In the Marina

Today I left Sonflower at the marina, where she will be for over two weeks. We are having a sofa and bookcases and a cabinet fitted into the saloon. This will make it more comfortable as a cruising boat. The project will also give us more locker space to store the clutter that accumulates on the boat in a tidier fashion.

The previous owner of the boat had her extended by twelve feet. The extension has never been fully fitted out. The tongue and groove pine is beautiful but there has been no permanent furniture. Whilst this flexibility is good in some respects, we found that the clutter creeps to cover all the space available. By putting in seats with storage under we will be forced to keep only what we really need.

Much of the boat's woodwork is glued to the structure with 'no more nails' or its predecessor. Much of this is coming to the end of its useful life and so the carpenters are going to remove much of the lining at the rear of the boat and re-fix it in a more satisfactory manner. We also are having new hardwood doors as the rear doors and frame are rotten.

We have also asked for a feasibility study and quotation to fit a calorifier for the bathroom. More about that later. The boat has only a gas water heater at present and the use of engine waste heat for water heating has to be the green way forward. It may legitimately allow us to self certificate diesel used for heating rather than propulsion to save tax.

The engine is also being fully serviced.

All in all we hope this will fit us well for the summer.

As we cruise we will be planning other aspects of a re-fit to make her grandchild friendly as well!