Planning Construction
Our boat is long and narrow, at 25 by 4 metres. While this provides lots of room it does not support the construction of a corridor with rooms off to one side. Many boats do, and the difference is in the width. A ship of 4.5 metres can easily accommodate a hallway with bathrooms and guest bedrooms off to one side or both sides. So to determine what your basic layout is going to be we suggest a diagram like the first planning drawing shown under the buttons on the left. This will provide the constraints you are facing, in terms of stairways, ceiling heights, existing dimensions, and doorways.
We found we pretty well had to go with a sequential layout without using doors to shut off areas. We could have put a door on our bedroom but the open visual space provides for a larger look to the interior. We also considered the number of days we might have guests on board and designed for our own use rather than for privacy.
The room layout dictates the location of lights, plugs, appliances and pumps. We used 230 volt power for appliances in order to avoid the high cost of 24 or 12 volt, non-domestic units. All plug-in equipment follows the same guideline so all of the wall plugs are connected to 230 volt. We used some 230 volt light fixtures, but only in the bathroom where we wanted a nice looking fixture without paying a huge amount.
Most lighting in the boat is 24 volt. There are a range of nice looking fixtures basically designed to fit in the ceiling or as spot lamps, but these are quite expensive. We used some nice wall lamps in the bedroom but they are gold plated and cost about 100 Euros each. If we revisited the lighting decisions I think we would have put in all 230 volt fixtures. Lighting is never a big power draw so it is easily handled by the inverter. Further, we wouldn't have all the lights on at once but even then in the winter we are fully on shore power so the ships systems are not really involved. During the summer, when we are on ships systems, it stays light so late that we don't turn on the interior lights.
Regardless of the 230 vs 24 volt lighting decision, the planning has to be done and starts by the location of use of the fixture. You can get an idea of how complicated this gets by clicking on the third button. The diagrams don't show the wiring but this can be viewed on the Electrical page.
When the electrical planning is complete you need to plan the water systems. We have included a plan under the fourth button on the left. The waste water system feeds a large pump box, about a cubic foot in size. As this fills a float switch is activated and the grey water is pumped out either over the side or into a grey water tank in the forepeak. Our black water system is vacuum activated so all the waste goes into holding tanks for later pump out.
We installed a filtration system for the fresh water. For the most part the French water delivered at canalside is quite potable with little risk or even unpleasant taste. Our view was that since we would live on board all year we could be caught in situations where flooding had compromised the water table. We are quite protected from any deterioration of the water provided and could even pump water from the canal and purify it enough for consumption, though we have not contemplated such a drastic step.
The final planning step was to lay out the location and piping for radiators. In all we placed 9 units, dictated by the size of the room and the ability to close off the area. In two small rooms we "daisy chained" the rads so that the cooler water output from one became the hot water input of the next. This did not result in substantial loss of heating and was successful largely because the rooms did not need a great amount of heat.
