Norton Canes Fitout Commences

Above/below – On the fitout quay. Once the cruising ballast (drums filled with water) were removed by John the boat sits high in the water – the boat will drop down once the fitout commences.

Above – Once cleared of water drums the fitout commences with the installation of floor.This is normally a straight forward job, but with the addition of the boatman’s cabin with removable floor panels, and an engine room with a diesel tank built into the base plate, greater care is taken is ensure everything fits as it should.

Above – The small apertures in the centre of the board are finger holes to lift the removable panels needed for additional storage. 

Above – The hydraulic drive system, with a conventional propeller shaft system the shaft would extend through the back cabin into the engine room. This would mean that the floor would have to raised at least 4″ above the height seen in the photo, which would have reduced the head height.

Above – Looking forward, the engine room with off set engine. Although we don’t have to work with the height of a propeller shaft, the floor in this and the rear cabin, has to be raised slightly higher than the rest of the boat. This is to allow for the height of diesel tank pictured in the centre of the above photo. The black pipe going up to the cabin roof is the breather pipe, the filler pipe is situated in the gunnel.

Above – Engine room with floor laid, the voids to the left of the photo will house a battery compartment and a washing machine. These will be boxed in, as will the engine, therefore this space will have a centre corridor with bench seats either side – containing the engine on one side and the washing machine and batteries on the other.

Above – The rest of flooring is laid, just a small section is left to complete underneath the well deck where the water tank will rest on. The timber templates around the portholes have also been installed, once battened and sprayfoamed the birch veneered ply will cover these (and the look through). A router will then be used to follow the inside edge of the template creating the same sized hole in the birch ply. The ply will be painted by Jan & John and then solid oak porthole liners installed. (This process will be easier to explain with photos later!!) 

 

Above – The timber to fix the roof lining has been installed.

That’s all for this update but just a quick Thank You to all those customers (& potential customers) that came to see us at Crick, we had a great time and have come away with quite a few holiday bookings and potential new boat builds (fingers crossed!). Thanks also to Peter & Mel for once again allowing us to display their boat at the show and thanks (last but not least) to Lyndon, Vaughn & Stuart for lending a hand to cruise the boat down to Crick – for me it was good to escape the office for a few days!

Justin, Jane & Team.