Back afloat 2024

 

Shes far from ready to sail but with a big last minute effort we had her back in the water and we motored down the river with the rest of the convoy for the start of Baltimore wooden boat festival. We had planned to raft up and spend the weekend rigging but weather kicked up and made life alongside untenable so on her mooring she went. I've been up and down doing a few little bits and pieces and ensuring she had taken up. 

Considering she was on the hard for 5 years and I just puttied a few seams fore and aft she wasn't bad. She pumped every 10 minutes at the start and by the next morning it was twice in four hours. The trip down the river had her taking a little more but a 2 weeks on and she's bone dry.  

The varnishing needs doing in its entirety and the bowsprit, bumkin and mizen mast still need fitting. Our expectations for loads of sailing are very low so even a day sail or two and I think we'll call that a success for this year. 

She remains For Sale

A step forward

 Finally some real progress has been made. We finally acquired a key part a few months ago being a replacement engine. 

As it happens it's the exact engine we had hoped to fit her with, a Yanmar 3GM30. A three cylinder 24hp with freshwater cooling. Better yet it seems it will fit in the existing engine box. Just need to change the shaft coupling and switch to a 3 bladed prop which I already had.

The deck is complete, the new Samson post is in, the toerails and deckhatch are refitted as are the chainplates and the rubbing strips are all ready to fit. 

I've also managed to get the topsides sanded primed and painted. Next is to finish installing the engine, sand and varnish the cockpit and refit a few deck fittings.

I'm concentrating on the boat itself for now and once she's ready to stick in the water I'll move on to sorted the rig. I don't see us getting to that before the end of this summer but at least things are moving and the big jobs are done.

Marinising a 12v Cummins

I'm currently marinising a pair of Cummins for my charter boat and making a series of videos
of the process on YouTube.
I will be making some videos of the up coming work on Teal and her re-engine also.
So if you enjoyed the story so far please click the link below and like and follow my channel and help it along.
I'm also have a new facebook page for a little Winter business I'm trying to get going
called West Cork Restorations which will follow Teal and other projects so if your on there maybe give that a like too if you please.

Teal is currently waiting and looking unloved for a tow home but she will be getting a serious
refresh soon. Thank you!!

Allthingsboats 

West Cork Restorations

Update for this season

So its pretty much set now that Teal won't go afloat this year. I have yet to do anything about the engine so my main goal now is to sort out a tractor and tow her home.
Once that much is taken care of  I will have to make a new entrance into my shed to fit her in.
The plan from there is to do a serious freshen up which includes
- replacing the engine
- recovering the deck
- some interior changes and finishing off
and a whole lot of painting and varnishing. This should all be much more manageable when shes inside and I can walk out the door and do a bit whenever it suits.The most nerve racking part will be the 14 mile tow home. It pains me a bit to take her away from the sea but I really think this season will have slipped by before much gets done if she stays where she is.

Wrapped up

At last she is all derigged, on her own trailer, cleaned out and covered up for the Winter.

I have the engine partly striped down and hope to have the whole thing out shortly. We're not sure if we will tow her home this year or not as I have a bit more work to do on the trailer and the shed I want to put her in needs work as well but either way she is not too badly off now. 

Trailer

I got a few phone calls last week putting the pressure on to get the trailer built so I put in a hard week to get it done. I tacked it all together in my shed but I don't have a heavy enough power supply in there to use the bigger welder I borrowed to do the big welds, so had to move it for the final welding , I used 7018 low hydrogen rods which were recommended to me.
The beams are 16' long 8"x 4" RSJ's with 6.5ft 6" channel irons running across, The uprights are 2inch galvanised pipe with Screw jacks to tighten up to the hull, The axle is a front lorry axle off an old Hino. I bought a weld on tow eye for the tow bar. The ballast sits on the axle and the 9" block of wood forward of it to keep her level.
Nothing went easy, I searched the boatyard for wheels to fit the axle they had given me but only found one. A local tire center happened to have another one to suit following a long wait. Next I spent 6 hours in the rain trying to free the brake drums on the axle up (murder) and ended up sick. Next the trip switch in my other shed wasn't big enough for the welder so had to go and replace that and then go by a pin type towbar for my jeep to tow it to the boatyard. Regardless it got there and on time, where it sat for the last week.
    I went to lift the boat yesterday but it didn't happen but today it did. We got the mast down and lifted the boat on to the trailer. I then had to weld on all the struts to hold her up. Of course my welder instantly packed up but they lend me another one. It was dark at that stage so couldn't get a picture but she looks tidy on the trailer and fits nicely as I had planned. They moved her out of the way on it so it also works :) I don't want to make one that heavy again !!

Teals sister

This is a picture I found online of Teals sister ship Water Wraith, Built from the same moulds but with a counterstern, I wonder if the counterstern and bermudan main were a later addition.

