Fine Views

Forward compartment looking aft

Inside the Wheelhouse

From the aft cabin looking forward

Westerbeke Generator/ Kabola Boiler

I bought this a while ago, it is a Kabola oil fired pressure jet marine central heating boiler for hot water and radiators , and they are as rare as hens teeth seconhand but the best boiler you can buy for a large boat like the Strathspey. Much more economical than a traditional drip feed boiler such as the Reflex or Kabola drip fed units, also they are fully programable like a home system.

I have been having a bit of a fiddle with the Westerbeke marine generator fitting new anodes drive belts and cleaning the scale out of the heat exchanger,this is a superb piece of equipment with a Mitsubishi four cylinder diesel 2 ltr . coupled to a 9.5 kva 240/110 v ac generator
These generators are about £9500 new and run forever at 1500 rpm very quitely , forget your chinese e-bay generators which last about five hours.
I have two of these ,this one which runs perfectly and a second one that is in pieces due to an ingress of water and it needs new pistons although the engine has ony done about 200 hrs.

RIB

Even though I have not had a chance to use it this year ,I have always run the engine regularly ( with water ) and maintained the whole boat. I also keep it well wrapped up and out of the sun.The previous owner had it from new and maintained it very well , the engine runs as sweet as a nut ,starting first pull with no funny noises.
If you have a large enough boat these ribs make the perfect tender with their speed and fantasatic stability.Also great fun!
The Strathspey has so much room on deck that a 4 m rib like this would sit on deck without taking up much space. Lifting aboard will also be easy using the diesel deck winch and derrick.
I was going to sell this on e-bay but on reflection I think it should stay with the Strathspey.

Starting to look much smarter

Another old Photo

Here are another couple of old photo's of the Strathspey . The top one is from approx the early 90's when she was the Shimanda , and the second is another one of her in 69.

Another Door

Another door in the process of being fitted , I find fitting these doors a very slow operation and I am sure a proper carpenter could do one of these in about an hour . But I have a fear of making a mess of it, so it takes me about three hours .

WORK CONTINUES

Although the Strathspey is now up for sale , I have not lost interest in the project and shall still continue working on all the cabin structures .

Even though my long term plans have changed I still get a lot of pleasure from seeing all the sections coming together, and wood is a very nice medium to work with.

STRATHSPEY TO BE SOLD

I have had to come to the difficult decision that I shall have to sell my much loved "Strathspey".
I have realised after over two years of work ,that I am spreading myself to thin with work , our home in Italy and England plus commitment to my family who understandably have no interest in my project. I have just spent five days in Scotland with the old girl and feel very very sad about this decision . I will still be carrying on with the work until she is sold ,also work will continue in Scotland with finishing the deck plus other jobs.
She is a fine vessel and a rare one being built in 1969 one of the last remaining Scottish boats to still exist in her original form. Mechanically she is in fantastic shape having had her engine gearbox and sterngear replaced about seven years ago . I have had the engine serviced every year and the engine is run two to three times every week. The hull is strong and dry with massive frames and hull planking and in very good condition.( built to withstand extreme conditions )
This is a very hard decision to make but necessary for me.
She will be available as a project to include all the interior sections ( see contents of this blog)all ready made for assembly into the hold ,plus extra timber and some fittings ,drawings and scale model of the cabin layout ( which is all adaptable )
Also included is the diesel anchor winch with chain and two large anchors suitable for ground tackle . In the wheelhouse is a good foruno radar , colour sounder , Necco marine autopilot and loran gps. There is a second radar but this has a fault with the magnatron. She is also seaworthy
and comes with harbour dues paid up till April 2009.She is due to be placed on the houseboat web site.

NEW NAVIGATION LIGHT BOARDS

As well as doing all the normal home stuff like cutting the grass and helping my son repair the brake balance valve on his Renault Clio. I have also been busy this weekend making new navigation light boards ,here you can see them in grey primer, in a few days they should be black and ready to take up to Scotland to fit them to the wheelhouse . These are exact copies (apart from not being rotten) of the one you can see in the other photo. These look huge off the boat but quite modest on the wheelhouse roof.

Before and After

View from the Harbour Wall

Here is a very recent photo of the Strathspey courtesy of Calum MacBain . With the freshly painted wheelhouse and whaleback , so after a lot of hard work by Ian and his team of fisherman the old girl is starting to look much much better.

Fishroom two years ago

This is a photo taken before work started two years ago

Fish Room

Here is a new photo of the old "Fish Room" taken a few days ago courtesy of Kevin Munro who is a fisherman and moderator for the web site "trawlerphotos.co.uk"
The whole of the deckhead has been stripped of layers of rust and the whole lot painted with anti rust paint and lots of bathroom gloss paint which is anti fungal.
All the frames and hull planks have been treated with timber preservative. If you look at some of the very early photo's you will see what a vast difference there is .

