Restoration.

[Springsong]

We now belatedly have a hull survey by Steve Truss of Insight Marine. A very competent and proffesional chap and not because of the first rate survey, I quote " I find it difficult to use the word sound on any old motor cruiser. I am however delighted to say that I found Lady Anne to intact, and with no indications of serious distress ". That for me without legaleese and insurance speak means we have an O K boat. We obviously have some planks to replace and some areas of worm to rectify but considering her 49 years a good result I think. I can feel a party coming on next year. We now have all the new instruments in so we will have to start thinking about electrics before the new aft cabin roof goes on. We intend to use tongue and groove painted cream with the ash beams to give a traditional deck head feel . On top of this we intend to epoxy a sheet of ply then probably a sheet of glass fibre to give texture and grip, again using West System epoxy. Unfortunately the overhead light are too rotten to be reused so we are using the origional bulkhead lights and some more modern spots hidden away in the corners to give better reading light.Jock has sourced some rather nice teak duck boards so we hope while the roof is off to make a wet room on the starboard side aft, with shower and WC. The bulkheads between the aft cockpit and the galley to port and the shower to starboard have both to replaced so it is an ideal time to do this work, and to revamp the galley which is in neede of Je ne sais quoi,as yet !!

Enough already I need food, one finger typing is sooo tyring :-D

[Springsong]

Here at last are some photos .

First removing the chrome ready for replating.(117)

2 Aft cabin roof removed looking forward you can also see the front screen removed.(121)

3 Looking aft with just the galley roof still on (123)

4 The support under the rear screen a bit iffy.

5 Very lucky with the Breydon crossing in December. Sorry about quality but it was a camera photo.

Sorry pictures in wrong order

[Guest]

so far so good Barry when would you predict she will be back on the water all done up

[Springsong]

Hi Johnny

Thanks for your interest, we are aiming to relaunch hopefully about this time next year, the problem being the amount of time everyone has to spend on her and of course my not being able to do much at he moment.

[Mowjo]

:-D Looks like you've got a lot of work on your hands there Barry! but it's a beautiful looking boat so I'm sure it will all be worth it in the end,,,

[Springsong]

Thanks Mojow.

At last. My first day back at the boat since late November,Didn't do anything but just great to be around boats again.

So at last photos.

The new ash beams, you can see how they are rebated into a rail running fore and aft which is still in good order. The next two photos show how the curve of the existing beams is completeely wrong they must have been replaced at sometime in the last forty years.We now have a clear six foot one inch clearance in the main saloon under the beams.

The last photo shows how Will is going to have to do some creative geometry th get the correct shape for the short beam around the hatch into the cockpit.

[Springsong]

The standard of the work that Will produces is just stunning.

I think you will agree from the following photos bearing in mind these are not varnished yet.

Finally I don't know why we have bought these quite so early in the project but hey, they will look soo good in the new dash.

Well that's it for now

Keep well

[jillR]

hi barry

thanks for posting those piccies, its lovely to watch how shes comming on

jill

[Antares_9]

The sticks are starting to pile up into something quite beautiful, those retro instruments are so in keeping with the boat, you must be justifiably proud of how she’s coming along, I know I would be.

[Guest]

we i say this boat moored just to the rear of Jill a thought she was nice and for the price the fella wanted to sell was a bargin how much work does she need alltoll Barry?

[Springsong]

Well Johnny

Now there is a question.

We have probably 60 foot of planking, all the BSS work to do ,hot air heating to put in a complete rewire,and the hull to strip the topsides to strip and varnish,a bit of foredeck to be replaced ,and all the interior to strip and revarnish.

Hows that for starters?

Barry

[Guest]

sounds expensive Barry

[Springsong]

Yes Johnny we make savings where we can but I guess it

will cost a fair bit of bread at the end of the day,

I don't really want to think how much.

Here is one of the problems of "doing it on the cheap" you rely on good friends and they don't tend to have large workshops at their disposal, so someone has to stand in the cold whilst cutting roof beams, in this case Will's long suffering wife Su.

[Guest]

Barry least your not working alone :

[Springsong]

No Johnny I can't get up ladders so it's a good job I have good friends.

So another four beams fitted seven down seven to go.

The first three we shall have to take out again, my fault Will ofcourse made them to match the origional ones which were hidden by the head lining the later one have had some shape put into them rather than the sharp edges, never mind the damage to an unwary head coming into contact, asthetics is all ! The strange blue hue to the photos is becausewe had to work under the cover yesterday to avoid the rain and hail, I think we should perhaps get a red cover so that the project has a rose coloured hue to it at all times.

