Blue Moon

[The Q]

The keel, ballast is now filled to within 1/2 inch of the top. I've now run out of loose lead. So next weekend it will be break open batteries time, I think a couple of the biggest will do. Then it will be on to stripping the deck.

Next weekend? Yes I've been recalled to work from Isolation. Unfortunately due to the back log of my work I will be working normal hours from now. Most of the rest of the factory is working 3 weeks on 3 weeks furlough (90% pay).

[The Q]

Well, I'm back at work now, a huge backlog of equipment for me to calibrate, I'm sat here waiting for the machine to finish it's current 33 minute automatic run. (of 14 man hours work on this equipment)
So progress will return to it's glacial speed.

Since the last missive all the spare lead I had, has been melted and poured. So Saturday I started breaking Batteries, picking the two largest first, 24 cells, each had 19 plates in them, each of the 456 plates had 2 layers of mesh cloth on them, every other one was in a plastic bag.  

Each cell, when removed, was dumped in to a bucket of water / bicarbonate of soda. when the bubbling ceased , each cell was stripped, cutting off two thick lead joiners, then removing the bags and as much of the cloth mesh as I could. As each was stripped they went into a fresh bucket of bicarb and water.  

They are all now stacked to dry, liquid lead and water are an explosive mix...

The lead joiners were dried and melted so two pots of lead were poured.  

Next week the exciting task of cutting /breaking the plates into pot sized pieces and more melting.

[The Q]

for any of you interested in the broads Private sailing and motoring has been allowed on the broads for a week or so now, with no overnight stays..
As of today however motor day boats are permitted, so the peace is about to be broken...

[The Q]

Well the melting of the plates got nowhere, after much research it turns out that in Modern thin plate cells almost all the lead is turned into lead Sulphide before the battery dies..
Lead sulphide just produces vast amounts of slag..(with the limited facilities DIYers have).
The old battery plate I dug out of the garden was 3/8ths thick, and it produced a fair amount of lead, but the new ones are just a mm or two thick..

So I gave up on that and weighed the keel by rocking and rolling it onto piles of the now redundant plates. This got it high enough to slide some scales beneath, then it was rocked and rolled down onto the scales .
145KG. The target was 150Kg.
So I've bought 10KG of scrap lead  for £27 delivered..it wasn't worth the time taking apart the old batteries for the terminals and connecting bars..
The remaining batteries will be taken to a scrappies, where they pay about 45P a kg for old batteries.. Thats about £5 for an old car battery. There are more than enough batteries i'd stored there to cover the cost of the lead.. The nearest Scrappies being a 40+ mile round trip, will wait till I'm heading in that direction anyway..

[Paul H (admin)]

Q,

Rather than waste time and fuel on a medium journey, can you not leave the battery at the end of your drive for the roving scrap collectors to remove?

We have some entrepreneurial East Europeans that hoover up metallic junk, politely and conveniently.

I think they work for Metallica ha ha 😎🤘

Paul

[Timmo]

There's a few entrepreneurial spirits (of uknown gender, beliefs, nationality, colour and ethnic origin) in our area who are willing to come up your drive, enter your workshop or garage in your absence and empty it of everything recyclable/saleable for no charge. They even work antisocial hours voluntarily!

Timmo

On 15 Jun 2020, at 09:14, Paul (admin) [via UK HBBR Forum] <[hidden email]> wrote:

Q,

Rather than waste time and fuel on a medium journey, can you not leave the battery at the end of your drive for the roving scrap collectors to remove?

We have some entrepreneurial East Europeans that hoover up metallic junk, politely and conveniently.

I think they work for Metallica ha ha 😎🤘

Paul

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NAML

[The Q]

I live out in the middle of nowhere, well actually about 10 miles from a place called Nowhere which is on the Norfolk broads. So Passers by are very few.
I have around ten batteries to put in the scrappies, and once every 3 months or so we head to within a couple of miles from the yard, so I'll quite happily keep the batteries till I get the £50

[The Q]

Well, I bought some lead off the net £29 for 10Kg delivered, it was mostly A4 sized sheets with a few odd bits.  Fairly obviously it was new off cuts from leading rooves, which meant it was clean, no corrosion and very little slag...
So filling the keel moulding, to within a 1/4 inch if the top took it to 152Kg thats close enough to my target 150Kg.
The top 1/4 inch is to allow for now bonding on the wooden stub keel and fibreglassing it all together. First I have the fun of drilling 5 12mm holes through the lead. The holes are already in the bottom of the moulding just taped over.. Drilling those holes should take the keel back toward the target weight as steel rods are a lot less heavy than the same volume of lead..

