Springsong

Hi Jill I hope this warmer weather suits you better. I must say I do like to see that oh so clean look that grey bilge paint gives to a wooden boat. She is looking good and is a credit to you Jill.

Hi Jill I just happen to have secreted about my person this picture taken on Saturday last. It was my birthday (a big one) and my lovely wife unbeknowst to me had booked me on the Hathor trip from Wroxham to Ranworth. What a fabulous day it was too. I could not believe it nor could Peter the skipper, I was the only passenger on this trip, he was more than a little dissapointed. I just cannot think of a better way of spending 5/6 hours of a birthday Saturday. Getting back to Golden Lights there are now two possibly even a third in 's wet shed, one of course is Manxman another has just had a major restoration in Horning. I have a feeling the owners are related but I could bee wrong.

A view you should recognise Jill. The forward view from Golden Light. We had both forgotten this holiday we had on her, neither Anne nor myself can remember which one it was, how many were there ? For some reason I want to say GL 7, but am probably completely wrong. Here is my daughter on her first Broads holiday, it was she who hired Brinks Emperor in March this year for her thirtieth and invited me along.

We are back at the ripping out stage again, now that the aft end is looking a lttle better. Ivor started taking damaged and rotten wood out of the port side. We think that at some stage she must have lain against a tree root or somesuch because some of the planks around the waterline were damaged and quite thin. We think we are going to have to build a steam box for some of this planking. They are starting off at around five inches wide which will have to come out of a six inch board, maybe even on some an eight inch board, these over the requred length will almost halve their width approaching the stem. To add to that they will have to a twist of almost 90 degrees steamed into them, hence the steam box. This is part of the black art of boat building to me but I shall be learning all the time from Ivor. Nowadays steam can be created so much easier by a wall paper stripper which already has all the necessary piping leaving only the box to contain the wood to be made. For narrower strips such as toe rails and rubbers drain piping can be used instead of a box. We started on the starboard side yesterday. There is certainly plenty of bad wood in here as well, although it seems to be more on the bottom than the sides. We will have to move the drum on Thursday as some of the bad wood is where the drum is sitting on the hull. Just going back to the hole in the skeg forward of the prop, a friend was looking at the site and commented on it by E Mail to an ex broadsman living in France, his view is that it was to increase the flow of water over the prop to give it more bite. Makes sense it will do for me.

Just a few pictures of the White Boats racing on Wroxham Broad on Saturday. Taken from the sixpenny seats in the public enclosure. First the calm before the storm Cuckoo (I think) and Solace. Then some lively racing it must have been gusting a force four at times.

Hi Jonny The keel and the hog seem to be pretty good with possibly a tiny repair needed to the hog, nothing major probably cured with an application of epoxy.

Thanks Simon I am not sure exactly when it was built, but I do know it was between the wars, early thirties I think.

Firstly Simon I hope you don't mind but I have borrowed your photo from your other thread for the purposes of then and now. This photo is the rear of Shoals Cottage which is the only bit that has changed. The present owner extended the rear across the back making the whole house symetrical, the kitchen used to be rather a narrow afair running from the door towards the left. The car was a Fiat which was my fathers gift to his niece on her 21st circa 1951/52 The other two are 1965 probably in April and 1976 in August/september. Hasn't changed at all except for the colour, I remember my uncle cursing the river traffic and thier wash, it used to somehow get under the quay heading and wash away the soil until the lawn collapsed into the river leaving a hole behind the quay heading. Speeding is nothing new. I have some other ones of the rear through the ages, and also looking the other way towards the river. If anyone is interested just shout and I will put them up. Edited because I have just looked at the picture of the Fiat and realised that my brother is "driving" and he is only a little older than I.

Hello everyone The first image from last week shows three of the bottom boards in place, the next two shows, if you look right hand side of the second one, just one remaining board to be fitted. This then apart from that last board, caulking and "sikoflexing" the seams is the bottom aft end finished. The top end is getting that way and Will should be able to make a start on the galley in a week or so. Ivor then much to his relief will not have to be crawling underneath but can start on the bow and be standing up. These new boards all different lengths have to be better than the four we took out all finishing in a line with a piece of ply tacked on to try to make it waterproof

We had a little wooden boat gathering at the MOB the other day First Janet was moored on the staithe, then Brookwind arrived,she is the longer version of my old Springsong, then the beautiful Dawn Star showed up, very silent under her electric power. Not forgetting Falcon under steam taking people to Barton and back in the sun.

Ah Jill Weather forecasts. I tend to see what it is like on the day, two reasons A: weather forecasts are generally not worth alot, this is of course a very professional and scientific understanding of all things scientific especially metiorlogical thingies and B: this coastal strip seems to bare little or no resemblance to anything an over coiffured person sat at a desk some 100 miles away is telling me.. So if on the day it is raining I shall go to my new varnishing shop, an area of a very large barn, or if it is fine I shall go to the boat. I have at least now the choise to be able to work in bad weather. I am sorry for going off on one but I get so fed up with trying to organise myself around hugely expensive computer guesswork. There I have finished now

Thanks Jill but you're no slouch in the wooden boat stakes, a pity that you have to get off the water. I suppose some of this is a little repetitive, but in part I am telling this story for us as a record of the restoration, so forgive me if it gets a trifle boring at times. Ivor is making good progress underneath, the starboard side garboard plank is in place as would have been the next one as well if rain had not stopped play early today / Monday. The plank shown here is the garboard plank with the sikoflex already on and just awaiting some glue/epoxy on the scarf before being fitted, clamped and screwed in place. The garboard plank fitted with the next plank offered up but still requiring a coat of primer and holes drilling but as I said above we had to stop early, I have been putting yet more plugs in the plank Ivor has fitted, I unfortunately cannot get under the boat so he will have to plug them himself. Will in the mean time has almost got as far as he can, he has finished all the long pieces but must wait for the electrician before finishing under the aft deck. Hopefully weather permitting on Thursday Jock will be able to sand it down and get a fifty/fifty coat of varnish/white spirit on to at least the long pieces.

