MFV BF494 'Pansy', an old Motor Fifie Conversion

Nearly posted this a month ago but found it all too depressing! British Journalism really does need to take a leaf or 3 out of Hunter S's book, kick back, kick off and blow some stuff up. We might not be in the mess we're in if they did, but hey ho

Its been a while, stuff has been going on and also no going on, can't put it off any longer and stuff needs doing and someone's gotta do it

yeah, the deck got finished & caulked, the hull didn't, fact is its still half stripped. Least of my worries though. the old girl is sinking a bit... only the pumps keeping here afloat at present.

Leaky seam down the bilges amidships, pump was running once every 2 minutes at one point but managed to sort the seam out - for now. Caulking a leaking seam from the inside is a really fun thing to do. It has shades of testing a razor blade for sharpness by running your finger along it about it. The general theory is that you need to repack the seam from the inside. Cotton, being softer and a bit more squashy is preferable, some white lead paste, softened to a sticky mass with extra linseed oil is squeezed through the cotton and then its hammered into the seem, and this is where the fun starts. if you don't give it enough clout, it won't penetrate and the incoming water pressure will push it straight back out. If you hit it too hard you push it straight through the seam and out the other side, taking whatever is left in the outside of the plank with it and giving you an even bigger leak. My approach is (was) to gently press the cotton into the seem with a screwdriver first working along and back again before picking up a caulking iron and a very light mallet and gently starting to tap it home and harden it up till the water stops coming in, then push white lead paste in, bit more cotton and so on till it stops leaking, then more white lead on top for good measure. Tedious, frustrating and annoying in equal measure but it had to be done

She really needs to be lifted out of the water and recaulked properly from the outside, which means moving her 'somewhere' to do it. But as the hull above the waterline is still devoid of caulking (that didn't get finished either yet) I need to recaulk the rest of her topsides and get the seams filled before she can move, I reckon she'd get 500 yards without it being done.

Even then I've got an engine to put back together first. I was reliably informed by No 2 that the leak is definitely, definitely and absolutely under the engine so big metal bits and whirly round bits were dispensed with to get under the beast. The leak was found 8 foot away and not in the engine room at all. At least he got the right boat I guess

so lots and lots to do none of which will do itself, so this week I'm going to be forcing myself at gunpoint to do some stuff in order to get her out of the water asap. If any one fancies a non sinking type cruise down the river tyne to the boatyard in a few weeks to throw a rope etc let me know

Elsewhere, but still of a boaty disposition there's been some cracking stuff on the Beeb of late. All part of the 'Sea Fever' season, one highlight for me was the "Boats that Built Britain" episode featuring "Reaper" A big proud and fully restored Fifie. It was on iPlayer for a while too, but as the beeb restrict access to iPlayer to within the UK only, I though it would be nice to. ahem, 'archive' a copy for posterity and any of you international types that look in here from time to time, so will attach it under here shortly

On a slightly more tenuous boaty connection, its 70 years to the day today that my dear old dad, god rest his soul was captured fighting the rearguard on the Dunkirk perimeter, the next couple of months of his life being spent on a forced march to poland followed by nearly 5 years of some jawdroppingly pretty brutal shit in a german labour camp. I pulled his service records just after he died - the man to his credit never spoke a word of it in his life to anyone. Not sure which bit has affected me the most, the stuff he did in the last few days at dunkirk or the stuff he witnessed, endured and survived in the following 4 and a half years. Here's to you fella!

Normal service may well be resuming now!

anyhoo, video of the old Fifie 'Reaper'