Getting on with "Southam"

Nessie started work on the cabinsides. This was started pre pandemic and got stalled by that catastrophe. He then put his foot through the roof. I knew the roof needed renewing at the fore end but, unfortunately, it looks like we'll have to do the whole lot. When Nessie started removing the old roof, guess what! We found that the rot had spread into the other side, last renewed in 2010. Looks like that will need replacing too. "Oh it all makes work for the working man to do". 

 


The team have also started fitting the greenheart top strake that was prepared back in 2019.


We're doing all this work as economically as possible, using up stocks of wood, donated wood and reclaimed timber, but we still have to buy sealants, screws etc. It's amazing what that can mount up to nowadays. You can help by donating to our Go Fund Me.


https://gofund.me/9f6c11ab 


Here's some photos.



"Forget me Not"s Range

The range in Forget me Not's  back cabin obviously needed repair so we took it out.  When we moved it, it fell to bits. I believe new ranges are still available, but they cost thousands, so I asked Dave to rebuild it. Not possible he said. I left the bits in a wheelbarrow for over a year, then asked again. Dave seems to like declaring something impossible, then doing it anyway. Dave and Kim are now busy reconstructing the range.


The Cherry Tree

For as long as I can remember there's been a lovely cherry tree at Portland Basin. One day I arrived to do some work and found tree surgeons busy cutting it down. Apparently it's roots were interfering with the nearby new flats. Well, the tree was there first! 

There was nothing we could do to save it. Nessie had already blagged the branches for firewood (not that we're short). I was more interested in the trunk. I'm well aware of how cherry is sought after by furniture makers etc. The tree surgeons agreed to give us the trunk as well as the branches and we moved Forget me Not   forward so that we could load it all on to her deck.

It's sat there for a couple of months, but now it's in the way. We couldn't move it whole so I got out the chainmill to plank it.

Unfortunately the chainsaw suddenly packed up part way through the job (probably expensive) but we cut enough for now. Today me and Nessie took the planked pieces up to Stalybridge to be stacked and seasoned. We've kept the branches too as these will be of interest to woodturners. In a couple of years we'll advertise it all in the hope of selling it to woodworkers.


Getting on With It

Southam came out of the water on 28th December. As I write this we have  1 more day before she returns to her natural element. This phase of work is virtually done now. Next we have to install the engine and rebuild the cabin.

The main job so far  has been to strengthen up her stern end so that it will last, perhaps another 10 years, before we have to bite the bullet and rebuild it. Southam is a heavy boat and tends to sag over the blocks when taken out of the water. Last time she was out, in 2019, we replaced 4 straight sideplanks, but, as she emerged, there was a crack and the side bulged out at the point where the forward bulkhead of the back cabin used to be.

This part was weakened when the boat was converted back in 1965. The top bend of the stern was cut off, along with the back cabin, and an engine room built in its place. Now that the old planks were getting tired it gave way with the strain of being hauled out of the water.

Earlier in the year Nessie lined the inside of the stern with galvanised steel, donated by Benchmaster  Ltd of Mossley  https://www.benchmaster.uk/products/workbenches/ 

The plan now was to clad the exterior with overlapping sheets of steel,  bolted through to make a sandwich and all sealed with chalico. Chalico is a heady brew of pitch, tar and horse manure, all boiled up and mixed together to make a sticky waterproof sealant. At the point of weakness, heavier steel plate was to be bolted on, also sealed with chalico. The sagging sides were to be pulled in and a structure is being made to hold them in. Pulling the sides in proved to be more difficult than anticipated, largely because of the way the boat was supported. After jacking part of it up things got easier. As I write this a chain block is still in place, holding her in to 6'6". rather than the 7'9" that she attained when unrestrained. Perhaps the intended structure should be called a corset.
It's surprising how strong an old wooden boat re-enforced in this way can be, but we mustn't forget that after about 10 years it will need a proper rebuild, hopefully re-instating the top bends and back cabin at the same time. I'll be 81 by then so somebody else will have to do it.

We had a couple of problems slipping Southam , A lot of ballast had to be removed to get her on to the trolleys then, as she came up the slip, the stern end trolley started to slip from under the boat. It was OK though, she didn't fall off.