Teal for comparison 

Trailer

I finally got the trailer mocked up today. It shouldn't take long to get it all welded up.

We went to change Teals head gasket during September but one of the head studs had seized into the head and we failed to get the head off. We have decided to scrap the Petter engine and get something more powerful now. We were going to sail up the river when wind and tide suited but as it happened the time had come for me to put away the charter boat so I picked Teal up on the way and we towed her up to the boatyard where she is waiting to be lifted. Hopefully straight on to the trailer.

Sorry my phone camera is rubbish.

Bit of unwanted publicity

Well this was an interesting week, I was on a shark fishing charter for the day on Monday and meeting family and friends on Cape Clear on Monday night for a few days R&R. So after a long haul back in I headed off to Baltimore to get on board Teal and motor/sail to Cape.
It was a westerly force 3/4 and I was on my own so I planned to just put up the main to help her along and motor out the 7nm to North harbour.
About 4nm and out in the chop in Roaringwaterbay I notice she was getting quite smokey. At first I thought she might be working a little harder than she had been and was burning off some of the oil used in the plungers to start her in cold weather but as we proceeded it was becoming apparent that another head-gasket had failed.
She started to splutter soon after and seemed like it might cut out. I gave Ken, who was already on Cape to have a look around for anyone with a RIB or similar to maybe bring him out so we could sail or at least stand by me in case she died.
It was nearly 9pm with a headwind and the relatively strong tide soon to go against the wind so I didn't fancy my chances at sailing her single handed the rest of the way or making to any safe-haven downwind before dark.
When that failed I put in a call to the coastguard to maybe have the Schull ILB stand by me.
Straight any they tasked the Baltimore all weather lifeboat which was on exercise just around the corner. A little overkill but I was happy to have the company.
As it happened we plodded away under our own steam for the last 2 miles or so. The engine did indeed die out when I throttled it back out side the harbour and at first refused to restart. It eventually did and motored right in alongside the pontoon 'escorted by a massive lifeboat and its inflatable sidekick". Its one way to enter a quite little harbour late in the evening with the pub clientele looking on.
Now we are on facebook and the front page of this weeks paper. Slightly making a mountain out of a molehill but I know the more publicity the better for a great organisation who we are lucky to have and I was glad to see !


As for the rest of the trip, that was great, I opted to send my wife and kids back on the ferry and Ken and myself had a brilliant sail in beautiful weather with Teal at her best all the way back and on to the mooring. I was happy to leave very pleased with her, Great boat "stupid engine".

Gaskets are on the way to finish out the season and then the Petter will probably go over the side.....

1st sail of the season

It was the latest start we've had to our sailing season but better late than never.
The weather has been beautiful for the past few weeks so as soon as we got the chance we
made a point of getting out for a sail.
We were happy to be able to get off the mooring at low tide with plenty of water to spare.
The kids were all at school so we had just about enough time for a leisurely sail around Sherkin Island and through Gascannane sound.
We had an unusual visitor between Sherkin and Heir Island. He was still clinging to the shroud when we left the boat.

An Emperor Dragonfly, New to Ireland apparently and rarely comes to rest,  

Better late than never

So after watching the Ilen launch we figured nothing else was happening that day and the only way we would get launched was to hang around all week. The next day didn't look anymore promising and when we arrived on Friday the scrappers were cutting up the crane !

We had only planned on sailing the Sunday of the Baltimore wooden boat festival this year because I had a charter on Saturday and couldn't take the day off, but the chances of having Teal in were getting slim. A few phone calls on Saturday morning raised hopes, so we formulated a plan and had our registration penciled in. Another phone call and that was that, boatless for the boat festival.

We headed down to join in in the evening anyway and got tickets for the skipper & crews meal where curiously we were given a table, but not chairs ! Well what could we expect when we showed up without a boat. Few pints and all was well.

On the plus side I managed to get Teals mooring sorted out so now she has enough water to keep her off the bottom on spring tides and then this morning Teal at last went afloat. We headed straight down and took her down the river and back to the mooring. She didn't appear to be taking any water considering we have had lovely warm weather for the past couple of weeks and everything went fine.

Maintenance was keep to a minimum this year with the plan to trailer her home next Winter. The biggest issue we had to deal with was the fact we pulled down the halyards as the mast was meant to come down this Winter but as that never happened I had to make my way up to the masthead to feed them back through. That was ok as far up as the spreaders but a bit more nerve racking above that as my safety ropes being the throat and peak halyards were both below me. We also had an issue with the spreaders. I had noticed some black under the varnish last time they were down which has now turned into a hole of rot. For now I have shaped a piece of Iroko 3ft long and glued and bolted it across the effected area so it will last the season but new spreaders are a must.

