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40+ tonnes of Boatshite - engineshite update 9/5/20


coalnotdole

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Okay, so supposing you had to pay forecourt prices for diesel, that would be about £1255 per 440 miles, you'd have to refuel eight times making the trip to New York about £10,000

 

The same trip on Cunard's Queen Elizabeth starts at £849, although for £7,349 you can upgrade to this suite:

 

RggGmTj.jpg

 

The same trip on the Titanic started at £7 (~£587 in today's money) for a Jack ticket rising to £870 (£71,778) for a Rose ticket.

 

I didn't bring up the Titanic for any particular reason.

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Yikes. So how far would that get you? In other words, how much is Lankytim's trip to New York going to cost? (let's be generous and start in Southampton, that's 3,420 miles)

 

Going on the original Builders 1966 sea trials report I have they managed 1.4miles per gallon in calm conditions.

That works out at 2.442 Gallons or 11101.55 Litres at 85p a litre (assuming commercial, zero duty or vat)

About £9,436?  But some of the trips going to be against tidal streams and probably a bit rough so say around £11000 one way?

 

25 grand would cover a return trip and a couple of cases of Tennants Lager.

 

(I am available for chartered bookings...)

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The same trip on Cunard's Queen Elizabeth starts at £849, although for £7,349 you can upgrade to this suite:

 

RggGmTj.jpg

 

Am I the only one that sees a bloke snorting cocaine through a straw off the cleavage of a medievally dressed girl in that painting on the far right?  :?  Anyone?

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I like boats. You give us 'dickheads of the sea', wakes to jump.

 

I don't get too close, though. Unlike many, I know my place.

 

I'd love a boat. Probably a RIB. Would be great for the two days of the year we have the airshow up here.

BBQ's and beer.

 

Great job on the conversion for solo docking. That must still be quite a task, though.

How much does she cost you for docking, per year?

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Every 17 year old should have one of these.

 

I see an autoshite trip to the Monaco Grand Prix in the offing. We'll park this on the T jetty beside abramovich and co, get the deck chairs out and watch the race with a tin of Tennents: Awesome.

 

Just the one?

 

 

And good call on the boat, Coal.

I was merely the last owner of an SJ410 at 17.

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90p per litre for cherry? Bollocks to that.

 

Can you not claim it's a live aboard for cheaper fuel purposes, I'm sure someone told me recently canal boats could use it? Also I'd be pretty impressed if VOSA pulled you over, directed you to the nearest weighbridge then dipped your tank.

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Years ago I did debate buying a barge and living on it instead of the terraced house I eventually bought. When I broke down the costs, buying, mooring, hook up, dry dock and repainting and so on, the terraced house suddenly looked more appealing. Though I still think being able to cast off and fuck off whenever you please has a lot going for it.

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Starting from the beginning....

 

Back in early 2006 I came across a advert online (boatsandoutboards.com) for a 52ft ex Admiralty Harbour Launch "Project". The price was £6000 ono and the location was fairly local.

 

Having  a bit of a soft spot for anything ex commercial I emailed for more details and photos.

 

When I got a reply back it turned out the then owner had bought her direct from the navy disposals agency in 1997 with the intention of using her for line fishing in the channel.

Once he had purchased the boat and made some *tastefull modifications it had rapidly become apparent that as the boat needed 6ft of water to float and his mooring only had 5ft of water except on spring tides that this commercial enterprise was doomed to failiure!

 

 

The photos I received:

1.jpg

 

 

Aft Cabin with Brackets from the towing horse that had been removed:

2.jpg

 

 

Forward Cabin, the thing on the left is a homemade anchor apparently:

3.jpg

 

 

This bit of damage to the bow of the boat was described as the only area that needed repair:

4.jpg

 

 

Wheelhouse interior complete with an obsolete decca navigation system whos sattelite had been turned off for years:

5.jpg

 

 

Forward cabin looking towards the bow:

6.jpg

 

 

Forward cabin looking aft:

7.jpg

 

 

Water tank/galley in the forecabin:

8.jpg

 

 

The bit that really interested me - Foden 2 stroke Supercharged Diesel with only a few hundred hours on the clock since a complete MOD rebuild by Rolls Royce:

9.jpg

 

 

Bollard on the foredeck:

10.jpg

 

 

Cockpit:

11.jpg

 

 

Aft Cabin:

12.jpg

 

 

For some unknown reason it was decided to go and view the boat in person - maybe it would be better in reality than the photos?...

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I went and viewed the Boat - It was even more fetid than the photos suggested and had been sat in the middle of Bembridge harbour for eight years untouched.

 

There was a large area of the foredeck which you could push a kitchen spoon through it was so soft with rot, Beneath this area of deck was a watertight compartment which it wasn't possible to gain access to in order to see if the leak above had caused structural damage to the hull or not.

 

The rest of the boat was damp and mouldy but retained most of its original fittings which was a bonus.

 

Scraping at the inside of the hull above the coal bunker with a kitchen spoon revealed that it was Teak rather than the more common mahogany construction (which rots faster than a strut top on a mk1 scrote)

Based purely on this I made an insultingly low offer, telling myself the 18ft of 3" Bronze propeller shafting and prop were worth as much in scrap.

 

As the boat could only be moved out of its mooring on a high spring tide there was only a week or two before the boat would have to be moved or it would be another couple of months for a high enough tide.

 

The offer was grudgingly accepted and a new mooring was arranged.

 

Heres a Video showing me bringing the Boat alongside at the new mooring behind the Newport Travel-inn who I'd annoy with my un-silenced single cylinder air cooled Lister Diesel Generator for the next 6 years. 