ONE DOWN EIGHT TO GO

I spent most of Saturday finishing this first section of cabin wall and door , The door I made up during the week and fitted the hardware and three coats of varnish this weekend . So now that I have practised on this one the others should go a bit quicker !!

BUSY IN MY NEW WORKSHOP

You may have noticed that not much has been happening lately .For one reason I have been away in Italy for a couple of weeks ,which has been nice and relaxing and at least I have had a bit of real summer weather .

Also although plenty has been going on up in Scotland where Ian is organising all the gradual refurbishment work aboard the Strathspey he does not have a digital camera .So any new photos will have to wait until I pay a visit later this summer.

I have been busy in my new workshop though, making cabin doors which are for me the more technically difficult bits of woodwork with lots of mortice joints and rebates .

THE STRATHSPEY WORKSHOP

At the moment quite a lot has been happening on board the Strathspey ,the Deck has been sealed and painted ,the Whaleback has been Stripped and re-painted and the Wheelhouse and deckhouse has been painted in Bamboo and white. Also the deckhead in the hold and forward compartment has been painted in gloss white .
No photo's at the moment as digital camera's seem to be in short supply in the Highlands at the moment.

But I do have some pictures of the new 18 x10 ft Strathspey workshop in my garden ,so full steam ahead on the interior.As at last I have somewhere to use all my tools under one roof !!

Cabin Style

This is a photo of the look I would like in the Strathspey ,one thing I want to avoid is to much wood as this can be a bit oppressive .So I am going for cream with mahogany cabin doors and trim,I feel this will give a cosy and quite light traditional feel.
I am not a great fan of pine in boats ,so all the panelling will be painted.

New Workshop

For most middle aged men a new shed is a very exciting prospect , and so with great excitment this manky damp old shed is comimg down and this part of our front garden is being cleared to make way for my new good sized sensibly priced workshop where I can put all the woodworking machinery I have collected from ebay for building all the interiors on the Strathspey . And all at the suggestion of my wife !!!!

What more could a man want

Cabin Furniture

When restoring and converting a large old Trawler such as the Strathspey ,the costs of the whole project run the risk of becoming extremely expensive unless held in check. There are ways of saving large amounts of money by purchasing very carefully and doing as much of the work yourself ,ebay has been my best source of equipment and materials I have managed to buy certain pieces of equipment from generators to antique brass cabin lights for very good prices.

I spend many hours planning the interior layout and style of the vessel using as many source books as possible . Cabin furniture is one area where I keep my eyes open by scouring ebay and my local shops for suitable furniture . I was in our local diy store this weekend buying screws and paint and wandered over to look at the horrible cheap flatpack pine furniture and saw this range of solid wood furniture from Brazil on special offer , so I bought this bedside cabinet for £29 to see what I could do with it . First I threw away the the hinges handles and wood around the base and then rebuilt it with some of my many scrap bits of wood undercoated it and painted it with crown cream satin finish paint ( this will be the interior colour scheme ) and added some solid brass hinges and handles. The whole thing took me two hours and I was so pleased with the result that I went back today and bought three sideboards from the same range all on half price special offer !!!

The most important thing is to avoid any use of chipboard or MDF because on boats they are a disaster . A few years ago I saw one trawler that had been kitted out below using MDF and my god was it in a state, after two years the whole lot was disintegrating .

ORCADES

This is the Strathspey in 1969 when she was the "Orcades BCK.67". She is brand spanking new in this photo ,and maybe one day she could look almost this good again.
It's good to have a target !!!

Strathspey last Spring

Her she is this time last year

QUIET HAPPENINGS

Despite the fact that I am not that active on the Strathspey at the moment that does not mean that nothing is happening on the old girl.

Thanks to Ian who is my right and left hand up in Scotland , The wheelhouse / Deckhouse is ready for its top coat of paint .Deckhouse will be Buff and the Wheelhouse White ,this a fairly traditional colour scheme .The deck is still being caulked and when ready will be painted light Grey with the hull probably Black as original , although I may go for a very dark Blue.

The large very heavy net roller on the stern has also been cut off.

Down below the hull timber work in the fish hold and forepeak has all been treated with wood and anti-rot preservative and the deckhead in both sections painted white.

The main problem in Scotland is the terrible weather they have had this winter lots of storm winds and rain .

Luckily she is tucked safe and sound on the harbour pier. if you look on google earth she is the vessel in Lochinver harbour tucked in the corner of the larger pier with the square end on it.

Not much Happening !!!

For a short while there is not much happening with the Strathspey as I am very busy dealing with my late Fathers affairs , there is an amazing amount of things to do!!!!

I am really looking forward to getting back to cabin construction.

