Project FloatingAbode Diary
24 November, 2001
Morning frost - getting chilly now. Icy patterns on the paintwork. Since getting back in the water, we've been desperately trying to get topcoat on Uisce. We only had undercoat on through last winter and it was damaged by the weather. It took ages to fix all the damaged areas and get it all level again. This year we are determined to get at least one topcoat on. So far, all except the port gunwale, the port aft cabin side, some of the bow and the stern have been done. Frost on the roof. I've installed two mobile phone aerials on the roof to improve reception. My Nokia 6210 now has full reception when on board instead of nothing to two bars. Closeup of frost... ...but I'm nice and cosy inside. I removed the Torglow I had last year and have fitted a second hand Carabo instead. The Torglow burnt too much fuel and gave out too much heat. The new one is much more comfortable, although it is much harder to make it burn for a long time. Just out of frame to the left is the front bench seat/step, containing the water pump. No - pics, sorry. I had roof panelling in back in April, but the trim did not follow the curve of the roof very well. It was tending to bend where the holes for the light fittings were cut. This is the jig we made to laminate a strip onto the back of the trim to make it adopt the right curvature. It worked - the trim now follows the roof curvature nicely. This is a dry run of the motor installation. A Lynch motor at the top with a toothed belt reduction directly onto the propshaft. Heather's housemate, Alan, made the angle frame. I designed it as two parts that slide over each other to allow easy adjustment of belt tension. This is the back of the installation. There are two thrust bearings, one on either side of the frame to transmit the propellor thrust in forward and reverse. These forces will be transmitted to the hull via bolts onto the 'engine bearers' and two struts that extend back to the thick plate on which the stern tube is mounted. And this is my propellor: a 20 x 16 with a 40% blade area ratio. Hard to believe that that little 8kW electric motor is going to turn that prop!
