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[Robin smith]

Looks fantastic what you are doing!! Regards Robin

[slinger]

Thanks for kind words Robin, it is taking me longer than I thought it would do?
Cheers Graham

[slinger]

The last few days I have been painting the funnel, vents and most of the deck/cockpit fittings ready for fitting.

Today, I finally got the funnel, vents and the hand rails fitted on the engine room casing.  Also have been fitting the cockpit with the engine controls along with the windscreen on the cockpit.  I have left the masking tape on the windscreen to protect from it from any superglue that seems no matter how careful I am attracted to it like s@** to a blanket

The next task will be to fit the support brackets to the kickboards and mark the position of the stanchion's?  I will also make a start to the gratings for the cockpit deck?
Graham

[Neil]

 

[slinger]

Why is it when we get a bit of fine weather, S.W.M.B.O's get the urge to decorate, this time the stairs and hallway.   Don't they realise that we have important things to occupy our time, like building boats..

Anyhow,  after again checking the deck height in the cockpit using the figure I want as coxswain, I found that it was to high so I have managed to get the cockpit deck off and take out the framework that I had put in to raise it and lowered it by 10mm.  By doing this I had to take off and re-position the engine controls etc. on the bulkhead.

I have also made the bench seating and started on the grating's and coxswain raised steering position, which is now at the right height. I hope?

Graham

[Neil]

why didn't you just chop 10 mm off his legs graham..........much easier

[slinger]

Hi did consider that Neil, but then thought of what I would have to cut off the two motor men OUCH!! ***

Did you get to the vintage boat rally at Fleetwood today?  I wanted to but other things cropped up, same for tomorrow

Graham

[Neil]

yes I did Graham......took a few photos of some nice boats........will post them for you . neil.

[slinger]

Since my last post, I have managed to finish the gratings and bench seating for the cockpit and have started on the steering column and steering wheel.   I am not happy with the 60mm wheel as I think it looks to small when in position so I am going to replace it with a 65mm one.

I have also added the 1.6mm brass screw eyes for the grab lines down both sides.  I will be using 3mm ones as securing points for the bow and stern rope fenders.

[slinger]

It has been a long time coming but today we had the naming ceremony along with adding the station name on the stern .  After they were added to the hull, I gave it six coats of  lacquer  so will leave that a couple of days to harden off.  It all seems to be coming together at last

One question for anybody reading this is that looking at the old photo's I have of lifeboat crews in the early 50's and my recollection of my early years, am I correct in thinking that the oilskins the crew wore were black and the cork/kapok lifejackets were brown? Any help will be much appreciated?
Slinger

[Neil]

looking magnificent graham.......just super..................you'll have to bring her up to Fleetwood for a sail on the lake.

neil.

[Duncan]

One question for anybody reading this is that looking at the old photo's I have of lifeboat crews in the early 50's and my recollection of my early years, am I correct in thinking that the oilskins the crew wore were black and the cork/kapok lifejackets were brown? Any help will be much appreciated?

I have been looking into this for my Watson build. According to mum, the oilskins were a biege colour in this time period, her dad retired in 1957 from Shoreham. I believe the black ones were earlier - I do not know when the change over occurred. The only colour photo I have seen is of the John Pyemont in the Lifeboat Directory by Leach and Denton p53, which was only on station for about 18 months as it was destroyed by bombs in 1941. I was thinking of using a colour like artist yellow ochre as a match for this biege. I recall reading somewhere that the brighter yellow came in the 60s with synthetic materials. The cork lifebelts were introduced in 1854 and the kapok ones in 1906. So It must be kapok in the 50s.

By the way, I'm enjoying your excellent build.

Regards Duncan

[slinger]

Thanks for the information and kind words Duncan.  My father was bowman on the S.G.E. at Yarmouth I.O.W. from the end of the war up to the early 60's when he had to finish due to illness.

The photo below is the only one I have of the crew, my father is second from left.  As you can see, it shows the lifejackets but they are wearing their normal clothes.

Graham

[Duncan]

Same at Shoreham, most of the time they wore their normal clothes and the oilskins were only worn in bad weather. They all seemed to have some navy Guernseys to wear though. Also, grandad would only go to sea in shoes and not boots as he believed that boots would drag you under if you fell overboard. Apparently he was washed overboard twice during his time so he should know.

Regards Duncan

[slinger]

Been a while since I put anything on about the build, as I mentioned at the start of this blog, it will not be a blow by blow account but can be achieved by following Neil's blog as a guide and his excellent help for which I thank him

Since my last post, I have been busy trying to finish her ready for the Haydock show next weekend.  To this end I have most of the fittings now sorted.  Mast and rigging on along with the navigation and mast headlights, which are working as can be seen in the dark photo.  Coxswain and one crew member painted and are ready to sail.
 
She is almost finished now just one more side guard rails to fit so I let the photo's show what has been done to date.
Graham