Down to the wire

Things can be right stressful sometimes.

Take these new cookers we bought. Brand spanking new New World freestanding gas cookers. Nice looking things in Silver, shiny, clean and new. Did I mention that they are new?

Well, these new cookers failed a boat safety test on Thursday on a boat that's due out on holiday on Friday. The oven burners were producing an orange flame which our gas/boat safety examiner found to be totally unacceptable. We checked the oven jet was clear and also checked it against the manufacturers spec to ensure it was the right jet for LPG. Sure, it was, the oven is only designed to run on LPG.

We had two cookers, one on the boat, the other in store, still in it's wrapping. So, we manhandled the failing one out of the boat, put in the new one and the same fault.

At this stage, there's less than 24 hours before this boat is due to go out and we've got no cooker on board. The stress levels were rising.

A phone call to the manufacturers and the lady couldn't promise me that I'd be seen before the bank holiday. Joy. Now the options were simple; find a cooker that worked and fitted or... Well, that was it really.

We had an old cooker in store but it didn't have Flame Failure Devices on the burners so would have been illegal to refit after having one with FFDs. Tony Urwin from Banks Boats (our Gas and BSS man) got on the phone around some yards as did I. Between us, we located a couple of cookers and it was one of my neighbouring yards that came to my rescue with an old Stoves Vanette, complete with FFDs. It was a bit battered but after removing a panel or two, a couple of blows with a rubber mallet on an anvil soon straightened it out. Then it was out with the new and in with the old and with Tony (pulling out all the stops on his day off) due back with us at 3pm just an hour before the boat was due on holiday, we got it in. Tony arrived on time, tested the cooker and wrote out the Boat Safety paperwork.

In the mean time, the Stoves engineer had actually arrived and was saying that these cookers do burn with an orange flame and that it was pretty normal and had passed the tests like that with no evidence of sooting up. That was until he looked at the two new units we had; he too said that he wouldn't pass them as safe and that we really should take them back for a refund! Later, after he had spoke with his HQ, he explained that the cookers are quite normal to burn as they did during his tests and that the manufacturer could provide a document proving it! Now, we seem to be faced with a dilemma - keep the wretched things and have to produce a bit of paper each year to try and convince a gas engineer that it burning wrong is normal and that he's talking out of his hat when he says he's not going to pass it or try for a refund.

I'll be on the phone to the supplier on Tuesday.....

Summer's here!

This coming Saturday promises to be one of the hottest, sunniest days of the year so far and what a great build-up to the Whitsun holiday it's going to be. We've got a few boats leaving on holiday this weekend and have a few out already. Our customer feedback this year had been very positive overall and our booking levels are up on last year. Some vessels, notably Song of Freedom have surpassed our expectations; there's just three nights left to sell for June 2010!

Sadly though, you can't please everyone and, purely to provide some balance to this posting, we had some customers out for two nights over the last weekend who absolutely hated the boat and came back with some choice phrases about it. In fairness, a couple of thing did go wrong (about half of which was a direct result of the customer's intervention) but the customer chose not to telephone us to get them fixed and, instead, complained when they returned the boat (more than three hours late, I might add). I really can't fathom why they didn't call as one of their issues was that the domestic water pump wasn't working and with 9 people on board (one a 2 year old) and no water, it's difficult to see how they managed. What's worse is that the problem was as simple as one of the party having turned the pump off via the isolator switch.

It's so disapointing when people decide not to call; we have a dedicated fault reporting service monitored by a number of people, specifically so that we can deal with problems quickly and efficiently. Most customers will report things quickly but there's a few who'll not mention anything until they return when there's nothing we can do to assist.

So, a plea. Please, if you have any questions, concerns or faults to report, please let us know as soon as possible and we'll do what we can to get a speedy resolution.

Fair Freedom

Progress is still steady but we're horrendously behind on the boat and now have people working long hours on it to get it ready for Whitsun. We've just taken recepit of new headlining material today which we'll be fitting to cabins over the next few days. The outside is in the process of being painted now and the first couple of coats of undercoat are on.

We've got a replacement engine to fit and we're waiting for a local engineering company to produce an adaptor plate so we can connect the hydralic pump to the flywheel.

There's a couple of new cabinets being fitted; one to the saloon and one in the twin cabin and new flooring will be laid too.

Whitsun

The Whitsun week is looking very busy. Pretty much all our boats are booked for the week with the only availablity being to Day Boats and the occasional picnic boat. We still have availability at some of the holiday cottages, so if you're looking to get away, we can do a deal for a cottage and you'll also get 10% off day hire too. Plus, if you're a Facebook Fan, you'll get two free bottles of wine if you book a cottage or boat today (19th May 2010). Take a look at www.NorfolkCottageHolidays.com for availability and pricing.

