Older than I thought

Well I suppose that it’s high time that I posted a wee update upon the progress of the little lady. To be honest (quite a new concept here!) with the average temperatures in that sanctuary of independence and escapisium known to you all as ‘the garage’ barely reaching above the ‘warmth’ required to freeze the balls off a brass monkey, I have not perhaps been as enthusiastic as I damn well should have been. But, having said that, progress has indeed been forthcoming and with one very surprising fact about my rival to being outdoors coming to light.

Firstly, what work has been done? I here you ask (well one of you kind readers might be slightly interested) in earnest. Well visually not a lot is my reply, but do not be deceived into thinking that all has ground too a shuddering halt whilst awaiting a degree or two rise in ambient temperature. Oh no me hearty’s all is indeed not lost or in a state of motionless inactivity, indeed the sounds of beaver like activity have been heard echoing forth from that solemn place of manly refuge. The first plan of action was to make the working conditions a tad more tolerable without breaking my first rule which is (as you all probably have guessed via previous postings) :- do not under any circumstance expend any cash unless absolutely, life threatening, necessary, EVER. With this in mind I managed to purchase a boiler suit of unequaled thickness for the princely sum of 100 pennies from the local car boot sale down at Mold the other weekend (yes I know I’m just flitting my hard earned cash away). Clare says that it look like I’m wearing a bright blue romper suit but, coupled with a ridiculously large woolen hat, I think that I cut quite a dash! and damn it all it keeps me bloody well warm to boot. Anyway, enough of this fashion led tangent, back to the matter in hand.

Leading from the last posting about project dinghy the remnants of the paint on the hull are now but a distant memory, she once again sits the right way up and is all the more comfortable for it and I’ve now decided upon the course of action that I’ll embark upon regarding the necessary repairs needed. The main areas of damage are to the bottom pieces of the hull where it is now apparent that only a small percentage of the damage can be attributed to rot, the majority being down to carelessness and mis-handling in the little lady’s recent past. There are two minor holes to the hull one through the way water has being allowed to settle and turn the wood soft, the other where it is obvious that the poor girl has been dropped upon her trailer and then sealed with what amounts to a gallon of silicon sealer (now removed). The other damage which will require repairs are several long splits which unfortunately go right through the ply. These splits are, I believe, the result of some clumsy oaf stepping into the boat without the support of water underneath. There is also a split situated under the port side floatation tank, to gain adequate access to repair this I’ve had drill a hole large enough for my hand to pass through in the inner side wall. This will later become a ‘second’ inspection hatch for the tank, with a matching one installed on the starboard tank. After much head scratching I’ve decided that the best way to repair the remaining damage is to sheet the floor with 3mm marine ply, bonding it with epoxy and screwing it from beneath, the holes and splits can then be sorted via piecing or filling from the outside of the hull. There are plus’s and cons to this, the downside will be the increase of weight and perhaps a stiffening of the hull section. How this will affect the sailing of the boat only time will tell. The advantages will be that I’ll be able to produce a smooth, seamless finish to the outer hull and the inner cockpit will show no signs of piecing and will also retain a wood, not painted, finish. So while I’m awaiting the accumulation of enough shiny pennies to afford a brand new piece of marine ply I’m now getting on with the laborious job of removing the varnish.

Oh and the surprising fact? well you might ask. All Mirror dinghies that have been registered have a number somewhere upon their body. The number, once allocated, means that the boat has been measured and weighed by the proper authorities and that said boat conforms to the Mirror dingy class standard. But also from this number year that the dingy was made (or at least registered) can be deduced. For weeks now I’ve failed to find any trace of a number and had convinced myself that the little lady had been built in somebody’s back yard and never been registered. But when working on her I couldn’t shake the feeling that the build quality was exceptional and who ever had built her had been a true craftsman. Then just the other day whilst bent over the bow, stripping varnish, I glanced back at the transom and could have sworn that I spotted a digit in the deep varnish. I ambled to the rear and there, after a bit of squinting, low and behold the registration number leapt out at me 17469. later that evening I trawled the net and from here the age of the little lady was deduced, she was registered in 1969! Bloody hell, there is no way that I thought that she was this old. My earlier feelings about her being an exceptional build appear to be well founded for to have lasted this long speaks to me of quality, also the finish of the little things reinforces this notion. This has made me more determined than ever to make a decent job of bringing the wee lass back to her former glory.

