Shipyard blog-6 !!!
These pages are designed to share the work in progress on the shipyard. They cover the work that needs doing to restore and convert our lightship. We decided to do some work ourselves, and leave the "heavy work" to the shipyard people who are much more capable than we are with steel work and such. On these pages you can follow our progress and frustrations...
This blog is split into SIX pages now, since it took too long for all those pictures to load at once! This is the most recent page. For the previous one click HERE Enjoy!
By the way: feel free to leave comments on our project HERE!
8 Mar 2010: An exciting and colourful day indeed!! The SBS painters applied some of the red top-coat to parts of the hull. A strange view it is: parts of her are in the bronze primer, parts are black and now bright red spots appear everywhere! Dick practiced his "Picasso" skills with painting the draft mark numbers at the bow and stern. Barrie has welded struts to the hull to hang-off the anodes later on. This construction allows us to inspect and replace them in years to come without the need to go back into drydock. Overall a busy but successful day, thanks guys!
5 Mar 2010: With the ship in drydock, we will do a full wall thickness survey of the hull. The first picture shows Jan planning the many points where the ultra-sonic equipment will be used next week to take the readings. Lots of activity on board as well: a new man to our team is Graham who started levelling the floors of the Galley and Heads. He does a superb job: you can almost play pool on it! (as long as we are in drydock that is of course..)
4 Mar 2010: Flushing the engine room is still ongoing but it seems like it's going to work. Hopefully no more nasty whiffs in the future training room! In the mean time, SBS has started to apply the special under water coating to the hull. This thick black stuff is not only protecting the steel, but prevents growth to attach to the ship once back in the water. Dan and Matty are nearing completion of welding up the old stern access door in the stern section of the ship.
3 Mar 2010: With the painting going strong, all hands are on deck to complete all little welding and grinding jobs. Barry is finishing up the repairs on one of the keel fins, Dan is cutting and welding on deck and Matt is grinding away as well. Can they keep-up with the painters though?!?
2 Mar 2010: We now have a bronze / golden ship!! The weather is kind to us so the spraying went fast, all around the ship. Click HERE for a short video of the spray-painting of the hull. It's a strange sight indeed, especially the 3 anchor cable entry points at the bow! Next, the waterline was marked (see 3rd picture). After we are ready with all work at the hull below the water-line the new black special paint will be applied that will protect the hull from growth.
1 Mar 2010: Painting is in full swing now! The superstructure and the tower were covered in bronze primer before we knew it. The old paint on the dome of the tower had to be removed by hand since it was too dangerous to get the high pressure blaster close to the glass. The weather was fine, so no complaints from the guys up there! Then the painting of the hull started.. It goes so quickly with the spray-gun! At the end of the day, the ship was almost completely covered. Some wide-angle pictures of the whole ship tomorrow!
26 Feb 2010: We burned two extra holes in the engine room area of the hull to drain the oily water that has been bothering us for a while now creating the unpleasant smell in that room. It took a while for it to slowly drain out. We will start flushing the engine room bilge on Monday. Today, my good old friend Geoff came along again to see the ship in dry-dock. He was well impressed with the shear size of the ship, only to be appreciated when you stand on the dock floor. Note the newly shaped rudder in the background. They cut the curved section off; see previous blogs. AND... the painting has started! The ship will soon be covered in bronze primer! More pictures of that next week.
24 Feb 2010: Barrie and Steve kept on welding away on the hull all day regardless of all the other activities. Our ship was built the old fashioned way with welded steel plates riveted to the ribs of the hull. There are THOUSANDS of these rivets and they all need to be checked to see of there is no gap between the plate and the rivet itself. If there is, they need welding to seal them. For a ship her age (51 years this month!) she has very few rivets that need attention! But with so many of them, it's still a lot of work. The guys also welded clearer numbers on the draft markers at the bow and stern. Good work indeed! We have now removed all bilge plugs to allow the bilges to drain. There are quiet a few of them! Nice brass plugs protected by a doughnut shape piece of steel. We just need to ensure they will be re-installed one by one before we flood the dock again...
22 Feb 2010: Blasting has returned... Not much left to do though, so we should be out of the noise within a day or two. In the mean time, Chris started to fit some of the central heating radiators in the cabin area. We selected old-style looking column radiators to match the original ones that were fitted before. They look great against the dark teak wood!
21 Feb 2010: The blasting crew had the weekend off and how quiet it was indeed! But no stopping work on the light-ship though. With the paint being gone, every weld and every rivet is inspected one by one. With some water in the bilges, you can spot the problem areas where the water is coming OUT rather than water coming in later on. We found one little crack in one of the welds. Not bad for a 51 year old lady! So Barrie and Steve (yes... another Steve) started to weld on the hull. We think the welding will take several days. No stopping the shipyard crew!!
The previous blog page (click HERE) Enjoy!