MFV BF494 'Pansy', an old Motor Fifie Conversion

Still trying to beat losing the will to live with this old boat, so trying to get things moving again. Been a funny old year thus far, but at the end of the day If its gonna get done I'll just have to do it myself if its not to become another one of those 'abandoned projects' that seem to litter the country!

Had to move her today, the berth she'd been stuck in 'temporarily' while some giant floating gin palace was moved was needed for any potentiall visitors to the marina, as I I'm sure most people are aware that Walker is high on the agenda of the international cruising circuit! A delightful place for a visit and a gentle stroll along Byker Wall, its a bit like Hadrians wall but with less romans, although I swear I did once see 'romanes eunt domus' painted along it once, or something like that.

Any hoo, the old girl had to be coaxed back to life, engine not run in a year, and the engine room had been mouldering away in the damp and the dark with only occasional high bilge levels for excitement. Only a couple of things down there had suffered over the last year - the engine and the gearbox. The grease gun, hardened paint brushes, empty paint cans and (bizzarely) a bottle of washing up liquid and a grey sock (not mine, probably not grey originally) hadn't suffered a bit.

the nice shiny new starter motor I fitted was still nice and shiny (on the outside). The important whirry round bits inside it had seized solid. so that had to be stripped a few times. Engine Oil was checked, grey sludge on the stick being of sufficient quantity to qualify it as having at least some oil in it. I thought the mould on the drive belts would probably enjoy being made dizzy as they went around so I left them to there own sporish delights, connected up the batteries and turned the key. Yup bugger all happening, narry a click nor a whirr. Soggy wiring.

quick bypass of a few pseudo non essential bits of wire, and contact.... Amazingly, about 5 seconds of cranking and the old Ford Lehman started to splutter into life, so the I sniffed the unused can of easy start myself to celebrate

so one of the 2 things that has suffered is ok still (apart from desperately needing an oil change). So ropes off, into reverse (a bit stiff to be honest) and things started to move. Awesome. the feeling of euphoria was short lived though. Managed enough forwards and backwards type maneuvers to get her into a great postion just as all drive from the gearbox was lost and nice big gust of wind came to say hello and send 30 tons of boat scudding out of control towards some rather expensive looking yachts. Divine intervention came in the form of the marina manager in his rib who approached at ramming speed to divert the boat roughly in a direction where I wanted to go. At this point a couple of other boat owners fired there boats up and sensibly moved to the other side of the marina for the duration.

But she got to where she was going, didn't hit anything (much) and is now out of the way, rather disturbingly in suicide corner - every boat that goes there dies and sinks. luckily there's a queue at the moment, the one in front of us has maybe 9 months left!

Tied up and plugged in, thought it time to do some 'stuff' Shifted a a ton or so of ballast back to where it started, then started with a bit of caulking and sealing. A lot of the caulking had been done already, but the planks have opened up a lot so it needed hardening up a bit more first. Seams were primed with a bit of red lead, apparently its not very nice, luckily only got 'a bit' on me. then time to mix up the compound to pay the seams.

Lots and lots of debate out there on this subject. No single right answer to it either, lots of opinions and a fair bit of conflict of whats best and whats not. So for my recipe I thought for once, I'd go sheeplike with the majority (sort of)

So for filling the hull seams/planks above the water line the following concoction was created. Putty - the stuff folks used to use to put the windows in before all this uPVC malarkey came along, about, say, a grapefruit sized lump. To which is added a plum sized lump of White Lead, (really really not nice - got masses on me and probably in me) and a grape sized lump of grease (normal motor grease type stuff) this fruity mixture being garnished with a wee splash of raw linseed oil.

Now, all those nice people that recommend this mixture, there's 2 things they don't tell you, first is how to mix it together. There is only one way and thats to get your hands in. Forget gloves. I tried latex gloves, they got sucked into the sticky mess and have yet to surface. So It was bare hands. I'm still picking lumps of white lead out from under my nails now. Give some to the kids. tell them if they continue to bite their nails they will die, nice and simple!

So you squidge and you squeeze and eventually you have this sticky morass in your mits, perfect for sealing your freshly caulked seams. How the flip do you get it in, which is the second thing they don't tell you. I found poking loads in with my fingers worked, till I moved my fingers out of the way when half of it comes back out still attached me. But by the law of diminishing returns; keep working it in and eventually there will be a seam full, stuck nicely to the planks and the caulking cotton that was bashed in behind it, and smoothed off lovely with a putty knife

The Third thing of the 2 things they don't tell you is how long it takes to skin over so you can paint the damn stuff - I'll get back to you on that, hopeful we'll have an unseasonably warm december which might make painting a possibility

looks rough still but a long way to go!. Caulked seams and a couple with 'traditional' (pah!) seam sealant. I left the putty in the seams slightly concave. Figuring that when the planks take up again and it gets squeezed it might finish up flats

So there we go some 'stuff' has been done. More stuff to be done soon!