PICTURES – Details of Loch Ness houseboat work revealed: 'This is equivalent tp replacing a roof on a house'
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Details of the project being carried out to a prominent boat moored in the Highland capital have been revealed.
For the past few weeks Loch Ness, a former steam dredger and restaurant which is moored at Muirtown Basin, has been shrouded in tarpaulin while contractors carry out their work.
Nicola Gear, the boat's co-owner who bought the vessel in 2010, said the work involved replacing the upper deck surface which had started leaking recently.
She said: "This is equivalent to replacing a roof on a house, thus the boat needed a water and weatherproof cover for the duration of the work to protect the internal spaces from water damage.
"The difference to a house is that the wind and weather is funnelled down the Caledonian Canal causing more extreme pressures on the tarpaulins, (and the mooring ropes). Thus the house-like wooden frame supporting the tarps."
When she bought the boat she was derelict and she did not have a functioning engine room. Nicola said: "We turned her into a houseboat for us to live on, and renovated her engine room so that we can cruise the Caledonian Canal. We also use her as a non-profit, community events and arts events space."
The vessel was built in 1937 for British Waterways – now known as Scottish Canals – as a steam driven dredger for the Caledonian Canal and has been moored at Muirtown Basin for most of the time since then.
Originally she was named Fairway, when working as a dredger, before being renamed Loch Ness when she was bought from Scottish Canals and converted into a restaurant in the 1980s.
