MFV BF494 'Pansy', an old Motor Fifie Conversion

Fame at last. It's a little know and well kept secret, that the whole idea buying an old scottish fishing boat, doing it up and so forth was born by a TV production company, there plan to to film the whole process in your standard "oh no - not more reality TV shite" format, warts and all. That sort of thing

So the secret cameras have been whirring away quietly and this week I was invited to see an early edit of the first program. Not sure what I think, suffice to say I'm not nearly that fat in real life, in fact I'm positively sylph like.

And I've more hair

And I don't have a 'tash either

It does sort of impart the general working atmosphere though, and I don't think No 2 even noticed the film crew around. So here you go.

the film starts with a bit of background into the 'why' and then moves onto to the doing up bit in all its glory, and really does give a really good flavour of how we seem to work together

enjoy!

*Oi Oi*

Will be sending the above record of achievement to the Historical Ship's Register people as proof of progress. It may have an impact on our claim! Stan dossed down in North Shields for a while dontcha know. I will be scratching my head on Pandora tomorrow wondering a. What can I do? b. How can I do it? c. Where's Olly?

I took the horn home, and got rid of the car under the scrappage scheme.

a couple more oldies. First the original Pansy, now lying at the bottom of loch ness:

Built for an owned by the same family as original owned our pansy. A big Zulu under full sail

and another whitehills one, Pansy lying inside lupin in the middle... There may be a lot more to say about Lupin in the coming months

Sometime in the 60's at a guess, Pansy against the wall and another Fifie, Lupin along side. Lupin is currently lying in an industrial estate in lancaster, in very good shape, although bare bones hull and engine, and for sale at a very very low price......

Pansy lying against the wall outside whitehills in the exact same spot we tied up on the trip back to the tyne

and finally, a wee PDF, that might be of interest, history of the Zulu, Fifie, scaffie and the moray firth herring fishery in general

The Zulu Herring Drifter

Big lumps of wood are great. Elm in this case. Brilliant stuff, won't rot under water, won't rot above water. might rot in between the 2 after many years if not looked after. So why not take a leaf out of the Airfix book and make some spare parts out of the stuff. I guess, with enough planks you could make a full kit form Pansy. Press the parts out and assemble. Only problem i can see with this plan is finding a big enough box to put the bits in.

new rudder, rubbing strake, beams for the coachroof and a few knees! I used to love Airfix models when I was a bairn!

Mind you drawing the pictures is the easy bit, cutting the buggers out will take months probably. This Elm is well seasoned and as hard as iron. so probably won't even happen!

Gonna get coverboards on t'other side done the morra, get the girl turned around to make it easier to do the replanking and rubbing strake. She might even get rid of the natty blue tarps for the first time in months

Its nice when you get emails that don't insinuate your either fat, depressed, have inherited 12 trillion dollars in nigeria or have a small penis with offers to cure all and make you rich. Had a nice email today from one of Pansy's former keepers, keeper as opposed to owner perhaps as old boats definitely have a life of their own and are usually their own masters, but any hoo, john had Pansy for a few years before us and was probably the man most responsible from saving her from certain death as a sunken wreck in scottish harbour. He had her hauled out spent oodles of cash on having the important bits put right in order to re-establish the general floaty type principals of boats.

So I got to see a few pictures I'd not seen before of her as she was when he got hold of her, and looking a bit rough around the edges.

Waiting for some TLC. Apparently I've read she was used as 'party boat' in Grimsby, not sure what that means though. I went to a Party in Grimsby once. Least said the better

up on the stocks looking tired

One photograph made me smile quite a bit though. As a general rule water coming out of a boat on dry land is a good indication something in the 'not good' category. The leaking seam here is curiously in the same sort of location than out recent leaking seam adventure

definitely what you would class as below the waterline!

It was at this point the shiny new engine went in, and at this point when she looked nearly as bad as the state we've got her in now

New engine beds going in. Would love to know where the old kelvin engine ended up (if anyone knows get in touch)

Will stick some more up at some point, but overall, nice to have a bit of continuity, the missing bits from the history I have are pretty much the 70's and 80's. Would be particularly keen to find out went went on in Grimsby!

