First Coat ON….

For once we did what we planned to do. After the GP yesterday the water tank was emptied and Paul set to.

Paul filling the bucket for me to empty

Bit of a tight fit.

Last knockings.

Nice and clean ready to paint.

Paul did find that the inlet pipe to the pump was a bit blocked. It is 3/4 barrel pipe but it was so corroded on the inside it was down to 3/16th.

No wonder the flow was a bit slow!!!

Paul being Paul he wasn't satisfied with just cutting the end off he cut it back as far as he could dare and replaced it all with plastic. We had plenty of people stop, intrigued by the banging and scrapping from the depths of the cratch floor all of them saying “rather you than me” of course there was one (and there always is) who said “I have a stainless tank” well we haven't and that is why Paul was down the hole.

Today the first coat went on, not only on the tank as I am sure you can appreciate.

 

That looks better.

Had to use the hoover to dry out the tank.

Although the tank had dried out over night there was a small residue of condensation on the bows of the tank, instead of using the hair dryer he succumbed to using my hoover which is a first as he doesn't even know how to turn it on.  As I write this the hoover is back on for an hour to start the drying process and hopefully Paul can get another coat on later on today.

The fumes permeating through the boat were a bit noxious but must have been worse for Paul in the confined space. When he finally surfaced he had bitumen everywhere, in his hair up his arms you name it is was there. I did suggest that he put a plastic bag on his head to protect his hair but did he do it no he didn't. Then when he took his working clothes off rather than undo the buttons of his shirt he took it off over his head so then he had the stuff all up his back MEN no sense what ever. Because of the smell we relented and took one lot of double glazing down so we could open the window (it is nearly June after all). It was a good job we did because we found that this window was leaking with the rain beating on that side of the boat. Just shows how long it is since we had rain because we would have noticed it before now. Luckily this is the only one found to be leaking.

The door is now fixed in place after being varnished.

You would never guess this is where the old oven went. Needless to say it is now full up.