Having two boats with four chimney's in total it becomes rather costly at times. Due to a few being claimed by low trees, bridge holes and of course rot.

I thought having the equipment, I would have a bash at making my own, nothing special to start with, just galvanized sheet and pop rivets.

The brass, is sheard from 1mm sheet and the handle rescued from an old chimney.

It is actually tapered to the top but it doesn't show on the photo.

More Kelson

While sat watching paint dry, I thought I'd better do something else.

So fixing another length of kelson to the bottom was in order.

Due to the boat having a steel bottom, I decided the way to do this was, to weld 2 x 2 angle irons to the bottom and bolt the 2in thick Pitch pine kelson to the angles. This would then give me the required 4ins for the depth of floor and, also, give the bottom some rigidity and allow any water free access without touching the timber.

More scraping and painting

After a couple of weekends away doing other things, we're back in the bottom of the boat scraping off the old crud applied years ago by various owners.

We are trying a rust converter which is used in Locomotive preservation, hopefully it will stop the corrosion getting any worse and also create a barrier between the new paint and the bare metal. It's 70 quid a gallon so I hope it works.

Looking at the picture above you can see the white, which is the newly applied and the black/brownish that has reacted with the rust and created a sort of resin type coating.

Having now done a couple of years with a Gardner 4L2 complete with No.2 reversing box, which is a good reliable motor but, not for this type of boat, it's time to put somthing more appropriate in the engine 'ole.

A few months ago an Armtrong Siddeley came up for sale. After a bit of asking round, found these to be a reasonable motor and would fit nicely in Dove. This would then enable us to fit the bottom tank and the correct day tank.

Got the deck board and cratch built now, we've just put some temprary cloths on for now, just to keep the weather out.

Thought I'd have a go at putting the strings on, just see what it looked like.

Been quite busy the past few weeks, started at the front end with the flooring boards and kelson. you'll also see we've got the brackets riveted in and all painted up.

Mast and Stands

While at Braunston this year, Martin off "kestrel" very kindly donated a mast case. It needed some attention but is quite sound.
Also, a while ago the "Trouts" that's Dave and Karen off ex-FMC Trout, gave us a pair of stands that were surplus to their requirments. So, now we're getting the cross beams in, I thought it's time to splash a bit of paint about.
Turned out quite well, to say I'm no painter. Not sure about the blue though. I suppose some body will comment about it and put me right.

Remains of "Caggy"

After the wrestling match with the brackets, I thought we'd move back and remove more of Dove's history, that is when "Caggy" Stevens had it.


These were well over engineered gussets welded to 6x3 channels and then welded to the sides and bottom.

Riveting

Had a good weekend, made and fitted the Mast Cross beam brackets. Not an easy task due to the years of bodging, rivet holes plated over, bolts welded in and old rivets just welded up.

Phase 2 of the restoration begins

Just getting the hang of this blogging lark, thought I might record our progress with Dove.

After running round like this for 12 months, we thought it was time to get on with the running gear. That is, Cratch, mast, stands and all the other bits needed to make the boat look like it should.