Hi Jonny I guess you mean the cockpit sides. The picture shown below shows the sides up the previous photos show them in the down position. The only difference will be a hard canopy which will come down on cantilever arms and sit on the aft cabin/saloon roof. I hope this answers your question.

Will has been pressing on but has had to stop whilst we await the electrician, who is currently busy with other work, to put in the wiring for the stern light and the step lights in the well. I have taken delivery of the two 500 mm units and doors for the galley, maybe a little premature but they were both on offer at 50% discount so a no brainer really. I will post a photo when we open the boxes. Jock has continued to do a great job on the cabin sides the port side this week. There are going to have to be some repairs made on the port side, there is one quite bad split half way up just forward of the cockpit which will probably require a piece letting in, also a crack you can see just below where the canopy cantilevers were fastened to the coaming. I don’t know what we shall do with that as yet. Ivor has the first of many boards ready to put in on the underneath starboard side, as you can see equally as bad as the other side was. Dejaveu.

Spotted

Spring has sprung I cannot think that all nineteen are hers, there were two drakes around.

Thursday was the first day this year that we have been able to get the cover back enough to get at the cabin sides, along with the fact that Jock with help from his nephews and a friend were able to really get stuck into the starboard cabin side with a belt sander and some manual hard graft with sanding blocks. The top edge is not so important as the epoxied scrim cloth will cover this and that in turn will be edged with a mahogany strip to finish it off. We are not looking to remove all the weather from the wood A: it would be almost impossible and B: it is at the end of the day a fifty year old boat. I should also add that there will be quadrant running between the cabin side and the deck, and that the new wood at the aft end of the cabin side already has a coat of 50/50 varnish/white spirit on it, the actual colour difference in fact being quite minimal. Will has continued to work his magic on the tongue and groove the picture of the corner with its post and all the plugs place looking very fine he is moving so fast we are going to have to get the electrician in to play catch up. Ivor has finished the midships planking on the starboard side and has gone on to fairing the hull with plane and belt sander. We are now hoping for some warmer and dry weather so tha he can resume his "favourite" pastime of replacing the boards underneath on the aft starboard side beneath the galley. I can just hear him saying oh joy.

Not much happened last week unforeseen circumstances and the weather, we did get a little caulking done on the Monday but I promptly erased the pictures from the camera when I got home so there didn’t seem much point in trying to describe what is a really rather tedious if necessary process. Anyway here you can see the tails left at the transom to show which planks have been caulked and further along the tails showing how far along they have been caulked

I've seen more of those than I care to remember.

AH Simon. I suspect if we want to remain even the slightest bit self sufficient as a country, a good while, at least here's hoping.

I was out and about in the car this afternoon as it was so nice. i came across these views unfortunately the yachts were into the sun and I don't know how to combat the dark effect I get, but still pleasant enough. The other two I just thought a view of Herberts' place and Billy Mays' place.

Basically Jonny the aft 10 ft of the boat has had to be replaced including bulkheads, so none of that wood was salvageable. The saloon, the centre cockpit and the fore cabin all look to be pretty good, other than some planking, well actually quite alot of planking, but summer is now here so onwards and upwards. Jimbo I am very pleased with the way aft end is coming along, solid I should say. Skiing and wakeboarding lessons off the back next year she is so strong. ( I hope)

You are quite right Jonny could have done with one. On Monday the tongue & groove arrived and Will started to fit it. The first piece took the longest with quite a bit of cutting to be done. This first piece had to be glued, the strip at the top being too narrow to take a screw. The pieces under the deck will also have to be screwed, and plugged, to the stringers with epoxy along the bottom edge to seal the end grain and to make a waterproof seal along the seat, also to avoid water running down the edge of the seat and down into the lockers. The longer wider pieces have been epoxied to the bulkhead as well as screwed from the inside, in the galley area, through the bulkhead since this will be faced with a wood veneer and or stainless steel.

We have had two productive days albeit rather cold ones especially Thursday I have been plugging the screw and nail holes with hardwood plugs, I have used these in both the mahogany and the pine, we tried using softwood plugs but they just crumbled. This is not an issue since the hull is going to be painted white. Whilst I have been doing that Ivor has been planking the starboard side amidships. The bottom board has a little piece just below it which is the result of rot creeping from the board above , but not enough to require a whole plank. On the Thursday the second board was fitted and the third made ready, by the time we left all that remained to do was actually screw it to the frames. No nails could be used here as the water tanks sit just below the deck and as a result there is no access to turn the nails.

Hi Mark I have heard/seen somewhere that in fact you cannot book moorings at the Swan anymore.