13th August I've been fairly lax in updating this site. Here's a potted history of what has happened since April. I kind of finished the sprayfoaming. It certainly doesn't look as well done as the pro's do. There are still a few holes here and there but I'll get some handy spray bottles and fill it with those. Its certainly made it a lot more comfortable to work there when its hot. (And sleep there on the odd occasion) Things are going on in the engine room too. I got the speedwheel connected up using bevel gears and it works quite smoothly. I'm very pleased with it. The gear change was a bit more involved. I cast some small levers in brass to match the gear box lever, and connected all the levers up to the change handle next to the speed wheel. I'll add some photo's later. I also made a mount for the bronze engine water pump. I had to connect gear wheels to camshaft and water pump and connected them together with a chain . Thank goodness I invested in a lathe all those years ago and then did a course to learn how to use it. I had to do lots of machining to connect all that up. I will have to make up some kind of a guard to cover the chain and to make some kind of oil bath for the chain. The next step was to make a header tank. I cut this from an old copper water cylinder , folded and soldered it all up to make a tank to fit above the engine. The next step was to connect the skin tanks using 22mm copper piping from the header tank to the gearbox oil cooler, to the skin tank and then to the other skin tank with an L-port (one or both) valve linking the two.  Unfortunately I had welded the skin tanks 18 months ago before the boat was launched. I had not pressure tested them. Guess what? Brother Bob came over to check on progress and I said 'Lets fill the water system up.' Water was peeing out from many little pinholes. We pumped out as much as we could using a sump pump in half a plastic milk container. It was all we could get under the lowest pipes. The last of the water has been slowly seeping out and being soaked up by baby nappies. I have had a go at welding up again but the pinholes are not so easy to get at now there is  floor framing in the way. I've also had enough of my old mig welder. I bought a second -hand one on Ebay and its much better. I'm also going over to Argoshield gas instead of CO2.  I've just picked up a bottle from BOC and am waiting for a regulator.(Also from Ebay) As soon as it arrives I'll get those pesky pinholes fixed and get the system filled up. I've now removed all the wiring from the engine. I removed the dynamo and have now bought a proper marine  alternator. The next bit is to fabricate a mount for it and fit a belt. I'm waiting for a pulley to arrive from the alternator supplier. I'm also negotiating to get some 110 amp/hr batteries from a contact on a canal website. In between working on the boat - I've also made a new security gate for the canal club car park. And fabricated and installed a security light for the car park as we've had a few of the cars  have been broken into.

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