Well, we have been working very hard to try to get Befur ready for the water, and this picture of me taking a break from boat building (on a blacksmith’s course seemed to epitomise what life is like….). – thank you Becca for the course, provided as a Christmas present, at a real Elizabethan forge!

Jobs completed

Plumbing

Most of the last few weeks have been devoted to undertaking all the plumbing for the engine and boiler, and some final electrical work to provide remote controls for the burner and alternator.

All the live-steam plumbing is in steel with screwed BSP connections. The exhaust work is in copper (all silver soldered joints to withstand the heat) and the cold water feeds and bypasses are in copper (end-feed soldered and compression fittings).

This work seems to take forever, and in some cases (like the pipes for the gauges (not shown in photo) needed making several (4) times to get them just right (well “acceptable” anyway).

Painting

Louise masked up the boat for the painting of the “boot line” (cream stripe at water level) and the black anti fouling. This latter job took us 5 man-hours of pretty smelly work, but it makes a big difference.

Moving her

The last bit of the process was moving her from Mike and Di’s barn, where she has been living for the last two years, to home. This is ready for final testing under steam tomorrow – finger’s crossed!!

The moving wasn’t easy as the length and limited ground clearance of the trailer means you can’t just push her into place with the landrover. So, a combination of Quad Bike, Landy and winching finally got her into her temporary home – and then the weather obliged with a minor thunderstorm, so when we get inside tomorrow we will know how waterproof Louise’s fine cover really is!

 

It really seems as though we are not going to be able to put off that “seeing if she floats” moment much longer!!!