Rollout, transport and launch!

You know that feeling you get on Christmas Eve, when the last shop has shut and you say 'Well, if we haven't got it now...' For me, 4pm on Weds 10th Oct was a bit like that. I would have dearly liked another week, or even a day, to do more work on her, but we were committed.

Forklift trucks were started and as ladders and steps were pulled away for the last time, it had all the feeling of a plane preparing for take-off or a ship about to leave port.



The extending flatbed lorry was positioned up to the wall, the mighty crane was alongside. I was amazed at the size of the thing. The driver told me it could lift 220 tonnes, which seemed a bit OTT, but it was what they had available.






Very slowly, Garry pushed Calbourne on its rollers, out of the shed and into the October sunshine. I have to admit, it was quite an emotional moment, the culmination of a lot of work and planning.



The plan was to take an initial lift to place the bow on the back of the lorry, then reset the strops to get a full, even lift. They went for a lift, but found the boat was tipping down at the bow. The strops were reset forward by a metre or so and then Calbourne gently became airborne!

The lift confirmed my suspicion that there was too much weight too far forward, in spite of the advice that 'two-thirds of the ballast should be forward of the centreline'.

With a bit of effort on the taglines, the boat was soon lowered dead centre on the lorry, the strops were dropped off and securing straps fitted.

A big empty space in the build shed!

Nothing else could be done, except to hope and pray that the cooker didn't break free and cause carnage on the journey. At this point, it's only fair to say a big public 'Thank you' to Garry, Lee, Abdul, Murray and the rest of the XR&D team, for building me my dream boat. Great job, guys!

Before long, the lorry whisked the boat off to their yard to overnight at Newark, ready for an early start to be at March by 8am.

The lorry was already there when we arrived. I was very anxious to get on board to see how everything, especially the cooker, had fared during the trip. But I wasn't allowed anywhere near, so I would have to wait till she was safely on the water.

The gantry was positioned over the boat. There was a tense moment, when I wondered if the gantry would clear the pigeon box, but all was well. Before long, the boat was dangling by the strops again and the lorry was, somewhat disconcertingly, pulled away, leaving the boat dangling in mid-air.

The gantry was steadily steered round to point at the slipway and with a steady push from the tractor, gracefully slid into the water.

My heart was in my mouth slightly, when I saw how deep the stern went in! All kinds of thoughts rushed through my mind... Had I put too much ballast in? How high were those holes above the waterline? Irrational stuff like that. Then suddenly, she was free of the supports and restraints and was bobbing gently on the water, with her counter an inch or so above the water. She floats! Woohoo! Relief.

That part of the drama over, it was now a question of pulling and pushing the boat to the berth, using only my 15m centreline and a borrowed pole. The difficulty was, she had to be pulled backwards out into the river opening, then turned through 90 degrees, then moved into the basin, then turned 90 degrees again, then forward into the berth. The wind was starting to pick up, which threatened to make life difficult.

With only myself to do the job, it was a case of passing the rope over numerous boats to be able to get a pull in the right dirction, then jumping back on to work the pole.


But before too long, I'd got the bow nudged into the berth, when a number of fellow boaters appeared, brandishing poles and offering a hand. With the stern eased round, she slid gracefully into her berth until the bow nudged the wall.

Having secured a couple lines, now I had my opportunity to check inside. With huge relief, I found that both of the ratchet straps had held firm and the cooker was still in situ. Everything else was fine, too. It's been quite a week! But lovely to see Calbourne sitting so pretty on the water at last.

The launch deadline approaches!

I've just looked - my last blog was on 2nd October. With the crane and lorry booked for the 10th, there was still a frightening amount of work left to do. I drove back to the yard in the camper van on 3rd Oct, ready for a long, hard week.

Some of the key things which were still outstanding:

• Mate the gearbox to the engine
• Order the propshaft and fit
• Soundproof generator housing
• Install the generator
• Install the alternator on a bespoke bracket
• Install the thrust bearing and remote greaser
• Pack the stern gland
• Install the bilge pump
• Install locks to the main doors
• Install the water tank
• Get the cooker off the ballast blocks to get floor finished
• Start on battening and insulating
• Fit the portholes, hatch and door windows.
• Make and fit guards to cover moving engine parts
• Secure the cooker ready for transport
• Burn holes for chimneys, bilge pumps, etc

These were just the main jobs. In between were dozens of smaller jobs which had to be done to get the bigger tasks completed. The major, pain the backside job was to mate the gearbox to the engine (which has no bell housing). I'd already bought an R&D damper plate. This is a round plate with a splined socket to match the shaft on the gearbox. It also has shock absorbers built in. The difficulty was fitting it to the flywheel, so I had to get a custom-made adapter to join the two together.

