MSO #2

And so the work goes on. This shot from a few weeks ago shows some of the old corroded plate being removed. Pretty much every plate had holes in it, so I'm pretty sure she would've sunk over the winter.

In conjunction with this, the new plate (10mm on the bottom, 8mm for the turn of the bilge) is being tack welded into place.

 Once all of these are in place, the final welding will take place. Luckily the frames are in decent enough condition to weld to. The entire bottom from the front bulkhead back to the engine room bulkhead (basically what was the cargo area) will get replaced. Some overplating will be required at the bow and stern. Speaking of the stern, here is a shot of it in all its rusty glory.

When we visit, we have to take turns watching Nate, as he is desperate to get back on the boat ('Apocolypse Now' reference there for fans of the movie), but he managed to stay still enough for me to take his picture.

Misterton looks like a beached Soviet submarine in this view - rust is the new black.

 Finally, Mary Nate and I were grabbing a late lunch in Staines on saturday, and our usual choices were all full. We thought we'd try the newly refurbished Greg's cafe as we just needed to eat and it wasn't too bad. I'd noted that they had some black and white photos of local features, including 'Daybreak' a Sheffield sized keel. I commented on that to Mary, when suddenly I saw one of the lampshades.

Although a little difficult to see, Misterton is on about a dozen of these lampshades in the coffee shop.

 Is this our Andy Warhol moment?

MSO

The work continues at MSO Marine, they have ultra-high pressure washed the hull and removed the ballast (16 tons of it) from the inside. Nate looked a bit puzzled to see it on the dock, as he'd watched me move a lot of it into place only a few months ago.

Misterton looks a bit grubby due to all the residue from the blasting.

The deterioration of the bottom plating was as bad as expected, shame as the eternal optimist in me was hoping otherwise. Here are a couple of shots of what has been removed. Those little black specks on the bottom half of the plate are all holes.

One of the guys fixing Misterton showed us about 6 plates, they were all the same, either paper thin or with several small holes. Basically its pretty amazing she was still afloat.

It was quite strange seeing just the frames with no plating on them.

MSO have started re-plating already and look to be doing a good job. Its a lot of work and unfortunately a lot of money, but she will be saved, which is something.

In true 'Blue Peter' style, where is one they did earlier, Leonie.

Actually, I think she was just in for a re-paint, but she looks nice all the same.

(Another..) Dry Dock

When we had Misterton surveyed in July, it was found that the bottom plates of the hull were very thin. Pressure washing the slime off blew a number of small holes in the bottom. So despite having a pre-purchase survey, we discovered our little ship was rotten.

This was not what we were expecting to find, but after the initial shock, Mary and I agreed that we really want to keep living on a boat, and Misterton in particular.

So, after weeks of investigations and phone calls, we decided to go with MSO Marine in Brentford for the repairs. We emptied Misterton of our belongings, and with friends Hannah and Ed (and Harry, another boat baby) we set off on saturday for Teddington, and then on to Brentford on sunday when the tide was favourable.

 

 Since fitting the new rudder, we'd only done the trip home from Sunbury dry dock, but the steering was very light in comparison with before. I'd made some changes to the steering to gear it up, using off the shelf components.

It worked very well and we all took turns at steering on the way down to Teddington.

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 Although Misterton turns much better now, she does seem to wander a lot more when trying to hold a straight course. I have heard this can happen when 'fishtail' type rudders are used. In hindsight, I think a lot of the benefits can be obtained with a rudder with a balance area, top and bottom plates and a 'v' section welded to the trailing edge. The geared up steering helps, but you definitely can't relax as much as you used to. Hannah seemed to steer the best out of all of us, although everyone did pretty well.

I also replaced the old throttle linkage with a cable assembly and this too worked well. Always a relief when untried changes work.

  

We got to Teddington safely and went to the pub by the lock, the Angler, which has a garden bar and a childrens play area - ideal. Hannah, Harry and Ed went back to Staines to return the next day.

On sunday morning we had breakfast in the wheelhouse, as we'd packed Nate's high chair we had to improvise.

Hannah, Ed and Harry returned and at 2:30pm we moved down into the lock to go down to Brentford. The Thames is tidal downstream of Teddington, so life jackets were donned as we wanted to set a good example to the two boys.

 We saw some interesting sights on the way down, including passing through Richmond.

One of the bridges downstream of Richmond has the tidal gates, which keep the water level between Richmond and Teddington at half tide level (the gates are raised 2 hours after high water).

As seasoned boat people, Nate and Harry took the trip in their stride, Nate obviously had some calls to make and Harry managed to catch up on some reading.

Soon we arrived at Brentford and made our way up the entrance to the Grand Union canal to tie up alongside a barge.

 It was a long and enjoyable trip. We're now living in a Travelodge (the most budget of the UK budget hotel chains) and hoping that MSO can do the work in the 6 weeks they have estimated. If it goes beyond that, the Thames winter lock closures will start and we won't be able to get back to our home mooring.

No pressure then.

Dry Dock

We spent the last week in July living in Sunbury Premier Inn, while Misterton was in the local dry dock, run by the Environment Agency.

We were there to get a new rudder put on, change the propeller and get a survey to  see what conditon the hull was in.

The removal of the old rudder took less than a day using the gas torch and a big angle grinder. While this was going on I pressure washed the hull to get rid of any slime and loose paint before the survey took place. This is how I looked after this task was completed (Nate in shot for comparison with someone not involved in this process).

 The old rudder was removed in a bucket......

 The new rudder was installed in a couple of days, here are Robin, Mike and me with the job just about done. I didn't really have much to do with it beyond the intial concept - a bit like my day job really.

Mark also worked on the rudder project and Mary helped paint it. The new propeller has 4 blades instead of three and will hopefully help us get through the water a bit better.

 Nate meanwhile was fairly obsessed with the forklift truck, even managed to get the key in the igniton much to everyone's alarm.

After 5 days we left and headed back home, here we are backing out of the dock.

Its a good facility, and the EA people were very helpful. Recommended if you're on the Thames. They can take boats up to 38m long.

Unfortunately the survey revealed we have work to do to keep Misterton floating happily, but thats a story for next time.

July 2012

Someone at work asked me where we were going on holiday this week. Sunbury dry dock is the answer. Not had much to report for a while, the river has been in flood due to the rain and I've mainly been doing inside work like relocating ballast and putting anti-rust grease on the frames and other areas. Not the most interesting things to write about.

We have an action packed week ahead of us with a hull survey, new propeller and a new rudder. This is a 'fishtail' profile rudder and will hopefully help with manoeuvring in restricted spaces, which with a barge this size on the Thames is most occasions.

Our friend Sandy from the barge 'Rival' helped me move Misterton on friday, here we are in Chertsey lock.

It took a while, but we got there and left Misterton safely inside for the weekend.

The work starts tomorrow.