The Master Plan.

During 2006, we spent as much time as possible on the boat. It wasn’t long before we both realised that we enjoyed living on the boat more than we enjoyed living in a house. It also wasn’t long before I decided that I would like to give up work and spend the next year or two (who knows how long) living on the boat and touring the inland waterways system. By spring of 2006, I had made my mind up that I would give up work in spring or early summer of 2007, sell the house, buy a small rental property with the proceeds from the house sale and move onto the boat full time.

During the rest of 2006, we started getting the boat ready for living on. The following outlines the main changes and additions made.

(1) In order to save running the main engine to charge batteries, a 4kW Honda diesel generator (EX4D) was bought and fitted into the cratch area. The generator is advertised as being ‘silent’ but this is far from the case. Due to the layout of the boat with the saloon being at the stern, the generator just sounds like a background hum when in the saloon but it is quite noisy when in the bedroom. This is not muc24 March, 2007 9:16 AM I wanted a diesel generator as I did not like the idea of carrying petrol on board (fire risk). Also, diesel is readily available on the canals where as petrol is not. I had looked into a petrol generator with LP gas conversion but with the price of LPG at the time, diesel looked like a better bet. The 4kW is sufficient to be able to run the Hoover washer/dryer with capacity to spare.

(2) The 3 110Amp batteries have been replaced by 6 x 110Amp batteries (Xmas 2006). The original batteries were getting on for 5 years old so were not long for this world in any case. The idea behind the larger bank is to enable us to go for up to 48 hours without charging.

(3) A larger battery charger has been fitted to help charge the additional batteries. The boat came fitted with a Sterling Pro Digital 30 Amp charger. I have added an additional Pro Digital 50Amp charger to give me a total charge rate of 80Amps. I have also re-wired the chargers so that they can be powered from the engine driven Electrolux mains supply as well as the generator or a shore line. When running from the Electrolux, the chargers assist the engine driven 110Amp alternator. Sterling confirmed that this setup is OK.

(4) We had the built in seating in the saloon removed and the floor and woodwork made good. Work carried out by DB Boat fitting at Braunston. We now have two Stressless recliners in the saloon. The built in seating was OK for the odd weekend but not comfortable enough for living with on a daily basis. Only problem is that the dogs have now claimed one of the new chairs each!! Before, Middle and After.

(5) We have also fitted a Sky satellite TV system to enable us to get good TV reception which was24 March, 2007 9:16 AM if the dish can see the satellite, the reception is very good. Since fitting the Sky system 6 or 7 months ago, I can only thing of 2 occasions when I couldn’t get reception due to trees and that was really my fault because I didn’t think about it before mooring up.

So, all as there was already a washer/dryer fitted and the heating system is more than adequate. The water tank and waste tank are plenty big enough so no changes required there. No doubt, once we are living on board, we will find things that we would like to change, but, hopefully, these will be few and far between.

I had a lucky break in February of 2007. I was offered the chance to take voluntary redundancy. I applied and was accepted. I will be retiring at the end of March and will be able to draw a small pension as from April. All in all, this could not have come at a better time as I had been planning on resigning around April/May in any case.

We have a trip to the USA planed for mid April (booked last July to burn up all of my air miles before moving onto the boat). I have given three months statutory notice to the marina and will be vacating the marina on or before 10th May.

The boat is now booked in with Tony Bale at Crick marina to have her dry docked and blacked. This is planned for the 16, 17 and 18th May. Following the blacking, we are off – to goodness knows where as we have not yet made any plans as to which direction we are going to head in. The only plan is to be on the Kennet & Avon for the winter as it is close to relatives.

The last year (2006):

Material Copyright © 2007 Ernie Williams
This page last modified on: 24 March, 2007 9:16 AM