Golden Light 5

[Robin]

Hi Janet Anne 

Everything internally has been painted with this product and it seems to have protected the timber very well however as with most good paint products from that age it has probably got a high lead content.

The hull of my Golden light I believe is made from  Larch which was tantalized, when sanded back the timber has a green tinge to it. Tanerlizing in them days had a high arsenic content. enjoy.

Robin  

 

[chrisdobson45]

A few years (OK, a few decades) ago I project managed a bored piling project in Bury St Edmunds, site of a demolished timber treatment works adjacent to the Greene King Brewery. The ground was saturated with all sorts of timber treatment products, including the tanerlizing liquid. We found out that it acts as a retarder, the concrete placed in the ground wouldn't set for days and when it did it had next to no strength. We returned and drove steel tubular piles...

Sorry for the thread hijack, as you were, and I'm waiting eagerly for the reason for the high oil pressure in the BMC...

 

[Vaughan]

6 minutes ago, chrisdobson45 said:

Sorry for the thread hijack, as you were, and I'm waiting eagerly for the reason for the high oil pressure in the BMC...

I am assuming that someone found the pressure relief valve?  In the main oil gallery near the filter housing.  They can tend to get bunged up after a while.

[Vaughan]

40 minutes ago, Vaughan said:

 In the main oil gallery near the filter housing.

I am only going on memory here, as I gave my old and well thumbed BMC workshop manual to our chairman, in the fond hope that his replacement engine would last longer than the previous one!   

[FairTmiddlin]

Our illustrious Chairperson (See being all gender neutral there) thinks nothing of enduring long hot days in foreign climes, digging lots of deep holes with a teaspoon and a toothbrush.

But ask him to lift an engine cover. And god forbid, examine the contents below, brings him out in a sweat of great proportions. Not seen in years.

[JanetAnne]

23 minutes ago, FairTmiddlin said:

Our illustrious Chairperson (See being all gender neutral there) thinks nothing of enduring long hot days in foreign climes, digging lots of deep holes with a teaspoon and a toothbrush.

But ask him to lift an engine cover. And god forbid, examine the contents below, brings him out in a sweat of great proportions. Not seen in years.

It's not just boats, his Qashqai needed a new engine at two years old as well...

 

[Robin]

With the bilges painted we start putting thigs back in.

With the modified 200ltr waste tank back in the center, we have just enough room either side to drop in two water tanks, I construct a solid base for them to sit on.

We have decided to go for Black plastic food safe water tanks manufactured by a company in Hull, They manufacture tanks of any shape and size to suit your specification and install sockets with Bsp threads in whatever location you require, the twin tanks will be plumbed in with a link tube for balance and will provide 230 ltrs of fresh water.

The engine now rebuilt and painted is next.

During the engine rebuild we inspected every thing thoroughly but we could find nothing wrong with the oil pump or the pressure switch, in the manual there is even a measurement for the pressure relief spring and the length was perfect so proceeded with the install. (this will bite us on the bum later)

The area under the  engine and gearbox was painted, the keel bolts checked and tightened.

I built an oil catchment tray and dropped it in place. 

 

 

My workshop is in part of the old Brooke marine shipyard and has a 10 ton overhead crane which makes installing and engine a doddle.

We proceeded with the install and everything seemed to go well however when we launched her and run the engine we still had the problem of high oil pressure!!!

Now during the summer all was well, we had enjoyed many a weekend  until one day sunny day at Reedham. We had just pulled away from the quay  and as I opened the throttle to pull away the oil light came on, as luck would have it I spun around and found a gap on the quay just in front of me.

I checked the oil level a good place to start I thought, the oil level was fine, convinced it must be the oil pressure switch feeding the light I removed it hopping to see oil pour out when I turned in over, Nothing!

We arranged a tow back to Lowestoft and lifted her out and removed the engine.

Now we had a stroke of luck while lifting our boat out an engineer friend turned up out of the blue, I explained my predicament and although he wasn't able to diagnose the problem he did have back at his workshop  a complete BMC 2.2 engine block  from which he would give me the oil pump and relief vale. (Result)

Engine stripped and the new  parts in my possession I could compare the two.

 Issue one. And why the pump failed was a sheared pin which holds the connecting dog on the end  of the  drive shaft to the oil pump.

Issue two. Was the old pressure relief spring was a lot stronger than the replacement one, it was the same length and the same diameter however the spring construction was heavier. Which  made the oil pressure higher which in turn put to much pressure on the oil pump shaft drive pin.

I can only deduce that in the distant  past when the engine had been rebuilt someone had fitted the wrong spring accidentally or deliberately I will never know.

Assembled and back in the boat we now have the correct pressure and the engine runs like a dream.

 

 

[Vaughan]

Is that the original wire cable steering that I see there?