We've had an excellent team. Nessie, Kim, and Aaron. Now Tony Ellams and Helen Kanes have joined us. Dave Buxton has returned from his midwinter sojourn and has started work on making the 'corset'.

One of the Ashton Packet Boats crew enquired as to why we are asking for £5,000 to get Southam into service again. After all, he pointed out, we get our metal sheets for free (true) and our wood for free (partly true, we use as much reclaimed wood as practicable, some of which is free). I explained that installing the engine and building the cabin would cost a lot.  The last time we got a coupling repaired on Forget me Not's transmission it cost £300! Whilst some of the cabin building materials are free, if we want them to last every joint will need to be sealed and every surface painted. You soon get through £100 buying paints and sealants. Then, of course, there's time. We could just rely on volunteers to do the work, but that could drag on for years. In order to get it done in a reasonable timescale then we will need to employ someone to work on the project alongside volunteers.

With slipway fees included we've probably already spent getting on for £1000 already,  so, please chip in to the fundraiser.

Southam

Southam is a 'Big Ricky', built as a butty in 1936 for the Grand Union Canal Carrying Company. In 1965 she was converted and motorised in 1965. We bought her, sunk at Hillmorton, in 1992. By co-incidence, she's named after the town where I went to school when I was a kid.

 Since then she's been a very useful boat, but with periods out of use awaiting repair. Her latest period of disrepair has been about 10 years. We started work on her refurbishment in 2019, but completion was stymied by the covid pandemic and its aftermath.

For some time she has been in the arm at Portland basin, with fellow ricky Elton sunk alongside her. I thought she was trapped by the sunken boat so it seemed urgent to raise it. Again we failed. Again it was because one of the pumps wouldn't work. Lilith had to spend a couple of nights breasted up to the CRT work boat whilst we tried to raise Elton.

Nessie reckoned he could get Southam out. This he succeeded in doing. Southam is now free and waiting to go to Guide Bridge for slipping just after Christmas.

She looks a mess. She is a mess, but work is starting on her again. We just need more people to come and work towards her renaissance so that she can become a really useful boat again, towing, providing accommodation for volunteers, visiting waterway events and possibly becoming a mobile craft outlet.

                                                            MORE VOLUNTEERS NEEDED.

More money needed too-

https://gofund.me/b1cd6613 

Here's a picture of Southam in happier days. With your help  she'll soon be up and running again and doing a useful job.


A Haircut for Knowl St Garden.

It's usually October when we cut the hedges at Knowl St. This year it really needed doing, but, the complications of life got it put back to the very end of October.

Brian, Tom, Hayley and me set to work with all kinds of implements of destruction. As well as doing the front we removed the ivy etc that was spilling over on to the woodshelter. This revealed how dilapidated the woodshelter has become. It wasn't intended to last this long really, but we lost a few years with all the difficulties of 2016 to 2022. Never mind. Things are looking up again now. The woodshelter will get covered with a big tarpaulin for the time being.We could really do with a regular volunteer to pop in weekly to look after the garden and keep it looking nice though. Any offers?



Work on "Forget me Not"

"Forget me Not" needs a mid life overhaul, but she's needed for towing, and, anyway, we just don't have the resources just now to do it. However, the cabin has been in a disreputable state for far too long. Happily, Tony Ellams keeps showing up and quietly getting on with work on it. Here's a few pictures of what He's been doing lately. Could do with someone handy with a paintbrush to do the painting and signwriting next!  


Foliage.

The waterways have a foliage problem. Inevitably, every autumn trees and shrubs spread their seeds, and some of them land and germinate at the edges of the waterway. Once upon a time there were lock keepers and lengthsmen who would tend their allotted bit of waterway, cutting off or pulling up interlopers before they could get established. The age of the accountant put an end to such labour intensive practises and regular tending of a loved length of waterway was replaced with occasional  visits by teams of weed whackers and sprayers. Modern management don't like to employ people if they can possibly help it, so employees have been replaced with contractors, and, with the waterway grant support fast diminishing, their visits have become less and less frequent. 

