Days 3 and 4 of the Restoration

Today saw the removal of the  rail, pin rails and bulwarks from the starboard side.  



Sam and Gareth managed  to remove the Lumsden  strake in one piece - rare these days to have a 60 foot plank of Scottish larch!  Doesn't sound much when written down, but Britannia is a large vessel and as said before she was constructed to last, so removing this timber took much sweat and a little ripe language.  She is the largest boat in Gweek boatyard.  How Sam managed the construction on his own in the Eighties is remarkable..but he was a lot younger then!!!

                                                                                          

 Completed removal of the transit rail - sadly only a  third can be saved but it looks like we may have sourced some oak to replace it. 

Need to visit the woodyard and see for ourselves.  Sam is always very particular about choosing the timber very carefully.

Part of the oak transit rail

Day 4

Today was spent patiently removing the covering board along the starboard side.  The covering board which surrounds the stanchions will be completely removed and renewed, the design of which will allow the hood ends of a new deck to be fitted into it.   This is reference to a very old ship-building formula to be found in notes relating to the building of HMS Victory, and it is 

“ When the snape of the plank is more than twice the width of the plank, it should be joggled into the spirketing.”!! 

So there you have it.  Who can argue with that? 

So far the stanchions are looking good..

Next time

Next stage to be done in the next few weeks will be to scaffold the port side and do exactly the same thing – remove rail, pinrail, chain plates, and covering board.

Day One of Restoration work 2016

First day doing some positive work of restoration at last.  Feels good to me to be doing something practical instead of admin and funding bids.

Storm Imogen raging last night and still quite fierce today.  Very cold and windy - see video footage!  But a  very successful day with Gareth and Sam putting up scaffolding that has been loaned to us by James Youngman, owner of the yacht "Lutine" - thank you very much James!  So it took most of the day to find all the scaffolding, and get enough boards.  Had to be a bit creative at times - pallets fit quite well too.  So by the end of the day the stern and whole 60 feet of starboard side are now scaffolded ready for work to start in earnest.

Everyone feels happier to be able to start some restoration at last.  The last two years have been spent mostly trying to remove rotten timber and stabilise her to prevent any further deterioration. Also raising funds to pay for her storage.   Hopefully this week we will be removing the pin rails, bulwarks and rail so that it can be restored, salvaging most of the hardwood with which Sam built them all in Bristol docks over 30 years ago...

Britannia's stern was also raised up another 2 inches where she had dropped and remedial action to right her was not taken, so she has been that way since the new deck was laid a few years ago.  3 Acros and a lot of muscle went into raising her.  I guess she must be feeling better already with her backache relieved.  Off to the pub now to quench a thirst with a pint of Doom Bar!