Restoration.

[jillR]

hi barry

thats brilliant news.

the stairs look great.

jill

[jimbo]

That's great news Barry, bet you were chuffed to bits to finally get back onboard

[Mowjo]

Barry! now you can get onboard, Jock says can you get a move on,,,,

[Springsong]

Thanks all oh, and Frank. Moving swiftly on, I actually don't do swiftly or getting a move on nowadays but I can tell you I wus like a kid with a new toy fantastic. The varnish brushes will be red hot.

[Happy Jax 3]

That's great news Barry, on board at last.

[Boaters]

Good news Barry will be able to see the inside when I catch up with you at the yard .Coming on nicely you must be pleased.

[Guest]

Hi Barry

good news mate if those stars were built from scrap woods they look fantastic like brand new

Jonny

[Springsong]

Thank guys yes it is great to see inside again, but having seen the daunting task ahead I almost wish I couldn't

[Springsong]

Hi All

We at last have got going again, and by the way we have sussed the long ply deck, the joins had been scarfed, so well it was difficult to see them.

The port side deck is ready to come off now but we have just chopped out a small section over the tanks to try and work out how to remove them.

The diesel tank oddly enough has two fillers whereas the water tank just aft has no filler, there is a largish pipe underneath which I guess is a balance pipe to the tank on the starboard side.

Well getting these tanks out is not going to be easy. I had thought they might come out through the engine bay but as you can see the calorifier is in the way, so, it looks as if we shall have to take the frame work around the cockpit side apart and the floor bearers. We noticed that the steel sash cable for the cockpit drop side was off it's pulley on the forward end which probably explains why it is a little stiff to pull up.

I had thought we might replace the calorifier but it is 29 litre and has the capability to take an immersion heater so hopefully we wont need a new one.

This is the first time I have looked in the engine bay since the first day the boat was bought, and I am a little daunted by the amount of work to be done down there, the bilge is filthy and black and greasy/oily so plenty of work there.

The chains by the way are the steering, they in turn are joined to steel cable which go around pulleys at each rear corner and the rudder quadrant in the middle just forward of the transom above the rudder post.

[Springsong]

Not much to report. I am gradually getting the interior de cluttered in readiness for the electrician and of course Mondays will continue with the tank removal, weather permitting. I have actually just come back from the yard where I retied the cover, the forecast being what it is.

I have of course still been visiting the barn. The photo shows the difference to the cockpit/cabin doors the old varnish is so dull that I decided to strip them completely, not an easy job I have to say, that old varnish is a pig to get off. Looking at the photo you can see with just a coat of 50/50 varnish and white spirit the grain and colour is being brought out beautifully.

[Springsong]

Foul morning so it was not really worth getting the cover off the boat so instead off to the barn for more varnish removal. This time the oak faced doors to the saloon, at least one side is oak the other, the cockpit side, is mahogany faced. It is peculiar the varnish on the oak almost leapt off whilst the mahogany side just went to gloop, a pig to remove.

If the weather is better tomorrow we will try again.

[jimbo]

What are you using to get the varnish off Barry?

[Springsong]

Hi Jimbo

I am just using a heat gun and a triangular scraper. I had thought of Nitromose but you need plenty of water to rinse it off, A: I have no water in the barn and B: it makes such a mess.

[Guest]

Hi Barry

they dont half come up a treat

Jonny

[jimbo]

Seems to be working a treat Barry, though a photo never shows the amount of effort that has gone in to reach that point! I will try the same method I think when I set about re doing mine. Well done

[Springsong]

So here we are again back at the tank removal stage.

Alan and I went down to the yard on Tuesday instead of the normal Monday due to the foul weather as reported. We were rewarded with a beautiful sunny day which allowed us to take the cover right back to forward of the cockpit.

Just as an aside I am getting so blasé about these stairs that I can actually step on and off the boat now, not having to sit on the deck to swing my legs inboard. Back to the important work bit.

We realised that to remove the tanks the frame work for the drop cockpit side, this in turn would mean removing the whole side. This retractable side works in the same way as a sash window with lead counter balance weights on steel cables running around pulleys. The whole without these weights is rather heavy, so to lighten it we removed the centre door. Then after a couple of false starts to remove various obstructions we (mainly Alan) lifted the side up and clear of the coaming.

