Back again - what we did with the boat

After a very long break from updating these pages, and a number of complaints from family and friends - yes you know who you are - I have finally managed to sit down in front of the computer again to do some updates. It is early morning here at the moment and I have about an hour and a half before we get a visit from someone to give a quote on solar panels and a wind mill for power generation, but more about that later when I have more information. For the moment, I shall try to do some updates on what has happened since we came back from holidays.

As was mentioned in the last quick entry, we managed to get the boat out of the water before going on holidays. The boat has sadly been greatly neglected over the last few years, but we are hoping that we can really start to enjoy it again this year. Our ideas with the boat has been to take it up on the slipway that is close by and do the maintenance there. However, as there is no power at the slipway we would either had to rely on manual sanding (and how boring is that) or by hiring or buying a generator. Then there would also be a lot of travelling to and from, and the lack of security by having the boat far away.

So we started by trying to see if someone had a trailer we could rent, but no luck there. They all seem to be very occupied, with boats on the most of the time. In the end we concluded that we might as well build a trailer that suits our boat, thus having the flexibility of taking the boat out of the water a couple of times a year to make sure that everything is OK under the water line. By looking at some other trailers nearby we came up with a design using some 100x50x6 steel channel and some 100x50x6 angles. It is a very simple design, but works well.

As neither of us knows how to weld, we managed to get our friend Andrew (who is also our electrician) to do the welding job. As a return favour Geir will help them do a polished concrete bench top for their kitchen.

So, here are some pictures:

Square frame made out of 100x50x6mm channel. The axels are made out of 50x50 square hollow steel, and the hubs and stubs were bought from a local hardware store to fit the second hand Toyota Land Cruiser wheels we got from a recycling place.

Frame all together, and coated with a primer

Same as last, and just missing the tow bar.

All ready to go down to the beach and take the boat out of the water.

The next few pictures are from taking the boat out of the water. This was done in July, thus the water was not the warmest. It most certainly helped having a wet suit on, but fairly cold on my arms and shoulders when I (that is Geir) had to put my hands down to tie the ropes to the trailer.

The tide was fairly high at this point, so it looks as if the boat is way out, but still on fairly shallow ground.

Making sure the boat is tied to the trailer. We made sure that the front of the boat rested on the trailer and then tied a rope around the boat and fixed it to the front of the trailer. As we started driving the car, the back of the boat also rested on the supports.

Just finishing of the rope work before starting the car up. As the tide was really high, we had to tie a long rope between the trailer and the boat as we did not want to put the car into the water. This worked remarkably well and even with our little ute we managed to pull. We had a tractor on stand by, just in case, but did not need to use it.

Pulling the boat up was a two person job, so no pictures were taken, but here it is back on our block, ready to be given some long waited TLC.

The boat was on land whilst we were on holidays and I started doing the maintenance work once we came back. What was involved? Well, first we had to get rid of all the old varnish on the outside and the inside. It had all started peeling off due to the sun and the lack of regular maintenance. This was done by using a gas burner to heat it up and then scrape it off. We also cleaned it really well underneath before giving it another 3 coats of antifouling. The benches inside were all sanded back and oiled. The engine was taken apart and cleaned out to make sure that the cooling system works better than before, and we had a new canvas custom made for the boat.

The end result is as such:

It is now out on the water again, and we had not major problems with it leaking after almost 3 months on land.

As part of the engine maintenance we found that we needed a new float for the carburettor which we managed to get in the mail just a couple of days ago. The engine is about 50 years old, but you can still get spare parts which is just great. So, now we are just waiting for a nice day (with some extra time) to go out and fit the carburettor again and then we can go out fishing !

Hopefully we can come with a diary entry in not too long with us being out on the water.

Any problems, please email webmaster. This page was last updated 24/07/2008