As you have probably guessed, I have been extremely busy.
The first couple of days after leaving drydock were spent recovering and nursing a badly wounded bank ballance.
I think I have already said that I was annoyed with the survey as an area of the bottom was, in his report, listed as "thin" (4mm)
but he never thought to mention this and was wittering on about how the dents had to be repaired (in flipping 8mm plate still measuring 7.9mm)
I only found out about the thin plates when I received the full survey a week after !!! His attitude was "it passed" mine was "This is my home"
As far as I was concerned, the bottom was much more important than a couple of dents in a heavy plate.
Anyway when the bottom plating was complete was when we found a tiny hole in the bilge just where it meets the bottom plating.
The thickness tester (and the old fashioned hammer test) on this area where there was a doubling plate that dated back to before I owned the boat
seemed quite solid.
Cutting out a small section exposed exposed a grotty area and the more it was cut back the worse it got.
SAM_4042 by
mudlarker, on Flickr
Whoever had done that bit of plating hadn't known what he was doing. On a bilge plate you always weld the bottom in first and then stretch and jack the plate up to meet the sound area above.
This keeps the plate tight to the frames and prevents it being "baggy" Wjhoever had done this hadn't, it looks as if they had welded the top and then tried to pull it down to meet the bottom.
As a result the plate was baggy and not tight to the frames so there was a gap along the bottom where the plate wasalmost an inch away from the plate it was meant to be welded to.
To Compound the bodge, instead of cutting it back out and making a new plate they had simply welded a bit of flat bar over the gap.
SAM_4066 by
mudlarker, on Flickr
you can see there was no weld at all on the plate (on the right) and just a bit of thinnish flat bar just clagged over the gap
By the time the plater managed to find solid plate to work to, the hole was 2 metres long.
SAM_4070 by
mudlarker, on Flickr
SAM_4061 by
mudlarker, on Flickr
At the forward end of the plate he joined up with some plating I had done in Barking, properly done and still thick and at the aft end he joined to an original bit of plating
It was a 3/4 inch plate which although worn near the bottom was backed by a 3/4 inch rivetted butt strap about 8 inches wide with rows of 4 rivets
Left the drydock early morning and moored up outside the dock to wait for a couple of nights for crew to be available.
Spent the time painting the new plate and screwing floor back down. That evening found water in the bilge port side (opposite side from the new plate.)
Obviously not an immediate danger leak as it was making about two or three litres an hour but the problem was where ?
Had everybody on board playing "Hunt the leak" all the floor I had just put down got ripped up again and then after that areas that had so far escaped destruction (Galley)
Eventually it was spotted, about 2 foot along from the new bilge plate on the opposite side of an original butt strap.
because the Rayburn (and it's tile and concrete base) had been removed there was a list the opposite way
which is why the water was the opposite bilge from the leak
Yet again a doubler from before I owned the boat.
The doubler was still a bit baggy .... but was a better job than the one already removed.
Not a brilliant job but adequate, at least it was seamed properly and the rot of the old plate properly cut out .
The problem was it had stopped just a couple of inches before the other side of the butt plate and sometime after it was done there had been a problem at that point
and another "bodge repair had been done, just clagging a strip over that point. there was evidence of a leak that had been there at sometime in the past
there was over half an inch thickness of scale and mud between the layers. The heat and hammering on the other side of the butt strap had been enough to start it off again.
The plater cut out a section that included the butt strap, going right back to the finish of the previous plate and to solid stell on the
Fortunately I had a bit of plate left over from the bottom work that was big enough although because it was a short plate it was hard to shape between the two different profiles.
It was neccessary for the plate to be slashed to get it to shape but it still ended up a neat job.
SAM_4088 by
mudlarker, on Flickr
SAM_4098 by
mudlarker, on Flickr
finally left drydock and headed back up to Beverley. ..... I will be honest with every part of Sabina ripped apart (the main bedroom and the toilet stripped in preparation for the raising of the deckhead and everything piled onto the second bed in the forward cabin) the galley floor destroyed and the saloon back to bare steel along one side ..... it was incredibly depressing.
I was living in a tiny crowded area .... it was like going back 25 years and the amount of work to get back to even parts of the boat normal .... was daunting.
After a day or two rest I got cracking getting the hull wire brushed and anti rust treatment on it then getting started on a much improved insulation system
Originally there was 50mm of rockwool between the frames and nothing else.
This is now upgrading to a total of 100mm on the deckhead plus a 4mm insulating vapour barrier and on the hull sides 75mm with an insulating vapour barrier.
I have also been paying a lot off attention to avoiuding "cold bridging"
SAM_4075 by
mudlarker, on Flickr
SAM_4106 by
mudlarker, on Flickr
SAM_4109 by
mudlarker, on Flickr
SAM_4112 by
mudlarker, on Flickr
Not too bad a start, It's going to take me a while as I'm afraid these jobs get slower and slower as I age
I'll try and start posting a bit more, now I'm starting to get my head round what I have in store
