Return to Stoke Bruerne

Flooding the dry dock

Apologies but I didn't take many photos today - some more may be forthcoming from either Rob or Steve in the next few days.

Sculptor is now back in Stoke Bruerne after an 8 hour trip from Braunston.

We had the opportunity to thank Tim Coghlan for his hospitality before we left at 09:30.  We were gongoozled by Julia and Richard (Towcester, Bideford and Lactodorum) as Towcester was in dry dock at Union Canal Carriers.

There's still a little work to do but mainly some gloss paint and the like.

Link to images of refloating Sculptor are here.

Dry Docking Day 3

The tunnel bands looking resplendent in
Deep Red and White

The 'black hand' gang having their
Sunday breakfast L to R Steve, Richard
and Phil

All going according to plan.  The front cants have been undercoated in blue (final colour midnight blue).  The planks have had a second coat of Raddle Red - final colour will be midnight blue in the spring, the tunnel bands have been painted and the hull has been given a second coat of blacking - in the difficult places a third coat.

We are ready for refloating on Monday morning at 08:00 and hope to be back at Stoke Bruerne around 17:30.

Link to day's images is here.

Volunteer hours 28 (total 532 to date).

Dry Docking Day 2

All the preparation of yesterday turned into action today.  Blacking was the order of the day with attention paid to the guards and any gaps around them to be filled with blacking, followed by rolling on blacking to the flatter areas, including of course the rudder and the area around the swim.

At the same time undercoat was applied to the tunnel bands and the fore end rubbed down and primed, as were the planks.

We will need to undercoat the fore end tomorrow, put another coat of blacking on the hull which will leave us to put a glass coat on the fore end when we arrive back in Stoke Bruerne.

A link to today's images is here.

Volunteer hours 32 (total 504 to date).

Dry Docking Day 1

And all you can see when Sculptor is
in the water is the little piece at the top
of the rudder

It’s some years since Sculptor was dry docked and re-blacked so we decided to book her in to Braunston, who look after us so well.

26/27/28-September were the dates available so she was booked in.

On 25-September Rob, Mike and Steve left Stoke Bruerne at 08:30 to take her to Braunston – a trip of about 8 to 9 hours.  They timed their arrival perfectly to find the dry dock ready for them so Sculptor was left in the dry dock over night but floating so as not to let all the muck on her sides dry out overnight and become much more difficult to remove.

Volunteer hours 27 (total 432 to date).

On Friday morning ‘the boys from the black stuff’ (Steve Dean, Mike Gardner, Richard (Tunnel Band Man) Cox and Rob Westlake) were there and drained the dry dock and set to to:

• Inspect the hull and the wooden bottom - pass
• Pressure wash the hull
• Rub down the cants at the front of the boat
• Remove all the paint (tunnel bands) from the rear of the counter and prime

It’s all been done and tomorrow we plan to give Sculptor a coat of blacking and attend to the undercoat on the tunnel bands and the front cants.

Sculptor is due back in Stoke Bruerne on Monday afternoon - 29-September

Volunteer hours 40 (total 472 to date).

A link to my photos of today is here

Sculptor in the news - ITV Anglia

One of the air shafts shown on the video

Recently Steve Dean and myself took Sculptor through Blisworth tunnel on behalf of the Canal & River Trust in order that ITV Anglia could produce a news item; this was following Dr Nigel Crowe's (CRT Head of Heritage) interview on Radio Northampton in which he was interviewed about the Red Wheel unveiling.

If you click here you can see the news item - apologies for the startled faces of the crew in the tunnel but television lights in the darkness, when trying to see where you are going, is quite a challenge! I hope everyone enjoyed it as much as we did.

The slide is now blue again

The slide on Kathryn's kitchen table

After what seems quite some time when the slide was painted in primer (and following a lot of preparation work from Phil) the slide is now back in its old colour of Mason's P Midnight Blue - I have undercoated it - undercoat kindly supplied by Mike Partridge of Stock Bruerne Boat Co and finally glossed it (2 coats each of undercoat and gloss). Woe betide anyone who puts a hot cup of tea or coffee on it!

Volunteer hours 6 (total 405 to date).

Getting rid of a bad smell

For some reason the ballast tanks by the back end boards started to smell (really quite badly) recently. Today Steve D and Mick G pumped around 75% of the content of of each ballast tank out, poured 3 litres of bleach (lemon scented!) into each ballast tank and refilled them.

Smell gone and things are much better now.

Volunteer hours 10 (total 399 to date).