Apologies for the crap quality I think it was recorded on my little sisters phone:

 

 

The exhaust note sounds shit as it was running through a watercooled silencer.

 

Alongside:

13.jpg

 

 

I proceeded to remove the wheelhouse and investigate the rotten deck which turned out to be beyond repair.

 

The Original Teak planked deck and Oak deck beams had been replaced with plywood during privatisation of the RMAS arm of the navy in the early 90's and had obviously been done with a very short lifespan in mind (New boats had been ordered as part of the privatisation).

The bottom of the steel coachroof was also badly corroded and required repair.

 

Theres a bit of a gap in the photos for 6 months or so until Joe came over (probably during the IOW  Rock festival?)

 

By this point I'd removed the wheelhouse and foredeck and cut 4" off the bottom of the aft cabintop ready for replacement as well as having made a start on removing 40 years of flaking paint off the steelwork:

19.jpg

 

 

The forecabin had had the carpet removed (which was nailed down and infested with earwiggs), Also the hardboard linings had been removed from the inside of the hull revealing the original slatted wood lining and allowing an assessment of the hulls condition to be made. this cabin had become a bit of a workshop as well as being my living space:

16.jpg

 

 

The original Esse solid fuel range had been treated to several buckets of fire cement and was doing a good job of providing heat and cooking facilities:

17.jpg

 

 

The well where the original wheelhouse would have been:

18.jpg

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The new steelwork in the cabin sides was pretty much all in place but only tacked due to my generator not being up to running out 3.2mm rods on the arc set.

 

I borrowed a ancient 300vDC 3 cylinder lister genset on a trailer but it promptly spun several main bearings and being the centre of a complex ownership dispute, rather than repairing it I sent it back to its (supposed) owner and the steelwork sat unfinished for the best part of a year:

25.jpg

 

I built a new wheelhouse out of 3" thick Iroko to as close to the original as was possible when working off period photos on the internet, Part of the base of the original was still in place which helped with dimensions although the previous owner had cut most of it off with a chainsaw:

22.jpg

 

Rear:

20.jpg

 

 

I'd also made a funnel using the flange holes on the deck as a pattern for the shape and guessing a bit regarding height, Note the *professional looking template for the funnel top in this picture!:

23.jpg

 

 

26.jpg

 

 

The wheelhouse was built inside the forecabin so I was literally living in 5" of iroko dust for about 2 months - I ended up developing a huge allergy to Iroko.

Several years later even cutting it with a handsaw still makes my throat close up and i spend the next 8 hours coughing up blood! Unfortunate really as I'm still using it for 90% of the structural work i'm doing!:

28.jpg

 

 

29.jpg

 

 

The forecabin had become a utter shithole by this time:

30.jpg

 

 

Note the new steelwork in the bottom of the cabintop which still needs the frames replacing, also the stove is now disassembled after a incident involving burning foundry coke!:

31.jpg

 

 

Aft cabin showing a finished area of steelwork, every single one of the angle iron frames is a sligtly differant angle so all were fabricated from flatbar:

34.jpg

 

 

 

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PHACT:
All the woodwork in the infamous PBS is Iroko.

8383655526_7f96da98ce_m.jpg
 
 
In other news - truly awesome thread. What happened with the coke and the stove though?
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Whilst the rest of the Boat looked like a bomb-site the Engine room was still intact and relatively tidy:

35.jpg

 

The Foden 2 stroke was the pinnacle of 1960s british diesel engineering. In an attempt to get more powah they chose the two stroke principle but added twin overhead exhaust valves to each cylinder.

The supercharger blows air into a gallery which supplies the intake ports in each cylinder liner. The block is alloy with removable steel liners and individual cast iron heads.

 

Mines a 6 cylinder, they also built inline 4's and a beast of a 12 cylinder which was basically two 6 cylinder engines in a shared crankcase with the crankshafts geared together! 

Later on they added a turbocharger and intercooler making a supercharged intercooled turbo diesel! (great to listen to but not to own as they don't run for long!)

 

 

Main engine instruments, the engine is also monitored by a "Teddington Visutector" which is a box full of capillary tubes and relays, if somethings not right lights come on in the wheelhouse and a large klaxon thats meant to be fitted to the outside of the wheelhouse also sounds:

36.jpg

 

 

Original light fittings in the engine room, The boats 24volt throughout:

38.jpg

 

 

I managed to source a replacement for the missing engine room vent but had to get new flanges tig'ed onto the alloy bases:

43.jpg

 

 

The funnel was removed at this point as i was building the top for it:

44.jpg

 

 

With the funnel and top refitted. Cleaning the millscale off was impossible, Should have bought primed plate. Eventually I found someone willing to take it away and grit blast it inside and out for £60 which was the best money I've ever spent!:

47.jpg

 

 

I also wasted some money on a ex green goddess searchlamp and a black VHF antenna which had to be specially ordered from the states and cost the best part of £250 :-/

48.jpg

 

 

The exhaust silencer has been fitted inside the funnel by this point (another £170)

49.jpg

 

 

Nice new dry exhaust fitted utilising piping from the local creamery which was being demolished, some new weld bends and a sexy stainless flexipipe out of a very large comp-air compressor:

73.jpg

 

 

The cabin was a bit tidier again and the stove was repaired and reassembled after much cast iron welding and a new oven lining:

51.jpg

 

 

50.jpg

 

 

Dave

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I remember seeing it languishing in Bembridge back in the day. Absolutely awesome work saving it!!

 

Can't you reduce the amount of duty due on your fuel by claiming a percentage of it is used for heating rather than propulsion? - I only pay duty on 60% of my boats fuel as the rest is used for heating (and is drawn from the same fuel tank).

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

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