Category Archives: Oleanna Repaint

Repaint Week 1 W/C 15th June

Scarboreugh / Redhill Marina

After the excitement of Oleanna getting blasted on Monday we expected things to be a bit quieter on Tuesday, which they were.

I had an email from Claire the signwriter with a sketch of a Rennie Mackintosh inspired bow flash. Oleanna’s bow flash originally was just a dot with a dash either side of it. I’d not had any major inspiration for it to be anything else at the time. But after our visit to Hill House earlier this year we’d wondered if we could have something a little bit more Mackintosh inspired. I’d put together a few images I liked for Claire to have a look at to see what she came up with.

My sketches, four to choose from

The photo of her sketch was a little hard to see, but I got the general gist. Having an afternoon of waiting for things to dry for panto I decided to see what the sketch would look like in colour. This then turned into a few more sketches.

Wednesday. An early phone call from Tom regarding taking the windows out. A question about the window in the galley where the extractor fan had obviously been installed after the wooden window surround. Did we have any ideas? Maybe removing the filter in the extractor would shed light on how it was fixed. It did. Half an hour later the first window was out, the rest would be easier now Tom understood how they’d been fixed in.

First window out

Around lunchtime I got a photo from Tom with a concerning message.

Did you know your bowthruster locker is full of water?

There’s a big puddle in there

No we didn’t.

On the photo it was hard to see the level the water had reached. Mick was in York and he was likely to have been the last person to have put his head down into the locker, I relayed the photo. He’d never seen any water in there before. Where had it come from?

The water was level with the bottom of the battery, Tom had isolated it already.

There were another two photos, one of each side of the bow near the bow thruster tube. If water had been coming in from under the waterline, he’d have expected to see a weep of water somewhere. But then Oleanna has been stationary for eight months, so surely the water would have drained away in that time. It had to be coming from above the level of water in the locker.

Had it rained a lot since we removed the cratch cover? Not especially, and the 20mm upstand around the locker lid you would think would keep even a torrential downpour out. Could it be coming in from the gas locker?

That’s the bottom of the gas locker

Another photo came through with Tom pointing out where the bottom of the gas locker sits. It’s a possible as it is over part of the bow thruster locker and it is a wet locker that sits with water in it. Tom will investigate more once he’s removed our gas bottles and had a look. A wet/dry vac was needed to remove the water. At the moment we don’t know if the bowthruster has been affected.

Another photo, this time from the solar. Had we been having problems with the solar? No.

Loose connections!

The connections in the white box on the roof were interesting. Four orange wires were only half in a chockblock. Mick was very unlikely to have done this when we installed our second panel a few years ago. The connection box had rust bubbling up around it a while back so I’d done a touch up. Maybe the wires hadn’t been connected properly in the first place. At the moment we don’t know if the wires were from the panels or from inside the boat.

Mick plans to head down to meet with Matt from Onboard Solar next week, so he’ll enquire more about the solar connections. We also hope that a reason for the water in the bowthruster locker can be found, the bow thruster also needs to be checked to see if it still works. If we need a replacement, while she’s out of the water will be the time to do it.

No more news from Redhill this week, on Friday Tom was spraying the boat next to Oleanna.

Blasted Boat! 15th June

Scarboreugh / Redhill Marina

The title of today’s post could mean one of two things.

  1. Oh, that Blasted Boat! When will work ever start on her?!
  2. Blasted Boat, she’s finally got blasted!

We’ve spent the last week, well longer really, watching the weather forecast. Our local map is a bit too far north to show south of Nottingham. The country map has shown bands of rain over the midlands most days. Mondays forecast might have been okay, but there were some showers that would creep across from the west.

Nana not Monika

Most evenings we’ve watched the end of the local news program in Nottingham, presented by a lady who looks a lot like Nana Mouskouri. A band of showers would be crossing the area late morning. The weather presenter waved her hand directly over where Redhill Marina is. We couldn’t see if there was a gap in showers! The clouds moving over the map jumped ahead, possibly leapfrogging the marina!

Would the showers halt work on Oleanna? Would the possible forecast mean they wouldn’t start blasting on Monday morning? I’m starting to sound like a vlogger!!

We played it cool. I got on with updating drawings for panto, reading the new draft of the script, taking photos of model pieces. Mick headed off to watch the final days play of cricket at North Marine Road, a thicker coat required for sitting around all day. If things hadn’t gone to plan Tom surely would have been in touch.

Then at 15:08 a photo without explanation dropped into my Whatsapp folder.

She certainly looks dusty

There was Oleanna sat on the hill. At first glance she looked dusty, her hull looking like it had been blasted, but elsewhere still had quite a tinge of blue.

A closer look

When looked at on the computer, rather than phone, I could see where the blasting had avoided getting too close to the her windows, nav lights had been avoided. Her cream line was only now visible above and below windows as if someone had left a reminder of masking tape.

Oleanna’s last view of the cooling towers for a while

Then at 15:43 I got another photo a very grey, blasted stern was about to be reversed into the paint shed.

One Blasted Boat!

Dark patches on the stern where the hook up and stern light are usually

One blasted boat, now in the paint shop out of any weather.

Neither of us bothered to watch the weather forecast tonight!

0 locks, 0 miles, 1 dry day, at last!!! 1 blasted boat, 0 more watching the weather, 2 glasses of wine to celebrate.

Not On Our Side! 14th June

An update at the end of a week when the weather showed potential but then turned out to not be on our side!

