Into the boat yard

8th & 9th September

Things usually start happening in the Braidbar yard from eight o'clock on, so we got up at around our usual time, and straight after breakfast started unloading the stuff from the roof into the well deck. The entrance to the yard under the towpath bridge is quite low, and we were aware that after all the rain, the level in the pound was quite high.

By half eight we were on the water point just outside, topping up the tank so as to bring the bow down as much as possible. The right hand side of the yard was empty and waiting for us, and for once both my turn to get in and the passage under the bridge went without a hitch.

By nine, Peter was burrowing under the back deck, disconnecting the Eberspacher so as to send it off for service. Quite apart from the excellent after sales service we've always had from Braidbar, I'm a great believer in getting the builder to do this sort of work, as it brings to light some of the design problems.

For Peter's sake we all went and hid at the other end of the boat so that he could express himself freely.

In the event, the Eberspacher came out quite without too much grief, with the sole exception that one of the clamps sealing the water hoses came undone at a critical moment and there was a brief spray of water into the engine bay.

The next task was much more substantial; removing the drive plate for examination and probable replacement. This involves removing the gearbox from the back of the engine, and took the rest of the morning. It looks quite simple when you examine the engine standing on a plinth at one of the shows, but it's a very different matter when the beast is installed in the bowels of a narrowboat.

The job was finally finished, and the effect of nearly 5800 hours of engine running became apparent. The plate was not actually about to fail, but I'll feel much happier boating down the tidal Trent next year knowing that a nice new one is in place.

Without an engine or central heating, we'll have to rely on the Squirrel stove for space heating, and kettles for hot water for a couple of days. If necessary, we can always use the shower in the bungalow if we get too odiferous.

In the afternoon, I finished work on the photo section of the quiz I'm planning for the Owners' weekend. This also meant that I could take the risk of uninstalling and reinstalling PhotoShop. Ever since upgrading the OS, it's been whinging that it wasn't properly installed whenever I started it, but still seemed to be working, so I'd decided to finish the project I was on before trying to sort it.

Having got two pages of photos printed out to my satisfaction, and the files saved as JPEGs (and thus printable from a variety of applications), I uninstalled PhotoShop and put it back on again.

Naturally, having gone to all this trouble to guard against disaster, it all went swimmingly, and now seems to be working as well as it ever did.

We spent the rest of the afternoon quite quietly. We've got shoreline power here, of course, (since we can't use the engine to recharge the batteries) and Sheila is taking advantage of the situation to catch up with the washing, using the tumble dryer function of the machine to do as much of the drying as possible, and drying the rest in front of the Squirrel.

Today we were up and about by half eight again, although we knew that nothing much would happen from the Sanity repair point of view until stuff starts coming back to be refitted. We've finished what should be Sheila's final task for the IWA National, namely recording the numbers of the individual prepurchased, complimentary and prize tickets. The completed spreadsheet was sent on its way by mid afternoon.

Maria lent us her hairdryer to finish the secondary double glazing film we'd started the other day, and it now looks very good. It's completely cured the condensation problem on the prisms; we'll just have to see how it stands up to a winter's use.

Other entertainments included helping Peter shuffle boats. The hire boat, Skye, was taken out of the yard, and Jack, which is waiting for collection, brought back in for the very finishing touches and snagging to be done. Jack is a gorgeous looking boat, in the same style as Braidbar 100: 70 foot long, Gardner engine, boatman's cabin, all the bit. She also has a bow thruster; no reason why she shouldn't, of course, but it does seem incongruous when combined with such a trad stern.

I guess it fits the design philosophy of that class of boat, which is to have an up to the minute, modern boat from the bow to the start of the engine 'ole, and then a traditional engine 'ole and boatman's cabin.

Apart from this, all was quiet; Luisa called in on her way to do some paperwork in the office, and we had a natter. I was just settling down to do this blog when Peter turned up with the new drive plate.

Looking at it just confirmed how right we were to change it. As I type, he's making a start on the refitting by attaching it to the engine output shaft. As they say in the Haynes manuals, "replacement is a direct reversal of disassembly," and that's as ironic with boat engines as it is with cars.

In any event, the job can't be finished until tomorrow, as bits of it require more than one person swearing at it at the same time, and everyone else has gone home.