This is now in the saloon awaiting transport to the barn for stripping and varnishing .

This shows all the floor beams removed and the lifting floor/hatch taken out. One can see in the foreground the up right support which Ts into the beam running fore and aft. The piece of floor right in the front of the picture runs side to side of the whole cockpit, the starboard end is not very clever but reclaimable but the lifting hatch running fore and aft on that side will have to be replaced. One can just see the foam attached to the underside of the hatch, this will all go and I hope be replaced by proper sound insulating board hopefully 3M thinsulate board, if of course the BSS will allow.

[Springsong]

Whoops wrong photos

[Springsong]

Thursday I spent at the barn stripping the Sadolin from the cockpit port side exit door. I am relatively pleased with the results. The frame had at some time been “attacked†with I don't know what resulting in little ridges in the wood and a deep hollow running down the centre of each side rail; this necessitating some vigorous use of the scarson scraper.

As one can see the net result is not too bad aside from the unbelievably bad repair, with the grain running the wrong way and the wood used a piece of what looks like cheap pine, the same repair on the inside of the door hasn't even been glued, but has two steel screws holding it in place. I have some offcuts left over from the coaming and cabin side repairs which should match the mahogany pretty well when let in.

Sorry I have got the pictures all in the wrong order, I hope you can make sense of it

[C.Ricko]

All good stuff, Barry its good to see that the weather does not hold you up, when the weather gets better you will be flying along with all the bits ready to put back on.

it is interesting to see what people have done over the years by way of bodgeing to keep things going but we must realise that if the unskilled efforts had not been made then perhaps the boat or whatever would have been scrapped long ago when there was less interest.

Keep up the good work.

[Springsong]

Clive what you say makes very good sense and I shall never query any of these aweful repairs again

Modern technology is really great when it works, but when it doesn't it drives one crazy. Computer not recognizing the scanner or the camera, result not worth posting. So we are all happy and fixed ish now, still no scanner.

Right so we have the water tank out and that is now at Ken Nevard's for pricing a new stainless steel one. This old mild steel one has had a couple of repairs over its probable fifty year life, so I really didn't fancy drinking water out of it anyway. As you can see there is no filler on this tank just a balance pipe to connect it to the tank on the other side, this we are going to remedy by putting a two inch filler on both sides ; it must have been very slow to fill both tanks from one one and one half inch filler, we are though going to retain the balance pipe and have an over flow through the hull.

[C.Ricko]

Hi Barry,

I have been pricing up plastic tanks from Aquafax, you may be suprised at how little they are,, all the fittings for senders are in them too.

[Springsong]

Hi Clive

I have thought quite hard about plastic tanks, but have not actually priced them. I came up with the theory that on a fibre glass or steel boat not really a problem, but wood, too many nail, screws and sticky out bits to make holes in a tank ; then there is god forbid the collision factor of splintered wood ending with a bilge full of water. I maybe quite wrong but on balance I still feel happier with S/S.

Regards

[Springsong]

Alan has done a splendid job repairing the damaged / rotten / badly repaired cockpit door. I think that when it's all varnished up it will look tremendous. The two photos show the repairs to both sides of the door.

I have stripped the Sadolin off the sides now, all that remains to do is the carefull use of the belt sander with a fine belt to attempt to restore the colour to the wood. These can be lethal (to wood and fingers) so I shall have to excersize great care and restraint, but quite what I shall do with the plywood panels I don't yet know, they are too fragile and small to use the belt sander, it looks like sore wrists and the scarsson scraper.

The first photo is the forward companionway steps stripped of their Trackmaster non slip panels (ghastly stuff IMHO). Someone has gouged out chunks of beautiful mahogany presumeably to give a key for the glue; this has left me with a quandry, do I try and belt sand them out, run them through a planer or fill them with a mahogany flavoured filler, or indeed epoxy with added mahogany dust afterall I have no shortage of that. Decisions decisions.

[Guest]

Hi Barry

looking back at the photo when you first picked up the boat the doors looked well you wouldn't think of a color like that but now that its back to the original wood they look superb.

Jonny

[Springsong]

Hi jonny

I really don't like the finish Sadolin gives, I can understand why people use it it's more or less maintenance free but i would rather have a real wood colour and a glossy varnish finish pesonally.