Illustrated Post!

A picture's worth a thousand words, or so they say, but over the last week the internet signal here has been too slow to upload photos.  But today we have a brief window of clement weather so I got the job done.

First here's a shot of Herbies diesel spill rail rearing up like a cobra now it is removed from the engine and replaced by a shiny new one, which hopefully will not leak fuel. See the offending split in the cobra's head.

Next another jobette.  Rick has kindly offered to refurb our aft hatch cover which as some may recall is unusual being made of wood and hingeing rather than sliding.  The outer fibre glass skin is intact but the wooden sides within have rotted badly over the last twenty something years.   Here's the worst of it.

Replacing the wood without breaking the fibreglass skin will be a non trivial task, one I am not competent to carry out with any degree of finesse.  So while Rick does the refurb at his house, and it'll take quite a while, I've made a crude temporary cover  to hopefully keep the rain out. Here it is in its test fitting today.

It ought to keep out a modest amount of rain.  Whether it would survive in the sort of continuous deluge we've suffered this week, I'm not so sure.  In the background you can see the old hatch cover and its rotting sides.

And as if that wasn't enough, I've been prising off Herbie's wooden handrail tops which have also rotted in places.  I've repainted them on several occasions but in a number of places they are past that. The question now is, do I make and paint and fit new replacement rails or just clean up and repaint the steel beneath, which in truth are just the normal raised rails most other boats have.  I think it will all depend on how smooth I can get the steel which, although perfectly sound,  is somewhat pitted in places.  Getting a good surface on that might be more work than making new handrails.

Either way, cleaning up the steel will need some power tool work, which we're not supposed to do in the marina because of the noise and dust so I'll just take the boat out onto the canal towpath nearby.  Don't hold your breath for the finished job folks.  It'll be a while. Still, I've taken the first bite out of the elephant.  It always gets worse before it gets better.

Blimey, you must be thinking, poor old Herbie's in a state ain't she?  Well only in parts, and it's nothing that can't be fixed with some TLC and a lick of paint.  She's still a very sound boat with a reliable working engine, a decent hull and pretty decent inside.  The external problems are all weather related and might be expected in a twenty three year old boat.  How would you look if you stood out in all weathers for twenty three years?

During the Great Rains this week Herbie rose several inches towards the sky, but she's already back at a more typical level.  I guess CRT have been busy somehow getting rid of the excess water, although I daresay that might be at the expense of the river Cherwell which has burst its banks all over the place.  From what I can see from the weather maps, Cropredy has been pretty much  in the middle of it all.