Saturday 21 December 2019

Going to need a bigger bucket Pappa.


July 2019.

Admiral of the fleet CW and Able Seaman Hadley made a voyage to Wooton Creek which for one of them at least was a voyage of epic proportions not seen since the days when  Jason set sail with his astronauts to fleece the Turks, or something. 
CW on the other hand took it easily in his stride.

The tale of Paulie crossing the bar, wind against tide and with at least two sheets to the wind is not mine to tell, but I was simultaneously having a mini disaster of my own at the other end of the harbour.

I had decided to sail out to meet the fleet returning, wind swept and haggard from distant lands so I launched The Heron at Itchenor.  I noticed there was a bit of water in the bilges but decided this had come in with my shoes and thought no more about it. 



Ten minutes later there was a bit more water down there and I was beginning to take a bit more notice.  Another ten minutes and a good way out towards East Head and it was starting to come up over the floor boards. 
It had my fullest attention. 

All the while, over to the south east, the sky was taking on a leaden hue and the sea had gone black with a frilly topping of spume, nice. 

Now we were creaming along on starboard, hard on the raising wind with an increasing amount of water coming up between the floor boards, it was time to make my mind up.

Whether to push on for East Head and bale her out on the beach, hove to and bale her here, turn tail and run. I wasn't going to make East Head without putting in at least a couple of tacks and I wasn't sure what state the boat would be in by then, I didn't have a lot of sea room for heaving to, and the weather looked as if it would get worse before it got better.  So, just as Paulie was bouncing over the bar, I pushed the tiller down and ran. 

Back on the hard at Itchenor I pushed the trolley under the boat and waited for the falling tide to do its thing. I watched as several gallons of sea water flowed to the stern and out the drain holes.


Back home I discovered a split in the garboard along the keelson. This was probably caused by the bucket containing the anchor and chain bouncing on the road trailer. 



Poking with a stick reminded me of my first car, a Ford Anglia 105E with sills made of chicken wire and filler. The more I poked the more soggy wood fell out.
I eventually cut the ply back to solid wood leaving a gaping hole between the frames and runners.



I let in some of Robbins finest 6mm ply, scrap pieces from the Morbic Kit and fairly soon she was good to go. 


Bearing in mind I bought the Heron as a Inbetweener to have something to sail while building the Morbic, I was now wondering why I didn't buy a fibreglass boat. 

Hey Ho.  we live and sometimes learn. 
The main thing was to have a boat to sail at the DCA Cobnor week.
And here is helmswoman Brooke guiding us towards East Head while Pappa rows. 


I told her to aim for the Big Red Buoy.

She did. 

We hit it. 










1 comment:

Bursledon Blogger said...

Graham,

I had a similar although less extensive problem with a very old wooden wayfarer - rot in the floor, leaky center board case and the mast glue joint failed (plus it sank but that's another story).

Good thing is these old boats are easy to fix with epoxy and bits of scrap ply. But you might just have stopped me buying an old GP 14 as a knock about dinghy.

For some unfathomable reason I have a wooden Heron mast, boom and gaff if you're every in need of a spare.


Have a good Christmas

Max