Insurance pays up/ IWA festival

Good old Direct Line. Got a phone call from DL on Tuesday stating that they were sending me a new i-pod, a voucher to buy a new camera and a cheque to replace the phone. All of which were taken from me by Mr. Harp and one of his cronies just ten days ago.(They must have really been worried that I may have photographed what they were up to).   I never thought an insurance company would act this fast. Sure enough they all arrived on Friday morning.

In the meantime been carrying on with the harvest, 6 kilo of plums are in the process of becoming 3 gallons of wine and I’m eyeing some 20 litre barrels to make cider and perry. Already got 2 freezers but I think we may need another.

Off to the IWA festival at Burton at lunch time today and was a little surprised to find them still building the car park. The site was well laid out and plenty going on, would have liked to see it over the week-end when its in full swing but got to go and spend insurance company pennies and a planned visit to friends. Placed an order for 20 LED lamps to replace the power hungry halogens in the ceiling with a few more to be used for access points etc. Also brought some LCD gauges for the fuel tanks and water tank. In a moment of bravado signed up with the Grantham Canal Society and put our names down as volunteers – only Karen doesn’t know that bit yet. Oops!

Down working on the boat most of next week so expect more gruesome tales.

Missing 1 plot

After providing increasing amounts of shoddy workmanship Ben Harp has well and truly lost the plot. Finally resorting to what can only be described as criminal acts. It may be his name at the top of the list but others in his circle know what has been going on and actively assisting him. For my part Staffordshire police are dealing, as for the rest of it, it is not my tale to tell, just click in the link for nb Waiouru on the right if you haven't heard yet.

Other jobs

Well now we are off the slipway that brings us up to date. The only boat work going on at the moment is to assemble the new door bottoms.

This.

Now looks like this.

The panels were varnished before assembly as I prefer them to be able to float in the frame as the wood swells. Used the old favourite Evo-stick weatherproof wood glue, no screws in the framework except to hold the top ledge in place against a dowel joint, as this will take the weight of the door top

I’ve made this type of door before in pine and the design seems to hold together OK even after several years use.

Whilst sorting out paintbrushes for the doors I found we had an unexpected lodger.

Shame Mrs Mouse couldn’t have used an old roller, but that’s never the way is it. Hey ho life in the country.

The new pup Sox managed to catch a swift as it came out of the garage roof – talk about fast. Fortunately Karen spotted him and after some shouting the swift made a swift getaway. (Sorry)

Most of the time over the last few days has been getting in the harvest. There seems to be plenty of everything this year especially fruit which is already starting to ripen. 

Spent this afternoon getting shallots cleaned and salted ready for pickling, the freezer will hold a fair bit, but if anyone has any good recipes for pies or preserves let me know. Take your pick from apples, pears, quince, mulberries, blackberries, gooseberries and tayberries.  

Slipway day 2

Made an early start to get as much done as possible, just as well because we ended up with more painting than planned. Whilst I fitted the new baffle plate to the rudder post to  stop our water problems, Karen stripped the masking tape off the rubbing strake (which we used to save the cream paintwork from blacking) only most of the paint came with it. The undercoat was fine but it hadn’t been cleaned down properly in the paint shop, this is happening in several places. I expect it’ll be from those weeks spent under the trees at Great Haywood. Anyway back to the baffle plate, I just hope I got it right because I don’t fancy swimming.

The theory is it slides together and is then clamped in place.

Another of the items raised by the surveyor was that there was no hull identification number on the right aft of the hull. So armed with a nice new set of 12mm stamps and the biggest lump hammer I could buy I proceeded to wake the marina up.

Not content with that the number got stamped in a few other obscure places as well.

For the last few months we have had to leave the mop bucket on the top step into the main cabin.

The deck had a drain fitted but rather that connect it to the outside our wonderful builder decided to plug it with sealant.

Think we need some paint under here. Drain at the top inverter to the left, And this is what came out.

New hole and skin fitting connected to drain and we are dry at last

Slipped Trudy-Ann back into the water on the Monday morning and a few thrashes with the prop back to our mooring seem to prove the baffle works. Fingers crossed for the future.

Out of the water - Day 1

In June we booked a week-end slot on the slipway at Pillings to sort out some of the problems and give the hull a coat of black.

While the hull was being jet washed by Claire I set to work with the disc cutter.

Yep this steel plate welded onto the bow to move the boat in the yard and secure to the low loader had not been removed before launch. Good job we had not hit anybody or we would have sunk them.

Once the hull had dried a quick coat of black to pretty her up. The coating was fine in general just a plenty of scuffs. I suspect a lot of them were made during the move to the paint shop at Stafford where it was stated. “This hydraulic steering is rubbish, when you turn the wheel to the right the boat goes left.” On suggesting the hoses should be swapped over I was asked if that would make a difference. Surprise, surprise it did, apparently the journey back was a lot easier.

There we go and now at long last the fender which was promised so long ago has been fitted to the front. Another job on the agenda was to blank off the sink drain.

This was too close to the waterline for my liking and the surveyor had stated anything this low should be fitted with a ball valve. On removal I also found it was only finger tight and letting in water. My solution is to reposition the outlet to just under the main rubbing strake and use a sump pump to clear the water.

I got this one from Shobnall chandlers, a bit pricey for what it is but it suited my needs exactly.

Made a blank in 6mm steel that fitted from behind to fill the hole and Steve from Plillings did a quality weld for me which he ground back so that now it has been blacked there is no trace.

More to come, but got to dive off now, seems to be nothing but parties and outings this week. What an exciting life us penioners lead.

Wheelhouse woodwork

You my well remember the wheelhouse decking warped and lifting due to all the water coming in under and around the doors. Well I decided to replace this as it was a pain in the bum to have to keep watching your step, even though the leaks had not been fixed.

When the water damaged panelling was removed from round the doors you can see daylight between frame and woodwork, even after fitting some new screws as some self drilling screws in the steelwork were lose or had thread stripped.

It was all replaced by these panels with oak top and ply base rather than battens with 4mm flexible sealant strips to allow for expansion then edged in aluminium angle to stop splintering when lifting.

The whole lot was given six coats of varnish top and bottom. Wickes professional exterior in the absence of yacht varnish but it builds up much the same.

The side lockers had lift off tops which were a bit of a pain so cut the back off and fixed it to the side

Then fixed the rest of the top back using piano hinges as you can see in thedecking shot.

Doing that I also replaced these screws with machine screws. There seems to have been a shortage of short screws as things like this are found throughout.

News of all sorts

Bad News.

Firstly I got robbed last Saturday by a couple of thugs in Hixon near Great Haywood. Lots of threats, cursing and insults but then I’ve been insulted by experts when working on stations. They got away with my camera, i-pod and phone with lots more threats of what would happen if I called the police.

Staffs. Police soon arrived after I got to a phone and duly gave a statement over a coffee at the nick. Done plenty of them over the years but normally about dead people.

Good News

I find I’m insured new for old so it looks like they did me a favour. So as it is possible one of them reads this blog or has it read to him. Thanks!

Sad News

We lost Myaa our chief lookout just before Christmas

 Shortly after her partner in crime was diagnosed with a terminal illness

Brilliant News

Nobody told Brock - and he made a wonderful recovery.

So much so that we had to get him a new playmate.

This little terror GSD x Husky called Sox from UK German Shepherd Rescue.

A slight divergence today but plenty of boat blogging in the near future. Nearly back up to date.