The past week Northwich Dry Dock

Well we came into drydock Saturday morning before 9 am, by lunchtime Matt had pressure washed the hull sides and bottom.

I had removed the remains of the anode from inside the bow thruster tube as it only bolts in and I have a new one ready to fit, post painting.

Old One

New one

Saturday afternoon I removed the damaged skin fitting from the starboard bow, this is where the deck drains through and is fairly well protected by the guard irons.

 

Sunday morning Matt came and gave the hull sides and bottom a coat of 2 pack Jotamastic 90 ALU primer.

Monday Morning and we have Matt and Rebekah were both hard at work putting a coat of Jotamstic 90 black on the sides of the hull and base plate. They had their dog with them, but it didn’t look to be helping them much.     

Tuesday Matt came and gave the boat a final coat of paint Jotun Pioner TC to retain the black at 2 pack paints tend to fade in the sunlight.

Wednesday Not a very successful day, I wanted to change the rudder bearing but failed to remove the swan neck, I even had a puller made up to help. I will have another try when the boat is in the water. Last time it came free by accident, I reversed the boat without tightening the swan neck securing bolt, the rudder swung hard over and the joint jumped free, I may try that again.
I did do a bit of touch up to the tunnel bands, sanding the rust and treating with cure rust and priming followed by a coat of white.
Matt came and blacked the bowthruster tube.

Thursday I fitted the new anode to the bowthruster tube, it bolts in and a chap turned up and fitted 4 new weld on anodes, he said I really needed another three on each side. A little later Matt turned up to touch up the black around the welds.
Another coat of white on the tunnel bands and touched up the tiller where someone came to close behind me on the BCN some time ago and ran their bows against it.

Friday, good job all the outside work is finished as we woke to rain, I did a couple of jobs inside, During the afternoon two boat came down the weir stream and moored at the mouth of the drydock ready to come in on Saturday morning when we leave. I removed the shore supply and the temporary drains we had fitted to keep sink and shower water off the fresh paint. They weren’t really needed as we bailed everything out in buckets and poured them away

Saturday. The chaps arrived just after 8am on a lovely sonny morning, all the odds and ends were removed from the lock and our mooring line adjusted so we were now held by three taut lines, 2 yard lines at the stern and our mooring line at the bows. When a boat goes on dock, 2 lines are attached to the stern tied off to ether side of the mouth of the dry dock, a third line is attached to the bows, this runs to a pulley at the end of the dock and has a 56lbs weight on the end, so that as the lock empties the line automatically pays out landing the boat in the right spot.  I handed over our paperwork and gate key to returned to Harnser before the access stairs were lifted out of the dock with the traveling crane. Then the sluice was opened letting the Weaver back in.

Filling the dock

   Once the dock was full the two boats waiting above were moved back a few feet and the gate lifted.∟

Once up it was turned at right angles to the dock and traversed to one side. The stern lines were dropped off, the bow mooring rope released to allow us to reverse out one at a time back into the weir stream. Thankfully there was next to no flow as I went out through the gap left by the boats waiting to come in and turn broadside onto the weirs as I turned through 180° and head back onto the river.

Our journey continues