EXPANDING WOODWORK

Back to the business of the Strathspey, Post Christmas and other matters ,I am back to cabin building . I have built all the bulkheads and cabin walls for the conversion of the original fishroom,I now have to fit them all out with some panelling, electrics , doors and floors and finally paint.

SPACE TO BREATHE

You don't get this amount of space on modern boats, and a nice big engine room to wander around in trying to work out what all the pipes and valves do.

THE CITADEL

From this angle the wheelhouse looks to be a nice safe place to be in heavy weather !!

A PASSION FOR FISHING BOATS

It's a strange thing this passion for old boats,most people I am sure would look at an old fishing boat and think that it was a depressing ugly piece of old wood and scrap iron,and why would anyone want to preserve it !!!!

If I was rich I am sure I would have a collection of them in the same way that some people collect cars or tractors.Although I am more than happy with the one I already have to me she is a beauty and I feel very lucky to have her.I just wish she was a bit closer than 650 miles away.

But despite that progress is being made ,the deck has all been caulked down the starboard side and the bulwarks painted ,the inside of the hold and forepeak hull timbers have been treated with wood preservative ,which they can smell about 300 meters away !!! There is very little sign of any wood rot in the entire boat ,which shows how well these boats were built , originally the inside of the hull was soaked in creosote.

Back here in Oxfordshire I am still very busy building the interior which is going very well.So one day when it all comes together I hope to have a very cosy and interesting boat that I will be able to spend plenty of time aboard watching the world go as I paint and scrape and paint and scrape etc....

Galley

Galley construction

This is my test assembly of the galley, it all went together surprisingly well !! So now I can carry on and build the rest , I have also put on two different types of light to see how they look.
I wish I had more space so that I could assemble the whole lot in one go.

Last Saturday I thought I would have a break from woodwork and pay a visit to my favourite and mother of all wooden ships "HMS Victory". I must have been on this ship 20 times !!! but I am blown away each time. For anyone who likes boats ,the Historic Dockyard is a truly amazing day out . I even saw my other favourite the "Hatherleigh" a converted North sea Trawler owned by Pindar, and based in Portsmouth.

Galley Bulkhead

Saturday I started on my first bit of cabin section , this is going to be part of the galley wall.

I have developed this plan that I can make the whole interior of the boat in a modular form so that each section will be made complete with all the electrical conduits pre-installed ,doors and floor supports fitted , panelled and painted and designed so that the whole lot will pass down through the deck hatch and slot together inside the original fishroom. I have given this an awful

lot of thought so I hope it works out.

Another reason for doing it this way is as it will bolt together it can be altered if need be without major reconstruction or for major hull or machinery repairs.Also with be being so far from Lochinver I can still work on buidling the interior without having to make long expensive trips to Scotland.

Lady Jane visit

This Saturday I paid a long overdue visit to Tim and the "Lady Jane".And enjoyed an extremely relaxing and enjoyable afternoon on board chatting with Tim and Fred .I was very impressed with the huge amount that has been achieved over the last three years with L.J looking pretty good.

Tim gives a very good tour and made me feel very welcome with plenty of tea and a good lunch.

It was very interesting to compare the differences of wooden as opposed to steel vessels and the problems and challenges of restoration and sympathetic conversion of both types.Tim seems to be doing a really fantastic job .

I hope I will be welcome to make a return visit , and look forward to Tim visiting the "Strathspey " one day .

Second Anniversary

30th of August marks the second year of my ownership of the "Strathspey II" and it also happens to be my sons birthday ( 18 this year which is very scary) .
Even with my absence most of the time, a lot has been done on the old girl,and soon she should start to look a bit better !!!
This photo is the very last day she went fishing and the first time I saw her, and I decided that there was no way I was going to buy this smelly dirty old piece of junk!!!!

Aft Deck

Another view from the gantry, you can see Edward in shadow perched on it.

Deck

View from the wheelhouse gantry,at the moment work is slowly progressing on caulking the deck ,and stripping and painting the Bulwarks.

Nice solid wheelhouse

I have been away for a couple of weeks in Italy , so I shall just add on a few extra pics.

My First Door

I am feeling very pleased with myself, this is my first cabin door and the first door I have ever made.All properly tongued and grooved.

The timber Ihave used is Red Meranti which is supposed to be more eco friendy than some of the traditional mahoganies with the added benefit of being a lot cheaper.

the purpose of making just one is to check out the proportions before making any more,so I keep sitting looking at it thinking it is to small or to narrow or not tall enough etc.etc and trying to imagine walking through it. Basically thinking about it to much( A bit sad really)

A bit of woodwork

I have started cutting my first bits of wood ,the bits leaning against the wall should become my first cabin door !! I thought I would make one to check that the size is about right .After this I shall make up some cabin bulkheads to see how these look as well. I have been drawing up all the new bulkheads and cabin layouts for weeks so it is good to make something for a change.

