the start of the little boat

There is so much love for The Little Boat. So many people comment on how lovely it looks, or how cute it is, and I wanted to share the story with you. My husband came home one day, and said that little boat up the way is for sale. I was “nope”, “nope. we don’t need another boat or vehicle…” . The next day Bri said, “ just come and look at this boat”…. “nope”. This went on for about 3 days until he finally worn me down and I went to have a look. Well, I must admit I stepped inside her and felt the love for her straight away.

It had previously sunk!! Some friends of ours owned it, they had resurrected it, stripped everything out and were bringing it back to life. There had been a leak in the engine bay, and to stop those leaks they filled the holes with potatoes, and then managed to pump the water out to get her floating again. When we were renaming her I wanted to call her Little Spud, because of the potato story, but Bri was having none of that, lol.

So, after much persuasion, I gave in, and we bought The Little Boat, and here we are towing her away to start work on her.

Bri decided that she really needed to come out of the water, so he could inspect the hull, prop, etc. There was some pitting in areas on the hull, which is expected as she is over 40 years old now.

Luckily Bri can weld, so he repaired, welded some plates on, put new anodes on, fixed the prop, blacked her and lots of other maintenance that needed doing whilst she was out of the water.

While she was out of the water we renamed her, The Little Boat. There are many superstitions around renaming boats, but the main thing for us was not to rename her whilst she was in the water. We removed all evidence of her previous name (she who shall not be named), I then walked anti-clockwise around the boat 3 times chanting the old name, and then clockwise 3 times around the boat chanting the new name. Now, this may sound odd to you, but the older I have gotten the more superstitious I have become and I do love these old traditions. Luckily my friend Wendy was around to supervise and give guidance on this. As a finishing touch to the ceremony I wrote the new name on the Bow in chalk!!

Then came the job of the inside.

Luckily we had a blank canvas to start with. The inside was stripped out completely, and we (the royal we) insulated her before fitting new boarding.

The log burner was going to stay in the same place, and we made the decision to keep everything open plan. There were talks about putting in a toilet, but in all honesty that would have taken away valuable sewing and storage space, as the inside is only 6 foot by 18 foot.

I did want to have a kitchen area, a sink was a must and a little gas hob. We used some old kitchen cupboards from our other boat, and they sit opposite the stove. A friend gave us some of her unused kitchen tiles, which were just perfect for the boat.

I had to think about where I wanted plug sockets, and lighting, and one thing I was sure of was that I wanted to have spot lights that I could move about depending on where I am working.

We fitted benches, and shelving. Another friend gave us a big wooden table, and we used that to make shelving on one side of the boat, and on the other side of the boat we had an old shelving unit that we had kept from the house to use.

I have lots more to tell you about The Little Boat, and this blog could go on forever. So what I am going to do is write again in a while and show you the next stages of her, journey.