Irene Rebuild                                          

Page Three

8th October 2004 

"Some of the wreckage of the stern. Important as templates in the rebuild"

Framing has been fast and furious over the summer. The portside is nearly complete except for the stern. The planking on the starboard side is being taken away to facilitate the framing there. A network of temporary beams are holding the frames in place and considerable care has been taken to ensure symmetry. Irene always had a very pretty sheer. Over the years however with the inevitable hogging of old age, the sheer flattened by some three to four inches both fore and aft. In addition the stern developed a droop, which although corrected in the late 70’s it again was giving cause for concern. The upshot of that is that there is no reason we should not put the sheer back as she was at her launch. Her fore deck will be some 4” higher and the stern will be about 8” higher. The main debate has been the nature of the curve in between. Once that is settled we will be able to proceed with the stern framing. 

The stern post was burnt at the top and had over the years collected some spaces, some scarfs and some rot and we have therefore taken the opportunity to replace 8’ at the top in one big hunk of timber.

When we see how much oak is going into one ship we begin to understand why, when Samuel Pepys wanted to build a navy, England was denuded of its oak forests.

"Shipwrights moulding frames"

( Hogging is a term used to denote the bending of an old ship in which both ends droop.  This is because the main flotation of the ship is in the middle, and without ballast or cargo the ends, which have relatively little flotation but a lot of weight in the way of engines, anchors and anchor chain, will create a permanent droop over a number of years.)

 12th October 2004 (Update)


Meanwhile our engineer Andy, has been busy on the engines. The twin Gardners were salvaged from the wreck intact except for the aluminium that had melted. They were cleaned of the salt water, dismantled and dropped in oil. It was Andy’s job to get the parts required and simply rebuild them. He however took a more cautious approach concerned that the intense heat could well have affected the crystalline structure of the remaining metal. With a few feelers out he located two other Gardners immobile and rusting away. He was confident they could be reconditioned and would be more reliable than the fire stricken salvage. Logical maybe but he was up against an incurable romantic who believed there was something poetic about rebuilding the original engines and installing them.

Andy however was unmoved and while not actually refusing to rebuild Irene’s engines set to work on the pair he had acquired. My opposition never strong was completely annulled when he informed me that the pair he had were 6LXB 180 horsepower against the old 129. I was immediately converted to his point of view showing how readily power disposes of principle.
 

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