Pat's Progress
Yes, two days on the trot. With a few nice to finish off jobs to do before the launch on Monday, we arranged to continue activities on Thursday morning, with the intention of finishing by lunch time and heading for the Badger for a lunch and then home.
We almost achieved that, apart from most of the afternoon was occupied with further nice to get done bits. Further improvements were made to the clam shell bucket bracket to the two pin mountings and retention methods. A very robust solution is now in place. We could not paint this until the work was complete.
At the stern end, our pile of B&Q donated concrete block casualties were sorted and then a layer installed in the bilges with space to permit water to flow around. On top of them, the remaining rail and pig iron pieces were placed on top. We'll have to check the trim of the boat before making any further additions or adjustments.
A few of the safety labels could not be fitted yesterday due to a lack of pop rivets. With more on hand, these were duly fixed in place. We also carefully positioned the Notgrove Trust adhesive labels onto the main cabin, top side, stern end.
With Andrew R. on site, we confirmed the operation of the bucket controls. Pleasing to say the all correctly behaved, so no plumbing swaps necessary. We also added another 25Litres of hydraulic oil as more of the system had now been filled.
Finally, the last act was to throw everyone off the boat and apply another coat of decking paint to the floor plates. They can fully harden off by next Monday.
So, there she is - probably the cleanest she'll ever be, but hopefully many hours of valuable service to come in our quest to restore the canals. There are a number of minor jobs to do, but the serious engineering which requires us to be close to the workshop is now complete. Sea trials to follow!
