CHAPTER 11 - 24
Oct 13
With Winter approaching, young men’s fancy turns to –
dryness and warmth‼ Because most of the teak decking has long gone, there is
only rusty metal plate between the cold night air and the (future) living space
below deck. Condensation is also quite a problem and because the drain holes
are above the plate level, there are all sorts of leaking opportunities when it
rains. Hopefully we have a cunning plan which will solve both problems. The
sides of the ship are a separate project!
I related in Chapter 7 how the plan was to fill in the
space left by the absent decking with a thick layer of all-weather ‘tennis
court’ surfacing. This was going to be very difficult (the deck has a slight
curve to facilitate drainage and following that curve with a fluid whilst
maintaining a constant thickness …. need I say more?).
So now Simon is being advised by a professional roofer
and a more complicated, but more feasible plan is emerging. Looking at the more
difficult part of the deck – the curved walkways down each side, which have
light-boxes built in …..
First the deck will be given a coat of primer. Then short
lengths of timber, about the thickness of scaffolding-type planking, will be
wedged across the walkways, at 5ft intervals, between the superstructure and
the wide baulks of timber which edge the ship. The intervening spaces will be filled,
to the same height, with roof insulation panels.
Then bitumen is poured into all the gaps
Sheets of marine ply are now laid over and secured to the
planks. The surface is then treated like a roof – with bitumen and that
gravelly bitumen sheeting you see on flat roofs.
The green colour of the bitumen sheeting is merely to
differentiate it from the ply.
Then Simon can have a thin coat of tennis court
material if he chooses. The light boxes will be double-glazed and the deck will
then be insulated and leak-proof.
That's the plan anyway!
David
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