Oleanna was moved out from her resting place of the last eight months on Tuesday. Yes this is now the longest we’ve been on dry land in twelve years. She was moved round to the hill ready for blasting on the next dry day. Her baseplate was blasted and then she was lowered ready for the cabin and hull to be done. Friday was ear marked as a possible day.

Blue skies in Scarborough

Friday came, Mick headed to watch Yorkshire play cricket and I headed to London for my white card model meeting for panto. Both of us had lovely dry days. Sadly a raft of showers were forecast to cross over Nottingham, Redhill Marina actually, so the blast was postponed till after the weekend.

Blue skies, with clouds in London

Whilst on my train heading south I had a phone call from Tom, our boat painter. He was removing all the fixtures and fittings before the blast could take place. They leave windows in to avoid ingress of the grit, but nav lights, aerials, cratch and pram, plank and pole rack amongst other things, all get removed. He was having severe difficulty in removing the cratch A frame. He could reach inside the gas locker and feel that there were three bolts, but none of these had nuts on them. Did I know anything that might help as they didn’t want to force the A frame and end up breaking it.

I recollected a conversation with Ricky at Finesse, when he told me that the cratch was there to stay, we’d never get it off! Handy when you want to repaint your boat. It appears to have been glued on so well that it will end up staying in situ. The blaster has been advised to give it a wide berth, then Tom will strip the paint right up to it by hand, protecting the woodwork. Oleanna will be given coats of rust-inhibiting paint and Tom will make the join between wood and paint work water tight.

Photos and measurements have been taken for a new hole in the gas locker, so that it actually vents to the outside. This will happen once Oleanna is stripped and moved into the paint shed. Tom said to expect to be inundated with photos early next week. I’m so hoping it’s very early next week as I’ve lots of work to do on Panto and could do with uncrossing my fingers!

The cricket it going well, Yorkshire achieving lots of runs. It’s nice for Mick to be able to make good use of his Scarborough Cricket Club life membership for once.

My model meeting went well, a few notes which I expected, indeed even asked for. A new draft of the script now needs reading to check through in case I don’t know about something that’s been added or removed. Then I can get on with adding colour to the model and finalising the drawings. I just need to find someone in Scarborough with an A3 scanner as the printers and architects I used to use have both closed now.

Tom Tom, please get on with it, they keep taking me to the VETS!!!!

I hope to post again , once Oleanna is stripped and ready to paint. So tata for now.

0 locks, 0 miles, 1 stripped bottom, 1 stubborn A frame, 2 boaters wondering if they’ll ever get their sea legs back, 1 cat whisperer beaten, 1 more notch in my tail! 1 design meeting at the National, 1 thumbs up, 3rd WC alteration, 1 more mention for Duncan, 1.5 pairs of socks knitted, 3 days of cricket in a row.

A Roll In The Right Direction. 8th June

Scarboreugh / Redhill Marina

On Friday morning I was sent contact details for Claire Norton the signwriter, I left contacting her until Monday morning. Once I send her some photos of Oleanna with her current signwriting, along with an idea for a different bow flash, Claire will give us a quote for her work. Less is more in the case of Oleanna.

Tracks round the yard

Around lunchtime Friday, Tom sent a message saying that the plan was to move Oleanna to the hill on Tuesday, so that she’d be there ready and waiting to be blasted on a suitable day. Soon followed an email regarding our first payment for the repaint. The boat moves and grit blasting all have to be paid for upfront with the yard, plus Tom would also be able to order in the paint and materials for the repaint. I set about moving funds so we could pay him.

I asked Tom to send us photos as everything progresses. Tom’s reply was that we’d have ‘a full gallery as stuff happens’. His social media posts tend to have pretty good photos.

Our weekend was spent thinking about other jobs that need doing for Oleanna, some purchases were needed to replace weather-worn tatty things that will not aid in showing off her new paint job.

Panto front cloth needing tweeking

I also cracked on with working on panto, I have a white card model meeting at the end of the week and want everything ready, so should I get the thumbs up on the design, I can get cracking with painting the model up. If I can get the model finished whilst having access to my work room in the house that will mean I’ve more space for clothing on the boat, Mick will be able to use the dinette table and have space to exist whilst I work, but also once Oleanna is back in the water we can enjoy time cruising rather than stopping for me to work.

Oleanna’s movements this month, according to our GPS tracker connected to the Victron Venus GX system. It is currently inside Oleanna and as you can see not terribly accurate!

A little after 3pm today, Monday, I got a photo message through from Tom. There, on a trailer was Oleanna. Extricated from her resting place after 236 days of sitting still, she was finally on the move. It had been such a nice afternoon the boatyard had decided to move her up to the hill ready to wait for a weather window.

Hello Oleanna!

A closer look at the photo shows what a difference the sun has made to the blacking. One side peeling off like an hundred year old weather worn door, the other all still in tact and going quite green in parts. The port side was the side that was prepped first when we had her reblacked in 2021, so the chaps removing the failed blacking then may have done one side very well, but got arm tired and bored by the time they got round her bow to the starboard side. Or it’s just the difference of how much the sun has baked the southern side of her hull whilst she’s been sat still.

All very exciting, this warranted a glass of wine this evening to celebrate her rolling in the right direction.

0 locks, 375m on land, 1 trailer, 1 chunk of money moved, 236 days stationary, 1 roll closer, 35.75 fingers crossed for dry weather.