The boat itself, got a visit in the marquee from me, I decided I'd better get the deck stripped and revarnished this summer. 5 hours were spent stripping 95% of the old finish off, there are just a couple of bits putting up some resistance to remove. Then there will be a sanding to get rid of any odd bits. there are three small areas that need repair, all less then 4 inches across, the biggest is two adjacent iroko planks lifting at one end. The others are a "dint" in the surface, and a hull edge of a plank splitting.

I must get some more pictures done..

[The Q]

Saturday,  I started drilling the holes,  intending to drill to the maximum extent of the drill bit,  then turn it over,  and drill from the other side.
It took about half an hour per half hole,  go too fast and you glue the bit with melted lead...  Then on the 5th hole... The bit broke. Entirely inside...
I drilled  from the other side,  when I reached the broken bit,  I then tapped the drill bit with a piece of spare keel bolt.  It poked out about half an inch... Then jammed and nothing would move it.  Eventually I drilled around it with small bits,  chiselled between the holes.  After much hammering it eventually came out.. It took about 2.5 hours to get it out.

The house of strong ladies as already supplied a stock of spare bits for round two next week...

Sunday,  I got the hot air gun out,  and removed the remaining bits of the old finish on one side, also scraping any other suspect bits.  

That side is now ready for a final sanding..

[The Q]

Saturday I finished drilling the holes,  , a trail fit of the wooden stub with the keel bolts,  didn't.  It was being too hopeful holes just 1 mm larger than the keel bolts up to 2 ft apart would be perfectly aligned. I await,  larger drill bits which should arrive shortly.
 After that the side deck was repaired one side,,  then the stern was stripped and sanded with 60 grit.  As was the other side deck.

The boat is named after Baron Blue Moon, one of  our rough collies of the time.  As such SWMBO has made little Baron who will ride on the back of the boat.
Here's a picture of him,  as a trial,  on his blank plinth, on the back of the boat..

[Alan]

We have an Elkhound effigy just like your border collie.
Did you use a lubricant when drilling the lead?

[The Q]

I tried drilling without lubricant, but it wasn't very successful,  in the end I used white Spirit,  simply because I had some , it was very successful,  water wasn't very good, I didn't want to use oil,  as I want to  add more fibreglass over all.  Even the white Spirit will need cleaning off.

SWMBO, does all sorts of craft work,  she's out at her weaving group at the moment,  she does needle felting, weaving,  spinning,  stained glass,  painting in acrylic,  oil,  water colour and pastels.

[inwe]

Yes the correct lubricant would be paraffin.
Richard

[The Q]

Morning all,

Saturday,
Stern 800 grit sanded then varnished,

Bow deck area of boat sanded 60 grit,

Keel ballast holes re drilled, stub keel bolted on, left to "rest " while fully tight.

Sunday, varnish not sticky, but not set enough for a light sand and recoat of varnish,

Starboard side sanded with 60 grit except for those areas that were repaired they are still a bit sticky to sand..

I had intended to release the keel, then coat the join with thickend epoxy then re- tighten up but moving the barbeque to a new site became more important..

As for our Annual Horning Sailing club Regatta week due 1st to the 7th of August It's cancelled.

The club could not find a way round the virus  regulation no more that 30 people on the premises at once..
At a normal regatta there's about 100 boats with the mix of single handers and the 2 and more handers that's around 200 people,  
plus
3 line crew minimum, 2+ score keepers,
8 rescue boat crew morning and 6 afternoon,
12 galley crew in shifts through the day
Parents of minors.
 
That's without the additional non sailing family and friends, traditional visits by old members and just curious visitors. Totalling around 300 people on the island at max, the majority are out on the water most of the time, but it does get a bit sardine like at times.. The island is only about 60ft by 180 foot.
 
So the club will restart sailing this weekend with up to 30 boats up on the broad, that's people arriving and leaving at different times, plus locals with boats sailing from their own houses, all entries all pre booked by email..

[The Q]

The only boat work yesterday,  was a light sand of the stern, followed by a second coat of Le Tonkinois varnish,  picture below of how it looked  before this mornings start of boat work.

I then sanded off the repaired areas of deck with a fexidisk flapwheel ,  in doing so I discovered my previous sand of the entire deck hadn't removed all of the previous deck treatment,  so I've went over the entire deck giving it the same treatment.  This revealed some highly contrasting areas of wood darkening due to water ingress.  Oxalic acid has been ordered to treat this. You can see some wood blacking on the starboard stern edge,  I was going to leave this bit,  but now I'm treating the deck I'll redo that piece as well.

