Lionel ...d'Antan

Barge Date: 16-04-2019

Let's look at the improvements to the barge

I think anyone that has ever owned a boat always keeps a list of things they would like to do to improve life on board, to remove the very old and replace with something more current, to fix what is not working up to standards.

Coming through last year's boating season, we ended with a list of things to do, things we would like to see done before the start of this year's season. This included:

new covers for the cushions in the wheel house
new hot water heater in the kitchen that also serves the shower
new water pump that would be quiet and deliver constant flow for the shower, for example
bilge pump forward of the engine room bulkhead

The cushions showed age that could not be removed with cleaning, but also they looked inappropriate for such a classy barge as ours. The old water heater must be 40 years or more. Last year it functioned at the beginning of the season but then gave out. The water pump was a classic pump and pressure tank, but the pump was 12 or 24 volts, made lots of noise, and I could never get the tank to give reasonable performance. Worse, the pressure flow varied so much that when you wanted hot water for a shower, you were constantly having to finagle with the hot and cold - and it could be too much of either of these. Finally, there was no bilge pump in the major part of the boat, the living section. Once last year, I pulled up the access hatch and was alarmed to see a good collection of water, entry point unknown.

If I lived in France year round, I think I could have done all of the above except the cushions. Time is too short during the cruising season to want to do this type of work while you travel, so you are left with having the work done by local people, in our case this past year, with marina workers.

You know what it would cost you to do the work. Getting the parts, then getting the correct parts, back and forth to different stores because you don't have the little odds and ends needed to do the work correctly, needing a second set of hands that you can never depend on; your costs start to multiply. And do you have the experience to do it correctly for a marine setting? With the heater, you are dealing with something that can explode. One only has to look at the solar work done before last year's season to know that in order to do the quality of work you want, it has to be done by people that do it all the time.

So pictured here are these 4 jobs that have been completed on Lionel...d'Antan. We are already enjoying the improvements and their conveniences.

But there is more to come. I can do some things and I did a number of boat projects at home over the winter. I will show them as I get them up and working over the next month or so.