John Gray III: Reborn

The John Gray has known life as many things; a horse-drawn day trip boat plying its trade on the Cromford Canal, a mobile Harley Davidson parking space, a childrens' bedroom, a wood store/shed, wedding reception venue... The list goes on. But really there have been three distinct phases of the boat's life: Firstly as a trip boat, then when the main cabin was added it was used to live in, and now we are taking the John Gray into its third life as a liveaboard boat complete with a new cabin.

The first side goes on.

As previously mentioned, we bought the John Gray with a fairly poor cabin fitted. We had hoped it would be serviceable, however the more investigation and work we did, the more we came to realise that you can't polish a turd.

Both sides in place.

Back in April we had the old cabin cut off and a new one built to our specification. This meant a lot of planning on our part, a lot of hard work by the steelworkers (step forward Iolo, Johnny, and Ginge), and a fair amount of cash leaving our bank accounts! If you're anything like me then you won't realise how much there is that needs to be planned in advance. Things that might seem trivial suddenly become really important, for example if you don't have enough camber on the roof then will there be enough headroom? Will the roof drain properly? Will it look odd? Fortunately Iolo knows what he's doing and we had pretty much everything sorted before the steel was welded. Below are some of the details we included in the 3rd version of John Gray.

There's a top!

It was very exciting going down to the boat yard every weekend to see the progress. Some weeks it seemed as if they had done far more than you'd have thought possible in a week and others it seemed like the work was going painfully slow, but Iolo was pretty good as explaining what they'd been working on and where the time had gone.

Look! A whole cabin!

As with any outdoor project we were at the mercy of the Great British Weather, thankfully there wasn't too much rain in April, but wind we had aplenty. There was one week that was so windy the welder wouldn't work because the argon sheath was being blown away so we were delayed a little. Does anyone remember last winter? It extended into April so it wasn't exactly warm for these guys either so I'm fairly impressed we didn't have a larger delay due to the weather.

Tug-style deck and gas locker coming along nicely.

The shape of things to come.

Trickle vents were fitted to the front bulkhead to add lower level ventilation to help us comply with the boat safety recommendations. These will have ducting on the inside to route the fresh air to the floor level. The Mushroom vents on the roof will take care of the high level ventilation.

Trickle vent for low-level ventilation.

I don't think I've seen a narrowboat without some form of vent on the roof, and the majority of those are mushroom vents. They're a very simple design; basically just a tube sticking up on the roof with a cap over the top that is larger than the tube to stop rain coming in for tea. We opted for brass vents for no other reason than we prefer brass to chrome (other colours are available, but not if you want to be considered a proper boater).

Hmm, what to do with this bit?

As the John Gray was originally a horse-drawn butty (that's a boat with no motor), it came with what we like to call a "nobby". This is the towing post (I think this is the actual proper term for it) was cut out because it was going to be right in the middle of our living room, however we thought it would be nice to give it a new lease of life as a whirlygig holder. So we can put a parasol umbrella or rotary washing line in when we are moored up. Iolo mounted the top of the nobby onto a plinth just behind the gas locker, cut the top off, and welded a section of tube to the inside of the post, meaning that we can slot things down into it.

Nobby and gas locker.

The regulations surrounding gas storage are understandably fairly specific. Canisters have to be stored in a compartment that is completely separate from the living space and it has to have drains at the lowest point. This is because the propane gas used on boats is (unlike household gas you get through the mains) more dense that air. So if you get a gas leak it is possible for the boat to fill with gas and either suffocate you or cause a rather large explosion. Neither of these are ideal situations to be in, I'm sure you'll agree, so a gas locker was required! As the John Gray is has a fairly shallow draught, we needed to gain enough height for a gas bottle in the locker, without going below the waterline. Iolo suggested we reuse some of the front lump to gain some height and raise the top of the locker above the deck slightly, so that's what we did!

Port holes are the best looking windows for boats. That is a fact. The bus style windows some boats have let in more light and let you see more of the outside world but they also let more of the outside world see you. The best looking port holes are the ones that look like they have come from a real ship. You know the ones. They have big bolts and some are hinged so they can be opened. Yeah those ones, Look great don't they? But they're awful for condensation, and so are nearly all other types of windows used on boats.

Nice Jeans.

To stop condensation you need to have thermally broken windows so you don't get a cold bridge from the outside. We found a company that does just that, and were very helpful in helping us to spec up our windows. After some deliberation we placed an order for some nice big port holes (available in a range of RAL colours), along with one larger opening one for the living area (more light, more ventilation). Iolo cut the holes for these in the steel and fitted them for us so we'd have a weather tight boat by the time we got her back from the steelworkers. Something of a novelty for us having had a leaky cabin for the best part of six months!

Nice porthole!

I've already talked about the solar panels at some length, so there isn't much need to go into detail here about the twigs that Johnny welded onto the roof for us to mount the PV panels to, but I couldn't write a post about all the new bits without mentioning them could I?

A side hatch, complete with "eyebrow" to stop water ingress.

We have always like the look of a tug-style front deck. I'm not sure what it is but it just looks right on a narrowboat. You also gain some inside space without compromising on the outside space as you can use the gap underneath as storage/space for a water tank/a bed/whatever you want really. Therefore we asked Iolo to fabricate a tug style deck for us. This required some re-working of the existing gunnel, but we're really pleased with the final result.

Phwoar, look at that deck!

We're really happy with all of the work and it's amazing seeing the transformation from a leaking box to a real cabin with actual tumblehome* take place over four weeks. Iolo and the guys did a really good job and if you're looking for a steelworker/fabricator in the west I wouldn't hesitate in recommending them.

*Tumblehome is the slant on the cabin sides. Boats with a larger tumblehome have a more pronounced "lean" inwards of the cabin. Our original cabin had almost none which made walking along the gunwhale pretty difficult because your hips are wider than your feet.