Not only is the ” Cygnet” a new build, it is our very first build and the first time a lot of our members have ever built a boat, particularly a motorised one.This has meant a lot of assembly, dismantling and reassembly until we are happy everything is just right. Latest photos show the Keel final assembly including bronze keel bolts into brass barrel nuts.
Getting the design right before starting a new boat build proving to be crucial for Martin, Helen (and the rest of us) as they work out the scantlings*
* set of standard dimensions for parts of a structure, especially in shipbuilding.
Conservation enthusiasts finish their first project
By JAYNE OLIVER
A GROUP of maritime enthusiasts has just finished restoring its first old boat to its former glory. North East Maritime Trust volunteers puttingthe finishing touches to their National Lottery-funded coblerestoration project. (IRN 497410)
Trust director David Parker:It has been a wonderful experience – much enthusiasm and interest.
And it’ll be riding the crest of a wave next month when the Royal Diadem II returns to the Tyne.
Over the last year, 20 volunteers from the South Shields-based North East Maritime Trust have been working on the restoration of the old Northumbrian sailing coble.
The North East Maritime Trust fleet, minus the coble Peggy, in September 2011.
There was nowhere to moor up, as the floating pontoon that was to become NE1 Marina and the access to it, was incomplete at that time and we had to turn around and sail back downriver before they lowered the Millenium Bridge.
The crane being used to build the pontoon is at the foot of the Tyne Bridge in the third picture.
The fourth of April saw the launch of Sovereign from Fred Crowell’s South Shields slipway, after ten months of extensive rebuilding.
It had been a tremendous task getting the rotten vessel transformed into a smart and seaworthy museum piece. Over 5000 hours of work were needed to restore the boat after the ravages suffered in seventy three years of continuous work. Sovereign was so bad, it was amazing that she had not sunk.
Work included straightening and reinforcing the keel, replacement of 2000 4” spikes, new planking in several areas, recaulking, repair of rotten frames, overhaul of mechanical equipment (pumps, steering gear, pipe work, replacement engine etc.), deck repairs, almost complete new wheelhouse (only the windows and door survived), new capping rails, new masts etc. etc. Apart from the boat suffering from the usual wood rot, there were several areas suffering from infestation by wood boring beetles, many of them still happily munching away until the last ones (we hope) were discovered in March.
Fred Crowell has done most of the work, with the assistance of three regular volunteers. His patience has been sorely tried at times by the seemingly endless problems but he never lost his interest in the project, and was very understanding of the financial difficulties that developed after an expected grant fell through. He made every possible move to save money, scouring the area for good second-hand materials and finding new methods of working to save expense, but he would not compromise on quality.
Sovereign has been restored to her 1950s condition. Her pre-war condition as a varnished vessel would have been beautiful but the heavily bruised condition of the external woodwork made this impossible to achieve. The only shortcoming in the presentation the vessel is that she has a trawl winch rather than a proper seine net winch with rope coilers. Perhaps an authentic winch will be found some day and fitted, to complete appearance of this classic fishing vessel.
A little outfitting work is still needed to complete the vessel: the crew accommodation in the forecastle is yet to be finished and a couple of spars need to be fitted.
Sovereign now spends most of her time in St Peters Basin but we expect she will be seen up and down the coast in the near future.
From: Alec Renwick <alec.renwick@gmail.com> Sent: 23 March 2011 08:39 To: Michael Dawson <daw50nmdj@hotmail.co.uk> Subject: Re: RE: Domain Renewals
Mick, Thanks for your reply and explan’t’n which sounds like it makes sense to continue with Daily. Unfortunately I’m not in a position to help at the moment due to work commitments, which has also led to my recent lack of contact with NEMT. Keep up the good work. Alec
I bought nemaritimetrust.co.uk and registered it with Daily because they were fairly cheap and were very helpful. I thought that this was the best way to develop a site without messing up the nemt.co.uk site that you had registered with Freeparking.
When we went live I had a lot of trouble linking the two names and getting them recognised by the search engines Google, Yahoo etc. and the only way out of this, as far as I could see, was to switch nemt.co.uk from Freeparking to Daily. I apologise again for not asking for your permission or at least letting you know what I was doing.
I would appreciate someone else taking the sites over and if you set up a user on Daily * I can willingly pass both the NEMT sites over to you. I have a user on daily where I manage the sites along with one of my own and would like to separate this from the NEMT ones and this would be a simple way to do it. If this was done before May when the domain names are up for renewal it would be useful as well especially if one of them was to be done away with. It is only a bit of extravagance but I think both should be kept.
