Storm Amy

As the first storm of the winter approaches Orkney we have made sure that everything outside is secured as wind gusts in excess of 65 kts are forecast for Saturday.

Inside restoration work continues

Now that Saga's hull & boom are pretty much complete focus is shifting to the mast which has been located.

Boom Back

Saga's restored boom has been reunited with the hull. Next we will take a look at the mast and see if we can find any sails.

When we received Nellie she came with a large rectangular rudder. Nellie had never been in the water with this rectangular rudder fitted. The rectangular rudder was an experiment  to see if steering responsiveness could be improved. This experimental rudder wraps the original rudder so we have removed it to expose the original rudder.

Saga's Boom

Saga's wooden boom has been stripped and is being revarnished and painted.

The mast will then require work to repair some damage to spreaders.

Open Day

Final preparations and we opened at 10am, it was raining so a slow start. The rain cleared shortly afterwards and visitors started arriving from about 11am. We had a steady flow of visitors throughout the remainder of day, even closing a little later than planned.

What's going on here?

Discussing Birsay Honey!

Audio-Visual displays

Sorting the raffle prizes

Open Day Prep

We will be running an Open Day tomorrow so today was spent cleaning up and preparing for visitors.

Tidying up

Dust covers were removed from boats, floors cleared and information sheets set out.

The workshop hasn't been this tidy since we moved in a couple of years ago.

Concrete Smashed

All the concrete we wanted to remove has now been broken out and the rebar cut. We now have wider access at ground level for moving boat trolleys in and out of this storage area. 

We are putting the finishing touches to Saga. The rear of the centre-board case has had a metal plate replaced and the chain-plates have been re-attached to the hull. The boom is currently being stripped and re-varnished.

In preparation for an approaching Open Day we have replaced bits of some boats currently being stripped and smartened up some of the tools.

Smashing Concrete

A while ago we removed some of the internals walls to permit better access to one of the side storage areas. The internal walls were built on top of a concrete footing which is reinforced concrete. While the walls were easily removed the concrete footing has remained in place until now. The footing sticks out and is a trip hazard but also narrows the gap into the storage area for trolleys.

We used a demolition hammer to break up the concrete, even then it took over 6 hours to break up about 800mm of footing. The rebar will be cut out next and a final bit of fettling should see this job completed.

While some of us were making lots of dust and noise others were trying to clean up some of the boats in preparation for restoration work. The Grieve dinghy was washed and hoovered out today (they were a way off from the demolition work).

We are preparing for an Open Day so some tidying up was also undertaken today.