Irene Rebuild                                          

 
Page Sixteen

11 November 2007

While on the grid there was a limit to what we could do to the hull below the water line. Twice a day muddy water would be deposited and had to be washed off, hull left to dry before any filling, stopping, paying, painting, you name it could be done. The obvious answer was to go to Alan Toms slip in Polruan and it was a good excuse to take the Old Girl out to sea.

First engine trials, down river was satisfactory enough to justify a cruise on the big wide ocean.

On her own power after 4 years

The Brunel bridge======================Opening up down river

We are, of course, not truly seaworthy – temporary hatch covers, absence of bulwarks, no navigation lights and so on - but we made sure that we had a competent steering engine, workable windlass and chain and anchor to go with it. The bowsprit was secured by a hotch potch of rigging and we carried enough pumps to ensure that sinking was unlikely. We got the OK from the Long Room to motor through their military waters and it so happened that the day we chose was practice day for the Navy. In terms of the Anglo/Cornish war it was a little one sided, but the fleet was tolerant enough to observe us through to the harbour mouth. We would after all only have blocked their channel had they decided to sink us. The day was chosen well;; it was sunny, calm and a good Spring ebb to swirl us down to Fowey Harbour.

Progress in tow======================Approaching Fowey

On Tom's buoy

The Slip was not ready for us and meanwhile the Progress, which turned out to need quite major attention to deck and deck beams, was lifted out of the water and work started on that. Eventually all was clear. Irene nosed her way on to the sledges and was duly hauled up ‘til her bowsprit made a triumphal arch over Alan Tom’s yard gateway. A good pressure wash was followed by a skim with Nigel’s multi-bladed planer/skimmer. We could now get a much better picture of the state of the planking, the seams, dubious iron fastenings and importantly areas that needed extra trunnels. The bottom was, in fact, very sound and we were relieved to see that there were no major problems to deal with. We filled, stopped, payed, trunnelled and sorted out the rudder ‘go quickly’ panels, stem-plates for the cut-water chain and we were ready for the airless spray. It is daunting to see how the whole hull can receive a thick coat in half an hour – a process that would take a couple of days with a roller or brush. Five coats and the painting done, the Irene was released back to her proper element, to sit again in pride of place in the middle of Fowey harbour, waiting for enough tide to be able to return to Bagmill without too many arguments with the Lynher mud.

In the event the return trip was smooth and uneventful, right up until the mud of the creek, when the tide wasn’t quite high enough for her to get back into her grave. It was high enough the following day and she now sits in her berth and cleared of all the extra gear that had to go down to Fowey, ready for the next stage.
 

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