A crap Xmas present? Composting toilet is the way forward.

We agreed that for Xmas we'd buy each other bits of a compost toilet kit, how romantic?!! This we'll put in the butty, we only use our cassette in Freyja to pee in and don't even put toilet paper into it. If we needed a 'big job' we've always walked up to use the marina toilets, but they are sometimes blocked.

Our seasonal gift to each other was the urine diverter and the specially adapted toilet seat from http://www.offgriddesigns.co.uk In this photo I'm trying to work out the height and position by blancing it on a cardboard box.

I cut out the hole needed for the urine diverter into a piece of hardwood that I'd been given.

Shaping around the front of the 'thunderbox'.

Getting there, the compost toilet is now usable but unfinished, as it still has no front on the 'thunderbox'

We keep some woodash in the yoghurt pot, this is used as a carbon cover which is sprinkled onto the solids.

The business end :- A painter's bucket bought from B & M for £2.99 with a green garden bag from Wilko for the solids and a four litre container for the urine.

Glenda's loss, Sabb's gain!

I first got the idea to replace our BMC with a Sabb when it was suggested by Paul Johnston who we met on Peterborough Embankment.

Paul recently paid us a visit, having recently got his own Sabb 2JHR running. I was a happy puppy when he confirmed the way I'd gone about connecting things up. But he also showed my a photo of a filter inside the thermostat housing and which would need cleaning. I took said housing off, destroying the gasket, only to find no filter.

The thermostat housing with it's new gasket but minus it's filter

Now with added kitchen sieve/filter!

 

Sorting out the Sabb's waterworks

When the Sabb was fitted I was told to connect the engine coolant and calorifier to the existing raw water. The problem with doing this is that I wouldn't be able to use antifreeze, then, if the weather turned freezing, I would have to drain the system and on refilling get all the air out.

Freyja still had her old skin tanks, so I cleaned them out and will try her out using a sealed system.

I could have connected it up quite quickly using rubber piping, but decided to used mostly 22mm with a little 28mm and a few 15mm adapters, all in soldered copper with only short vibration damping lengths of rubber pipe on each run. This meant that I could route all the pipes away from the bits of the bilge that I wanted clear so that I can climb in easily when I need to work on the engine. It also looks nice when polished!

She floats! (they always do for the first few minutes!)

It was a very busy day at Blackthorn Lake Marina, first Clive put the cruiser Carina back into the water, then a crane and a low-loader arrived and lifted out a narrowboat that Nene Boat Painters had just re-painted, then we were re-floated. A new widebeam arrived on another low-loader and was craned in and finally narrowboat Hudson was hauled out on the trailer that we had used.

Listen for our neighbour Ted's comment when Glenda says "She's floating!"

The final push before we re-float.

The blacking is finished, I've repainted the matt black along the gunwhale sides, then re-lengthened the tunnel bands (we blacked over the rear yellow roundel when we first bought them)

The stern over-plating is finished, the new rubbing strake has been curved around the stern and welded into place. I then re-instated the red tunnel band that we had blacked over when we first bought the boats. I then painted the top rubbing strake matt black and painted a matching matt black stripe above the white tunnel band. And joy of joys everything looked much better and the two tunnel bands ended up the same size. Happy days!

On the home straight.

We have finally moved to overplating the stern and so hope to be back in the water soon now.

After another session of head-scratching, I made some plywood templates of the uxter plate. I designed it in four pieces to minimise the amount of overhead welding. We were going to get the uxter plates cut out using a waterjet cutter. But, unfortunately, the waterjet broke down. So, plan B it is! Here, Bruce cuts out the forward section of one of the uxter plates.

The two rear sections of the uxter plate with cutouts for the weedhatch and the steering shaft.

Offering up the second forward section.

Two, of the four sections, welded into place.

There is still a narrow strip to weld around the counterplate, then the rubbing strake welded above that. Otherwise, there are four more sacrificial anodes and a swim rubbing strake to weld on, then I'll be able to finish the blacking and paint the tunnel bands.

We'll then wait a few days for the blacking to harden before she goes back in the water. HooRah!

Finally got some blacking onto Freyja

The bow had been replated and the rubbing strakes re-attached, all the welds dressed, let's try and get some black on her before it pours down...so, this is before.

And this is with the sacrificial anodes attached and the first coat black.

Before...

And after a lick of bitumen.