It may have been noticed that No 2 has mentioned fire a few times when he's poked his head in here. Keeps mentioning something about 'the little people' telling him to burn things as well.

Had a toddle down there to day to discover him in full pyromanical flow. Safety goggles, kneed pads, overalls, safety gloves... I got 'im sussed out now though - if you dress vaguely like a workman people might think you are actually doing something! Although I had to decline his request for a full face safety visor - he was worried his visog might suffer a temporary aberration by 'stuff' landing on it

but doing summats he was, a new technique by all accounts for removing the remaining 'tarmac' from the deck - set fire to the boat. wait till its burning nicely, then scrape the pile of fire somewhere else..... can you get piles of fire?? (thats not a medical question btw)

the idea being the little bonfire has softened the asphalt enough to render it vulnerable to scraping type things

Known for his health and safety concerns, No 2 demonstrates his love of all things firey

the eagle eyed among you may spot something that is generally accepted to be in the 'bad thing' category when talking of wooden boats... yes we're growing our own 'shrooms on the coach roof. Well someone had to, and I bet no-one else has thought of it either

good news (for me) the sill on the marina is bust, so low tide today the marina completely emptied, everyone sitting in the mud, but giving me an unbelievable opportunity to recover the lost tools

Bad News...... Some git had beat me to it, and to make matters worse had taken the good stuff and left the cheap stuff! so there in the mud is a cheap argos cordless drill... right next to a perfect impression in the mud of a bosch cordlesss drill. A cheap B&Q tenon saw sat next a perfect impression of a lovely old japanese backsaw

plus other tools shaped dents of the dewalt drill and the router

so of all the stuff that went in, got a 3 quid tenon saw, a chisel, black and decker jigsaw and an argos cordless drill. at least the argos drill was the one that still had the forstner bit in I was using on the deck

very odd seeing the marina empty though, the mud & silt is so soft, the boat had settled about 4' into it. only hope the suction is not so strong that it holds it there as the tide comes in

Only had the phone with me to take pics so not the best. Did what you just have to do in these situations and lobbed a brick in, resulting a definate 'Gloop' rather than 'Splat' as it sank

Everyone's pontoon berths temporarily converted to a mud berth

Her current forlorn look sorta suits the mud really

Very soft mud though, there's another 4' of boat under it somewhere

Just when it was all going so well. the drizzle cleared away, it even warmed up a bit, the tarps were off, chance to get some more of the deck laid. Busy day down there today, lots of boaty comings and goings, and a few people dropped by to say howdy doody which was canny, so had the makes of a good general messing about in a boat sorta day, On me todd again, and cracking on with the deck, got a few more down, definitely into the groove with that now, but a major disaster right at the end. Got a few of those jobs that we put off for a few years to do back at HQ. The sort of little jobs that only take an hour and we really should of done a long time ago, and our nearests and dearests have indulged us by not having a go about them. So thought, right then sunday, finish a few things around the house. Need to take some of my tools home for that so, clambered around the deathtrap for a bit gathering things together, packs a tool box nice and neatly, and fills a plastic storage box with all the necessary power tools for the job......

so there I am struggling down the pontoon, big heavy toolbox and box full of power tools when disaster strikes, storage box gets dropped and power tools go swimming, so lurking somewhere in St peters there's now a router, a jigsaw, a bosch cordless drill, a dewalt cordless drill and several boxes of router bit, drill bits, screws etc - gutted

The good crew of 'Escort' lent a hand and had a fish about for a bit, but all that came back was a cheapo electric drill, thanks though lads, much appreciate the morale and physical support!

So might be a bit of a pause for a bit on the fixing front till till I finally find a magic money tree to replace some essentials

anyone wanna buy a boat??

and it was all going so well! At one point I even had a self indulgent jump up and down for a bit on the new deck - just because I can!

it even looks nice from underneath

Any one remeber Top Deck - that sugary sweet drink that passed itself off as shandy way back when? used to love it when I were a lad!

Any hoo, more revelevant deck repair matters to report, been down and done a bit today, quite chuffed with me bit self and still have all my fingers as well (I counted them all out and I counted them all back in!)

first little(ish) job was to fit sweep boards or a nibbing piece or a coverboard mould - depending who you talk to, or I as prefer to call it, that curved bit of wood that runs around the edged of the deck before the covering boards!