So far, so good. The big problem was to ensure the spline was accurately aligned - not easy when you have a 65Kg lump dangling from the end of a chain! Then a secondary plate had to be fabricated to support the main gearbox plate. 

After about a day's work, the spline was finally slid into position and the massive support bracket was welded in place.

Now we knew the distance from the prop shaft to the gearbox flange, I could order the main propshaft. When this arrived, it was disappointingly too short and refused to mate with the gearbox. 4 hours later, after a great deal of cursing, filing and hammering, it finally went into place and was bolted up. It was now 9pm on Saturday 6th. Three and a half days left to complete everything else!

Resigned to the fact that sleep was now a luxury, I got into a routine of starting work at 6.30am and finishing at midnight or later.

Next job was to line out the generator pod in the Potter's locker with heavy duty soundproofing material.and bolt in the massive slide rails.

In an effort to reduce the amount of material which would have to get loaded in the boat, I cracked on with battening and fitting some of the 50mm Celotex.

Now the generator could be loaded... the 150Kg lump was hoisted up with the forklift and painstakingly eased into position. All that careful measuring paid off! It fitted within a few millimetres and dropped onto the support rails, ready for bolting and welding.

With about 2 days before the crane was due, the portholes (ordered 4 months previously) started arriving in dribs and drabs. I was very anxious to ensure that the boat would be watertight before leaving the shed. In the end, she was rolled out minus two chimey collars and the Houdini hatch.

Just hours before the lorry was due, we attempted the installation of the water tank. We knew it wouldn't go through the front doors, so it had to be manhandled through the stern doors, then turned horizontal to allow it to go over the engine. 

We were all mighty relieved when it went into place, only needing an inch chopping off the breather pipe to get it to clear.

Murray was thrashing on with burning the required holes in the cabin and hull, fitted the pole & plank rack and refitted the hatch, which I had just lined with ply. 

Just to add to my rising sense of panic, the lorry and crane arrived an hour early! We still had a list of jobs to complete, but the main task now was to secure the cooker on a platform with ratchet straps. This was vital, to prevent it moving in transit. That done, we then started chucking all the tools, equipment and materials on board. There was no time to do the job neatly - it would all have to be sorted later. By this point, I was close to complete exhaustion and was relieved to be able to hand over responsibility to Garry and the team, to get the boat loaded. See next blog, to follow soon!

Fitting-out of NB Calbourne started!

After the boat had been rolled out of the build shed into the DIY bay, it suddenly became possible to start on some of the basic fitting out. There was a period of about 3 weeks where the space in the shed was available before the next booking, so it was a case of cracking on, putting in very long days to get the most done in the time available. With launch day set for 11th October, the pressure was on!

I'd found that the most cost-effective way to ballast the boat, was to use high density concrete blocks. These weigh in at around 20Kg each, so two pallets of 72 made 2.8 tonnes.

The blocks dropped in neatly between the bearers. I had calculated that nine extra blocks were needed on the port side to counter the weight of the battery bank and other items. Next job was to fix the crossways battens to the bearers to clear the top of the blocks, then further lengthwise ones. This gives a good support for the floor and gives a 30mm air gap for bilge ventilation. Note the additional battens in the area where the cooker will go!

Next, in with the plywood sub-floor. The cooker is now on rollers, pending movement to its final position. It's very heavy!

At the stern, the prop shaft and prop have been installed:

Stop cocks and fuel lines have been fitted to the massive fuel tank in the bow. The fuel lines, which are PVC-coated 10mm copper tube, have been run down the length of the boat in very hard PVC tube to resist abrasion. 

The service batteries - twelve 840Ah 2V cells, wired in series, have been installed in a custom-made steel battery box. The batteries are fitted with auto-venting and auto-watering systems. The starter batteries are on the opposite side.

Plywood inserts have now been fitted to all the doors, including the Potter's locker, where the generator will be housed.

I'll cover the installation of the gearbox and alternator in the next blog!