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Tudor Reformation


Timbo

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Just now, JanetAnne said:

Yes, some of the water is actually on the outside these days!!!

I will have you know RT is officially not the leakiest boat in the wetshed...only pumping out once every six hours now she's drier than many...unless the bilge pump has broken!

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I have to admit MQ held the record for sheer amount of river pumped over Beccles weekend. Someone, moored next door, who shall remain nameless, arrived the following morning armed with a selection of materials to stem the flow having been kept up all night with the bilge pump firing its contents against his hull :default_blush:

I, of course, never heard a thing :default_biggrin:

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One of those boats that attended the Beccles bun-fight is now moored next door to my mooring. Her bilge pump is still blasting off as the 'auto' kicks in every so often! The owner's son has  since been heard to mention the dreaded words pears and rot in the same sentence :61_sob:. I wonder if these two boats are one and the same?

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Nope though I am surprised at your neighbours boat still pumping. I am with said neighbour next week, the opportunity to take the proverbial will be exercised to its full extent! 

My leaky accomodation was MQ or Monas Queen.  She had a bit of a weep, long since dealt with, but a small capacity bilge pump and small bore outlet pipe made it all far more dramatic than it really was.... 

 

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Don't let on that I mentioned it, please! It is his pride and joy and a long held ambition.

Apparently she'd been a in a shed for a couple of years waiting to be sold so I suspect she'd dried out a lot and in that I do sympathise. Our old girl took a long time to take up this year, she's tight now but she took longer than usual. Great summer for sun-tans, not so good for wooden centenarians though! 

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1 hour ago, JennyMorgan said:

Don't let on that I mentioned it, please! It is his pride and joy and a long held ambition.

Apparently she'd been a in a shed for a couple of years waiting to be sold so I suspect she'd dried out a lot and in that I do sympathise. Our old girl took a long time to take up this year, she's tight now but she took longer than usual. Great summer for sun-tans, not so good for wooden centenarians though! 

Discrete is my middle name :default_icon_liar:

I believe he said she had been at Belaugh for a few years and yes, she was well dry when she went in. Been exploring options for her winter storage so she can stay in and not have the same problems next season. A wet shed is a possibility, we also wondered about tenting the dyke she is in now for the worst of the weather. Wooden boats eh? Who'd 'ave 'em!

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23 hours ago, Timbo said:

I will have you know RT is officially not the leakiest boat in the wetshed...only pumping out once every six hours now she's drier than many...unless the bilge pump has broken!

its the only boat in the shed with go faster stripes though

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38 minutes ago, JanetAnne said:

Discrete is my middle name :default_icon_liar:

I believe he said she had been at Belaugh for a few years and yes, she was well dry when she went in. Been exploring options for her winter storage so she can stay in and not have the same problems next season. A wet shed is a possibility, we also wondered about tenting the dyke she is in now for the worst of the weather. Wooden boats eh? Who'd 'ave 'em!

The dyke she's now in, as I well know, is prone to Westerly gales, the last place I'd willingly store a small woody afloat during the winter. It would be some tent to survive a good Westerly at that location, the waves fairly hoss up the slipway and the wind blasts across the open, unsheltered Broad. However our mutual friends, Liz and Rob, have a sheltered wet boat shed that's unused, just needs dredging. In my opinion only one place for an old woody during the winter, out of the water and under cover!

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11 minutes ago, JennyMorgan said:

However our mutual friends, Liz and Rob, have a sheltered wet boat shed that's unused, just needs dredging.

 

Thats the wet shed we are talking about (I think...lol)

12 minutes ago, JennyMorgan said:

 In my opinion only one place for an old woody during the winter, out of the water and under cover!

I agree but am starting to change my mind a bit. Once upon a time there were many many boatyards with slipways and cradles which allowed wooden boats to be supported along their keels when taken out from the river. These days half the slipways are blocked off in the name of flood defences and the other half have been built on! The result is cranes with straps giving hulls a twist and a nip as they lift out and in some cases you can see the hull bend as the weight is taken on chines never intended for the purpose. Yes there are some very skilled, caring and careful operators out there but I do wonder whether, with our (normally) milder winters these days, the taking out each year unless for needed maintenance is still such a good idea?

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Dave, you write with much sense but I have seen too many good boats stored afloat , even with good covers, suffer needlessly. Their hulls having become heavy, saturated and soft, their brightwork deteriorated, hull repairs put off. If a hull is entirely sound, not likely in a hundred year old boat where structural work is almost an ongoing winter requirement,  then I would agree with you, store afloat.  Another issue is that developing requirements for structural work beneath the waterline are not seen for obvious reasons.

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Afloat or ashore? There will always be different opinions on this.

All wooden Broads motor cruisers, whether hard chine construction or round bilge, were built with a long straight keel so that they could be hauled out on a slipway and as as the keel ran almost the whole length of the boat, they would sit flat on the floor and "hogging" would be less of a problem. They were designed to take their weight on the keel but would need support under the chine, or the round of the bilge, when in the shed.

The only "good" way to crane an old wooden boat is when the straps are suspended from spreader bars or a spreader frame. This prevents the straps from pinching into to the topsides and the gunwales when the boat is lifted.

I believe that those who occupy Richardsons' wet shed, and other sheds like it, have got the balance right. The boat is in the water, where its weight is naturally distributed. It is protected from rain, frost and strong winds but above all, there is natural VENTILATION. If you are going to put a winter cover on your boat, it should be of a strong tented type, with a ridge pole and open at both ends, to allow the air to flow. If you close it in too much, you will get dry rot, rust, mildew and other nasties.

Haul the boat out in the Spring for a couple of weeks' maintenance, and then straight back in again.

