Nice shiny paintwork

 26 September to 10 October

Blackstone went into the dry dock at Worsley for two weeks for painting. The painting was done by Bernard Todd from Chorley, with Carl blacking the bottom and helping out with the preparation work. After the stretch she had a big red patch, so everyone knew that she had been stretched. When she came out of dry dock, there was no sign of the stretch! She is looking very pretty now.



Big red patch



After the stretch, Carl intended to paint over the red patch at our berth in the marina.

However, as the weather was so unpredictable he only got as far as undercoating it before we decided it would be quicker and easier to hire the dry dock.

 

 First job was to power wash the bottom ready for blacking

 

Then she was rubbed down and undercoated.

Then two coats of gloss.

 

Next the lines and scrolls...........

 

   

the fancy work on the bow........ 

then the signing..........  

  

 and she is finished.

 

Look - no red patch!

To the dry dock for painting

Since getting Blackstone back from Swanley Carl has been trying to paint the "new" bit. Every time he went to the marina to work on it rain stopped play! In the end he was so fed up with not getting anywhere we decided to book the dry dock at Worsley and have the whole boat re painted.

Carl cruised up to Altrincham to meet Liz on Friday afternoon. We have been having trouble with diesel bug this year and the fuel pump filter regularly needs changing. Carl changed the filter on Friday afternoon. Unfortunately, when he put the fuel pump back on the engine a wire sparked and fell off. We were without a fuel pump. It was five o'clock, so we had no way of getting a new one until Monday. We resigned ourselves to missing the dry dock.

Everything related to the stretch seemed to be jinxed. (We broke down on the way to Swanley resulting in a large bill for labour from RCR even though we are members; the washer on the shower tap went, resulting in lots of water in the bilges and the shower being dismantled; there was a problem with the windows fitted at Swanley so we had to order and fit new ones when we got back; the engineer at Swanley dropped our boat keys in the canal and despite fishing with the magnet we could not find them; we broke down twice on the way back from Swanley; we missed our slot with the boat fitter because we were stuck at Swanley for so long; we got the diesel bug; and now we had broken down again!!!)

While Liz was sorting out her dad on Saturday morning, a couple passed on their boat, Ariel, on their way to Castlefields. When Carl told them our problems, they offered to detour to Worsley and give us a tow. They set off before Liz got back, so she had to run along the tow path to catch up with them! We could not believe our luck. It is wonderful how helpful boaters are to each other.

Liam on Ariel towing Blackstone

We got to Worsley for lunch time Saturday and went into the dry dock about 10.00am on Sunday. We are all ready for the painting to start on Monday. Lets hope nothing else goes wrong.

Safely in the dry dock.

Ouch!

Blackstone is still at Swanley Bridge Marina, waiting to be finished off. It's nearly done, but there is a problem with the windows that still needs sorting out. The Boat Safety Certificate needed renewing and we got a nasty shock when we got the bill. We knew that the cost of the certificate had gone up on April 1st, but we were not expecting to pay £140 - this was almost twice the cost of the last one - nasty shock for the wallet. Yet another boating cost that has risen well above inflation.

The Stretch

The saloon all stripped out ready for the stretch, just the floor to take up.

Out of the water, into the workshop.

Windows out, ready for the cut.

The inside sealed up to keep the rest of the inside clean. Strengthening bars in place so that the boat doesn't warp when it is cut.

First cut, through the roof.............

..............and then the sides

Very neat cuts. Staggered to add strength.

The stretch begins.

Getting longer................

.................and longer.....................

.............. almost 3 metres longer!

The base plate and one side in place.

The other side goes into place.

One side of the cabin.

Both cabin sides and the roof supports.

Waiting for the new roof.

Roof on, windows in.

Bottom blacked, primer applied and back in the water.

Blackstone is now almost 52 feet long - I'm not sure we can see that far!

Inside painted. All ready for fitting out. What a lot of extra room!