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


coalnotdole

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Lovely boat, lovely lines. I admire the youthful lack of concern which was required for her first trip. I look back and shiver at one or two experiences when in my twenties. But how else do you learn proper judgement? #

 

 

Have you looked into 'gearing-up' the prop for jaunts across the channel, just so you use less fuel at the same speed? Chances are, being a naval vessel, all they wanted it to have was the greatest stump-pulling ability and to hang with running costs.

 

(I'd def run her on waste veg, but the pump/governor would need a little adjustment. Far cleaner than running on dino and perfectly suited to low revving and lugging.)

Fitting a smaller prop with less pitch would improve things but would necessitate changing the gearbox for a different reduction ratio.

It would also make the boat a bit of an oddity - as it is its great for towing stuff but the boats mostly engine space with a small accommodation/living space. If I was to re-prop her I'd end up with a boat that was still mostly engine but not capable of towing either!.

 

 

 

This is great. Sorry if I missed this but you're moored on IOW are you? Great thread.

Yes I'm on the island.

 

Sits on the bottom nicely, doesn't it! 

 

Are you doing this alone? I know how difficult it can be working on water, and this looks anything but straightforward.....

 

No work yet ''below the water line''. is she Ok down below -or will you need to lift her out later?

Nige - The previous page or two should show it out on the slip for the first time,

she was pretty good underwater - theres a few bits I havent mentioned in that post, I had to change the fairing that the depth transducers bolt through and let a few small pieces into the bilge runners where gribble worm had had a go in the past.

 

It's a solo project - Things progressed fairly quickly at first then a year or so in I met my (now) Ex missus who wasn't quite so into boats (or cars) and things slowed down a bit for the next 5 years, Since breaking up things have picked up pace again.

 

As ever its always a problem juggling time and money. As I work in a Boatyard the use of a workshop and other facilities helps a lot.

Joe's come over from the mainland to give me a hand whenever theres some serious laminating to do as 16ft lengths of timber need two people to handle!.

 

 

 

 

This is amazing  -  I know knack all about floating things but I can see that a huge amount of skilful effort has gone into that.  

 

This may be one for the Stupid Questions thread but, how do you know it is watertight everywhere?  If it leaks just a wee bit, will it sink?

Unlike traditionally planked boats, double diagonal construction tends to be 100% watertight unless its fucked in which case its pretty much impossible to make watertight!

 

When its not raining I can dry my bilges right out and leave the boat for months with no water ingress. When its raining the aft bilge fills up as the cockpit at the back is not self draining (something I'm changing)

 

Dave

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I don't think you need to worry about the size of your posts.

This is the best thread on here.

Dave.

Thanks  :-D

 

I like the seagull fixed to the stove. Ultimate egg beater etc.

 

That line might confuse some, apologies! Love this thread.

A 1974 Forty Featherweight  that i started restoring at great expense and for no real reason! It's been sat in a corner for years now awaiting a new old stock or mint used, fuel tank.

 

Dave

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At this stage I started stripping off more of the existing deck. As I took sections up I'd take out the old brass screws and bolts and chuck them in a large bucket - I think i Weighed in 6 buckets at around £45/50 each eventually!.

 

Removing the old deck, This was a layer of 1/2" ply with greased calico on top with a layer of inch ply on top of that. the joints were just plain butt's with white lead putty. A crap effort really:

120.jpg

 

 

The original deck beams had been replaced in the 90's along with the deck.

Rather than the original 2.5" x 3" they'd fitted 4" square section which was just wedged in rather than being dovetailed as it should have been, to make up for this they'd fitted a tie bar made of 16mm steel stud bar tying the beamshelf and carlin together alongside every beam.

These had rusted and made everything even worse!.

 

I replaced all the beams with Iroko to the original dimensions and removed the tie-bars:

121.jpg

 

 

Showing joint on a new deckbeam - these are a half joint with a dovetail on the top part:

122.jpg

 

 

New beam showing how the beam shelf and carlin are at different angles - this makes each joint differant!: (the beams were epoxied in after these photos was taken)

123.jpg

 

 

New decking down, This is the last laminated section everything else was done using 2"ply:

124.jpg

 

 

After this photo was taken The outboard edge was planed off to match the angle of the hull, the ply was sheathed with woven glass cloth and epoxy and a 4" biaxial cloth tape was used to cover the deck edge to hull join:

125.jpg

 

 

This is the other side of the boat showing where water has run in down a join in the top layer of ply and rotted  everything out:

126.jpg

 

 

Thanks for reading.

 

Dave

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This Tread is totally magic,  My father had a liking for old wooden boats and we are no stranger to the type of work your doing here.

Nice to see someone a bit younger that has the patience and the willing to spend the time and the money on an old boat.

 

Keep it coming! thanks.

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That's a bit sad, there.

I remember looking around the Pascual Flores when it was moored in Bristol harbour, being worked on by someone in the trust that my old man worked with. Seems wooden vessels are a real work of love and also like to absorb cash at an alarmingly constant rate...

 

Phil

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Seems wooden vessels are a real work of love and also like to absorb cash at an alarmingly constant rate

 

Tools as well: the decks are beautifully cambered to shed water but as soon as you put a screwdriver or chisel down some lunatic goes past setting up a wash and all your tools make a bid for freedom.

