Sunday 10 May 2009

A man's home is his fo'c'sle

The giant pile of wood left over from the deskstruction highlighted a growing problem, which the spring clean had only temporarily fixed. There was too much stuff, tools and wood, that needed storing in the fo'c'sle, and not enough space to store it.

The fo'c'sle is a pretty good space

but like with the desk in the office, three quarters of the floor space is taken up with 12 big water tanks, and the piping that connects them is relatively delicate and so limits the amount of stuff that can be put on top of them.


There is some shelving, but not enough, and not enough protection for the pipes.



It was clear that everything would have to come out.



Once the space was cleared i could get in there

and start hashing together some new shelves and a wood bin, just roughly out of scrap wood,

until i had created a usable space where everything could be stored and, more importantly, everything could be accessed with the minimum of fuss. As i love packing and using every available inch of space this was a bit of a labour of love, but i was glad when it was finished and everything was back inside. It should now make doing jobs easier, as it'll be easier to access what we need.

Eventually we have plans to remove all the round tanks and have a couple of big square ones made, which will free up huge amounts of space in there, even to the extant that it could be used as a kind of workshop. That's a way off yet but for now it'll do handsomely...

6 comments:

Melissa Fehr Trade said...

No no noooooo not square tanks! We've got rectangular ones and they're AWFUL! The corners are just huge points of failure, and we've had no end of problems with them. We can't wait to rip them out and get big, cylindrical tanks...

steve said...

hmmmmmmmmmmmmm, interesting! must have a chat with you about that...

flatplane8 said...

I'm thinking of using some IBCs on Misterton. They are about £120 each.
http://www.smithsofthedean.co.uk/IBCs%20&%20Baffled%20Tanks.htm

Of course, they need to fit through the hatch first. :)

steve said...

thanks for the link simon, always good to have as many options to consider as possible. And yes, it's always the hatch that's the problem, whether it's buying a sofa, getting rid of a giant old fuel tank, or installing new gear in the boat...

IsmilebecauseIhavenoideawhatsgoingon said...

IBC's £120?????

You're havin a laugh.

Williams shipping in Southampton sell them for £40 each, and that's a bloody rip off, IBC's essentially being scrap after their primary use as bulk liquid storage. They also turn up on e-bay, at wildly varying prices.

Make sure you wash them out good before use, the four we have on board WendyAnn2 - which we got for FREE (for ballast for the trip around) had seen previous use as detergent containers, but you hear of worse things being put in them. Mine are opaque, but Timzim has a natty black one, which naturally helps cut down on algae growth. I believe he paid a small amount for it, but certainly not 120 quid.

Anyway, long time no posts, how you guys getting on?

S

steve said...

Wow, i think i'll be speaking to you before we buy any tanks seb!
We're doing good with boat work actually, just trying to juggle boat and work, and blogging is the thing that has fallen by the wayside.
The problem is, the longer you leave it, the bigger job updating the blog is.

Monster update soon...