J had a 7 gas hob range with two ovens, a grill and a plate warmer on land; the boat had 4 gas hobs and an oven which heated the outside as much as the inside when we got it, so that got changed once we were living on board full time.
A south of France summer doesn't encourage many hot dishes, so the oven hadn't been put through its paces until recently, and that is where the shouting started - well, we all know how highly strung chef's are!
J worked on many tried and tested recipes - from quiches to lasagnes, but these burnt offerings appeased none on high, and pleased the skipper even less!
Knowing the French version of customer services as we do, and having purchased the oven in August, but discovered its issues months later, we decided to try to go to the source for solutions, ie the manufacturer.
Stangely this search led us only to the UK distributor, Penguin Eng (www.penguineng.com).
Having asked for a contact for the manufacturer, Graham at Penguin took plenty of time to run through the possible causes, and kindly sent over a copy of the instructions (which did not come with the oven)...
Let's cut a long story short and say that thanks to Graham's advice, dinner involves less charcoal and more gratin, and when we remember that we didn't even buy the oven through Penguin, we are reminded that some people value future customers - many suppliers in France have a lot to learn.
So, thank you Graham and Penguin Eng Ltd - we look forward to becoming customers as the need arises - and feel free to drop in for a slice of perfectly cooked quiche when you're in town!
Interior works - new cushion covers and curtains
The Greens had offered the new cushion covers as a birthday gift in
July, and had the 'old' covers with them from about September to use as templates - they
were just waiting on the new material so they could get down to work...
J agonised for months on fabric colour choices for the cushions and curtains, but time waits for no procrastinator, so the day before we set off for the UK for the holidays, she had to jump in and choose - and we are so very delighted with the new look!
Bags and Things excelled themselves with our fabulous cushion covers, and having allowed J access to a machine to make the curtains (yes, it helps to have an inside track with 'The Management') - under the watchful eye, and expert advice, of 'she-who-knows-what-she's doing', the curtains also fit, and also look fabulous!
So, huge thanks to Chris & Penny Green at Bags and Things (aka J's long suffering parents) for making the boat look and feel like its ours!
Love you XXX
Check out Bags and Things on the web for custom-made bags and things - tailored to fit your needs.
http://www.bags-and-things.co.uk/
J agonised for months on fabric colour choices for the cushions and curtains, but time waits for no procrastinator, so the day before we set off for the UK for the holidays, she had to jump in and choose - and we are so very delighted with the new look!
Bags and Things excelled themselves with our fabulous cushion covers, and having allowed J access to a machine to make the curtains (yes, it helps to have an inside track with 'The Management') - under the watchful eye, and expert advice, of 'she-who-knows-what-she's doing', the curtains also fit, and also look fabulous!
So, huge thanks to Chris & Penny Green at Bags and Things (aka J's long suffering parents) for making the boat look and feel like its ours!
Love you XXX
Check out Bags and Things on the web for custom-made bags and things - tailored to fit your needs.
http://www.bags-and-things.co.uk/
Progress...?
So, we have a sealed mid-deck, and the aft hatch leak is a thing of the past...
Phew!
'Discusion' on the next step was prolonged and heated; J wanted to get the timber back down and the deck 'finished' before moving on, whilst A preferred to attack each actual problem as it arose.
When the helm leak started to be a real nuisance - by which I mean water ingress from the forehead locker using the wiring to cause a significant drip in a moderate downpoor - J realised compromise was necessary, and so the timber went into storage, the sleeves were pushed up, and the top deck became the target of our efforts.
We first had to remove the rather anti-social seating - back to back doesn't encourage much chat, so we got rid - and thoughts fly as to what will follow; to be confirmed!!
Again we were so lucky that the stainless screws came up mostly without a fight - although given the state of some of them, the mind boggles as to what they've been through in the past!!!