A little history

The Broads, for me, have been a life-long love affair. My first holiday was on board Brooklyn Bridge, an aft-cockpit cruiser from Bridgecraft in Acle at the tender age of about six months. That was my parent's first Broads excursion too and the beginning of many years of boating and chalet holidays.

Over the years we rented countless boats from many yards, most of which are no longer around. I honestly can't remember all the boats or companies we rented from, but here's a few: An Aston Thames class vessel (possibly even the boat that was to become Rambling Freedom) from Loddon, an Horizon 35 from Acle, Connoisseur from Porter and Haylett, a sedan style boat from Womack, Dawn Supreme, a Bounty 35 or 37 from Wroxham, a Caribbean from FB Wildes just after Guinness took over and lord knows how many more.

Some years we'd hire a chalet from Potter Heigham's Riverside Rentals and a day boat from Maycraft. We probably had six or seven chalets in our time and my grandparents would often share the holiday with us. Many great times can be recalled and a few sad ones too. One year, we'd arrived in the most horrendous thunder storm. Fork lighting cut through the darkened afternoon clouds - it should have been seen as an omen. My nan had recently discharged herself from hospital in London to come on holiday, and just one or two days into the holiday, she passed away.

We stayed away from the Broads the next year as the memories were just too vivid and I just don't remember coming back for quite some time.

Many years later, after I lost my Mum, my Dad decided to buy a cruiser and get back to enjoying the rivers. This was in 1992 and we spent weeks trawling around boat yards on the Broads looking for a suitable boat; I recall viewing a stunning timber vessel at Percival's in Horning; it was the right price but we (sensibly) went with our head and not our heart and chose something else.

Eventually, we plumped for a Freeman 23 and managed to mix GRP with a classic wooden interior. Sadly, though, the Boat was not on the Broads but on the Ouse in Cambridgeshire. This ended up working well as it was a much shorter journey for my Dad who lived in London and for me as I lived in Bedfordshire. The shorter journey made it easier to use the boat and most weekends in the summer were spent on-board. We never changed the name her and, to this day, our first boat is still in the family. She's looking a little dejected now as most of my time is spent on the Freedom fleet, but she's got a new coat of paint on the hull is looking better than she has for many years. Time permitting, I'll polish the GRP superstructure this year, renew all the window rubbers and maybe even get the fittings re-chromed. Her name?

Dragonfly, of course.

All hands on deck

After a very busy Easter, things have quietened down a bit but staff illness (and some idleness (taken care of)) is keeping us on our toes.

We've got more people now working on Fair Freedom which, whilst not looking hugely different from before (hence no photos), is progressing nicely again. It's almost ready for a mist-coat of undercoat and final filling, sanding and then the full repaint. Once the gloss is on and dried, we'll start refitting all the windows (some of which have been refurbished) and re-engine her. Refitting of cabins is also underway.

Fleet Improvements
We've recently re-carpeted Rambling Freedom and Real Freedom and plan to do the same with Absolute Freedom and Flight of Freedom in the coming weeks. also put lino in the cockpits of Pure Freedom 1 & 2 and recarpet the cabins also.

Absolute Freedom has had a new CD Radio unit fitted which includes an Aux-in socket for MP3 players (and will play MP3 from CDs too). 


True Freedom has had a brand new cooker installed and Tranquil Freedom was finally finished in time for Easter. The emerging work on Tranquil was quite staggering and really swallowed time. The original plan was for a simple removal of the old galley equipment and cabinets and replacement with new units, cooker, hob and fridge. Well, that was the plan; sadly, unseen leaking windows had damaged hidden fixings and panels and we ended up removing two windows, all the wall panelling, some floors, the entire helm unit and seat and replacing. It's now looking really good - new steering unit and stainless wheel, new control switches and engine control, totally re-laminated to fit in with the new galley colours and, of course, the new galley equipment as previously seen plus a new CD/Radio player as per Absolute Freedom.

New images will be uploaded soon - some IT difficulties have caused various problems over the last couple of weeks and delays in certain areas.

May Deals
We've got a busy May Day bank holiday ahead of us with virtually all the larger cruisers booked and healthy interest in Picnic and Day boats.

Also, there are some great deals to be had for May holiday savings on both boats and cottages.

