After Storm Babet

Orkney did not receive the worst Storm Babet brought but we did suffer some fencing damage to the storage compound. This week we fixed up the sagging fencing to prevent further damage - eventually the council should get around to properly fixing the problem.

Fence fixing

Inside a couple of boats were getting painted. The underside of Whitewings received another coat of white paint and Shamrock, also inverted, received a coat of primer.

Whitewings

Shamrock

It's wet-n-windy again

Boats currently outside all look ok so work focused on inside activities. The motion sensor controlling the lighting in one of our storage areas was by-passed and replaced with manual switching (we have several times found these lights switched on for no apparent reason - may be ghosts?) so we will go old school. While doing electrical work the connections on one our tool motors was also inspected in preparation for supply rewiring. We started to move some of our collection of oars and spars to a more useful location.

It's windy today

The wind is gusting to over 50 knots today so it was time to pack the boats outside closer together and tie them down with additional weights. Inside an old table saw is being stripped down and refurbished and Ruby was washed out.

Winter is coming

When the weather worsens as winter approaches more volunteers head for inside working. A variety of jobs are in progress at present. An old table saw is being stripped down and rebuilt, White Wings has been turned over so that work can progress on the underside, Ruby has been deep cleaned and the wood repairs on Shamrock make further progress.

White Wings

Ruby

Shamrock

Rain & Shine

We had a good deal of heavy rain, lightening & thunder for a time during the last week however all the boats we recovered the previous week all survived with no pooling on the canvas cover.

Falcon under cover

Inside painting has continued on White Wings with a top coat being applied to some areas.

White Wings

With fine weather once again returned the opportunity was taken to wash & treat with Milton's fluid some of the sails in our collection.

Esmeralda cleaned & re-covered

After being left open to the elements for a week (during which we had a lot of rain) Esmeralda was given a gentle pressure wash to remove the last of the bird muck. Her cover was also washed off and dried out. Not having a drain hole nor a working bilge pump we used an external pump to suck the collected water out from inside.

Cleaning Esmeralda

Drying Esmeralda's cover

Esmeralda drying out before being recovered

Elsewhere another team worked on a cover for Falcon. She also had no drain hole so we wanted to cover her to prevent her filling up with water.

Setting a ridge pole for Falcon

With a bit of time left before lunch we also diagnosed and fixed a problem with one of the machine tools.

Esmeralda uncovered

For the first time in 5 or 6 years Esmeralda had her deck cover removed today. Now that she is outside in the weather, her timbers soaking up a bit of water, her flat deck cover is acting as a rain catcher. We will put a ridge pole in to solve this problem, but since we had to empty the water today we took the opportunity to remove the cover and have a look inside.

Despite having been stored inside a covered barn some birds had decided to build a nest on the side decking under the cover. The birds had also left a bit of a mess on the inside of the boat. We have left the cover off for the time being to let the rain soften the bird mess which we will pressure wash off next week.

We also now have a main access door which can be latched closed and won't swing open in the wind.

Esmeralda - rain catcher

Esmeralda - removing rain water

Esmeralda - cleaning the inside

New latching door lock