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g.u wideboat progress


chris collins

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Hi Chris.

 

Presumably you are reconstructing with the side decks full width along the whole length. In case you did not know, the rsjs along each side under the decks were not part of the original build. I've mentioned before that BW cut the decks back to allow a crane to be dropped into the hold. At that point the boat developed a hog, and the rsjs were fitted to keep it straight.

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There is a piece of wood on the front of Castle Wharf that we call the 'pooh stick'. It is some type of spruce I think. It was left over from when the sawmill was there and has had various chunks chopped off it over the years as bits have rotted. It is still easily 70ft long I should think and must have had 15-20ft or so of it chopped off. I have always wondered how it got there.

 

Great to see the progess being made. Thanks for keeping us updated. Very interesting.

(ETA - sorry about the pun - not intended)

Edited by Speedwheel
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  • 2 weeks later...

Hi Chris.

 

Presumably you are reconstructing with the side decks full width along the whole length. In case you did not know, the rsjs along each side under the decks were not part of the original build. I've mentioned before that BW cut the decks back to allow a crane to be dropped into the hold. At that point the boat developed a hog, and the rsjs were fitted to keep it straight.

 

What is a hog? I only know it as something that goes in a bun with stuffing and apple sauce! Is it a bend in the boat?

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What is a hog? I only know it as something that goes in a bun with stuffing and apple sauce! Is it a bend in the boat?

 

When a boat is hogged it means that it has developed a banana shape, where the bow and the stern have drooped. This will often happen, even occasionally with a steel/iron boat, when it sits with a heavy weight (engine?) at the stern and either is weakened in the middle and/or has weight at the fore end too. In the case of Progress the side decks were cut away at the back section of the hold, and rolled steel joists (rsj) then installed along under them along the whole length to keep her straight. The opposite of "hog" is "sag", where a vessel bends the other way. That might happen if something heavy were sat in the middle. This is much less common, but you do sometimes see it with a cargo boat that has been very badly loaded. A saag Bargee, perhaps? <_<

Edited by Tam & Di
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By coincidence Mark Pullinger emailed me a copy of this photograph (many thanks Mark) at the same time that Tam wrote that snippet about the side decks being modified by B.W, the photograph shows the modification superbly and also demonstrates the shortcomings of wide beam above Berko.

Tam yes, I was planning to go back to original specification as best as I can. I'll be taking out the r.s.j and restoring the frames to their original length.

 

6775339322_7e312065b7.jpg

08-28P%20Progress by chriscollins1, on Flickr

 

I normally try to restore the boats on a kind of plank out - plank in system, although this takes longer than cutting off large chunks and replacing them, without wishing to get too arty-farty, it gives you time to really get a feel for the spirit of the original.

However, in this case I did pull out a large chunk of the fore end bottom boards, which when laid out and clamped enabled me take off measurements with far more accuracy than would otherwise be possible,these where then lofted full size before being transferred to the new boards.

The old boards, although of reasonable thickness had really suffered on the chines which would be expected along the full beam parts, less so on the fore and aft swims, hmmmm.

 

6775340532_6dab9ae811.jpg

SPA50103 by chriscollins1, on Flickr

 

6921454815_43d6164d94.jpg

SPA50101 by chriscollins1, on Flickr

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When a boat is hogged it means that it has developed a banana shape, where the bow and the stern have drooped. This will often happen, even occasionally with a steel/iron boat, when it sits with a heavy weight (engine?) at the stern and either is weakened in the middle and/or has weight at the fore end too. In the case of Progress the side decks were cut away at the back section of the hold, and rolled steel joists (rsj) then installed along under them along the whole length to keep her straight. The opposite of "hog" is "sag", where a vessel bends the other way. That might happen if something heavy were sat in the middle. This is much less common, but you do sometimes see it with a cargo boat that has been very badly loaded. A saag Bargee, perhaps? <_<

The wherry Albion was Hogged and they straightened her a couple of years back see here

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  • 2 weeks later...

And on to fitting fitting those bottom boards, the idea is to finish up with a good accurate, solid platform with both sides identical and a dependable datum from which to build the rest of the boat. I'm lucky now that I have the dock to work in as it provides a much better base than previous rebuilds (softish ground).

