post again but we think we are looking at something in the region of 800 amp hours.

Take a ...half bow

Build Day 5.

It's Friday afternoon and the Yarwood build is now in its fifth day.  Steve has been painstakingly fashioning the bow and little by little it is taking shape.

Going 'Swimmingly'...

Day four of build.

We arrived at the workshop yesterday afternoon to find the the sides of the hull were now in situ and that Matt had began to fashion, or should that be 'fabricate', the SWIM.   This is the part of the hull that streams the water back towards the propeller, giving the prop something to bite and propel the boat forward.  Yarwood has a 12' swim to optimise that 'streaming effect'. 

The Swim.

The baseplate has been cut, (you can just see a gap between the swim and the base) and will be lifted to form the underside of the counter. 

Yarwood is only tacked at this stage in the construction.

Steve and Ian discussing progress on the bow or, 'When is that silly woman going to leave and let us get on with it?'

Amazingly, the bow was also underway.  Steve was starting to create the shape, tacking in pieces of angle-iron to hold bits of steel in 'suspension' until the look and shape of the desired bow starts to emerge - please excuse my lack of technical appreciation and terminology for what is actually going on here, but needless to say I was very impressed! 

The emerging bow -  from your correspondent 'up a ladder'

Day two of build

I called in at Lambon Boats yesterday afternoon to find that the baseplate had been trimmed to its 6'10" width and the sides were cut and being braced.    A quick 'hello', a few photo's and a short reaffirming discussion with Ian, Steve and Stuart about the shape of the bow and I was away to walk the dogs.

8mm hull sides being braced

By the next time I see Yarwood the sides will be raised into position and a 'sense' of the boat will be there. 

We have 'lift off'...

Just before lunch yesterday the steel for Yarwood arrived at the boatbuilders.  We got a text to informing us and hopped in the car to witness the start of the build; at last we have 'lift off'. 

   

Yarwood's base plate. 

Two lengths of 15mm steel were laid out, these will form the base of the boat.  The two sheets of steel had been 'tacked' and the fabricator was just preparing to cut the steel to the correct width.

Steel from the Ukraine, see the stencil on the sheet..

We have opted for the  heavier grade steel, 15mm, for the baseplate, (most narrowboats are currently built on 10mm thick plates) with 8mm hull sides instead of 5mm, because it will reduce the amount of ballast we will need therefore giving us more headroom. 

I will be visiting regularly to get a couple of photo's to record the build progress.

Nearly ready to...

We are nearly ready to start, the decks are cleared, the steel is due for delivery on Monday and the building of Yarwood should start. We will get a call when the lorry arrives so we can get to the boat builder and get the first shots of the photo record of the build.
In the meantime, yesterday we went up to see Stuart (Barnowl Narrowboats) our boat fitter, taking with us a plan/illustration of the livery that I had prepared on Excel.  We checked the colours and added some notations because this plan will be given to the men in the paint shop to ensure no confusion on what is required.

Arm-an-a-leg

Yesterday I ordered the portholes for Yarwood.  Solid brass tug style DOUBLE-GLAZED, opening ports.   Less condensation, less noise, less heat loss, more MONEY..
I am checking that the 'arm an a leg' are still attached!

Our current boat,Caxton,  has double glazed portholes and we have never regretted having them fitted so it was a no-brainer when we found that we could get double-glazed brass portholes for Yarwood.

It has to be frosty

As with our current boat Caxton, all lighting aboard Yarwood will be LED.  We have managed to get some brass lamps for the back cabin but the glass was clear and LED, great as they are for energy efficiency, are, well ugly.... so the glass has to be frosty.

Joe found a company in Scotland that manufacture just about any and every type of glass shade imaginable and the parcel has just arrived with the new 'frosty' glass shades.

We have already found a UK supplier for the LED adaptors for these lamps and sourced the appropriate ones so the next job is for Joe to wire them up and put them into store ready for the fit out.

Adapt

Joe has sourced an adaptor from a Dutch supplier so that the brass search lamp we are going to use as Yarwood's tunnel lamp will be able to take a modern halogen bulb.  He was able to get adaptors here in the UK to take 20watt halogens but he wanted a 50 watt bulb for the tunnel light so a search on the Web brought hime to Holland...and a language barrier.  Soon resolved however.  We now have appropriate adaptor and spare.. of course.

And for those 'occasional guests'..

We were going to have Stuart (Barnowl Narrowboats) contrive an occasional bed that would fold out from under the tug deck for the use of visitors, and one of us, well me mainly,  if I have a night when I cannot sleep.    It was Joe who spotted the fact that we were trying to reinvent the wheel - a folding bed.  Hadn't someone already done this?  

I quick trawl through the web and we found sites that sold myriads of folding beds and we have found just the thing.   This has a 7" sprung mattress, fits in a space 2'x3'x2'6" when folded and is on casters for ease of movement.  This will comfortably fit in a cupboard and we have planned just such a  cupboard under the tug deck in the saloon.   

Boatman's stove or bed

The boatmans cabin aboard Yarwood is going to be our main cabin.  We are having the cabin elongated to 9' rather than the traditional 8'6" so that our bed can can be a standard double size i.e. 4'6".    However, we have found this diminutive stove that would allow us to grow our bed to a 5', as on Caxton, and still provide heat for the helmsman on those bitterly cold winter days. 
The Faversham Stove has been in production since 1990 and is specifically designed for boats, yachts and narrowboats.  This could well be what we opt for as it has a footprint of only 12"x 8" and will meet out needs.  The tradional range stoves are significantly bigger but we don't intend to cook it - so what will it be, a larger bed or a large black ornament?