We weren't quite ready to take down the mast, so we cut round that, but otherwise we stripped the deck of teak in a couple of days, and immediately identified the source of our problem:
These trawlers are delivered in two parts, with the fly bridge moulding to be attached after shipping. I guess maybe one in ten new owners might want to ship their boat to new waters, and to appease that minority, the fly bridge moulding is simply screwed into place and the seam is covered with a teak trim. The fly bridge is teaked entirely, effectively covering the interor seam of the molding.
The problem we had was that there was alot of water under the timber, which was making its way into the forehead locker under the seam, and then down the cable run to the helm and electrical panel... Yikes.
Having lifted the teak we sealed the inside seam with fibreglass tape and epoxy, effectively glassing on the forehead moulding permanantly and we were sure we'd nailed the problem....
That is, until it rained again - and we heard that awful 'drip' at the helm :-(
Quick! Put a pot under it!!
There was nothing for it, but to attack the exterior teak trim, and seal the moulding from the other side too - the gap was huge and an obvious source of a leak...
Once that was done, we waited for rain to test our work...
And waited...
And waited...
And before we had the proof we so desperately craved, the holidays were upon us - we hot footed it back to the UK to spend our first Crimbo there as a couple (J's first since 1998!) and to help the Howell's move house.
We left a pot under the leak and left our key with a friend - with strict instructions that if the leak was still there we didn't want to know about it so please just empty the bucket as necessary!!!
In fact, we got a message to say that despite heavy rain, our drip receptacle remained empty, so score one for us 'vs' the leaks! Youpi!
Phew!
'Discusion' on the next step was prolonged and heated; J wanted to get the timber back down and the deck 'finished' before moving on, whilst A preferred to attack each actual problem as it arose.
When the helm leak started to be a real nuisance - by which I mean water ingress from the forehead locker using the wiring to cause a significant drip in a moderate downpoor - J realised compromise was necessary, and so the timber went into storage, the sleeves were pushed up, and the top deck became the target of our efforts.
We first had to remove the rather anti-social seating - back to back doesn't encourage much chat, so we got rid - and thoughts fly as to what will follow; to be confirmed!!
Again we were so lucky that the stainless screws came up mostly without a fight - although given the state of some of them, the mind boggles as to what they've been through in the past!!!
We weren't quite ready to take down the mast, so we cut round that, but otherwise we stripped the deck of teak in a couple of days, and immediately identified the source of our problem:
These trawlers are delivered in two parts, with the fly bridge moulding to be attached after shipping. I guess maybe one in ten new owners might want to ship their boat to new waters, and to appease that minority, the fly bridge moulding is simply screwed into place and the seam is covered with a teak trim. The fly bridge is teaked entirely, effectively covering the interor seam of the molding.
The problem we had was that there was alot of water under the timber, which was making its way into the forehead locker under the seam, and then down the cable run to the helm and electrical panel... Yikes.
Having lifted the teak we sealed the inside seam with fibreglass tape and epoxy, effectively glassing on the forehead moulding permanantly and we were sure we'd nailed the problem....
That is, until it rained again - and we heard that awful 'drip' at the helm :-(
Quick! Put a pot under it!!
There was nothing for it, but to attack the exterior teak trim, and seal the moulding from the other side too - the gap was huge and an obvious source of a leak...
Once that was done, we waited for rain to test our work...
And waited...
And waited...
And before we had the proof we so desperately craved, the holidays were upon us - we hot footed it back to the UK to spend our first Crimbo there as a couple (J's first since 1998!) and to help the Howell's move house.
We left a pot under the leak and left our key with a friend - with strict instructions that if the leak was still there we didn't want to know about it so please just empty the bucket as necessary!!!
In fact, we got a message to say that despite heavy rain, our drip receptacle remained empty, so score one for us 'vs' the leaks! Youpi!
A year on and what a year its been!
