Going, Going, Gone

For the past 5 years OHBS has had a small display of artefacts and information in the windows of an empty shop in Stromness. The shop is about to be leased out so OHBS has had to remove the display items from the shop.

Going

Going

Gone

Back to work

The 50 year old compressor we acquired is not worth keeping so we have dismantled it into manageable parts for recycling.

Work continues on the exterior of Laverne which is now heeled over to make for easier access.

Tea?

The various parts of Nellie's steam boiler and engine are coming together in the hull. One of the most important parts of the installation was the tea maker. This is a mug sized coil fed with steam from the boiler which could boil the water in a mug in 7 seconds.

Work on the Groat dinghy continues.

Pearl II

A new boat has joined the Orkney historic fleet at the Old Herring Factory. This is Pearl II (we already have a Pearl so this is number two). Pearl II arrived a few days ago from Shapinsay.

Pearl II is in good condition and really just requires cleaning up. The sail is in need of some attention due to wear and tear.

Pearl II arrived with a collection of boat building tools.

Stern tube boring cutters & saw

Tool box with lots of clamps & other tools

A steam chest also arrived together with the steam generator 'pot'. The steam generator would have had a burner placed under it to produce the steam.

Elsewhere work continues on rebuilding Nellie's engine & boiler.

The Groat dinghy is nearing repair completion.

Painting of Laverne continues.

To keep or not to keep

We were given a 50 year old compressor which was not in a particularly good state of repair. While the unit did produce compressed air it needed a fair amount of refurbishment. We do not have a requirement for a medium sized compressor, as we never use them, so we think that this one will be getting recycled.

Sunshine

A new latch lever has been made for the large bandsaw to replace one that was missing. This means we can now properly latch the motor compartment.

A new blade was fitted to our smaller bandsaw.

Outside the WW2 lifeboat AKL has collected some rain water, we will pump this our next week.

Busy Day

Progress is being made with the installation of Nellie's boiler and steam engine

The refurbished large bandsaw has a new blade installed which has made its first cut.

The Groat dinghy restoration continues with lots of new larch wood being used.

Work has started on the restoration of Venture's dagger boards.

Still cold

We have a new blade for the large bandsaw and are thinking about what we can do with the top & bottom guide assemblies. The problem is that the saw was built to imperial measurements in the 1950/60s and contemporary replacement components are all metric or very expensive.

Work has started on refitting the rudders and dagger boards to the Yachting World Catamaran Venture.

Snow today

Still cold, windy and a little flurry of snow today. The large bandsaw is getting put back together. Today the contactor was replaced with new wiring and tested. The motor runs up fine and the brake system works well. We now need to replace the cutting blade.

With most of the work on the hull of Venture now complete we have dug out the dagger boards and rudders for refurbishment.

Elsewhere work continues on the Groat dinghy.

Still wet-n-windy

The weather is much the same as last week. Inside, Nellie's boiler (well the outside casing only to keep weight down) and the steam engine were positioned back inside the hull.

Tool preventative maintenance was undertaken before processing wood pieces to be fitted to the Groat dinghy.

The broken casting for large band saw was welded back together by a volunteer during the week and is now ready for refitting.

Wet-n-windy

Not the best weather this week and its set to continue this way for a few days yet so most work this week is inside out of the weather.

Work continues on the refurbishment of the large bandsaw. We found a broken casting while dismantling the lower guide assembly so this has gone off with a volunteer to see if we can braze the two parts back together.

Nellie paint work is proceeding with various mounting pieces now painted white.

More wood is being prepared for the Groat dinghy.

We need some more metal frames for storing boats bunked one above another so the crew spent some time measuring up.

Busy Again

Having removed various inconvenient internal wall concrete footings before Christmas the floor and associated walls have been finished by screeding over. Now we can easily move heavy equipment throughout the workshop.

Nellie's steam boiler is getting cleaned up and painted.

The winter gales had removed the cover we had over our larch planks so this had to be replaced.

Work continues on one of the smaller dinghies.

The 3 phase electrical contactor on the large band saw we acquired late last year is getting refurbished.

Snow

Orkney spent a week covered in snow and with strong winds snow drifts were a problem so only the hardiest crew turned out.