Here is another converted Trawler alongside the Strathspey , She is an older boat that has been very well converted and of Scandinavian origins.

I must also mention the "40+ Fishing Boat Association who do a fantastic job in keeping an eye on what is going on in the fishing industry and it's rich history of the boats and all the people connected with it. If you become a member at very reasonable cost (Pretty cheap at £ 10 quid a year)and will receive an excellent High quality quarterly magazine . they have a web site at www.homepages.mcb.net/40fba Give it a go !!

Fisherman may be very good at their jobs ,but when it comes to re-upholstery they haven't got much of a sense of it!!! I think I might throw this in a skip.

Here is a before and after as Tim knows it takes a lot of work to get to this stage, 37 years of paint ( they just put paint on paint/rust and anything else) it took two of us four days just to do one side.And rust dust is somthing else!! it seems to be attracted to humans. I still think needle guns are wonderful pieces of equipment.

Here is my large and very powerful anchor winch it is powered by a twin cylinder Lister diesel which is very easy to start.I found it on the "Boats and Outboards " site it came with two huge anchors and a couple of tons of chain.

One thing I keep agonising over is whether I should put some portholes in the hull,for me this is a difficult decision due to originality.I have seen some truly dreadful trawler conversions some with large equally spaced portholes with polished brass rings .If I put them in to give me something to look out of I need them to look almost if they should be there in a discreet sort of way. What does anyone think?

Builders Plate

This is the original builders plate and bell ,the bell is engraved with the Strathspeys original name "Orcades".Local opinion is that she should remain the Strathspey rather than revert to an Orkney name !!!!

The Builders plates in Buckie were apparently made by the local coffin plate maker ,I do not know if this is true ?

The underside of the whaleback has come up incredibly well ,I thought this was terminal as the corrosion was so heavy

It looks a bit like a crime scene

And this is our very silly dog Daisy,she is ten and very demanding and greedy but quite lovable

Two of our four cats ,the one on the left is Lucy she's the mum of Hattie on the right

I don't know what I am looking for but the romper suit looks good !!

The steel deck beams have come up well thanks agai to the needle gun and some Latvian tenacity.

The wonders of the needle gun ,the wheelhouse has come up a treat after 37 years of paint and rust have been cleaned away and given plenty of coats of red oxide, nearly already for undercoat and topcoat.Work has also started on the deck.

This French trawler was one of the many foreign boats that use Lochinver to land their catch,which is then shipped back to France by lorry.Most of the fish coming in here goes abroad as all the large boats seem to be either Spanish or French.All the local boats are small and mainly catch shrimp and are very few in number.Fish quotas and decommissioning have done for the rest

July 7 th.We made the thirteen hour drive from Oxford to Lochinver ,and once into Scotland the drive North of Glasgow is one of the best I have ever had,fantastic scenery , roads , lack of traffic,sunshine and not a speck of rubbish to be seen any were.Also we had five days of Sunshine although I spent most of the time in the hold of the"Strathspey" covered in rust dust.

I have bought this watermaker ,it needs a new ro membrane ( about £ 100 )but otherwise works fine .It is quite an old model and looks quite well made . It is 110v so with a 240v system I could use a stepper as used ind the building trade for 110v power tools. it is a 6 gph but if you use two ro membranes this would double to 12

This is my paper plan ,I still have to do things the old way ,paper and pencil.

Here is a model of my proposed interior as you can see i'm not into open plan ,this is from the engine room bulkhead forward

One day this will be a cosy cabin !!

fishing boats

My lovely Kelvin engine ,in the engine room of the "Strathspey"

Lochinver

Lochinver in the Highlands of Scotland is a beautiful place incredibly remote and when the sun is shining unbeatable !!!

This is my son Edward working on the wheelhouse

This is the Strathspey with the decks cleared away, quite a nice lot of space .

when I first saw her

I have wanted a fishing boat ever since I spent a holiday on a converted mfv when I was 14 ,she was a 50ft twin screw boat , Iwould imagine Ev-Admiralty called "Willmay".After that I was smitten. Ihave messed around in all sorts of boats mostly sail for most of my life .

So this is the Strathspey ,she was originally called the "Orcades" .Built at Buckie in 1969 by George Thompson larch on oak and still in original condition apart from addditions which have now been removed.She measures up at 75' overall,21' beam and 11' draft and weighs in at 55 ton. Quite a big old lump but one of the nicest looking fishing boats I have seen.

My Boat

This first blog attempt has been inspired by "Tim Zim" of the "Lady Jane"


Nearly two years ago I became the very proud owner of the ex-fishing trawler the "Strathspey II". She is a wooden hulled Scottish built 75ft seiner the type of which are fast disapearing due to decommissioning and the economics of the fishing industry.