Boat store progress

A few people have been very busy over the last few weeks getting some traction on the work needed to get the boat store into operation.  From a bare shell as the starting point, the tasks involve insulating the walls and ceiling, then boarding/dry-lining them, in parallel with doing the electrical first fix for the building, taking cabling through and into the boat store.  We also need a partition wall to separate the wet boat store from the dry camping equipment store, with associated doorway and fire escape stairs.

As well as planning all that, we've actually been making good progress with getting on with it.  All of this is being done in consultation with the local building inspector who has been on site in the last couple of days to review and advise.

We have an electrician in doing the first fix, having had a fantastic donation of electrical materials from a local friendly supplier.  The electrician has been working closely with related experts on lighting, ventilation, security, heating and plumbing.  The boat store now has an agreed set of supply points, lights, switches and sensors, as well as feeds to outside lights etc., which are now being installed as we go along.




On the insulation front, we have had insulation sheets delivered and we've installed them into the store walls, and are now progressing to install them into the rest of the ground floor external walls too.  We've had ceiling insulation delivered this week, and yesterday evening made a good start on fitting this into the store ceiling, leaving the necessary gaps for wiring to be infilled later.

The walls are now being covered with vapour barrier fabric to protect the structure and insulation from the damp atmosphere.

Once the wiring is complete, the walls and ceilings will be boarded (using a combination of chip/ply boarding, and donated plasterboard), then plastered, primed and painted, ready for racking and boat installation.

At the moment, the building is a hive of activity whenever we can get working parties together.  With the Sea Scouts having started their boating season now, a number of parents are helping out with the work while their children are out on the lake on Thursday and Friday evenings, which is excellent.  You can probably see from the pictures that we have large stacks of boards and insulation ready to be used - plenty to do, but great to see some rapid progress.

General update - March 2012

Plenty going on behind the scenes, even if visible progress may appear to have slowed, to the casual observer.

We have a great group of specialists helping us plan and install the electrical wiring, lighting, plumbing, heating etc.  We are also advancing on the detailed plans and implementation of fitting out the ground floor.  A working party last weekend helped get some of the materials we need onto site ready for use.  Suppliers are coming forward with donations of materials and equipment as we need them.  Many thanks go to everyone who is helping move this project forward.

On the fundraising front, an increased focus is now turning on the Donkey Derby on 26 May.  We've been running various events like refreshments stalls at district events, and a really well-attended and very successful quiz night.  With the Donkey Derby getting closer, the programmes are being prepared ready for sale in the coming weeks, and equipment is being dusted off, checked, repaired or replaced.

With the boating season due to start after Easter, we're also paying attention to the fleet of craft currently stored in the container next to the building.  As well as preparing the boat store to move the fleet in, we're making selective purchases to plug the most important gaps in the boating provision.

A winter's day's visit to Testwood Lakes

We've had a bit of a lull over the winter.  Once the shell was completed and the cold, wet and dark set in, focus shifted for a while from building to funding.  As mentioned on our sister website, we've recently had another injection of cash from The Barker Mill Estate, as well as donations of internal materials and some good ideas and offers for progressing the internal work.

In the last week, workers have been back on site to start clearing the external ground and lowering the level where it is too high against the building, adjusting where we need fencing, and progressing the internals of the ground floor to get us to the point where we can start getting some volunteers involved to take the next steps.

Today was a lovely bright winter's day, so I took the family and the dog for a visit to Testwood Lakes, to get a view of how the building is settling into the landscape and to see how things are looking.  These photos are a record of our visit.

Murals on the gates to welcome visitors

Going into the site - Aquativity is at the bottom of the drive

Aquativity Centre from near the car park - note the reduced fencing

Looking back as we head off around the lake

The view back across the frozen water

Aquativity gets a little lost across the lake with the industrial estate and football club behind it

The Wildlife Education Centre nestles into the hill

Walking with the family back towards Aquativity

The ground near the front door is being lowered

...and piled up ready for removal

The fencing has been moved back to next to the building now that the main lake-side external work is complete

The boat store is ready to be insulated and plaster boarded

The main doors for maneuvering boats in and out

Looking across the boat store from the tent store

A good view from the tent store over the frozen lake

We can't get upstairs but we can look up into the framework

...from both ends of the building

Camera held up to look across the 1st floor

The sun streams into the main hall upstairs

Insulation going down on the ground floor

Screeding over the insulation by the front door

More external ground levelling this coming week, as well as finishing the ground floor insulation and screed, then plaster boarding in the boat store - looking forward to starting to get the boat racking in so we can use the boat store in the near future.  Then we need to get going with internal walls, electrics, plumbing etc. for changing rooms, showers and toilets...  Still plenty to do but great to see some progress again.

