Katona

A narrowboat renovation project by Nick Goodall.

Electric bonfires and fresh paint

25th June 2023

Hello and happy Sunday!

The last 3 days I was AFK, or “Away From Katona,” visiting Denmark to celebrate St John’s Day with my family. That normally means a bonfire on the beach, but with the lack of rain the Danes decided to ban any and all fires. So:

Electric bonfire on the beach

But that did not stop the boat from sailing. On Monday I cleaned 2 of the 8 saloon windows, re-ordered another pane for the one that I broke, and put the final coat of primer on the forward saloon section:

Front saloon final primer coat

That Wednesday I removed two more windows in the next rusty section before spinning the boat around, as they’re much easier to take out when they’re towpath-facing. Then the first coat of white paint, followed by a second ceiling coat on Sunday just before writing this. Unfortunately the tin was empty before I could do the rest, and you can tell the difference with the patchiness:

Front saloon coat of white paint

It says leave “48-72 hours” before coating the red primer with a solvent-based paint; colour me naughty I only gave it 48, but I could feel it wanted another day. Next time!

This is only the metal interior so the white isn’t strictly necessary, as there’s insulation and wooden panelling to come. But it looks wonderful, and I’ll still see it, like the back of a cabinet you know was done well. That’ll feel good, and I’m also living with this for the next few weeks before I can insulate, and it makes the place a lot lighter!

Until next week!

- Nick

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