The Renovators

When we bought Kimasut, she was a dark blue barge as shown below.

What we eventually wanted was a green & gold Kanumbra.

We had also seen another Piper barge, Drumsara, that had side railings. While some people don't like these, because they say they interfere with rope work on the bollards, we figured that the extra security they gave when walking along the narrow side decks was worth the investment (especially since you would then be able to walk while carrying something, and not have to keep hold of the hand-rail on top of the cabin). So we contacted Mike Burgess on Drumsara and got some design advice about the railings.

We also figured that if the boat was to be re-painted green, then the blue bimini over the rear-deck would look out of place. So we got Iain Noble to arrange for the repainting, the railings and new bimini to be done before we arrived in 2011. The renovations started with new railings being manufactured and fitted.

Then the blue paint was sanded back and the old name removed.

Then the re-painting began, one side at a time.

This produced a re-juvenated, but anonymous, Kanumbra.

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Finally, the new white bimini was made and fitted to the old frame.

The only thing left to do was to re-name her. We thought about sign-writing (as per Kimasut), but signwriters were hard to find near Moissac. So we went with stick-ons from Funky Monkey. The idea was for me to do the signs when we returned to Moissac in April 2011. And I did try, but after setting up the bow name (with masking tape) etc, I went to the stern to lay that one out. When I returned to the bow to complete the job, the sign was nowhere to be seen - it had come loose, fallen into the canal and started floating towards Boardeaux (as evidenced by the remnants of masking tape on the bow).

So, we ordered a replacement bow name, and then I swallowed my pride and paid Iain to do the signs after we returned to Taggerty in April 2011. The resulting bow and stern signs came up pretty well (without the need for any more replacements).

The final task in the renovation was to order some TipTop fenders, and replenish the supply of ropes. And the resulting Kanumbra is what you see at the top of each page of this website.