Rebus Stone in her hay day, working as a bunkering barge.
When we bought her she had been sat redundant in portland harbour for 7 years.
We took advantage of her quayside position and hired to crane to lift off the roof and bulkheads which we plasma cut out.
She was dived into 5 main tanks for collecting waste liquids. these were the ladders cut into the bulk heads.
We cut out 11 tons of steel and removed over ten tons of engine and machinery.
We had her towed from Portland to Shoreham Port
After a year of cleaning, cutting and moving we finally brought her onto our mooring in Shoreham by Sea.
137ft of rusty oily tanks.
We then began to convert her into liveable accomodation.
Light at last! We cut over 30 portholes.
We removed the engine with a crane but once the boat was on our mooring we had to lift everything the old-school way including the fuel tank (pictured).
We changed much of the orginal steelwork to make the boat more practical. Here we are lowering the roof of the engine room to make a flatish deck.
Internal battoning ready for insulation, electrics, plumbing and finally the nice bit of fitting out.
We built two new top cabins. Here you can see the laminated roof joists and cavities for the south facing windows.
We went went all out on insulation over every inch of the boat. Here you can see the first layer which has been sprayed on to stop condensation.
We wanted to keep her looking boaty so we copied designs and shapes of old steam tugs with plenty of curves!
The finished top cabin and a newish paintjob.
Midships cabin
we cut out over 100 gussets!
We were forced to dismantle our old boat Royal Native. The up side was that we had an amazing supply of beatiful 1882 copper sheithed pitch pine with which we made some of the most interesting feeatures of the final fit out.
We built a 20'x40' floating workshop using 72 reclaimed blue barrels and moored it alongside Rebus Stone.
Workshop ready for roofing
We wanted to the workshop to have maximum natural light and a feeling of space.
Out of gallery
In order to make Rebus Stone a practical living space we removed the engine, pumping gear and most of the raised sections of the roof before towing her to our mooring on the Adur estuary. We then did a huge amount of metal work, removing bulkheads and hundreds of gussets, and fitting portholes and skylights to open her up to natural light. being steel, she required a load of insulation and three wood fired heating systems. The final fit out is the satisfying bit, but as these photos illustrate, it makes up a small proportion of the work! We We now live in the stern half and rent out the two other units to our friends. Our workshop is also moored alongside.
