This week's work started with a lot of painting and varnishing

This is a photo of the inside of the Princess 25 with the lockers under the floors and under the bunks now painted out with white bilge paint.

 

 This photo is of the port side, showing how much of a difference a bit of paint can make to the look of the inside of the boat

 This photo is of the starboard side in and around the galley area and how it as lifted the area to look bright and clean.

 This photo is of the area below the toilet and highlights the toilet skin fittings.

 

 This photo is of the locker and floor panels getting their new coat of varnish

Princess 25 refit

So it begins, now it is time to start to make new panels and boards to go into the boat where the old one were either damaged or rotten or both. Another job that has to be done is to put in new items of equipment that were not there before to bring it up to date and within the new regulations for boat safety. This is especially true of the fuel and gas systems on the boat.

Once all the panels are made then it will be time to take them to the boat and first fit them to ensure they are going to fit correctly to the boat before ordering the material to cover them.  So it is going to be a busy day cutting lots of plywood and marking out old panels and making new patterns for pieces that are missing.

Today was day one of getting the new panels cut out to the old panels and tomorrow it will be the day that they get their edges machined up and get a coat of varnish to seal the panels for the bunk tops and the floor panels/ inspection panels for the bilges in the main cabin.

It has been a busy week getting new panels cut and varnished and getting other jobs sorted along the way. So that next week the work can continue on the boat and get the fuel tank out of the boat and also start to paint the lockers out with fresh bilge paint and sort out the new bulkheads and make patterns for the ones that are missing.

Finally there is an end to the taking apart the boat?

At last it appears there is an end to the taking apart of the Princess 25. Just got to remove the old fuel tank out of the boat and the old fuel line to complete the job. Then will come the process of putting the boat back together once more. The biggest job will be to reline the cabin out with its vinyl covered panels which are going to be made from starch again as the old one's are not around any more.

But before any of that can be done, there will have to be some repairs to the window surrounds were there was damage to the surrounds when the old windows were removed.The new windows are going to build over the next few weeks and once they are done and the sidelining panels are made and refitted then the boat will once again be watertight in the cabin. That will the first stage done then the rest of the refit can start with the sort of of the water system and the wiring of the boat up to a modern safety standard and the other systems brought up to date at the same time.

Princess 25 refit.

Now it is time to start to get the wood and other gear ready to start rebuilding the cabin. Like with all jobs like a refit there are times when you have to get items to do jobs when you can not work on the boat. So given that today was one of those days it was a day spent going to collect items to do the interior of the boat and start to cut new panels to be fitted into the boat when the side and headlinings are made and covered.

The coming week at J-Star Boat Services

Over the coming week it is going to be a very busy time with three boats on the go. One in the workshop, one at Canvey Island and the another boat in Ipswich. The boats are all very different to each other and in need of very different skills to do the work on. One is having new planks fitted and that takes a special skill to cut wood to bend round a complex shape in the bow of a dinghy. The boat at Canvey Island needs the skills of carpentry to fit bulkheads and furniture, also to fit new wiring and pipework and pumps. The boat in Ipswich needs the skills of a painter to repaint the hull and interior of the boat as well as the yards of varnish work that needs to be sanded down and re-varnished.