MFV BF494 'Pansy', an old Motor Fifie Conversion

Feeling a bit Jim Royle in this season of consumer frenzy formerly known as Christmas

not posted for a while, stuff has been happening, but not a lot, cold days aren't the most conducive to doing 'stuff'. There's been a bit more tinkering in the henjin room, a bit more woodwork, bit more paint sloshed about, that sort of thing, not a huge amount left to tackle down there, ok, I lied, stilla fair bit. Hit one of the fuel tanks with a grinder, objective being to find out wether the tanks were actual made of metal, or just rust held together with 70 years worth of paint. and there's metal there, yippee! The jury is still out on wether we 're-tank' or not though. Still got a future hydraulics conundrum to resolve, but for now, I'm happy with the if it ain't broke don't fix it school of thought

before the dreaded season of good will has fully descended, I'm going to tackle some bits of the deck, its a bit leaky(!) likely to be little more than a bit of temporary bodgery of the sikkaflex flavour though, pending a full strip next year. Much of the deck is original and the old pitch & Cotton that is sealing(not) the seams has retired some time ago. All that aside though, the deck is nearly clear, down to our last small pile of scrap metal to dispose of, so we might see an empty deck for the first time since we bought her soon

Stuck some proper electric lights in the wheelhouse, so we can find the bovril easier, bought a wee electric heater to take the chill off during pondering sessions and emptied the bucket under the sink.

A quick heads up (and thanks) to this site which might interest some, many pictures and history of trawlers and fishing boats past and present. The knowledge of those guys takes some beating

Christmas?? My Arse!

*No.2 calling in wearing flashing raindeer antlers and comedy slippers*

Oi Oi! I'll take Christmas everytime

We've been working on a bid to secure a grant from The National Historic Ships register (The old girl's been on for some time) for some of the "big jobs" coming up soon. No.2 decides to edit the final final final version last night after a bottle of Talisker at 3:00am + and e-mail some random document back to the skipper instead of our finely honed missive. Deadline's January 2nd, also important as that was the day when I descended to Earth on a golden one-way bungee jump some time ago. Skipper had to post hard copy this morning, I got up at 3:00pm!! Been typing things like "Punishment at Sea" into Google - Not looking good.