Thank you for voting for us

Back in October, we asked for your help.  Nat West Community Force were running a website where projects all round the country could advertise what they were doing and ask for votes from supporters.  The 3 projects with the most votes in each region (ours being Southampton) would get a donation of £6,000 as a result of attracting these votes.  With your help, and with a lot of running around in the final days of voting, we got 360 votes.  Thank you!

Nat West Community Force have just announced the winners.  And the result is....

Aquativity is a winning project!

Screenshot from the Nat West Community Force website

So we are awaiting a £6,000 cheque from Nat West Community Force, sometime in December.  This will be used toward fitting out the building.  As you will have seen on this blog, we still have plenty to do, so every donation like this one will be used in full to achieve the next step towards getting the building ready for use.

For general interest, the other 2 deserving winners in the Southampton area are

• Calmore Sports Club, just down the road from Testwood Lakes, congratulations to them
• Hampshire Air Ambulance - who can possibly say that is not a deserving cause!

Thank you to everyone who voted for us.  If you have any ideas for other ways that might attract funding for our project, we'd love to hear from you at aquativity@gmail.com, or comment on this post.

Taking Stock

We've made a huge amount of progress over the last year, so I thought it might be worth an illustrated summary of progress and status.  This blog, along with our main website, has been tracking progress; this post should bring everyone up to date with what has been happening and where we currently stand.

By way of a reminder, the Aquativity project is about creating and running a new inland boating centre at Testwood Lakes, near Totton in South Hampshire.  The centre will be run exclusively for young people's groups and disabled boating groups, led by 4th New Forest North (Eling) Sea Scouts.  The new centre will also provide the new permanent headquarters for this active Royal Navy Recognised Sea Scouts Group.

An early design impression

For quite a few years, the project has been in a planning and initial fundraising phase.  It took some time to get to having full planning permission and a detailed design acceptable to the local authority's building control body.  Throughout this design phase, we were raising funds through running local events, applying for grants and getting donations from a range of people and bodies.  We finally got past planning and into the building phase in May 2011, a time of great celebration for all involved.

Work starts on 24 May 2011

 Through June and July, we continued to dig down to form the outline of the building, compacted the ground to provide a stable foundation, put in the concrete footings and brickwork for the walls, then laid the concrete raft on which the building was to sit.

At the start of August there was a sudden change of pace in the apparent progress of the build.  The timber frame and scaffolding arrived and went up very quickly, in two quick stages, with the assistance of a crane and a team of experts.

Stage 1 of the timber frame going up in August

How we achieved raising £20,000 in a year

The frame for the 2 storey building was rapidly topped off by the roof timbers ready for the slates to go on.  Of course, while all of this was going on, the fundraising never stopped, not least with Totton Carnival, the annual Donkey Derby in July, Grand Draw throughout the summer, and NatWest Community Force voting in October (for which we are eagerly awaiting the results).  All this effort ended up with the fantastic result of us achieving our aim of raising £20,000 in a year, every penny being matched by a generous charitable trust.

Ready to start putting the slates on

Progress continued rapidly through September, October and November, with roofing, windows and doors, and cladding.

Windows go in

We are now in the enviable position of having a completed shell ready for fitting out, and doesn't it look fantastic with its smart black cladding, classical slate roof and light pouring in through the windows into the first floor!

Facing the lake with fantastic views from the first floor above the boat store with its big double doors

Main entrance, with some work to do outside ready to welcome members and guests

More photos and details of the completed shell on the Aquativity website.

So, what next?

We have some finishing off to arrange around the shell, such as some drainage work, then the first 'room' we aim to be completed will be the boat store.  We'll get rid of the shipping container and get our boats moved in, while we work on the changing rooms, showers and toilets.  All of this, of course, will need electrical fittings, water and waste water connections, plumbing, heating and hot water.

Then onto the galley kitchen, meeting rooms, equipment storage, foyer, stairs and lift, then main hall, meeting rooms, kitchen and toilets upstairs.

So plenty of work to come in 2012 - more fundraising, more detailed planning, building work, equipping everything ready to use, and then getting the centre into operation.  Thank you to everyone who has helped us get this far.  If anyone can help us accelerate getting the centre open for business - cash donations, labour, materials, contacts, fundraising plans... - please don't hesitate to get in touch.