OK, a tad more than a year now, but I wrote this post back in November 2013 - I just forgot to hit send ;-)
We wintered in Saint Raphael - a lovely spot with free parking near the boat and a shower block a short stroll away. The winter prices were reasonable, but as with all the ports here on the Med the waiting list for a long term rental was 5 years long...
The house felt big, cold and echoey so we spent as much time as possible on the boat, either lazy weekends or busy days...
J could be found with her new set of Bahco scrapers, and in no time we had beautiful bare teak capping and hand rails.
A spent alot of time giving the first engine a huge overhaul; he removed all the fresh and sea-water systems, dipped the heat exchanger and the oil cooler and repainted them before reinstallation, changed the thermostat, changed all of the engine hoses and installed a new water temperature guage in the helm with a new sender, all this on top of a full service (new impellers, oil filters,...)
Having accepted an offer on our house, we felt that lucky occurrences really did come in threes when we found a space available for long term rent within walking distance from a promising workshop/office location in Mandelieu. We moved the boat over during the May bank holiday weekend, and moored up in front of a watching audience of residents in the pretty complex of apartment blocks on pedestals around a small marina of maybe 100 boats. Ours was the very first berth once past the security barrier, with the fly bridge only a smidge lower than someone's balcony, but the welcome was friendly, and even Roxy made a few friends, including a gorgeous English bulldog called Guapa.
June was a manic month, selling most of our possessions whilst moving onto the boat and into the workshop in time for the house sale on July 15th but we did it, and that evening J was sipping a coldie on the aft deck when the port captain visited to inform us that we were not permitted to sleep onboard so needed to make other arrangements - yikes! Having joked about being homeless, it turns out we really were! The Stares family stepped in, giving us shelter for the night, before Rachel and Ben saved us by handing over the keys to their holiday flat situated between the workshop and the mooring - phew! But we only had til the end of the month (when the flat was rented) to find a permanent solution...
Lets cut a long story short here, and say that on August 1st we moved the Goodbye George to its permanent berth in Antibes! Parking is usually pretty close, conveniences nearby (although waiting with baited breath for them to fix the hot water there) and we're back in town, with a park right nearby - youpi! 8 years since last we lived here, but we're loving it. We have some great neighbours on our quay, and the sail boat next door came out of the same yard, so we exchanged tours after an end of season quay party which they organised - the same trims all over, although Patricia took a tin of white paint to their teak veneers after water damage had ruined them.
Summer here was scorching, and we enjoyed many days out at anchor with friends who brought their dogs, or their jetskis, or both, and always some rosé... Living the dream.
And so, on to the winter works.
A rainy summer in the UK brought no leaks to light, but a hot summer and a naive/uneducated deck hand allowed the teak to dry out and shrink, resulting in interior water leaks of various magnitude - am I now coming to understand the presence of so many oven dishes onboard, so useful as they are to catch a drip?!
(Speaking of ovens, J loves the new one - down a hob to 3, but the door closes properly so takes half the time to cook anything and we also put in a new fridge (with an inverter) to replace the slightly decrepid camping gaz one in the saloon).
Back to the leaks :-( The worst is from round the aft hatch into our cabin, so that was the deck we have attacked first. Our best bet seemed to be removal of the teak so we could seal all the screw holes and seal round the hatch before relaying the wood. This last is a constant source of 'discussion' with J desperate to keep wood decks while A would be very happy with a non-skid coating. In any case, it was likely the decision was out of our hands as if the teak was only going to come up in centimeters with a chisel, as Jerome and Patricia next door found out with theirs, failing a Loto win we'd be non-skid all the way.
