The Landing Stages team will soon restart - a call for volunteers

by: David McGovern

Boat Landing Stages – How we make them

Depending on the height of the towpath, in some cases we need to take a slice out of the bank, generally taking a few hours work with the mini-digger backed up by shovels.

The rear line of piles is then pushed in – some will recognise these as ex-motorway crash barriers, they are made of galvanised steel and known as Open Box Beam (OBB).  They come in 4.8m lengths, take five people to lift, and we cut the rear piles to 1 – 2m  long.

Positioning of the front piles, cut typically to 3m, is done by spacing with OBB cross-pieces and “tourniqueting” the front and rear piles together with a heavy strop.  We lift and place the front piles in position with the crane, which then collects the piling hammer.  Before bolting a permanent cross piece between every third pair of piles, we cut a mineral fibre ‘carpet’ around the piles to make a barrier to weeds.

 The next step is to fit wooden frames which we assemble in a workshop, currently at Brimscombe Port, using steel corner pieces to join the lengths to the crosses.  Each of the five frames is numbered for its place in the sequence, as a standard landing stage has a regular height of 0.5m for boats with a slope to a lower level for canoes at 0.3m.  Frames are bolted to the piles and to each other.

The landing stage surface is Fibregrid, a perforated non-slip glass-reinforced plastic material, finished off with Armco barrier, and mooring bollards concreted into every third front pile.  The bank here at Chestnut Lane has been topped with more OBB to ward off traffic, and seed-impregnated matting laid down the slope.   And once work has finished for the day, kit stowed away, a team photo if we remember.

The Landing Stages team will soon restart its regular stage-constructing tasks, and we are looking for more volunteers, to enable expansion of our work from Tuesday/Thursday to include Mondays and Wednesdays.  If you are interested contact Alan Jones for a chat, and hopefully we will see you here soon!   alan.gr.jones@gmail.com  01453-752396 (evenings).

Bond's Mill Tree felling last weekend

by: Jon Pontefract

Here’s what we were up to at the weekend:

On Saturday, 10 March we had a visit from 8 members of the WRG Forestry Team led by Nigel Lee.   They had been booked for some time to come and deal with a problem tree at Bond’s Mill.   The offending pollarded Willow was leaning over the car park, and the 1.5m diameter trunk was rotten, hollow, and had a ‘doorway’ in the side.   Steve Pickover had booked a MEWP (mobile elevated working platform), or ‘cherry picker’, from Ermin Plant, as WRG Forestry had experience of equipment.   The pollarded Willow had more than 50 branches that had to be removed first, before the trunk could be felled.

After the branches had been sent across the canal to a bonfire, the weight was taken off the ‘knuckle’ at the top of the trunk.

Then, the hollow trunk was carefully cut away to prepare the tree for the final act.

A Tirfor winch was then attached to the top of the trunk, and the tree was ‘encouraged’ to fall into the car park for disposal.

Everything was packed away and the MEWP parked up for collection by 6pm.   Thanks are due to Clive and Jill Field for making the Bond’s Mill Gatehouse – a.k.a. the Gun Turret – available as a welfare facility.   And, if you’re short of a log or two, there’s a fair few stacked up behind the fence for collection!

Pat's Progress

It's raining outside, so look for an inside job.  Today's effort focused on stripping out the welfare cabin of all fixtures, including the floor.  In theory, no water should enter the bilges, only tea!  However, once the inspection hatch was unscrewed, a depth of rusty water was very evident.

Since it happened to be raining heavily, the route that the water had taken was there to see.  It was running off the port side gunnel and around an edge, through a small gap at the top of the bulkhead and down the wall into the bilge.  This can be sorted out quite easily.

Much of the seating will be refurbished and refitted.  The floor is quite substantial, with a little rot where the water has ingressed.  The steel base for the stove was welded in place and had to be cut out.  The design for the new hob/sink unit plus services can now proceed.

As time goes by, much is being discovered about this craft in its past life.  Today, a couple of license disks revealed the time an place of previous deployments.  We also have a 'Trade Plate' ticket from 2008.  The full story will be told when all the pieces have been slotted together.

The BAT Team visits Penelope

Firstly, BAT or Boat Acquisition Team, was spontaneously formed as a consequence of visiting the Wey & Arun Junction Canal  on Saturday where a dredger, named 'Penelope', was up for sale.

Inspection of this vessel was of particular interest since it had the adjacent commission number (80380) to our own Patricia.  The visual similarities are very evident, but there are many detail differences between the two craft.

Our Patricia had undergone a major refit in 1999, so Penelope represented more of the original form as built.  The major differences were the cabins were of fibreglass construction.  All the hydraulic controls were mounted at the front, not on a JCB seat and a rather lovely Lister engine powered the craft.  Everything worked apart from the hydraulic motor that powered the prop'.

A grab bucket was fitted to the jib, but had no rotational control.

Many factors were considered concerning the resources needed to bring the craft up to spec' and the costs involved in moving it to our canal.  In all, the decision was to pass on it this time.

An interesting, educational and enjoyable day, irrespective of the outcome. 

Pat's Progress

The new sink/hob combi has arrived.  The old sink unit has been extracted from the cabin, together with what remained of the old coal stove installation and we will now need to design in the new unit together with the water services.  These do not exist at present, so new water/heat provisions are in the plan.

Dredger Repairs

by: Andrew R

Dredger No 5 back in action again today. Our dear Dredger is feeling it's age and we have been working it hard.

Monday two major leaks in the hose and a radiator leak.

Took to a great guy Steve, at Cheltenham Radiators where he did a grand job repairing and modifying it.  Came back 12 hours later and yesterday started reassembling through to today in the bilge attached to confined space gear. 

Finally back to Bowbridge and ready for work Thursday.

The Weedie team using Weedie trialled manoeuvring The Hopper WEFT back to Stanton's Bridge.  Showing  there are many ways of moving a hopper.

Pat's Progress - 'The ratchet has been set to tighten'

Many weeks have now been spent taking things apart, together with epic cleaning.  However, today, one small task actually put something back.  Now it can't claim to be much, but that's not important.  The gutter over the starboard cab window was missing (it had dropped off some time in the past) which also supports the protective cover for when the dredger is not in use.

All the bilges are now clean and dry and later on, it even permitted some of the deck support steel at the stern to receive a coat of paint.  It is delightful to have a clean working space to work in.

Other news.  We have received the hob/sink combo today, now resting in the hall, yet to be unpacked.  Also, tests conducted on the 'asbestos' looking heat material around the old stove have confirmed that is is not made from the 'A' word, which is great news.  The cabin strip-out can now proceed.