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800px-Cretehauser_HDR.jpg800px-Concrete_River_Tug.jpg

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Concrete_River_Tug.jpg

 

.... alternative destiny - this languishes in the tidal reaches of the Wear, at Sunderland.

 

I see it whenever I shoot into S'land, on my jobs.....

 

 

TS

 

Blitzed by the Germans, along with at least one of her concrete, sister tugs - and most of Sunderland.

About all that remains of what was once the largest ship building town in the world.

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Immediately after the power stroke, when the piston is still down.

The blower then pumps fresh air into the cylinder, which 'blows' the exhaust gases out and at the same time fills the cylinder with fresh air, to be compressed by the piston going up next.

That is why all 2-stroke Diesels have blowers. They aren't there to increase power, but to purge the exhaust gases and thus are a vital component for the system to work at all.

That's clever.  Replacing the exhaust and inlet strokes with a supercharger.

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Is that the cretehauser? that's been dumped since the war. no rot to worry about if the hull is made of concrete, who knew there was such a thing?

 

I studied civil engineering at uni and, as you can imagine, some of the lecturers were really into concrete. They campaigned to save the first reinforced concrete building to be built in Wales from destruction much to the amusement from pretty much everyone else in Swansea who saw it as just an ugly building. However, one summer they cast a reinforced concrete boat, just because they could.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk - now Free

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Slightly apologetic for the threadjack; but I didn't want to introduce a whole new thread for my own ends.

 

ATTENTION ALL BOATPERVS:

 

This resides on the river Deben not far from me, I've been trying to identify it for long times.

 

post-4819-0-45774600-1388584139_thumb.jpg

post-4819-0-77472900-1388584148_thumb.jpg

 

I'm talking about the hull, obvs; the superstructure is some kind of home-brew effort. What is it? It's ex-military, of course. The bow and entry make me think of assault boats, there's not much freeboard, it looks like a very fast hull design.

 

Furthermore, when I passed it once the engines were being run up, I can confirm that there were two of them, they were very loud, diesel and turbocharged.

 

Can anybody help to identify what is now confirmed as my favorite houseboat of all time?

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Wow - amazing work there!  I've seen first hand the amount of skill and work required for restoring / repairing wooden boats as I know a few people who do this, and I greatly admire your dedication to this project!

 

Btw, some info for those suggesting ways of increasing the speed, the waterline length essentially sets the maximum speed (known as 'hull speed') which can only be exceeded if a vessel is able to plane.  This one is not as it is a full displacement hull form, rather than semi-displacement, so the top speed of about 10 knots mentioned earlier in the thread is pretty much the maximum hull speed.

 

 

Slightly apologetic for the threadjack; but I didn't want to introduce a whole new thread for my own ends.

 

ATTENTION ALL BOATPERVS:

 

This resides on the river Deben not far from me, I've been trying to identify it for long times.

 

 

I'm talking about the hull, obvs; the superstructure is some kind of home-brew effort. What is it? It's ex-military, of course. The bow and entry make me think of assault boats, there's not much freeboard, it looks like a very fast hull design.

 

Furthermore, when I passed it once the engines were being run up, I can confirm that there were two of them, they were very loud, diesel and turbocharged.

 

Can anybody help to identify what is now confirmed as my favorite houseboat of all time?

 

Looks like it could be a heavily modified Fairey - most were civilian but they did do military / naval variants.

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Superb. I known as much about boats as I do Audi A4s, but I'm assuming you can't do a "that'll do" type job when working on them. If a weld fails on the bottom of your Cavalier or whatever it's pretty bad but if it happens on your boat...so hats off to you.

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Remember those Salvage Squad tv shows?

 

This thread is everything they should have been, but weren't.

Reading this Makes me wish there were all wooden cars and also hope that someone is replanting teak forests.

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Theres a bit of a gap in my photos at this point - I finished replacing the rest of the deck, deckbeams and the where required also replaced the beamshelf. In total This took the best part of two summers.

 

I then started stripping out the interior of the forward cabin as most of the woodwork was rotten or had been damaged. This is one of the areas where I've changed things slightly from the original.

 

New galley which is where the coal bunker was originally, I've also shortened the forward bunk a bit to fit it in. The lighter floorboards are where the coal bunker had rotted out the originals, I also had to re-plate about a metre square section of the steel bulkhead which is out of shot to the left:

129.jpg

 

 

 

Poor photo but it at least shows the difference between the original layout on the left and the new setup on the right. Blue thing in the bottom right corner is the new watertank which is under the bunk once rebuilt:

131.jpg

 

 

 

The most tedious part of the job was scraping 50 years of flakey paint off the inside of the hull in order to repaint it in a more practical grey colour:

133.jpg

 

 

Theres a load of jobs I'd done during the summer of 2013 but I have no photos -

I fabricated a load of stanchions for the missing bits of handrail around the cabintop,

Replaced the woven glass/asbestos material headlining in the forecabin with marine ply and formica.

Replaced the bunks on the port side and had new cushions made.

Replaced some rotten frames in the cockpit and finished replacing the final sections of lower stringer.

Over a long weekend with Joe's assistance we finished replacing the last sections of the lower rubbing strake. A comedy effort involving standing on a pallet with the incoming tide lapping around my bollocks whilst operating power tools and swearing at joe who was sat in a dinghy!.

 

The next post will cover coming out on the slipway agin in december.

 

Dave

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