The deck Was The sanded with a detail sander,  wiped clean,  then tack ragged,  and then those areas not to be treated with acid were given an initial coat of Le Tonkinois.

[The Q]

Thinking about the stern brought Up this..

Broads Registration Marks (quotation From the Broads Authority By laws)
7
 private  half deckers/   keelboats,  (e.g. ybod, bod,  wod, only)   Rebel, Reedling,  Yeoman, Squib,    Flying Fifteen and    traditional Broads    half-deckers   etc)
[50 mm] options:
(a)  on both sides near bow
(b)  on board beneath bowsprit, visible both sides
(c)  on cockpit coaming facing outboard, both sides  
d)  on foredeck, port and starboard, near deck edge but display not required provided the vessel is clearly marked with its registered name on both bows or on the stern (or in the case of vessels with long counters on the  aft cockpit coaming)

8
 private   sailing dinghies,     including those    used for tuition    commercially but    which are not   let out for    unsupervised hire

[50 mm] options:
(a)  on both sides near bow
(b)  on tabernacle both sides
(c)  on stern of vessel facing outboard provided clearly visible and never obscured by covers etc. while vessel  is afloat.
 
My boat is the size of a Dinghy, but is in fact a small Keelboat, when I designed it I took various styling clues from Broads designs of Keelboat, so it's a Mini Halfdecker. I think hopefully she will come under halfdeckers   etc

I want to keep the hull name and, if required, marks in a traditional style.
This doesn't mean 2 inch high black vinyl letters.

So do I come under  Rule 7 , or Rule 8? Under 7 you don't need to carry registration marks at all.  

 If she does have to carry a registration mark, then I'd go for the Stern option.
Then in what form to paint the mark,  the rules say "Characters must be plain,  not stylised, and must be applied on a contrasting background".

 It will be in Blue against the golden timber background, so thats Ok.  

But the "Not Stylised" is interesting, I was for instance originally taught copper plate handwriting at school so is that stylised? as that's more normal to me than the issued plastic letters..

And finally on this topic, I'm going to put her Name " Blue Moon" on the stern under the last couple of coats of varnish It would be sensible therefore to put the registration mark on at the same time..

It appears to me there is no way of obtaining a registration Mark before paying.. and there is no way I'm paying a years broads tax before I launch next year..

[simplesimon]

The Q wrote

It appears to me there is no way of obtaining a registration Mark before paying.. and there is no way I'm paying a years broads tax before I launch next year..

You can get a registration mark without paying. Just fill in the form, cross out Section 3 and the appropriate part of Section 7, annotate it "Registration Only" and send it off to the BA. It's always worked for me.

FWIW only a few of the Centre dinghies have registration numbers and a suggestion to BA that we sort that got an answer of Don't bother about it!

Simon

[simplesimon]

PS The Centre boats have names etc hand-painted in a sans-serif font (don't know what it is, we've merely repainted what was already there) without any complaint, and my son's boat appears to have its name done in an italic script with no complaints that I know of.
As long as the Rangers can read it, they're not going to bother about it.

S

[The Q]

You can get a registration mark without paying. Just fill in the form, cross out Section 3 and the appropriate part of Section 7, annotate it "Registration Only" and send it off to the BA. It's always worked for me.

FWIW only a few of the Centre dinghies have registration numbers and a suggestion to BA that we sort that got an answer of Don't bother about it!

Simon


Thanks for the info, I'd hadn't thought of that I shall download the page and try it..

[The Q]

Yesterday's work on the boat..

First was a light sanding of the water stained areas,   they were then coated with oxalic acid, then while that was soaking in..

I hand sanded the stern and decks with the 3M pads,  stopping occasionally, to assess the damaged patches.  Some were re-coated with acid.

Then I got the sander out,  and sanded the top six inches of the sides of the boat,  stopping occasionally again to check the damaged areas.  Some were washed off,  as they now seemed OK.

There is some light filling will be required along where the deck edge protection will be fitted,  the old edging was damaged in transit when I brought her back from Saudi

I've decided how to mount little Baron on the stern hatch,  I've cut a plinth sized hole in the hatch to make a dropped section,  so the plinth is recessed into the hatch and held in place,  

At the end,  I washed off all the treated areas.  Wiped down the decks and stern then retired for a Muggacoffee.

After an hour dust having settled,  I wiped the decks again,  some bits the acid worked well on others not so,  but I decided that was enough,   so a final wipe down,  then the decks and stern were varnished again.

I'd forgotten to give the jib club it's first coat of varnish,  that was done today,  
A picture.