Saturday, September 29, 2007

Why Derwent6 !


We have had a lot of comments as to why we have called this narrowboat Derwent6... so to make it clearer to everyone here goes.


When we brought our first house we looked on a new housing estate and fell in love with one of them. Now! you know they call all these new houses different names, well our one was called Derwent. We lived happily for 10 years calling this house Derwent until another new housing estate was established just up the road with detached opportunities. This house was No.6 and because we have been so happy in our last house decided to name it Derwent. We even put up a plaque with Derwent on it, with the house number 6 underneath. We have been very happy there for 14 years until we decided to live on a narrowboat...hence the name (all one word) Derwent6.

Thursday, September 27, 2007

Fernwood planning

We went up to Fernwood craft this week to discuss the planning for Derwent6, and also find out how they are getting on with the work in progress.

They certainly know how to produce a Wow factor boat, with the four they have in the workshop, at the moment.

Julia sat us down and we went through the fundamentals of the boat, talking about water and waste tanks (with a coffee of course). We then talked about colours and fabrics for the bathroom and dining room, but Julia still hadn't got the feeling we had with the colours.



We then went and looked at the new concept boat (Whitefields) and it is coming along nicely.
You can check this out on Fernwood's website www.fernwoodcraft.co.uk . It's a nice boat, but a bit complicated (to many things to go wrong), but it just shows what Fernwood can do.

We then showed Julia the samples for the saloon and dining room, and suddenly, Julia could see where we were coming from, with all the warm colours blending through Derwent6.

We are hoping that Derwent6 will enter their workshop in about 3 weeks....Jim has about a weeks work, so he will hold onto the hull, until Fernwood need it. We will go back up to Jim just before the hull is primed for transportation, and we will be there with the camera.

Sunday, September 23, 2007

Jim's bit of fancy

Jim has had to slow down a bit on Derwent6 due to the fact that Fernwood can't get the hull into them for a least another two weeks, but it has given him the time to get all the fancy bits right on the stern deck, roof cutouts and rails.


The port and starboard side doors have now been fitted and the stern rear door bulkhead is in.












Alexander Boat's said this boat would be ready for the end of September, and Jim has delivered.

His Quality has been second to none, and the care you can see on the final touches.



All that is needed now are for the Houdini hatches and the doors to be fitted. There is some final straightening up to do, and then Derwent6 will be blackened and primed for Fernwood.

We are off to Fernwood this week to check on progress and go through the fundamentals with Ken and Julia.

Sunday, September 09, 2007

Sides are up !

WoW!!!! Jim has really been getting on with Derwent6 with the cabin sides now up, and the roof on.
You can see from this picture, that Jim has done the design of the curved sides which protect you from the wind when sitting in the cratch. You can also see the cutouts in the roof, which is where the fenders will hang, so you can rake off the leaves on that Autumnal evening.




The cratch lockers are in and gas bottle fixings.


Jim here is showing us how big the portholes are, but this one will end up being a side door in the galley, next time we go up.






The weed hatch and fuel tank have been fitted. The fuel tank has been extended to take 50 gallons (250 litres). You can see the fuel feed and return pipes and this had already been tested.
On the lower right of the picture you can see the engine cooling radiator, which does not have fins due to the fact it will be under the water line and cooled by the swim.




The roof is now on and the roof rails fitted. Jim has got the lines and the arch of the roof just right here. Another set of side doors will go where the roof rail ends on the port side (left) in this picture.


We are both so pleased we chose Alexander boats as you can see from the pictures, the Quality is fantastic.