There is quite a long list of jobs to do before lifting Rathenice back into the lagoon including the following –
- Varnishing the new woodwork around the cabin entrance.
- Varnish cockpit locker lids & Washboards
- Finish insulating the ice box.
- Upgrade cabin seat cushions
- Over run timings for bilge drier pumps.
- Replace thimbles in halyards & topping lifts (proper stainless / nylon)
- Replacing the “anti-wrap” line on the top of the Genoa reefing foil.
- Repair to Genoa & adding UV protection
- Extending the outboard mount struts
- Painting cabin top
- Stbd side MSSI number transfer
- Name & registration on stern
- Better fiberglass on solar panel mounting
- Checking and cleaning both engines
- Check battery charging from inboard engine (As a minimum fix loose lead on dynastart)
- Fresh fuel
- Check and re-activate anode
- Renew anti skid paint on decks
- Possibly another coat of red on hull
- Antifouling
Several of these jobs will require warmer conditions than we can expect in January or February but a start is needed on the boat and on the sailing club’s mast crane.
Wednesday 14th The plan for today is to start work on the second half of the old mast crane barge at around 9:30. This had been intended for yesterday but the forecasts at the end of last week persuaded us that today would be more suitable weather. It was certainly not going to be a comfortable job if we had done it yesterday.
The target for the day is to add to the containers already removed from the barge and tied to it by getting all the rest of the containers out and possibly stashed into the hull of the “dredging” barge. They are not needed there for flotation purposes but we don’t want to dispose of them in case we need backup buoyancy in the future – 300 or so plastic containers would take a lot of collecting.
The early weather was reasonably warm and clear but it became greyer as the day went on turning to very light drizzle towards 3pm.
The operation went to plan with all the remaining buoyancy transferred from 5 sections of the old barge via temporary storage on the slipway and onwards into one and a half sections of the old dredge barge. This has been in used for the last 11 or so years and the two sections that we opened turned out to be dry and about 1″ deep with rain water respectively.
We got finished loading in the containers from batch 2 at around 4pm just as the proper rain started. There will need to be another session in the next week or so to get the rest of the containers secured. That will be followed by building a new base for the crane and overhauling all of the cables, blocks and winches.
23rd Helen’s new bed was delivered at 9 am today so I got to head for LSC earlier than expected.
I arrived at LSC at 9:30 rather earlier than I had expected because today’s house bits delivery turned up at 9 so was a bit earlier than expected.
While waiting for Andy, I managed to move the entire remaining batch of containers off the slipway and into the lagoon. Although it wasn’t high tide yet the water was almost over the side of the concrete area The wind was quite strong but in a perfect direction to move the containers along to the short pontoon.
Andy arrived around our pre-arranged time to find I had detached about half of the containers and stacked them on the dredge barge ready to be packed into the compartments. By mid day we had packed away all the containers and closed up the two hull compartments.
The two pieces of railway sleeper had also been cut ready to make the base platform under the derrick mast. Karl also arrived to measure the steel plate which will eventually attach the lattice mast onto the sleepers. He has done something to his back earlier in the week so I may have to help with the welding and drilling once the metal has been obtained.
Fortunately Andy and I decided not to install the four builders planks as fenders on the barge as we had originally intended – These turned out to be very helpful as a platform extension between the scaffolding towers while taking down the balcony.
Saturday 24th The next step for the LSC balcony project happened today – Dismantling the original balcony.
It was a rather windy day with a few showers blowing through. Enough to make it a bit unpleasant working outside and meaning a bit of care was needed handling the plywood that made up the decking. There were plenty of people there right from the start so it wasn’t all that much work for any one individual. It was done in several stages punctuated by tea breaks, one including scones & jam and another being the lunch break which coincided with the regular Saturday catering at lunch time.
Stage 1 was removing the deck boards to leave just the framework. Step 2 was using the scaffolding towers to cut the beams in half and remove them. Followed by taking down the front beam each time we arrived at the joins in the front beam. This had to stop when we were left with the last few cross beams as the fire escape needed to be dismantled before the final section and two uprights could be removed. All achieved under full control.
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The next steps will be filling the holes left by removing the beams followed by starting to install the new steel beams.
28th Today the weather was brilliant – Clear blue sky and reasonably warm with mirror smooth water in the lagoon. A huge contrast to the last 2 days of severe rain events.
This morning there was a delivery planned but at the last moment it turned out the company had made an error and sent our balcony flooring panels on an ordinary truck rather than one with a Hiab. That triggered an emergency request at 8:30 from Martin for help with unloading at 9:30. Eight of us were there and managed to unload the panels which are around 100 Kg each. The company later discovered that the note that 2we had a fork lift truck available” should have been written on an order ending 95 instead of ours which ended 75.
after we had finished the unloading Karl arrived to collect the old mast crane base plate ready to fabricate a new one. We also sent him home with the base section of the mast so he can use that to ensure correct spacing of the four mounting brackets.
As we still had the full team present, we decided to make a start on putting up the steelwork. The first step was to finish off inserting the Celotex blocks into the openings previously occupied by the wooden rafters. These blocks were then covered with mortar to make a watertight finish. While that was in progress the rest of the team started moving steel beams so that the ones we would need first were accessible. This turned into attaching two uprights to the building followed by the appropriate logitudinal piece and then carrying on with a third upright and it’s longitudinal piece. Then there was a similarly impromptu bacon sandwich cooking session at lunchtime by Jo which fed a hungry team but also created a delay in her going to flute practice with Helen. My absence from that was solved via a move of location from our house to hers which saved Willow’s ears and allow me to continue working.
We eventually packed up at about 4pm having built somewhat more than a third of the structural steel work.
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29th I was at the sailing club for 8:30 today. Somewhat cloudy weather but still suitable for working on the balcony. There were plenty of others there so we made an almost immediate start on adding to the front row of beams.
After lunch we added the somewhat challenging triangular section at the end near the engine shed. Things then got much simpler as we were adding the smaller and much lighter cross pieces – Each of the three pieces per bay are an easy one person lift although a few of the bolt holes turned out to be slightly misaligned, enough to need 10 mm bolts rather than the 12mm ones intended.
Everything was finished and the bolts tightened by 2:45. The next step is to re-attach the fire escape stairs but we need to get some special blind bolt fittings for that so we were able to pack up and head inside for a tea break.
I headed home and, even with the school traffic, I was at home by 3:15.
First published 1st January. Updated 19th, 25th, 28th, 29th