[Robin]

Hi Vaughan

Well spotted it is the original steering setup, and it is very well engineered it would be a shame to remove it.

I don't know if you are familiar with the Herbert Woods setup? they must have had some very good engineers as 50 years on the system still works perfectly and is such a joy to use.

It starts obviously at the Helm, on the hub there is a Gear driving a chain, (A motorbike  rear wheel drive chain is about the same size) this joins to the wires with a couple of adjusters just above two pulleys which are bolted to the base of the bulkhead adjacent to the Chine, the wires then run all the way aft and wrap around a drum which is connected to what looks like a tractor steering box, this steering box moves a connecting rod which in turn is connected to the tiller.

Robin

[Vaughan]

This has the other big advantage that the rudder will stay wherever you have put it, even when going astern.  It also means that the rudder itself needs no stops on the hull as the mechanism is a "stop" in itself.

Hearts cruisers had a similar system, except that the chain on the wheel ran to another pulley at the chine, where the connection to the aft end was made by a long shaft, running in bearings.  On the later boats they used the steering gearbox from a Land Rover but the King of Hearts, built 1952, had the original steering box out of the old gunboat "Morning Flight".

Eight turns on the wheel, which could all be done with one finger!

[JanetAnne]

Here is the Herbert Woods system. It's all beautifully engineered as you can see.

These are from my boat, like Robin said to me the other day, "I haven't got pictures of some aspects of the restoration because I didn't know I would need them for a thread some years later!"

The system is identical though

 

[Robin]

The furniture gets sanded back to bare wood and varnished, everything we varnish gets sanded back with 80 grit sandpaper  to start, followed by 100, 180, and finally 240. After sanding we hoover the piece down and clean with a tack cloth. We use Epifanes varnish and  this method works well for us however if you were to ask 20 different boatbuilders they would give you 20 different methods and varnishes. If you find a system that works for you stick with it.

    Before Varnish

And after

One of my customers asked me to install a new table in his boat as he didn't like his old one, after I installed his new one he suggested I skip the old one. It was made of Teak so it got sanded, varnished and is now in our boat.

Time to press on with the bulkheads, one of my favorite jobs, First step is to make a jig, I generally use thin strips of scrap ply which is easy to fit to the sides of the hull, these strips are glued together with a hot glue gun  while still in situ, the theory is if I can get the jig out of the boat in one piece I can get the bulkhead back in when it is cut to shape.( SIMPLE)

The bulkhead to the side of the shower was moved towards the gearbox which makes the shower about 120mm wider  you can see the step in the bulkhead to the right of the gearbox in the next pic.

The shower get covered with  light blue sheets of Altro Whiterock.

next we install the bulkheads to the rear of the saloon quickly followed by the stain and varnish.

 

 

Robin

[Turnoar]

On 10/01/2021 at 08:35, Robin said:

Hi Janet Anne 

Everything internally has been painted with this product and it seems to have protected the timber very well however as with most good paint products from that age it has probably got a high lead content.

The hull of my Golden light I believe is made from  Larch which was tantalized, when sanded back the timber has a green tinge to it. Tanerlizing in them days had a high arsenic content. enjoy.

Robin  

 

Robin, really enjoying your posts. My grandfather spent his entire working life at Woods from apprentice to foreman in charge retiring in the 70s so this would have been built under his watch. Many regular hire customers became life long friends typically retiring to the area and some of them bought ex hire boats when they were sold off. Said customers would decide what class of boat they’d like to buy and would have the one built of the best timber reserved for them based on his knowledge. I wonder if the surviving Crown of Light is also tanalised larch?

Your comment on the dining table made me smile, my grandparents had a mahogany dinIng table which ended up gathering dust in a shed, ended up as a transom in a Norfolk Dingy.

[Vaughan]

Here is the engine in the King of Hearts and you can just see the steering shaft, running along just in front of the chine. That tank in the corner, by the way, is an early homemade version of heat exchange cooling.

[Robin]

Turnoar

Yes many a piece of old furniture can be found in  wooden boats around the broads, I have a planking job on at the moment and the customer has supplied his own timber which comes from old  Church pews, The timber itself must have been felled 200 years ago, A better piece of proper pitch pine you will not find, it planes like butter and still has a very high oil content to it.

Robin

 

[Robin]

With the bulkheads fitted we crack on with putting everything back in ready for the summer.

The old fuel tank on first viewing looked good.

However on close inspection the base seemed flimsy and we could see signs of rust on the base inside.

This is a common problem with steel tanks as water in the tank from condensation sits at the bottom for years undetected, we binned it and went for a plastic tank. 

 The hot water calorifier was next, it was the one which came with the boat and on inspection was serviceable so went straight back in.