Boat	Sleeps	From / To	Nights	Was	Now	Save
Sweet Freedom	2	12 - 15 May	3	£316.29	£280	£36.29
Real Freedom	2	8 - 15 May	7	£552	£420	£132
Real Freedom	2	15 - 22 May	7	£552	£420	£132
Song Of Freedom	5	5 - 10 May	5	£370.14	£300	£70.14
Song Of Freedom	5	8 - 15 May	7	£583	£450	£133
Tranquil Freedom	6	8 - 15 May	7	£700	£500	£200
Tranquil Freedom	6	15 - 22 May	7	£700	£500	£200
Fine Freedom	6	8 - 15 May	7	£803	£523	£280
Fine Freedom	6	15 - 22 May	7	£803	£523	£280
Spirit of Freedom	6	8 - 15 May	7	£725	£550	£175
Spirit of Freedom	6	15 - 22 May	7	£725	£550	£175
Flight of Freedom	6	8 - 15 May	7	£772	£572	£200
Absolute Freedom	7	5 - 10 May	5	£491.71	£400	£91.71
Absolute Freedom	7	8 - 15 May	7	£808	£558	£250
True Freedom	7	8 - 15 May	7	£974	£774	£200
True Freedom	7	15 - 22 May	7	£974	£774	£200
Rambling Freedom	8	5 - 10 May	5	£438	£400	£38
Rambling Freedom	8	8 - 15 May	7	£714	£580	£134

Easter rush

Sorry for the delay between postings - it's been really manic trying to get everything ready for Easter.

Poor decision?

I've tried to be honest and open in my previous blogs and it seems to have got me into trouble. It's always a fine balancing act between what to write and what not to, particularly in relation to what we're doing to our boats and this is where we came unstuck.

Fair Freedom has featured heavily in my text on this blog; how she's been in need of being taken apart and rebuilt and the process of doing this. I made no secret of the enormity of the job which is some we simply didn't appreciate until we started getting her apart; emerging work all so often swallows more time than you ever imagined the job would.

Well, the Easter customer happened to read the blog and emailed in horror as they realised it was their boat. A week before we got that email, we were quiet confident of finishing her off for Easter but as that week went on, we had major problems with engines which just swallowed our time on other boats. This left Fair untouched for the week.

The next week, we had more engine problems with the fleet.

And the next. In all, we've hoiked out four engines in March with each one being stripped and rebuilt - sadly two were too much work for the time allowed and so replacements were sourced.

All this meant that Fair Freedom is still in bits up at Richardson's and our customer was upgraded to True Freedom.

We'll be back on Fair over the next few days.

Test of strength

Easter was a success with an empty boat yard for the first time since the October 2009 half term holiday. Sadly, the weather put paid to walk-up bookings for some of the day boats, but all things considered, we've done well in terms of both getting the fleet ready (though I'd have been happier if we could have done some more polishing) and in terms of the booking levels.

However, it was not without its problems. Quite apart from the occasional engineering call-out which we half expect on the first busy part of the season, our roller iron started blowing the main fuses on Saturday. This is catastrophic; this old-faithfull bit of kit is a king-pin in our laundry system. Replacements cost over £900 and we simply had to have it working for the Monday turn arounds. Luckily, we found the problem and now it's a good as ever, but, for a while, there was panic.

Panic over, it's now 7:15am and time for me to head back to the yard for another day.

To flange or not to flange

Fair Progress - not

Fair Freedom has been the subject of previous blog postings here and work continues on her.

We hi-jacked Clive Richardson's thread about his new cruiser on the Norfolk Broads Forum a week or so back and talked about some aspects of bonding the hull to the superstructure and the different techniques. As part of this discussion, it transpired that people were interested in the kind of work we're doing on Fair Freedom and wanted details and pictures.

Well, you asked for it!

We've done a huge amount to this boat already but feel that we've barely scratched the surfrace. The boat's booked for Easter (eeek!).

The main issues with Fair Freedom are:

• Poorly repaired damage
• Damage to bonding between the hull and superstructure
• Dry Rot
• Wet Rot
• Leaky windows

In early 2009, we stripped the rear two cabins to starboard and replaced floor bearers and floors; built a new washbasin cabinet, repositioned the clorifier and aft toilet tank and remodelled the aft cabin from a double to a twin/double conversion. This year, the work is far more extensive.
As part of the work, the entire deck-level rubbing strake has been removed. This is the old-style strake which is a heavy plastic electrical conduit that fits (very awkwardly) over a flange. In removing this from the boat, we found large areas that had already been attended to in the past. Some of the work had probably been done by Richardsons as Clive told us that one of the things that they do with these Bounty's is to cut off the flange (it's part of the original GRP moulding) and replace it with an alimunium one. There are plenty of sections on the boat like this and it certainly seems to be a good idea; the flange itself seems to be a really vulnerable part of the moulding. Some effort was made previously to strengthen this as the flange itself is packed full of some kind of epoxy filler, much of which has broken away.