So, armed with tea and biscuits, I shall attack this venture with new found fervor, well as soon as me romper suit warms up on the radiator that is…..

Paint removal

Just a brief update on how project boat is coming along - rather nicely in fact. I’ve managed to remove the majority of the paint from the outer hull and I’m hoping to have the remainder stripped tomorrow or Friday at the latest. As I’ve mentioned earlier this wooden boat restoration thingy ma jiggery type project is a new experience for me and is stretching the old grey matter a little so any tips, help or advice is always welcome.

For those of you interested in the process used in the removal of the remnants of the little lady’s outer garment I found (by some trail and error!) that the use of a hot air blower and a wide ish scraper has achieved the best results thus far. I did try the dreaded nitro mores, but I found that it would have taken copious amounts of the damn stuff to fully strip the hull and also the massive coughing fit achieved by sucking in the fumes did sway my opinion of the stuff to the negative. One important lesson learnt is, as with most bladed tools, to keep the lead edge of the scraper as sharp as is possible with frequent visits to the small grinding wheel and the oil stone, the only point to watch is that the angle of the scraper is not to severe so as to avoid digging into the marine ply beneath the layers (and I mean layers!) of paint.

This stage of the project has let me inspect the outer hull fully and to be honest no more damage has shown its ugly face apart from the starboard rubbing strip which has previously been repaired by somebody apparently lacking their opposing thumbs. I’ll probably replace both starboard and port strips, but I am looking for something other than the traditional wood for this job.

So there we have it project boat is plodding along at a steady rate of knots and I’m hoping to have her back on her keel by the weekend ready to start upon the removal of the varnish after my next block of shifts. Time for some of that sloe gin I do believe.....

In Ernest

So there I was pondering over project boat in the holy place, do I dunk the Hob Nob into my tea or should I eat it un-moist, decisions, decisions…. When I suddenly thought, bugger this, I’d best be making a start.

The major concern at the moment is that the dinghy had been left upright but uncovered for most of last year and with the paint and varnish being on the tired side (ok knackered) the wood, although thankfully not rotten, is in places absolutely sodden. With the temperatures at the moment in low single figures at the best (much lower at night) the prospect of her drying out enough to allow work of any substance to be carried out was looking to be eons away. I needed to remedy this and help the drying process along a little but without drying her out to fast either, I don’t want to warp her lines if it can be helped. My simple answer was to turn her turtle and place under her a small paraffin greenhouse heater with just enough output to dry her out gently over the next four days whilst I’m wasting away in work (oh bliss). So I really needed to turn her over today, and after much head scratching, straining and tea the little lady now sits upside down and at a decent enough height to allow room for the heater to sit without being to close. I was fortunate enough in that the frame that I’d built to hold a dinghy upright, once it was turned over, supported the turned turtle boat, forward planning or what? (I know, just lucky). So below are a series of photos showing the stages of turning, it would have been far easier if there had been two of us doing the lifting but hey once a stubborn ass always a stubborn ass!

The rest of the late afternoon and early evening has been spent in stripping all the loose and lifting paint allowing the wood to breathe and hopefully aid in the drying process. This has allowed a closer inspection of the hull in which a couple of things have come to light, firstly there are three repairs to one side of the hull which all require redoing, but do not look to serious, and there is one repair which looks to been done ok but just needs finishing off for a better appearance before painting.

Hopefully my lack of experience in this sort of work will not prevent me from making a decent job of this project, but if you see any flaws in my plans or work please don’t hold back with any advice, god knows that I’m going to need it!!! Now then I’ll think I will dunk those Hob Nobs after all……