The waste and water tanks are connected next, you will notice the green pipe which is connected to the waste tank rinse out flush pipe. my only excuse I can come up with is I must have been under the influence of alcohol at the time as everyone knows it should be white sanitation pipe the same as the inlets. (it was changed in phase two)

 

The water system pressure tank is hid behind the studwork in the shower area.

At this point we obviously had to much time on our hands because even though we had painted the hull last winter we decided the hull needed a change of color. 

We sanded the hull , blanked off any redundant skin fittings applied two coats of under coat and two  of gloss.

We completed phase one in  May 2017 ready for the summer season afloat.

[BroadAmbition]

Wow - Awesome job, well done

Oh and thanks for the write up Photo's so far

Griff

[JanetAnne]

33 minutes ago, Robin said:

.....At this point we obviously had to much time on our hands because even though we had painted the hull last winter we decided the hull needed a change of color. 

We sanded the hull , blanked off any redundant skin fittings applied two coats of under coat and two  of gloss..

."We?" 

Don't fall for it folks! The superb finish on Kingfishers varnish work and her hull is the work of one person and she is absolutely brilliant at it.

 

 

[Robin]

19 hours ago, JanetAnne said:

."We?" 

Don't fall for it folks! The superb finish on Kingfishers varnish work and her hull is the work of one person and she is absolutely brilliant at it.

 

A small point of order Janet Anne, i selected the color and collected the paint!

[Victoryv]

The last photo looks a bit like Robin but can't be, has anyone ever seen the top of his head?

[JennyMorgan]

2 hours ago, Victoryv said:

The last photo looks a bit like Robin but can't be, has anyone ever seen the top of his head?

Indeed I have! His hat comes off when he needs to scratch his head in puzzlement!

[Robin]

Before I move on from phase one the following is a list of items completed but for which I have no photos. (sorry) 

Prop shaft and cutlass bearing replaced, Shower installed, Electric toilets fitted, Fridge, sound system, LED lights, Nav lights, carpets throughout, Two more coats of varnish to the cabin sides and the transom, and an electric winch connected to the sliding coach roof through the original pulleys and guides.

We had another brilliant summer afloat including our second trip to the Beccles wooden boat rally and meet even more lovely people and had a look round some fantastic boats.

Fully enthused we are ready to start Phase two.

Item one on the list. We are going to start with the sliding canopy, the sides to the canopy were made of Brunzeel  ply but it  is showing its age and has started to delaminate, no amount of varnishing can hide this any longer. I want to keep the exterior as true to the original as possible.  

I believe Brunzeel ply is still available in the USA however the cost of the ply and the shipping makes this option a none starter. we are going to use Robbins super elite which is a rotary cut Sapele faced  ply that comes with a 25 year guarantee. they used to produce a Khaya faced marine ply this was a fantastic product but they stopped manufacture about 5 years ago.

We remove the sides

This picture shows the side of the old canopy, The dark staining is water  getting into the delaminating ply. With the sides removed the coach roof is lifted off and placed on trestles.

( Victory V.  please note the hat is back on)

The ply covering is soft in places and has been patched several times, one of the beams and some vent support timbers need to be replaced.

I remove all the old ply.

A full ply sheet bonded to the beams adds a lot of strength, a repair generally only adds weight not strength.

In the pictures above you can just see I have made a new beam and installed it with a couple of pads to support the roof vents.

 

 

[Robin]

With the ply stripped, repairs done  and the new beam installed we turned the frame over.

In this picture you get a better view of the new beam and the repairs.

The side rails are saved and I enlarge  the notches for the side supports.

Time to press on with the sides.

The sides are approximately 3500mm long so I have to scarf two sections of ply to make it long enough, I use the old sides as a template and cut them to size.

The extra timber rail you can see this end will fit into the notches on the roof section to add strength to the structure.

The guide  wheels on the original sides  had square plates, but that would be to easy so I round the tops of the plates and then spent many an hour cutting them in by hand 2 hrs per plate x 12 (bugger)

The sides are now ready to start fitting to the top. You can just about make out the groove along the bottom edge of the side which will sit over the runners on the boat.

Getting the sides glued on and making sure they will line up with the runners can be a bit tricky if you get in wrong the canopy wont fit the runners correctly, I treble check and make some temporary braces that  fit into the grove on the bottom of the sides, These  will hold the sides in the correct position until they  are fixed in place and the glue is set.  you can just spot them sticking out past the side.

Someone has lost his hat again!

When the glue is set we spin the unit over and start fitting the ply.

The ply sheathing is only 9mm thick so I double up the ply at the rear of the roof to add strength.one or two clamps to hold it in position until the glue sets.

[BroadAmbition]

one or two clamps to hold it in position 

'One or two' - 

Tks for update btw

Griff

[Smoggy]

Great pics and write up, thanks indeed, it's very interesting to see just how much workmanship goes into renovating these things, I wouldn't have a clue where to start or the patience for the job.

It's also fully reinforced my love of grp.