Ali profite bolted to the stern - the rubbing strake "slides" over this

Here you can see the original flange to the right along with the filling (broken up) and the damaged section to the center of the image. To the left, the flange has been cut off and replaced by the ali profile.

The overall problem with this kind of joint between the top and bottom mouldings is that the external elements are prone to damage. As the top and bottom flanges take knocks, the GRP weakens, the joint flexes and moisture creeps in. That's not to say that this is the only bonding between the two halves; it's not. There's also a GRP mat bonding inside the mouldings.

The problem is that as the joint flexes and lets moisture in, the gel coat also cracks and allows that moisture to seep into the GRP layup. One of the interesting things about GRP is that it is not waterproof - only the gel coat is. So, as the gel cracks, water gets in and over time starts to separate the GRP matting. Only in extreme cases is this really a problem; when laying up the original mouldings, the GRP tends to be layered whilst the previous one is still tacky. This "wet edge" technique gives a better bond between the layers which would find it very had to separate. However, when you're bonding the two halves, all the GRP will have set hard and so the new bond you make won't be quite as strong - this is unavoidable.

Now, add to this the perpetual ingress of water into this joint and the occasional flexing from some fool ramming the quay heading. The net result is lasting damage that will simply get worse even if it never took a knock again. Welcome to our world.

Ricko's idea of taking the GRP flanges off is sound and it's one that we'll probably follow all around the boat. It does mean grinding it all off, rebonding everything inside and then completely filling all external cavities with GRP strand, sanding down and re-gelling the whole bond.
What we plan to do after this is (if funds allow) totally discard the old rubbing strake and replace it with new rubber D section all the way around. I say "if funds allow"; this stuff is expensive at around £13 per metre - we need about 40 metres.

It's now a toss-up between refitting what we have and making a better job of it or doing the job properly. Handling the existing rubbing strake material is a real nightmare - it's very difficult to work with, is a plyable as a brick and damn heavy to boot. Will we spend almost as much time and effort in refitting the old stuff as we would in doing the job properly? We think it's a close-run thing. My preferance would be to renew all round but the additional cost will impact on other planned works.

We'll let you know what we decide. Meanwhile, here's a selection of images of the work.

Piles of GRP simply ripped out of the hull

Let there be light - but not here! The raised areas are the new bonding that have been laminated in to join the hull and superstructure.

There's two initial layers of mat, followed by a line of foam stripping which we hope will provide some shock proofing and additional strength. Over this, there's another four layers of mat. 

Yup, it could be snow, but it's dust. 

Another view of the new bonding

A typical crack

An old repair to the port-side aft cleat  mounting. Moisture had seeped in between the original lamination and the repair and the bond had broken, resulting in a big crack. Now, it all needs to be ripped out, ground back to solid material and rebuilt - much of it needs doing inside for strength.

Holes abound - often from the smallest of cracks. This one no longer exists

An example of an old repair. This gaping crack is in the underside of the front starboard deck just in front of the front window.
It was originally bridged by a plate of plywood and was simply bolted through from the deck and glassed over, you can see the bolts where we're ground them off. This will be relaminated shortly on the inside using the same foam technique as on the bonding. Once this is all cured, we'll expose the crack from the top, clean it all up, fill it, glass it and re-gel it. Sadly, there are plenty more of these kinds of repairs.

When the dust has settled

Most of our time this week has been spent on Fair Freedom.

This old lady has had a tough life. I'm not sure of her full heritage but she was part of the Benson fleet on the Thames for some years and was haulled back up to Norfolk and put to work as part of Horning Pleasurecraft, later being sold to Woodsdkye Boatyard.

Freedom bought the vessel from Ferry Marina in 2008 (Len Funnell having bought Woodsdyke's site and fleet in late 2007).

It was one of our best decisions that year; Fair Freedom is a remarkably popular vessel that's well priced.

However, she's now showing real signs of abuse and it's time for open-hull surgery and a partial refit of the saloon area.

This week we've stripped out the saloon to bare grp. Floor boards are being replaced, new cabinetry will be fitted and remaining surfaces will be overhaulled.

The entire vessel is to be repainted and all the windows are being removed to assist in this and to ensure that a good, water-tight seal is put in place upon refitting.

The front of this 44ft boat can take a real pounding and so far we've completely replaced the bonding that holds the superstructure to the hull from the helm position forward to the bow. Ventilation will be put into the hull along both port and starboard sides to cut down on condensation (I can't believe that it wasn't there before).

We have other plans for improvements too but we'll have to see where costs of repairing her end before we commit to things like 240v systems, flat screen TVs and so on. She is, afterall, on of the lowest priced 10 berth boats on the Broads.....

Some pictures next time.....