Blast it! I’m not
swearing, I’m just identifying the problem. We have moved forward a little in that there
seems to be little doubt that the best way to remove the peeling paint and
loose rust down below, is to wet blast it.
For those of you who have not come across this method, crushed glass is
mixed with water and the slurry is propelled against the surface to be cleaned.
On impact the glass breaks up further and is carried away, with the paint and
rust particles, by the water. There is no need to wear a full breathing outfit
as you have to do with dry blasting – a face mask will do. On the ship the used slurry/paint/rust
mixture will find its way into the bilges.
The bilge pump will have to put in some overtime, but at least there
will be no sweeping and shovelling.
If that sounds too
good to be true, it is! The blasting needs a compressor delivering over 150
cfm, which is far more than my DIY compressor can manage (14cfm). This job needs a trailer mounted compressor
such as you see being used when the council digs up the road with pneumatic
drills. Getting one of those out to the ship along the narrow walkway (Photo
1351) is out of the question. Does anyone know of a boat mounted compressor?
The obvious way to
get round this problem would be to get the ship into a dry dock where the
compressor trailer could come alongside.
While it is in the dock we could apply some TLC the hull. There is a dry
dock about 7 miles upstream from Simon, but the economics are daunting. In
addition to the tug fees there and back, it costs about £400 to enter the dock,
£400 a week while it’s in there and £400 to get out again and that’s before any
work is done!! Does anyone know of an
historic ship preservation fund?
David
David
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