Patch for spreaders

She always opens up a little on these few seams so a bit of soft putty helps her along 

Ready but trapped

Time for bit of an update, Baltimore wooden boat festival is on this weekend, Teal, along with quite a few others are still high and dry waiting for their turn at the boatyard so the aim of the game at the moment is hang around and grab the opportunity to launch when we get one.
We were rewarded today with the long awaited launch of the A.K Ilen which has been in Hegarty's being rebuilt for the past 20 years. For the entirety of Teals restoration the Ilen remained almost untouched as a completely reframed skeleton but since then she has turned into a beautiful ship.
I wouldn't want to be involved with loading the ballast though.

The hunter, Hunted 

Change of plan

Picture borrowed from facebook, Taken by Petre Riemers. Only one of her with the topsail

OK so we have come up with another plan which does not involve selling her.
I am going to build a tractor trailer capable of bringing her to my house.
There is plenty of room in my shed but I need to open up a doorway in the gable
which will be high enough to back her in.
There is a crane from time to time at Union hall pier so I am going to look in to the idea
of lifting her out there. We also need to locate our missing mooring which I failed to find last Summer and once that is done the plan is just to scale back our sailing ambitions to occasional day sailing and little over nighters in the hope that sooner or later, time off  and good weather coincide
whether it be this season or in a year or two and we can take her further a field.
What are we gaining ?
Well she would be indoors all Winter.
She will be outside my front door and under the same roof as the workshop.
We won't need to worry about getting round to Baltimore and up river etc come the end of the season.
If we really want to she could be mothballed for a season (the pitch pine shrinks very little)
and all the while the kids are getting older and what we can do changes.
We have spent a lot of money and the hard work is done.
So hopefully this will work out.

Sad realization

So another season is nearing its end and Teal has unfortunately spent all of it on her mooring.
Keeping her in Baltimore was suppose to be the answer but we basically put her out of sight
and out of mind.
I have kept an eye on her and managed to spend a night or two on board and do a little house
keeping, run the engine etc. However I don't want to love her to death so sadly we have decided to offer her For Sale.
My current plan is to take her up river soon and put her to bed for the Winter. There are a few
finishing touches I need to do inside and the canvas deck has not held up well so I am going to
remove all the deck fittings, rubbing strips and toe-rails and recover it, either in canvas with different
paints or epoxy coat it. The only reason I would now consider epoxy is for longevity and the fact that
if I sold her and the deck goes bad it will destroy the whole boat.

Next season I will bring her back to Union Hall where at very least I will see her much more regularly at which stage I may advertise her elsewhere.
Its not that she requires much annually, a good week gets all the paint and varnish done and and doesn't cost much, the yard and insurance are the biggest cost but even that is not too bad but its
all for nothing if she is not used.
Things have changed somewhat for me since we started on Teal six years ago, the charter boat
which was originally planned to be a way of covering the cost of the boats has now become my
livelihood and as much as the kids love getting out on Teal we want to do other things as well when
I'm not fishing. This isn't a light hearted decision and I have sat to write this post numerous times
over the last few weeks.

We were asked a while back what we would have done differently in Teals rebuild with money no
object and the answer was, "nothing" she got what she needed.

So thats the story really. If you are interested in a sail-away condition, 103 year old Falmouth quay punt with all the hard work done get in touch and we can have a chat.

glandoreangling@gmail.com

My laptop has come to a sorry end after an encounter with a large wave so I'm waiting on a new one but have a few pictures on my phone from a few weeks back on a little trip with the kids to sherkin and hackets creek.
Unfortunately we have failed once again to make use of Teal much this year and now serious questions have to be asked.

No its not a clip from the Goonie's, The ship is going the wrong  direction obviously LOL

Not something you see on most mackerel trips. I had to head straight to this spot for the picture.
I looked her up on AIS and she is a UK registered ship called the Phoenix. I haven't read any more about her yet.

A little while later the breeze died and it brightened up as she turned further South with her stern to us, It looked pretty dam impressive heading out over the horizon.

More on Teal soon once I gather a few pictures up.

Upholstery

Ken and Grainne hard at work. Finally getting Teals cushions covered.
Just in time for the weekend. Off to the 2017 Baltimore Wooden Boat Festival tomorrow morning.
Have to get off the mooring early or we'll be hard a ground for all the races. Spring tides this weekend.

Camera was on a funny setting for this one. We had a small accident with the crane. We had to let the chains down into the cockpit to let out some links and as we were watching the rigging when they were being hauled back up a link caught the cleat and ripped it out of the coamings, Thankfully the cleat gave before the coachroof, Need to do a repair the next day.

Varnished stripped

Redone

We had a nice easterly going down the river so sailed most of the way with just the main up. We had no outer forestay  rigged yet so had to do without a jib