NB "Spacehopper"

Nb "Spacehopper"

Spacehopper is a recent boat by Nick Thorpe and an ongoing project. New to boating the owners were misadvised on the plumbing system for their Rayburn cooking range. As you know from my posts on the subject ( Narrowboats Barden, Isis and electra) you cant beat a maintenance free Gravity fed circulation system for even heat, minimum fuss, and virtually endless hot water. Fed on 22mm pipe via a 240v central heating pump to a standard calorifier, the owner was having to start the engine at ungodly hours to power the  circulation pump to stop a potential explosion... who wants to live with that kind of stress!

Rayburns are great on a liveaboard if you get the plumbing right!

This more modern Rayburn has higher boiler tappings and is also raised on a sturdy plinth. This necessitated bending the laws of physics more than usual on this kind of job to generate an adequate thermosyphon without the pipework looking impractical and ghastly!

Anyone got any wet socks?

Preferably the pipe would all run below gunwhale level but that just wasn't possible due to physical limitations. Ideally you would mount the Rayburn at true floor level at the planning stage of the boat. As it is now the front of the boat is toasty warm due to the heat radiated from the pipework without the need for wall mounted radiators. Arguably its a quality bit of industrial art in your living space if your into that sort of bling!

Notice the drain cock installed at the lowest point of the system

In a perfect world the return would flow gently down straight into the bottom of the boiler. In a direct run of over 30m of 28mm pipe there is a short but sharp rise of 250mm into the boiler feed. It is the minimum I could get away with in this case, and does not affect the performance of the system.

Whats hiding under your bed?

This is a custom made 125 litre twin coil marine calorifier with 28mm coils. Secured to the bulkhead with ratchet straps there is a short flexible connection to negate any bumps and bangs. On commissioning day the fire was lit and we had useable hot water in two hours. After two days of operation not only were the crew enjoying some home cooked food again, the supply of hot water for a family of four was almost limitless.

NB "Dorothy John"

NB "Dorothy John"

Painting season continues with 1980's Bridgewater boat Dorothy John. Justified reservations about the British weather  (too dry, too wet, too windy, too many flies etc.) led to the construction of a Heath Robinson inspired painting shelter.

DJ metamorphoses inside its giant yellow chrysalis!

It may be a bit hot and sweaty inside but the tent stabilizes the conditions enough to attempt the job with confidence.

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Plenty of paint on this old boat allows careful patch priming to ensure a quality job

 Skipping to the same view of the finished side, hopefully all the hard work was worth it!

Sand painted gunnels improve the boats manners when handling.

 Jobs a goodun' !

Another satisfied customer!

Fitted Bedroom

Poor Jack! He has outgrown his bedroom and now his furniture is overburdened with paraphenalia to the extent that the use of his playstation is impaired!

Jack's is a very small box room leaving just enough space with this arrangement for a mattress on the floor and little space to stand. His Parents commissioned me to design, build and fit new bedroom furniture to better suit his growing requirements.

By building from scratch i was able to offer under bed storage, and then utilise all of the existing wall space with bespoke shelving designed for a mixture of media, books and treasures.

Monobloc edges and a grey tinted wax oil result in a contemporary finish. Note the extra floor space available in the room.

 

Storage wraps round the room even continuing above the door. TV space is central to the base unit in the bottom right of this picture (above).

The bed fits a standard size single mattress. The shelves above allow just enough room to sit on the bed and get up without banging your head.

Optimised storage and clothes hanging space.

Prewired TV and playstation worshipping alcove provides a better line of sight to the screen from the playing position (presumably recumbant in bed). Good on you Jack, and remember to keep your stuff off the floor!

NB "Hope"

Boat Painting season is upon us! Given the ineffectiveness of crossing fingers etc. to ensure good weather for the duration of the job, I started painting NB "hope" undercover in late march.

There's a fair bit involved in getting the right finish in a narrowboat paint job. As many know its more about preparation than painting!

After removing all the cabin fixtures, rubbing down and painting with red oxide primer I appear to have a blue ratchet strap growing out of my ear!

The same view after just a bit of work (!) and surgical removal of blue strap.

 Painting is hard but rewarding work. Long may "hope" stay shiny!!

Sand paint on the cruiser deck provides a safe non slip surface should it rain, or the captain be overcome during imbibement.

Fittings replaced and ready for launch.

Boatmans Cabins

Opinions vary on the benefits of a boatmans cabin. Some people hate them, others like me appreciate the multi functional space and flexibility of a traditional cabin. Styles vary tremendously but its worth playing around with the original dimensions to create a modern living cabin, giving you the benefit of having a bedroom, study, day cabin and separate chill out room all rolled into one, especially important if you live aboard!