Next, time to lash the first plank down. The planks need a bevel first though, for caulking and deck seam sealer and stuff later on. First thoughts were plane the plank bevels by hand. Took the lazy route though and got jiggy with power tools. Made a jig for the chabble saw, well, I say made a jig, I clamped 2 bits of wood to the table to guide the planks through, dropped the blade, set it at a suitably jaunty angle and hey ho, whizz a plank through and a nice bevel and no fingery accidents

Next up get the first plank fixed, easy really, mark the centre line and nail the bugger down. Next plank (and subsequent deck planks) were a bit more problematic. Need to clamp them up tight against the first plank before nailing. Thought about hiring a flooring vice, but there's no way one would fit over the big shiny newly repaired and replaced deck beams, so found a neat solution. Clamp a big clamp to the beam and tap a wedge down to butt the planks together, quick buzz with a forstner bit to make a plug hole, then a little pilot hole and then apply the geet big nail and geet bigger hammer technique:

Simple as! Clamp the clampy thing to the beamy thing then hit a wedgy thing with the hammery thing till the planks are butted up tight. Forstner bit first to make a plug hole, then a pilot drill then big nails!

on a roll now! got a few more in before rain (well drizzle anyway) stopped play, couple of days graft should see the lot down hopefully. Oh yeah and at no point whatsoever today were there any Tom and Jerry moments where I stood on the unsupported end of a plank of wood across the beams causing the other end of said plank to rise up rapidly and whack me in the face at the same instant that gravity decided to suck me down through the deck into the hull. That absolutely did not happen. It also did not happen twice either

got a few nailed down anyways, so at least I can walk on something other than thin air now

finger out, big push to get the deck on before it gets finger bitingly cold... Finally got the beams finished today, made loads more sawdust and wood shavings with the last bit of shaping for the sweeps, last of the knees all snuggly bolted in, gonna rip the tarps off next week and start bashing some deck planks down, although there is the small matter of a quarter of a tons worth of winch to temporarily relocate first.

Had loads of emails and folks looking in here after googling ford lehman 2715e Marine diesel engine info, so am gonna add what few new pearls of wisdom I might be able to share, but do have one thing that a lot of the 'lehman lurkers' (say hello FFS!!) might find interesting. Inherited a huge pile of old boat magazines, PBO, Classic Boat, Wooden Boat, etc etc, going right back to the early 70's, some cracking stuff in there for those with a nostalgic bent, but one feature did leap out, so I've scanned it and PDF'd it and all that sorta jazz. It was titled 23 steps to cheap power. Basically the whole marinisation process in 4 pages of converting the Ford 2700 - 2715e series of Road Diesel engines to marine diesel engines. Its got pictures and everything - click the link below

Marinising the Ford Lehman 2700 - 2715 series of Diesel engines

Got a few other bits and pieces I've unearthed recently about the Ford marine Diesel, part numbers, equivalents etc, will make a post with them all on at some point

the emergency inside out caulking job seems to have done the trick, crappest & wettest august for years, only a cheap B&Q tarp covering where the deck used to be, and she ain't sunk!

Had a month off, and was expecting the call from the marina that we'd turned into a submarine, but didn't come, although there was one call from the marina... (more on that later)

so had a few weeks up on the western isles and ardnamurchan, readying myself for the final deck attack. The one call from the marina came as I was on the ferry back from barra to oban. Now the thing is, I may or may no have over indulged a wee bit the night before with them vatersay chaps, and was feeling a trifle, err... 'delicate' so on the ferry, thought I'd just lie down for 'a bit' my phone lying next to me up in the nice quiet forward lounge. My phone is quite loud and the ring tone is a ships emergency klaxon..... so I'm lying down out of sight of everyone and the phone goes off, I looked at at, decided I was too 'delicate' to converse with anyone (possibly the big white telephone at a push) and left it ringing.

by all accounts there were quite a lot of disturbed and slightly panic stricken passengers wondering which way to the lifeboats

back to the Panser now though, although not till next week, got to put a new floor down in No2's house this week, not casting aspersions here on hinting on anyone having an ample girth but floors giving way unexpectedly has never happened in my house