Rebuild of nb African Queen

[stuart]

A very unusual "swim" arrangement at the stern end, and why on earth does it have a cratch board and top plank when there's no cratch?

 

No idea about the cratch - all it does is block light into the front window!

[stuart]

Well after sitting on dry land rotting away, £2000 worth of steel has arrived ready to over plate!

 

The main delay was the boat yard was being rebuilt (council built a road through it!) and we've had to wait until that was complete before the boat could be moved to a proper hard standing where work could be done.

 

I'll try and get some more pictures soon.

 

The over plating will replace the entire bottom, and the sides about 2ft up. The rear swim will be removed and rebuilt with a more traditional "triangle" shape rather than the square end.

 

New stern glad (the old one's been bodged so many times) and probably a new propeller and the rudder needs replacing as well !

 

The re-modelled boat is going to have to sit lower in the water because at present there's never been any ballast in the boat and it only sits about 6" in the water - a good strong gust of wind pushes it all over the place.

[NBMike]

I started reading this without looking at the dates of early posts. Its a fascinating project and I wish you well with it. You could do with that bit of equipment that BW had for (Spit roasting)flipping boats upside down. It would make for much easier welding.

[stuart]

Well theres finally been a huge amount of work completed on the replate of this boat.

 

The bloke doing the work decided it was best to remove the lower half of the boat rather than trying to attach plate to it. The baseplate was completely rotten, so this was going to be cut out anyway.

 

The new baseplate has been put back in about 6" lower than the previous one, new internal bracing, floor bearers etc. Gives the boat much more head

 

Old Bows cut off

 

 

new bow

 

 

 

sides - you can see the new baseplate and the difference in height

 

stern - waiting to be cut off - spent the weekend removing diesel tank!

 

Edited September 30, 2008 by stuart

[stuart]

Its been ages and ages since I last posted any progress on this project. My friends boat has had the whole bottom cut off and is almost ready to go back in the water..

 

Just before being blacked - new bow

 

 

 

New bow inside

 

 

Inside - new steel visible at bottom, new internal structure in place

 

 

Several old layers of blacking and paint removed with angle grinder from original steel

 

Huge engine bay

 

New engine bed and mounts

 

Gearbox oil cooler

 

 

BMC engine, exhaust outlet

 

Water pump (on right)

 

Cooling arrangement

Edited January 27, 2009 by stuart

[FadeToScarlet]

Good to see the work on it- I saw the boat last year when we were blacking ours at Caggy's, and it's nice to see the progress since then.

[Athy]

Good progress indeed, you're brave people to persevere with it - the expression "grandfather's axe" does spring to mind though!

No one replied to the original question about Arcrite. I have heard of them and have seen their boats advertised for sale but know nothing else. Were they contemporary with Springer? Where were they built> I wish I could see the name without thinking of 'Open All Hours'.

[stuart]

I've no idea where they were built, they were built poorly thats for sure!

 

It really was a 50:50 thing to rebuild or completely scrap this boat, the owner decided to have it rebuilt in the end, would be lucky to break even.