MFV BF494 'Pansy', an old Motor Fifie Conversion

Its all going on now! will get some pics taken this weekend of the before and after engine room, even got some of that paint stuff applied now. Not been without its unpleasantness though. Got down in the bilges and removed several buckets full of what can only be described as the contents of satan's arsehole from the bilges under the gearbox and engine, 6" deep in foul smelling, greasy, black silty unspeakableness

Although this wasn't entirely without its rewards either...... In recognition of the unpleasantness Pansy offered up a few rewards, possibly by way of thanks, along the way... a couple of screw drivers, a pair of mole grips, a tape measure, small socket set (boxed - Kamasa), a selection of sockets (unboxed - snap-on tools) several spanners (britool) various nuts and bolts (unboxed - rusty) and, IMHO the greatest treasure of all, one not so shiny penny - dated 1937.

laid there by the builders perhaps when they laid the keel?? Found it wedged between frame and plank right down on the hog, polished it, kissed it and put it back again!

The nappies worked a treat at soaking up the more fluid of the horrors, handful of sawdust helped bind up the remainder a bit, then an hour or 2 of elbow grease and you could even see wood down there once again. least its a job that I hope won't need to be repeated again for a long long time, and hopefully not by us anyway

the tools (apart from the tape measure and mole grips) are all in excellent condition, not much chance of rust when you're immersed in that oily mess.

So out with the paint. The back end of the engine room is now all shiny and clean with a coat of fresh paint, feels like real progress. Going to lay a new bit of 'flooring' over the back end this weekend then thats that bit finished

*Oi Oi*

I took the carpets up and found a patch of soot! Removed a bit of rubbish (got forearms like Popeye's the now!). Sourced a kettle (from the shop) and installed it between some "Futtocks" and a "Shoulder". It works great, makes the water really hot, I poured some over my neck to test it and it's left a brilliant red mark with some fantastic blistering. Also tried to replace three sections of board we'd taken up in the saloon (?) to get at some bizarre pipe work. The total number of possible combinations they could be in must be something like 3 to the power of 3, which is round about 30. Even if you factor in the possibilty of upsidedowness the final figure can't top 30 x 30 (more than 300 I reckon) I gave up after 16.35 minutes and started sweeping things up again. Next visit, boards were sorted - I think the skipper may have fettled them, I did see a bit of sawdust and the odd dint - mellhammer and a chainsaw, why didn't I think of that?