Preping for work on Saga

Searching for bits of Saga

With Saga moved away from the main storage shed ready for winter work to begin it was necessary to locate and move all the bits previously removed from Saga. This became a game of find and seek as we search high and low to find all the missing bits. Fortuantely we have a policy of labelling all items removed from a boat so that we can eventually return fittings to their original boat.

Work also continued cleaning out the interior of Linda - the scrapped interior was washed in prepapration for repainting.

Resumption of Workgroup Activities

Linda being scrapped clean

Gabrielle in discussion about the dinghy Linda

OHBS has resumed winter workgroup activies. The first meeting since almost all work stopped in March 2020 was today the 17th September 2021. Stripping of the interior of the dinghy Linda was started. 

Local author and creative practioner Gabrielle Barnby visited to talk to volunteers and see restoration work in progress as part of a commissioned to develop new writing and artwork to mark the centenary of George Mackay Brown funded by Orkney Islands Council.

16 Mar 2020

In line with current government advice OHBS has suspended all face-to-face activities for an indefinite period. All OHBS heritage vessels are currently in safe storage so there should be no loss or deterioration of heritage during this suspension of our activities. Individual volunteers are remotely managing administrative work.

13 Mar 2020

Painting the hull of Saga with primer began today. Unfortunately, we ran out of primer before completing a full coat so more paint will need to be ordered before next week.

On Waterlily more work was done preparing No 2 Strake for filling with backing pieces put in place to hold filler and rotten timber on the outside hardened ready for filling next week.

Further work was done on preparing the scarf joints on the sheer strake of Shamrock. Oak strips have been sourced to repair the timmers along the starboard side of Shamrock.

10 Mar 2020

Some volunteers are away down south while other continue with the conservation work.Wood filler applied last week today needed to be sanded and faired. Whilst one of the team worked on sanding filler on both Saga and Waterlily the other team members worked on Shamrock.

Further work on Shamrock

To get access to the rivets joining the sheer strake to number 6 strake it was decided to cut the stringer just aft of the forad thaft and remove it temporarily.  With the stringer removed we could also get access to the timmers, many of which were broken at tulfer level.  A decision was made to cut away the broken timmers in this area of the boat and replace them, suitably scarfed to the existing good wood. Work also began cutting scarf joints on the sheer strake.

Stringer removed

6 Mar 2020

While some of the team sourced new wood and started on the cutting plan others continued to remove old wood from Shamrock and carried on with filling/sanding work on Saga and Waterlily.

Shamrock before cutting

Shamrock after cutting

Waterlily filling

3 Mar 2020

With several boats now pretty much fully stripped we could examine the state of the underlying wood. The gunwale of Shamrock is too far rotted and much of the gunwale requires replacement so we cut away the rotten material and measured up for new wood. Wood hardener was applied to small areas of Waterlily and the forward thwart was cut out to be replaced. Filling of small areas of the keel of Saga was started.

Filling small holes in Saga

Cutting away rotten gunwales on Shamrock