MSO #5

Another saturday and another trip to Brentford to see how Misterton is coming along. All the welding has been done, including installing a hawse pipe for the anchor.

Up on deck by the winch it looks like this....

This will all hopefully make it easier to actually use the anchor, rather than it being a 'deploy-once' emergency system.

Work has begun on the painting, all rivets, seams and joins are getting a stripe coat of aluminium expoxy primer. The whole hull will then get a coat of this, followed by black two-pack epoxy.

The ballast is back in place inside and the frames and new plating has been coated in anti-rust grease. We were considering painting the new plating on the inside, but the old frames would need a lot of work to be able to take paint. The grease is pretty good at preventing corrosion, its been used on Dutch barges for many decades. We'll be keeing the bilge area well ventilated and clean, so these repairs should last well beyond our lifetimes.

In theory it should be out of dry dock on the week of the 26th of November.