At the moment, the hardest job is to keep your mind on the task at hand.

 With all lay off's from doing work on the any project you do. It is keeping your mind on the bigger picture and not getting bogged down with jobs you have no control over. Jobs like stripping out the inside of the boat when you are at one end of the country and your project boat is at the other end and you have no way of getting to work on the boat because your own van or car is of the road in the local garage getting repairs done. 


Then people stockpiling fuel and creating a shortage when there is not one. Because they are short sighted. This on top of having emergency surgery. It is enough to get you to loose focus.  So, in order to keep some focus on the project I make lists and then more lists of jobs and then rewrite them until I get a list I am happy with and then plan the way forward. 


At the moment the biggest jobs on Chance are finishing off the last two areas apart from the engine room so that the hull is completely exposed and then tackle the engine room once the wheelhouse is removed. Over the few weeks I keep asking myself how would the builders have done this job. The only answer I keep coming up with is that the would remove part of the roof panels which are T&G along the edges of the wheelhouse roof to expose the ends of the roof beams and unscrewed the deck beams and the rest of the roof in one section and then lifted the engines out  through the top of the wheelhouse.

So when I am up at Chance next I will get my John to remove the plywood which is over the wheelhouse roof and see if he can remove the outer T&G from the wheelhouse roof and remove the fixings in the roof beams so that the roof can be removed and refitted after the engines are removed. That is plan "A" we will see if this works and keep you all posted as to which way it goes. 


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A year to remember and also forget.

 This past year as been one of many turns and changes along the way. We had plans to get the restoration of Chance underway in a major way. however this was not to be the case. As the following paragraph will show you. Having moved Chance from Woodplumpton in the previous November to Walton on the Naze in Essex, we set about making plans to start doing the restoration in the spring of this year.  However, this was derailed by the passing of my wife's mother after a long illness, this event happened and so the project was put on hold for most of the year apart from doing the odd bit here and there either on Chance or in the workshop doing small jobs while we rebuild our lives once more,  So has the months when on during 2023 without the heart to move the project along the project ground to a slow halt and in the end it stop with a cover being put over the boat and all work stopped on the boat itself.  So we both when about our daily working lives while we came to terms with the pass
Read more

Chance Autumn update

As many of you will have seen from the lack of updates there as been little work done on Chance over the summer. This as been due a lack of time and more over a lack of funds to do major task done on Chance. especially the removal of the middle and aft section of the starboard beam shelf and reconstructing the transom and its framework which holds it in position.   However, all is not doom and gloom, has I have been able to take on an apprentice to help me during the working week on my clients boats and leave myself and wife time to get on with working on Chances repairs.  So hopefully over the coming week's we should be able to make a start on getting the beam shelf removed and replaced with a new correctly fitted beam shelf which will bring the hull back into position  along with the ribs and frames which have to be replaced at the same time to get the hull back into its correct position once more.  There is going to be a lot of shoring up of the starboard side until it is seen t
Read more

It is now 6 months since I become the owner of Chance.

Over the past six months a lot has gone on with Chance. The first few trips to Woodplumpton were to make a start with clearing out the inside of the boat and taking stock of what we had on the boat and what is missing.  It appears that along the way all the deck fittings have gone missing, which is a great inconvicetion as I will have to get the deck fittings remade using patterns from other James Silver boats that are still around. The other James Silver's that are close to where I live are close in size to my James Silver and so I will be able to get the parts remade easily. Harbour Marine Services has restored a number of James Silver's over the years and the owner now  owns Davey & Co so parts are not going to be a problem to source when the time comes to start doing that part of the restoration. The part of the first six months as been the removal of the old furniture and other items in the inside of the boat so it is going to be easier to get to the planking and make
Read more