Having ordered a set of waterproof covers, J set to with a flat blade screwdriver and hammer and in a day and a half had all the screw plugs out - as well as bruised and blistered hands. The first revelation was that all the screws were stainless (Jerome's brass screw heads all snapped off when he tried to take them out!). Next J borrowed a Fein Multimaster (please Santa, if you're reading this, she REALLY wants one of her very own!) and once the edge planks were forcibly freed up, the deck practically removed itself - one or two planks were casualties, but all in all we now had a bare deck and a pile of numbered teak planks with a matching sketch in order to rebuild the puzzle. The teak was 15mm thick when layed, but we still have a very satisfying 12mm average thickness left to work with - double what you'd get on a new build these days, and we're delighted that we'll be able to recycle and reuse the original timber.
We're lucky to have contacts within the yachting industry in most trades, so now it was time to combine a YouTube crash course with some priceless Michael Valentine advice in order to properly fill all the screw holes with resin before a thorough clean up and laying of a new skin of fibreglass over the whole deck to ensure a full and proper waterproof sealing of the structure. A also took apart and rebuilt the hatch, glassing it into the deck from the outside to make that leak a thing of the past.
We took the opportunity to modify the hatch from running on sliders to lifting on hinges - those pesky runners being responsible for a number of stubbed toes already, and occupying a spot on the deck where we'd like to mount the liferaft, so we're not sorry to see them go. And of course we've bonded the hinge mounts to the deck - there will be no holes drilled here, I promise!
But I tell you, we've opened a real can of worms...
In taking apart the hatch A found evidence that the leak has been happening for a while - a rotten ceiling panel beside the hatch pretty much coming away in his hand, but its easily replaced and when the finished panel is back in place it'll be as good as new.
We're lucky that our yacht carpenter friend Tim is happy to supply us with the necessary timber at trade rates when he has it in stock, and so far so good!
Back out on deck, the old hand rail mounts were on top of the teak, and our preference on reinstallation would definitely be to bond the mounts to the superstructure rather than the glued down deck, which means we need to make the finished deck dimensions smaller to fit inside the railings. But then without the deck planks underneath, the rails mounts are 15mm too thin... Aie, aie, aie! Back to Tim to get a new set of railing mounts made, all cut to an angle to fit the curve of the deck, and 15mm thicker than the old ones!
We wintered in Saint Raphael - a lovely spot with free parking near the boat and a shower block a short stroll away. The winter prices were reasonable, but as with all the ports here on the Med the waiting list for a long term rental was 5 years long...
The house felt big, cold and echoey so we spent as much time as possible on the boat, either lazy weekends or busy days...
J could be found with her new set of Bahco scrapers, and in no time we had beautiful bare teak capping and hand rails.
 |
| J begins her war on exterior varnish |
A spent alot of time giving the first engine a huge overhaul; he removed all the fresh and sea-water systems, dipped the heat exchanger and the oil cooler and repainted them before reinstallation, changed the thermostat, changed all of the engine hoses and installed a new water temperature guage in the helm with a new sender, all this on top of a full service (new impellers, oil filters,...)
 | |
| It's not that he's been driven to drink, but a coldie always helps ;-) |
Having accepted an offer on our house, we felt that lucky occurrences really did come in threes when we found a space available for long term rent within walking distance from a promising workshop/office location in Mandelieu. We moved the boat over during the May bank holiday weekend, and moored up in front of a watching audience of residents in the pretty complex of apartment blocks on pedestals around a small marina of maybe 100 boats. Ours was the very first berth once past the security barrier, with the fly bridge only a smidge lower than someone's balcony, but the welcome was friendly, and even Roxy made a few friends, including a gorgeous English bulldog called Guapa.
June was a manic month, selling most of our possessions whilst moving onto the boat and into the workshop in time for the house sale on July 15th but we did it, and that evening J was sipping a coldie on the aft deck when the port captain visited to inform us that we were not permitted to sleep onboard so needed to make other arrangements - yikes! Having joked about being homeless, it turns out we really were! The Stares family stepped in, giving us shelter for the night, before Rachel and Ben saved us by handing over the keys to their holiday flat situated between the workshop and the mooring - phew! But we only had til the end of the month (when the flat was rented) to find a permanent solution...