With those fore end bottom boards fitted there is a head/heart choice, the head says do the two outer kelsons . But to be truthful although the selection/cutting/scarph is fairly interesting, the sequence of bolting them in becomes a bit laborious, along the lines of; climb in boat, mark and counterbore the top of kelson, clear away swarf, clean under kelson, climb out of boat scramble underneath, jack up the next couple of boards snug to kelson, climb in boat, drill through kelson/bottom, clear swarf, climb out of boat, scramble underneath, counterbore bottom board, drive up bolts, climb in boat, fit washers/nuts, clean under kelson for the next couple of boards, climb out of boat..................

The heart says do the stem post, artisanal, photogenic, a psychological landmark …...........get out the traditional tools... or not.

So I'll be sensible. This picture shows quite well the stresses that sometimes build up in trees, although there was no real hint in the grain pattern this pulled a lot more than normal when cut along the centre. Sometimes it's possible to use this to advantage, say on a straight centre centre plank, pre stressed against hogging for instance. In this case I really wanted nice straight pieces so having relieved the stress the two halves where re cut straight.

 

 

6816637956_c287bba025.jpg

SPA50109 by chriscollins1, on Flickr

 

6816638026_f2d39461de.jpg

SPA50115 by chriscollins1, on Flickr

 

Once the side kelsons are fitted the heart can have it's day, this is the embyrionic stem post. It's always a bit of a battle to find a good piece of timber for this job as the older and bigger diameter trees are often starting to rot at the base and the younger boles are generally to small. This piece is not bad but I'll have to include a bit of heart shake.

 

6962757301_a31ed4a706.jpg

SPA50118 by chriscollins1, on Flickr

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And on to fitting fitting those bottom boards, the idea is to finish up with a good accurate, solid platform with both sides identical and a dependable datum from which to build the rest of the boat. I'm lucky now that I have the dock to work in as it provides a much better base than previous rebuilds (softish ground).

With those fore end bottom boards fitted there is a head/heart choice, the head says do the two outer kelsons . But to be truthful although the selection/cutting/scarph is fairly interesting, the sequence of bolting them in becomes a bit laborious, along the lines of; climb in boat, mark and counterbore the top of kelson, clear away swarf, clean under kelson, climb out of boat scramble underneath, jack up the next couple of boards snug to kelson, climb in boat, drill through kelson/bottom, clear swarf, climb out of boat, scramble underneath, counterbore bottom board, drive up bolts, climb in boat, fit washers/nuts, clean under kelson for the next couple of boards, climb out of boat..................

The heart says do the stem post, artisanal, photogenic, a psychological landmark …...........get out the traditional tools... or not.

So I'll be sensible. This picture shows quite well the stresses that sometimes build up in trees, although there was no real hint in the grain pattern this pulled a lot more than normal when cut along the centre. Sometimes it's possible to use this to advantage, say on a straight centre centre plank, pre stressed against hogging for instance. In this case I really wanted nice straight pieces so having relieved the stress the two halves where re cut straight.

 

 

 

 

 

Sounsd like you could use an assistant/apprentice.....

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Unusually for a job like this I am lucky enough to be in possession of some of both the original drawings and the written specification as laid out by G.U , whilst this is by no means complete this does give a fascinating insight into the history of the boatbuilding process.

It also throws up a few anomolies, one of which is the stempost, the specifications and drawings quite clearly show the dimensions as 10 inches by 16 inches, the original post is 10 inches by 14 inches. The discrepancy is almost certainly due to the availability of a suitable piece of oak at the time of build, the dilemma is, do I build to specification or follow the original? On the face of it either could be the “right” thing to do, win, win or lose, lose depending on your half full glass point of view, but, just to enlarge upon this a little bit............ (This next bit does get a bit “anoracky” so you may well want to skip it, I'm hoping that one day it may help some other restoration,on the other hand it could just turn out a bit gobbledegooky..........).

“Progress” or any other wooden boat would have started life as four or five unique trees each with their own quirks, foibles, shakes, knots hard spots and all manner of other individual characteristics for the boat builder to fashion to the required size and shape. Bearing in mind that a wooden narrowboat (or wideboat) is very close to the limits of what can be achieved with the “average” sized trees it will be appreciated that some of the features,faults and character of any given wooden narrowboat will be caused by the uniqueness of those original materials, thus the restorer may find odd/mismatched plank sizes, hard spots on the bends, stealers, an assortment drying quirks, etc,etc.

