19th July 2008
19th July 2008 Over the past few weeks we have been very busy with not only the hire fleet but also work on private boats, hence why the blog has been sadly lacking. The only major incident concerning the hire fleet was near total destruction of a rowing Coypu dinghy by the crew of the Royall Continental which was being reversed rather quickly – this has now been successfully repaired by our resident GRP expert Steve. Last Saturday I had to visit her again at Loddon with a blocked galley sink waste which after completely dismantling and debunging water flowed feely again. This is a very pleasant mooring somewhat altered from the days when Chris Royall worked out of here around 1905 for Wood Sadd and Moore on an iron wherry delivering various cargoes to and from Yarmouth. Last Friday evening Paul closed the glass sliding cabin hatch on Royall Courier rather zealously and it exploded, meaning a quick repair job on Saturday morning. Our Saturday and sometimes Friday boy Adam has had his ups and downs recently, firstly, he successfully soloed on his own, piloting Royall Sovereign through Wroxham bridge but then a couple of weeks later rather spoilt things by getting his stern line round the propeller of Velvet 2 as he was about to leave the yard on a trial run. We quickly hoisted her up in the gantry and removed the offending rope.
   Motor Cruiser Voyager has now had all her engine refit work completed and has returned to her moorings and is now being used at last by her owners. Another long stayer, Motor Cruiser Sharomel, was due to leave but unfortunately failed her gas test so needed some new pipe work and cooker and hob but she too has now gone home. In the meantime my Great Grandfather’s workboat WILLING BOYS has been up on the slip having three of her oak planks replaced, not too bad as it is about fifteen years ago when she last had major work carried out, having spent a short while hulked and half sunk. Lady Georgina is a 28ft ex Woods hire sailing boat with a GRP Landamoore’s hull and wooden top. She has been a little neglected since leaving the fleet and needs a lot of work not only to her varnished areas but also her mast and yards and running rigging. After removing the lead counter weight from the mast it took four of us to carry the mast into our Dawn craft shed, the big black doored shed opposite to the office in which that company built sea going boats up until the early 1980’s.
   Motor Cruiser Christina is now on this slipway and although only came in for a couple of small jobs unfortunately the rudder fittings, P bracket and skeg all need attention as well as a few dubious below waterline hull repairs.
 We recently enjoyed a week away ourselves towards the end of June only missing one weekend at the boatyard, walking in the Swiss Alps in superb scenery and sunny weather.
 Patrick our partially blind foster dog moved on to his new adoptive home just before our holiday, Paul was due to look after him, but he has gone to Bristol to join a pack of three other dogs of various breeds and appears by a recent photo to be doing tremendously well and catching up on any missed sleeping. |
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