Short Cut

This weekend and with no work commitments we were looking forward to enjoying a full weekend aboard Moonshine with her new upholstery.
Since the weather was settled and unseasonably mild, we ventured up the canal to Pollington on Saturday morning. Passing no other craft we moored on the CRT moorings low side of the lock.
The dogs had a decent circular walk around the village upon our arrival, and we decided to work our way across to Sykehouse for our afternoon walk. This involved cutting across the lock and running back down the opposite side of the canal bank to Crowcroft Bridge, where we headed along the farm path in the direction of Sykehouse. You can then pick up the public footpath that cuts across the fields in a zigzag to Topham which is an annexe of Sykehouse village. This gave the dogs a really good walk, and we discovered on the return trip (we could see Moonshine was only a stones throw away) a short cut which brings you out opposite the moorings and swing bridge, making this dog walk a good option during fishing season, as it's a bit of a battle getting three unruly terriers past them and their tackle.

So the ongoing bathroom refurbishment is complete now. Peter visited Moonshine during the week, and fitted the new flooring piece which was left to bond weighted down for a few days. It is an excellent fit and looks really good and really completes the look.
We are now looking forward to Moonshine being lifted out for three weeks this Friday at Goole Boathouse. We have all the paint, bellows and anodes etc which have been recently ordered and delivered, and we hope there will be nothing untoward when lifted.

No More Bottoming Out

Since purchasing Moonshine, she has been dogged with pronounced brown staining on her forward coach roof and side decks which had gotten progressively worse over recent months. 
Numerous expensive (both marine and non marine) products have been used to eradicate this staining to little avail. However, after trolling through the internet for remedies we have discovered a 'miracle cure' in Oxalic Acid powder, purchased from Ebay for less than £10. The trick is to NOT follow the manufacturers instructions as this didn't work very well, but to mix a strong solution with wallpaper paste to a nice thick consistency which will not in turn evaporate, and apply with a paint brush on a nice calm cool day. The solution was left for a few hours, and then washed off. It is imperative this solution is NOT allowed to dry, as this would then become difficult to remove.

The staining lifts off into the glue solution, and Moonshine is once again a gleaming example of a Seawings 355.





We have now received our new saloon upholstery back from Marine and Industrial Covers Lincoln, in the requested Buff Ultra Leather. Apart from the colour contrast, the new foam in the base seat cushions makes the seating a lot more comfortable than the old, so no more bottoming out, and she looks pretty smart to.



In addition to the work already undertaken in the bathroom area (see previous blog) we decided to use some left over teak and holly laminate flooring (left over from the saloon a few years ago) for the very small floor area forward of the shower to improve the look further. This was templated up last week and we are just waiting for all the glue to set at home prior to installation next week. Being the sad cases that we are, whenever a Seawings comes on the sale market we always save the photos and sale description for future reference,thus enabling us to utilize ideas from different vessels as every boat built had slight differences. Some of which we have implemented such as adding a port light in the rear cabin for additional ventilation from the wheelhouse. We think most of the newer versions of the 355 had the teak and holly on the bathroom floor, but we were only able to track down one photo where the wide angled lens had gotton most of the small bathroom area in shot. From this we were able to judge how successful it would be to replicate this ourselves. Obviously it has to be done correctly whilst upholding our Seawings integrity, as once it is bonded to the fibreglass floor there is certainly no going back...