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