The problem affects both rivers and canals. It would be impossible to use the towpath for its intended purpose on most rivers nowadays as there is a veritable forest between path and water. Horse haulage or bowhauling is getting increasingly difficult on the canals because of the size of the bushes on the towpath edge. On the outside sizeable trees are forcing boats to go so close to the towpath that they stem up. Low branches sweep loose articles off boat roofs. One of our volunteers had what could have been a serious accident when a branch caught in his lifejacket and nearly flung him off the stern of the motor into the path of the butty.

At the moment we have no functioning motor boat, so, we have to bowhaul. The towpath edge trees are a big problem. 

With a bowhauled Hazel trip coming up, we decided to tackle the foliage between Asda and the winding hole at Eli Whalley's that had been a problem on the last such trip. While I was using Facebook etc to organise a team, Nessie decided to just go and do it himself. When the team assembled the job was already done, so we decided to go and tackle the bushes beyond Walk Bridge, on the way towards Guide Bridge.

As we crossed the junction bridge, who should show up but the contractors with their big industrial strimmers. They went ahead of us whizzing off the tops of the plants and leaving the devastated brash in the water or on the towpath. If a bush extended too far out into the waterway they just left most of it.

Such treatment causes long term problems for the infrastructure, and short term problems for any hauled boats. If you're bowhauling or horse hauling a boat, bushes are bad, but truncated bushes are worse.

 A medium sized bush will bend beneath a rope as the boat is hauled along and eventually release it. A truncated stem of such a bush will snag a line and bring the boat completely to a stop.

If trees are allowed to grow, then cut back, they will throw out new shoots and grow again next year. with each year's growth the uncut portions, and the roots grow bigger. The strength of them is so great that they will force masonry apart, the eventual repair of which will be very expensive. A stitch it time saves nine.

Here's some pictures of the mess they made.

Our team followed after the contractors, cutting back the trees right to the roots and making nice habitat piles in the hedge from the offcuts. It was very slow and hard work though. We only got about 50 yards.

Once upon a time we did regular working parties for CRT. This stopped because of a combination of things. One was their excessive bureaucracy and their ban on us pulling rubbish out (no-one seems to know about this now, but it happened. You can't pull shopping trolleys out because it might disturb the wildlife). Then came covid, and we've generally struggled for volunteers since. It would be good to get back into it, particularly dealing with foliage and sunken rubbish. It would also be nice if someone other than me did the organising!


Murphy

Works4U is a school for young people with Autism in Stalybridge. They bought a small steel narrowboat called Murphy from Preston Brook. It's engine wasn't working so they had to arrange a tow. This got it to Castlefields. We arranged to bowhaul Murphy up the 27 locks from Manchester to Ashton.

Key to doing this was the remarkable Aaron Booth, who did most of the bowhauling, but the cast also included

Geraldine Buckley,

Glyn Ford,

Tony Ellams,

Brian Bloom,

Rhona Mapperley,

Helen Kanes

and Nessie.

Photos taken from the boat by Helen Kanes, from the land by me.

Canal St Lock

Between Canal St and  Chorlton St Lock the boat had to be shafted because the towpath is now the fashionable Canal St.

After Chorlton St the canal disappears into concrete caverns under modern office blocks.

We emerge from the gloom into Dale St Lock. The adjacent basin was once packed with trading boats, but is now a car park.

Geraldine and her miniscule dog were waiting on the lockside

Aaron was working the lock. Rhona had been steering.

Aaron had to shaft across the basin to the little rathole that is the entrance to the Ashton canal.

The interior of Murphy will need a bit of work.

We'd been concerned about getting through Lock 3 of the Ashton as contractors were supposed to be starting work that day and closing the canal. It's all part of a scheme to put a new bridge across the tail of the lock so that the heavy foot traffic from the tram stop won't be disrupted by people working the lock. It all looks rather over engineered to me. Bear in mind that making a ton of concrete releases 1.8 tons of CO2.

Several locks further up we got to the new Co-op Live concert venue, famous for it's opening fiasco.

On the other side of the canal is the Etihad, where more building work is in progress.

We carried on working upwards.

Rhona had to leave us as she had work in the afternoon.

The view down the flight can be quite dramatic.

We reached the summit at lock 18 shortly before dusk, Aaron forged ahead, hauling us at a fair lick, arriving at Portland Basin well after dark. A long day, but very enjoyable. We were lucky with the sunny winter weather.