Now picture said restorer with his own four or five unique trees, any attempt to blindly follow those original characteristics is likely to end up with twice as much “character” and not all of it welcome. Whilst our intention must be as accurate historical record as possible it is fair to say some measure of compromise is needed to allow for the “naturalness” of the materials.

Without wishing to throw any more fuel on the “it's restored/ no it's a new boat” fire I do feel that in order to make a more accurate restoration we have to start by studying the original intention and giving that intention priority. This means that we need to approach the manufacture of any component part from both a new build thought pattern and a replicate thought pattern and carefully balance both for the benefit of the boat.

Once we appreciate the relationship of the material to the resultant boat it becomes apparent just how significant original photographs/literature are, and if you have an unrestored boat, treasure it.

I'm glad that little lot's out of the way, I hope it wasn't too boring/ranty/pious for you.

 

6816638364_33c15f8e76.jpg

SPA50123 by chriscollins1, on Flickr

 

Back to the stempost, the leading edge is marked from the stem iron albeit allowing for any repairs needed. The backside marked to follow the original, I prefer to do the hoodings with the stempost in place as it is more accurate but they need to be roughly marked now to guide the shaping of the stempost.

 

6816638532_ef25d70669.jpg

SPA50126 by chriscollins1, on Flickr

 

As to shaping, whatever weapon you fancy, I have done one entirely by hand with axe and adze, I wont be doing that again. This one was chainsaw/adze/plane(s).

 

6839514478_16a56078b0.jpg

SPA50129 by chriscollins1, on Flickr

 

6985636229_c5ee88bfcb.jpg

SPA50135 by chriscollins1, on Flickr

 

A nice little knee (lot nicer than my knees) to support the bottom.

 

6985636501_900fa299e0.jpg

SPA50139 by chriscollins1, on Flickr

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As to shaping, whatever weapon you fancy, I have done one entirely by hand with axe and adze, I wont be doing that again. This one was chainsaw/adze/plane(s).

 

6839514478_16a56078b0.jpg

SPA50129 by chriscollins1, on Flickr

 

 

 

That seems to be an impressively sized compass plane there. When I was patching up wooden boats I felt a strong desire for an electric compass plane, thought one day I might design one or cobble one together. Never did get round to it!

 

Nice work

 

 

Tim

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Beauty in the making.

 

I often think model aircraft in balsa were far more attractive than the covered and finished model. All that lovely painstakingly put together intricacy. Not quite the same as with PROGRESS, which is looking just as lovely in the 're-making(?)'

 

Pleasure to see it.

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  • 4 weeks later...

The fore end frames are not normally attached to the bottom boards and would in a new build be fitted after the first strake had been steamed and fitted around temporary formers, having the old boat to work around slightly complicates matters, I'd like to try and get new bulkhead frames and deck beam into place and shored up before thinking about that first stake.

The port frame is in very poor shape, luckily the starboard one has kept the integrity of the planking lines although the diagonals are a long way out, If I take the outer shape of the starboard frame,the length of the original deck beam and, from the old bottom boards, the chine measurement, I should be able to get pretty close to original.

 

6919291242_b48909aa87.jpg

SPA50142 by chriscollins1, on Flickr

 

The position of the frames where marked on the original bottoms with a shallow saw cut, I haven't seen this on other boats that I've worked on.

 

7065370257_75efe437cf.jpg

SPA50140 by chriscollins1, on Flickr

 

It's getting harder to find suitable timbers for frames, I did used to plank the trees myself to get the right shapes, unfortunately this was making a long job longer and I really wanted to be a boatbuilder more than a sawyer. This butt had a bit of buttress to it which will just about suffice for this pair of frames.

 

7065370859_405243c55d.jpg

SPA50148 by chriscollins1, on Flickr

 

The frames and deck beam where set up “dry” to check the dimensions, angles and fit and once correct painted to slow down the drying process, they are then positioned ready to fine tune the bevels.

 

6919291988_ef927934fc.jpg

SPA50153 by chriscollins1, on Flickr

 

6919292396_f99f368a63.jpg

SPA50157 by chriscollins1, on Flickr

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