"Katy"

Working boat cabins had to serve as living accommodation for the whole family. The cross beds were narrow, about three feet. These days its much better to make a four foot cross bed which can sleep two comfortably. 

"Katy"

There is a huge amount of storage in a back cabin, with cupboards over and under the bed, the bench seat, table cupboard, and even the "ticket" drawer where the captain would have kept all of the paperwork associated with his cargo. Ours houses the indispensable stanley knife fitted with a hooked blade and a rubber band to go round your wrist for the inevitable prop clearing, keys, D shackles and associated tat.

Heres a few snaps of different boatmans cabins in various stages of completion.

NB "Owl"

 

 

NB "Isis"

 

NB "Electra"

Good friends Bernie and Leigh have done a fantastic undercloth conversion on their historic narrowboat "Electra".

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 Following my work on gravity fed central heating systems they asked me to have a look at their vintage Caledonia solid fuel range in the hope of generating some hot water. Electra is a gasless boat, and they wanted to keep it that way. The cooking range is in more or less constant use and therefore a good candidate for a gravity fed hot water system.

Due to the age of the stove and the risk of cracking potentially brittle castings it was decided to opt for a new non invasive boiler mounted on the side of the fire box. Many old French cooking ranges used to generate hot water using a similar system, drawing the hot water directly out of a tap on the front of the stove. 

 

Using a custom made calorifier (not as expensive as you may think) with a one inch coil to promote pump free circulation, the system works very well providing hot water for at least two showers and plentiful washing up every day. Being fond of bling, the Captain now also has some posh copper pipe in the saloon to polish to keep him out of mischief! The cylinder does have an immersion heater fitted as a back up, but so far it has not been necessary to wire it up.

 

New LPG Hob

This is our new Lpg hob on nb"Barden". Although the Rayburn is still going strong providing all of our hot water and 90% of the cooking, sometimes you just want to quickly boil the kettle or knock up a quick pasta sauce for the poor starving crew! 

Nearly all gas appliances are fitted with flame failure devices these days making them suitable for use on boats. This has led to much greater choice for the boat owner, as well as reducing the upfront cost of the appliance. This two ring model is only 300mm wide leaving a small but very useful angled work surface in our galley. The tiling adds another dimension to the angles of the work surface to keep you interested when peeling onions!

NB Barden

Barden is my current boat, and our Third in a Colecraft shell. This boat is a similar design to Isis a with couple of notable differences, namely a 9 foot open "hold" area at the front of the boat designed to be covered with sheets.

Oh no not again!!!

Spray foam and underfloor insulation ensure good heat retention without condensation, though Ive nothing against other forms of insulation such as rockwool, polystyrene or celotex having used all of them in the past.

Jumping a bit to the line out; grooves routed in the plywood cabin lining provide a pleasing effect that wont shrink!! Panels are recycled from the offcuts from each sheet.

The boatmans cabin will benifit from a 4'6" wide bed (may not mean much to you house dwellers but to a boatwife that means luxury with a capital L")

This reconditioned rayburn has already had a winters use with this gravity fed system. It provides all of the heating, hot water and 90% of the cooking for our family of four and costs on average about £2 a day to run
. Once the system is up and running it is totally maintenence free and requires no external power source.

This galley is 2' shorter than the Isis version at 8' but we still managed to squeeze everything in.

The colour scheme however is no longer in my hands!

NB Isis

Isis was a new Colecraft shell commissioned by me in 2009. It was designed as a family liveaboard with a traditional appearance, benefiting from solar power and a gravity fed central heating and hot water system powered by a Rayburn solid fuel range. This avoids the need to run the engine daily which not only prolongs its life but is also more environmentally friendly.

Craning in at stretton

                                                                           

This rayburn is installed to run a domestic heating and hot water system completely by gravity. No circulating pump is necessary to heat the water in the calorifier or central heating system. This type of installation is more suited to a liveaboard boat, with a good solar array you have no need to run the engine to charge batteries or heat water... even in winter! Using large pidgeon box apertures in the roof you can control the heat well in summer too, extending the use of the Rayburn well into the summer season.

This galley is unusual even for a narrowboat, but affords good use of storage space while still allowing convenient access through the boat while it is in use. Most boats suffer from a "pinch point" in places like this meaning someone has to stop what they are doing and move to allow someone else through to the back.




 The interior is finished in a light egshell paint which gives the impression of light and space in a portholed boat.

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From bare shell to finished boat