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While Lawrence was on standby for work we managed to get lots of jobs done in preparation for cruising. This was the mounting of the blue board (well it isn’t blue yet but will be). It has been nearly 2 years in the making as it kept being put away while other jobs took priority. It has even been to the canal bed at 5m deep in Compiegne when it was painted and left on deck. It blew off and sank, still clamped in the workmate, but was retrieved by dragging a grapnel hook over the canal bed for 20 minutes or so and eventually snagging it. Anyway, here it is nearly finished, to the left Lawrence mounts the hinges and pulleys, aided by Tilly and to the right Lorna gives it a trial.
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Another job was to make wheelhouse seating after an aborted attempt to have it done by a professional. We stopped the ‘professional’ and sent him away after watching a lot of terrible bodged work over the course of 3 days. We set to, correcting his work and found more and more faults as we progressed – seats not the same level, batens cut too short and padded with scraps, over length screws poking through the hardwood shelf...... After 3 weeks more work, mainly by a newly inspired Lorna, we had the seating in good shape to have cushions made and then made up a template for the upholsterers to use. We have wanted seating in the wheelhouse for years as it is Lawrence’s favourite place on the barge. The cushions will be profiled and covered in leather by an upholsterer in England, we can’t wait!
The old Tabur Yak dinghy was also in a terrible state so we looked at replacing it with a new inflatable or plastic boat. However, after an internet search and a drive out to a boat centre we saw how expensive new boats were and also how light weight our old one was. The old Tabur weighed in at about 35 Kg, which one person can flip over and launch alone. Most dinghies seem to be twice that weight so would be a real struggle. Lawrence decided to repair the old dinghy by stripping off all the weakened, sun damaged plastic bits and then sealing the centre board slot with a wooden patch both inside and out. First though a pressure wash to remove years of dirt and lichen. We pressure wash with water pumped from the canal as fresh water is highly valued here in Belgium and France.