Monday 22 October: Out of the water
John returned to West Stockwith at midday, prepared Annie and moved her across the basin to the slipway. The tractor had an articulated lorry trailer in the water, with five foot poles sticking up on either side. John guided Annie between the poles, leaving about four inches on either side, helped by Wilf's partner Deborah. As the trailer emerged, John had to keep Annie moving forward, until the boat was resting firmly on the trailer. John suddenly found himself about fifteen feet in the air, as trailer with Annie was pulled onto level ground close by the basin. He needed a long step ladder to get down!
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| Deborah seeing Annie onto the trailer and up the slipway |
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| Mick Ogden, who sells diesel and gas here, helping Deborah and Wilf. Thanks for the coffee! |
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| you can just see the tractor pulling Annie |
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| nearly there |
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| looking down from on high! |
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| you can see the rudder, largish propeller and long swim of Annie (the V bit of the hull) |
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| not much to jet spray off …. the steel hull looks almost unpitted and in great condition. |
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| more than half of the magnesium is still there on the sacrificial anodes. |
After finishing his work at 3pm, lock keeper young Wilf jet sprayed Annie's hull and bowthruster tube, watched with interest by John. The plan was to give her three coats of blacking, on Tuesday,
Wednesday and Thursday. John removed fenders and jet sprayed them at home.
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| hull, bowthruster tube and front anode before jetspraying |
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| before jetspraying, the tube looked surprisingly clean, thick and solid |
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| unusual view of Annie! |
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| young Wilf jetspraying Annie |
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| clean! |
Friday 26 October: Sacrificial anodes and painting
Wilf and Debs were finishing off the third coat when John popped in yesterday.
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| bottom blacked, but no anodes yet |
Removing the weed hatch cover, John cleaned off loose rust and dirt, and painted on two coats of iron oxide paint down the weed hatch, plus the rear deck hatch. He then used a fibre disc and drill to clean rust off the red and white painted panels around the stern of the boat. Finally, the red panels were given a coat of grey primer undercoat, while the white panel was given a coat of white primer undercoat. Annie looked much better.
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| blacked under the swim, too |
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| still lots of magnesium left |
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| shiny metal ready for welding anode brackets to |
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| looking good |
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| tube blacked, too |
Basically, magnesium sacrificial anodes welded to steel hulls dissolve in water, rather than the steel rusting: they are sacrificed, hence the name. Zinc is used in sea water, where magnesium would dissolve too quickly, as it is chemically more reactive than Zinc, which lasts longer.
Wilf waited for John to be present, in case welding caused a fire, externally or internally. Once the four 2.5kg magnesium anodes arrived at 2pm, Wilf, Deborah and friend John soon had them welded in position, 1/3 and 2/3 of the way along the hull side, just above the base plate, where anodes had been in the past. The existing anodes at bow and stern still had at least half of their magnesium, so we all thought spreading the new ones out would give better protection against rust. Deborah painted blacking around the newly welded anodes, while John checked for fire. Giving the blacking a whole weekend to harden, we agreed to put Annie back in the water on Monday.
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| one of the four new 2.5kg anodes welded and blacking added (second coat tomorrow) |
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| friend John with Wilf arc welding |
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| blacked and primed/undercoated stern :) |
John popped home to spend time with brother Phillip and Jackie, and catch up :)
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