[Springsong]

The ghastly formica door you see is the heads/ shower compartment which we are going to bring into the 21st century especially as the rear bulkhead between it and the aft cockpit has to be replace. We are considering doing this in hardwood tongue and groove, if it is available at anything like a reasonable cost. The wc before and after, and a not very good picture showing the colour of the ash beams after cuprinol and one coat of Rylard varnish.

[Guest]

have to say Barry work is progressing at a good pace looking at the last couple of pics (head) wood looks a bit rotten there is that just me looks like you wont have to buy a new loo least thats a good point

[Springsong]

Afternoon All

Tomorrow I am down to Star Premiere.

Jock has purchased a "silent paint stripper".This is an

experiment albeit an expensive one.

It's an American infra red paint remover which alegedly

heats the paint without any damage to the wood as many coats as you like ,

and one can paint

straight onto the wood without even having to use sandpaper

Tomorrow I am willing to be convinced and am looking forward to doing something

really useful at last. I will let you know how it works.

[Guest]

don't forget to take some pics Barry would be nice to see the before and after affects if this work as good as you've been told

[Springsong]

Hi Jonny

The results are pretty impresive, but as to photos, confession time I forgot to charge the camera battery so I am afraid you will have to wait untill after the weekend for photos.

[Guest]

no worries Barry

[Springsong]

Well sorry about the delay but here we are with a fully

charged camera, mugs milk coffee,and three hours without rain so away we go.

The silent paint stripper is exactly that it just uses infra red tubes to heat the paint.

It is a superb machine the thicker the paint the better it likes it which

has brought me to rethink the hull.

I am going to sand the hull because the sadolin has such a good key onto the wood and use it as a primer. Of course any bare patches would be primed in the normal fashion, and use the machine to remove the antifouling and tarvarnish which it seems to love.

We now have anex proffesional boat builder in the team whom shall remain nameless until I have his permission. The trouble with boat builders is that they are so good at destroying befor they start to work their magic.

Here is the talented Will making the 14th. and final beam for the rear cabin roof, he thinks that's it but I think we are going to do the forward cabin as well.

As you can see from the close up of the transom the outer skin is only 3/8th thick so we are coming to the conclusion that we can replace the transom for not huge amounts of money.

So we are getting prices for Mahogany Iroko and Sapele,see which price if any suits and see which on the day has the nicest grain. So watch this space.

Thats all folks.

[Guest]

Looking good Barry from the pics does there seam to be a big amount of wood rot?

[Brian]

its great to see this project moving along so well

Its great to see craftsmen at work also, not just a finished product.

[Springsong]

Hi All

Well we thought Monday was going to be rough so we went to B&Q to buy more cuprinol and the tongue & groove for the inner roof of the aft cabin.

This is now in my daughters' large new extension which has a roof but no windows , ideal for painting, but not wheelchair accessible until the scafolding comes down.

Thursday Jock and myself went off to Norfolk Marine to buy varnish and paint,pale cream for the inner tongue & groove roof primer undercoat and some white enamel.

I have given this varnish and paint question alot of thought since we bought this boat and came to the conclusion that getting different things from different places is just wasted effort when in Wroxham we hve all we need in Blakes products which I know and like having used them on Springsong and been more than satisfied. So if it ain't broke don't fix it.

We had left Ivor at the yard to get on with whatever boatbuilders do in their black art. He obviously has another night time job as he came to us with his tools of his other trade.

but it turns out that it is what he calls his wrecking tool,it get woorse doesn't it, there he is actually using it on a boat, maybe this boatbuilding is easy.Anyway the end result is planking wise at the aft end all the rot is cut out,except for the flashing on either side of the transom and the transom facing boards them selves. Here lies another problem Tim has only got boards 5"wide which for a transom is too narrow, so Ivor is going to try and source some wood else where.

Maybe you can see that yellow string hanging down to the left of the picture. That my friends is string which some p**t has used instead of caulking cotton, I just hope to god he hasn't used it under the waterline.

Now some days are better than others Jock was chatting to an aquaintance of ours whom shall remain nameless,and he presented to Jock this this handed pair of brand new Association Blakes enameled plaques which were origional equipment on Star Premiere and had them on the bow in the photo from the1959 boatshow .