Lets cut a long story short here, and say that on August 1st we moved the Goodbye George to its permanent berth in Antibes! Parking is usually pretty close, conveniences nearby (although waiting with baited breath for them to fix the hot water there) and we're back in town, with a park right nearby - youpi! 8 years since last we lived here, but we're loving it. We have some great neighbours on our quay, and the sail boat next door came out of the same yard, so we exchanged tours after an end of season quay party which they organised - the same trims all over, although Patricia took a tin of white paint to their teak veneers after water damage had ruined them.
Summer here was scorching, and we enjoyed many days out at anchor with friends who brought their dogs, or their jetskis, or both, and always some rosé... Living the dream.
And so, on to the winter works.
A rainy summer in the UK brought no leaks to light, but a hot summer and a naive/uneducated deck hand allowed the teak to dry out and shrink, resulting in interior water leaks of various magnitude - am I now coming to understand the presence of so many oven dishes onboard, so useful as they are to catch a drip?!
(Speaking of ovens, J loves the new one - down a hob to 3, but the door closes properly so takes half the time to cook anything and we also put in a new fridge (with an inverter) to replace the slightly decrepid camping gaz one in the saloon).
Back to the leaks :-( The worst is from round the aft hatch into our cabin, so that was the deck we have attacked first. Our best bet seemed to be removal of the teak so we could seal all the screw holes and seal round the hatch before relaying the wood. This last is a constant source of 'discussion' with J desperate to keep wood decks while A would be very happy with a non-skid coating. In any case, it was likely the decision was out of our hands as if the teak was only going to come up in centimeters with a chisel, as Jerome and Patricia next door found out with theirs, failing a Loto win we'd be non-skid all the way.
Having ordered a set of waterproof covers, J set to with a flat blade screwdriver and hammer and in a day and a half had all the screw plugs out - as well as bruised and blistered hands. The first revelation was that all the screws were stainless (Jerome's brass screw heads all snapped off when he tried to take them out!). Next J borrowed a Fein Multimaster (please Santa, if you're reading this, she REALLY wants one of her very own!) and once the edge planks were forcibly freed up, the deck practically removed itself - one or two planks were casualties, but all in all we now had a bare deck and a pile of numbered teak planks with a matching sketch in order to rebuild the puzzle. The teak was 15mm thick when layed, but we still have a very satisfying 12mm average thickness left to work with - double what you'd get on a new build these days, and we're delighted that we'll be able to recycle and reuse the original timber.
We're lucky to have contacts within the yachting industry in most trades, so now it was time to combine a YouTube crash course with some priceless Michael Valentine advice in order to properly fill all the screw holes with resin before a thorough clean up and laying of a new skin of fibreglass over the whole deck to ensure a full and proper waterproof sealing of the structure. A also took apart and rebuilt the hatch, glassing it into the deck from the outside to make that leak a thing of the past.
 | |
| That's not poor workmanship - we laid peel-ply to give the right finish for the next layer! |
 |
| A skim of Epoxy and we're ready for the next step. If you spotted J missed a bit, details will follow!! |
But I tell you, we've opened a real can of worms...
In taking apart the hatch A found evidence that the leak has been happening for a while - a rotten ceiling panel beside the hatch pretty much coming away in his hand, but its easily replaced and when the finished panel is back in place it'll be as good as new.
We're lucky that our yacht carpenter friend Tim is happy to supply us with the necessary timber at trade rates when he has it in stock, and so far so good!
Back out on deck, the old hand rail mounts were on top of the teak, and our preference on reinstallation would definitely be to bond the mounts to the superstructure rather than the glued down deck, which means we need to make the finished deck dimensions smaller to fit inside the railings. But then without the deck planks underneath, the rails mounts are 15mm too thin... Aie, aie, aie! Back to Tim to get a new set of railing mounts made, all cut to an angle to fit the curve of the deck, and 15mm thicker than the old ones!
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