Having recently put a sign on the side of Zeelandia pointing people towards this blog, my Beloved has intimated that possibly I am getting too tied up with the nuts, bolts and widgets of the renovation. This is true as my day generally revolves around solving the myriad of physical and engineering problems which rear their ugly heads with monotonous regularity. With new readers, however, I feel it is probably right to go back to the whys, wherefores and the design philosophy of Zeelandia which will explain much of what we are doing.

Back in 2012, having been ‘stepping out’ for a year or so, my girlfriend and I decided it was time to move in together. My girlfriend worked in London at the time and I was in Norwich, although my work was variable, and as we were both self employed we didn’t fancy getting laughed out of the banks by asking for a mortgage. Being a nomad at heart (possibly from my military time averaging one move a year for my 12 year’s service) a boat seemed like an affordable and philosophically aligned choice. We searched the favoured website for boat buyers and sellers - Apollo Duck (http://www.apolloduck.co.uk/)- and purchased a wide beam canal barge and spent 3 years on a marina in Cambridgeshire on the River Ouse.

The positives:

We loved living on the water.
The community spirit.
Spending more time outside.

The negatives:

It can be hard work, especially when cold.
There are technical challenges to having 12v pumps for water, separate electrical systems, batteries etc…
We realised the boat was not exactly what we wanted and we would have done things differently.
It was a bit small and we had too much stuff. Like, waaaaaay too much.

Things which drove me nuts on our first barge were:

Lots of annoying details (condensation, single glazing leading to discoloured wood around the windows, stuff just not being fitted to the standard I would like)
Poor central heating system.
Lack of space.
Crappy insulation.

Things which drove my girlfriend crazy were:

Mould - linked to the heating. Warm moist air circulating and then finding cold spots, condensing out and then voila, mould…
Heat dispersion - warm in the living area but cold in the bedroom in the evening, warm in the bedroom in the morning and cold in the living area (until the fire was on). This exacerbated the mould problem
Kitchen was too small - even after a rebuild we realised we had not made best use of the space, but were somewhat driven by the infrastructure in place
Lack of storage space - always a problem on a boat
No real guest room - we had a study but it was too small for guests

What was also apparent was that we were tied to the marina in many ways. Power is always at a premium when not connected to shore power; batteries are fickle and can be easily damaged. We also needed to be able to pump out the sewage at appropriate points and fill up with potable water. All in all, we felt we were slightly less nomadic than we would have liked to be.

I also had my own philosophical stance on renewable energy and considering my previous work which was, to say the least, environmentally unfriendly, I feel I have a moral obligation to live in a less destructive manner and utilise the best that renewable and non hyrdrocarbon based energy sources could offer. I have a long way to go until I am in the ‘black’ with my environmental account, but this is my penance and I intend to carry it out to the best of my ability.

Some of the problems we encountered on the first boat are easily rectified.

Size - Dead easy. Buy a bigger boat. Next…..

Condensation and mould - Slightly more difficult. The problem is warm moist air and cold spots. The remedy is good spray foam insulation, double glazed windows and portholes, and probably even more importantly, an air circulation and heat exchanger system. Okay, slightly harder to find but not impossible. Next…

Heating - Lots of options which are gas or diesel fired but that goes against the philosophy of trying to move towards sustainable technology. Log gasification, log burners with a boiler system and pellet burners were all considered, but it was decided that a pellet boiler system would be the most suitable. It uses tiny pellets of recycled wood, can be programmed just like any normal oil or gas fired CH unit to come on at a time or set on a thermostat. The only difference is that every few days we would load another bag of pellets into the integral hopper on the fire. As a backup we will have a wood burner for that romantic evening when it’s just a little chill or if we run out of pellets, logs will always be available. With the heat recovery and distribution system, heat will be spread around the boat as well so we won’t end up with one super warm room and freezing cold bedrooms.

Power- The engine on Zeelandia doesn’t have any electrical generating unit so essentially we would be reliant on shore power or the diesel generator (again, non renewable so we need to find an alternative). The roof space on Zeelandia is ideal for mounting photovoltaic solar cells which convert sunlight directly to electricity, so with a suitable array we could happily power all the boats demands during summer and with power diverter to an immersion heater, water is heated with any excess electricity. Winter could be a touch more difficult, but with a nearly 20m mast we do have the option of adding a wind turbine which will (given temperate climate’s stronger winds during winter periods) give a welcome boost to the power systems on board. We have a diesel generator on board in extremis.

Batteries - We need better batteries to store the excess power form the day to keep fridge, freezer, lights, sewage system aerator, heat recovery system and most importantly the Playstation and LED TV working in the hours of darkness. Standard lead acid batteries are damaged once you discharge them below 80% which means you have to install 5x the amount you really need in order to keep them healthy. Fortunately battery technology has come on in leaps and bounds and we are planning to install modular saltwater batteries which are non toxic, can be completely discharged without damage and don’t release flammable hydrogen gas during charging.

Releasing us further from the shackles of marina services are an onboard sewage system which treats up to 56 gallons of sewage a day with the naturally occurring bacteria in the delightful stew and a Reverse Osmosis system which can take river, brackish or salty water and convert it to pure potable water. As long as we have enough room for food storage there is no reason why we would need a marina. And that, my friends, releases us from the cost and limitations of finding a suitable mooring.

As much as we would love to take off in a boat and travel the world in all weathers and across all seas, these sorts of vessels are very expensive and are not, well, homely. Zeelandia will be a home first and our design philosophy puts that at the forefront of what we are doing, but we always need to acknowledge the fact that we will go to sea and all that entails. The initial plan is to get the cargo hold hold ready for full time occupation by Christmas 2017. The wheelhouse and skipper’s cabin at the rear will be of secondary importance at this stage.

Our initial design was to have 2 bedrooms and a bathroom at the bow of the barge but this created problems with wasted space for walkways, problems with pumping sewage to where we were going to situate the sewage system.

The first iteration of the floorplan for the cargo hold

I let the initial plan stew for a while (some may call it procrastination) and then forced myself to revisit it and start afresh with a different plan in the hopes of regaining the lost space from the walkways. It also keeps the toilet close to the rear of the boat (where the other toilet will be, hence minimal ‘pumping of poop’ to the biodigester). The compromise is that in order to get to the bathroom from the front bedrooms you have to walk through the living area. Not great if you have visitors to stay but the benefits to some mechanical and plumbing aspects and releasing the space from the walkways would seem to outweigh this.

I will be unable to do everything in one go, but the cargo hold is the primary living area so will be the focus of my attention. We hope to be onboard by Christmas 2017. As much as I am itching to get the engine bay into a better condition, it will be left (mostly). Since central heating runs, electrics, plumbing etc will need to be routed to, through and from the engine room, there will no doubt be elements of work which I will carry out but I will certainly not be doing a nuts and bolts rebuild of the engine just yet.

In conclusion, we are probably unhinged and somewhat naive to undertake such a project on a limited budget, but when it comes to fruition we will be mortgage free, not liable for electricity, water and sewage charges and able to move should we decide we want to. And that freedom, my friends, is what it is all about. If it was easy, everyone would be doing it.

If anyone is interested in what we are doing and would like to know more or just has comments or thinks there are better options out there we would love to hear from you, just drop a comment and we’ll get back to you. Debate and fee exchange of ideas is good for the soul and ultimately the barge! (If you are really interested and want to have a nose around, I am sure something can be arranged...)