The same principles still apply to Fibreglass boats, especially if the bottom has a bit of osmosis.

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6 minutes ago, brundallNavy said:

Nipper is coming out of the water this winter for 3 months  as her bi annual lift was not done this year do to being a tad busy on other things. 

I is well practised wiv de brushes an is volunteerin an dat!

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9 hours ago, Vaughan said:

Afloat or ashore? There will always be different opinions on this.

All wooden Broads motor cruisers, whether hard chine construction or round bilge, were built with a long straight keel so that they could be hauled out on a slipway and as as the keel ran almost the whole length of the boat, they would sit flat on the floor and "hogging" would be less of a problem. They were designed to take their weight on the keel but would need support under the chine, or the round of the bilge, when in the shed.

The only "good" way to crane an old wooden boat is when the straps are suspended from spreader bars or a spreader frame. This prevents the straps from pinching into to the topsides and the gunwales when the boat is lifted.

I believe that those who occupy Richardsons' wet shed, and other sheds like it, have got the balance right. The boat is in the water, where its weight is naturally distributed. It is protected from rain, frost and strong winds but above all, there is natural VENTILATION. If you are going to put a winter cover on your boat, it should be of a strong tented type, with a ridge pole and open at both ends, to allow the air to flow. If you close it in too much, you will get dry rot, rust, mildew and other nasties.

Haul the boat out in the Spring for a couple of weeks' maintenance, and then straight back in again.

The same principles still apply to Fibreglass boats, especially if the bottom has a bit of osmosis.

VENTILATION, nail on the head, so very important, even on GRP

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Launching.thumb.jpeg.2bb03a1a6c81483deca8f791d3dfba52.jpeg

This is the Ace of Hearts being launched at Thorpe in the spring of 1954.

The keel is running in a "way" which has been heavily greased in melted beef fat. You can just see a winch wire running along the floor at the right side of the keel. This passes through a pulley in a "dead man" which is buried out in the water beyond the end of the slipway and comes back to the "snore hole" at the back of the keel. The boat is dragged back down the shed until she reaches this point, where  she is tipping down the slipway.

The rope pulley blocks, seen in front, are the "check tackle" which prevents the boat from running away on her own, down the slope. This is attached to the stem by a pin through the snore hole in the front of the keel. "Snore hole" comes from the old Dutch word snoer, meaning rope. A lot of Dutch words are used in boatbuilding.

The man seen at far left is adjusting a beam of wood on a one-wheeled trolley, which carries the weight of the boat as she leans onto it. The boats always leaned onto the same side as the fuel tank, as these were left full in winter.

Other things to notice are the rather fine hire dinghy, by Wrights of Ipswich, who were famous builders in those days. The sheds still had earth floors at that time, as did most Broads yards. The damp in the earth in winter would help to prevent the seams of the boats from opening up.

On the stem head is a cast alloy plate depicting the playing card Ace of Hearts. All the Hearts boats had a plaque on the stem, according to their name.

 

 

 

 

 

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24 minutes ago, Vaughan said:

 

Launching.thumb.jpeg.2bb03a1a6c81483deca8f791d3dfba52.jpeg

This is the Ace of Hearts being launched at Thorpe in the spring of 1954.

The keel is running in a "way" which has been heavily greased in melted beef fat. You can just see a winch wire running along the floor at the right side of the keel. This passes through a pulley in a "dead man" which is buried out in the water beyond the end of the slipway and comes back to the "snore hole" at the back of the keel. The boat is dragged back down the shed until she reaches this point, where  she is tipping down the slipway.

The rope pulley blocks, seen in front, are the "check tackle" which prevents the boat from running away on her own, down the slope. This is attached to the stem by a pin through the snore hole in the front of the keel. "Snore hole" comes from the old Dutch word snoer, meaning rope. A lot of Dutch words are used in boatbuilding.

The man seen at far left is adjusting a beam of wood on a one-wheeled trolley, which carries the weight of the boat as she leans onto it. The boats always leaned onto the same side as the fuel tank, as these were left full in winter.

Other things to notice are the rather fine hire dinghy, by Wrights of Ipswich, who were famous builders in those days. The sheds still had earth floors at that time, as did most Broads yards. The damp in the earth in winter would help to prevent the seams of the boats from opening up.

On the stem head is a cast alloy plate depicting the playing card Ace of Hearts. All the Hearts boats had a plaque on the stem, according to their name.

 

 

 

 

 

Vaughan, what’s the boat on the right in the picture, did most of Hearts boats have that sliding canopy arrangement.

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13 minutes ago, brundallNavy said:

Vaughan, what’s the boat on the right in the picture, did most of Hearts boats have that sliding canopy arrangement.

The boat at right is the Ten, and ahead of her were the Knave and the Queen.They all had their own place in the sheds, in winter! These three were the first Hearts boats built after the war and they had the new design of fully opening sliding wheelhouse canopy. The Ace, and other earlier boats, were built with a small wheelhouse with a swing - up roof, rather like Royal Tudor, but were converted later.

The point about the sliding canopy was that it totally changed the interior design of a Broads cruiser. Before, you had a galley at the back, two single bunks with a dining table in the aft cabin; then the little stand up wheelhouse and up forward, the toilet and the forward cabin.

The sliding canopy meant that this centre cockpit could become the main saloon and dining area. this left room aft for a side galley with a toilet and shower on the other side, with a large double cabin aft. Exactly like the modern design of centre cockpit Broads cruisers!

Hearts were the first to introduce this design on the Broads. A couple of yards immediately tried to copy it, but they did not realise that to do this, the aft cabin sides have to be parallel. If not, the canopy will slide down, and jump off the rails!

 

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