Neil the architect has been in touch with some more potential sources of inspiration for the top structure. Namely, Lot-ek, Neil Denari and Rick Joy. I have posted some of my favourite designs below. Lots of steel and glass alongside some wood. Rick Joy was my standout favourite although it remains to be seen whether the structures have the same impact when the big blue desert skies are replaced by a sky full of grey English clouds.

I think you can probably see a theme developing here. One final aside… As much as I love these glass, boxy designs there is one thing that troubles me… Not overheating, direct sunlight or warmth in winter. But BIRD SHIT. They look fantastic, but what happens when a flock of pigeons or seagulls do a fly-by dirty protest, inevitably on an impossible to reach part of the structure?

I am at an interesting stage in the project… there is considerably less boat than when I started. No engine, no superstructure, no inside and not even a hint of a cabin, no margin planks, no anchor, no deck furniture and, most concerningly, no bottom. In fact it is questionable whether it is still actually a boat…

Many of these things will be reinstated or replaced and the project is still moving at an acceptable speed in the right direction. I just need to keep my nerve and get on with it. Good thing the skies are still blue and sunny over Rye.

Yesterday Kyle and Marius came down to take off the margin planks. These were shot in places, particularly along the bow, and are to be replaced. This also means that bits of the planks can be used to patch the decks and the metal lip underneath them can be blasted and painted and replaced right at the prow of the boat.

I like it that Kyle can style out carpentry while wearing a panama!

Here is the teak that was removed – some bolt holes and a few raggedy bits but in the whole reusable.

And the edges at the stern once the margin planks had been removed.

And the pieces made from the old board that have been prepped to be used as inserts. You can see how well it cleans up with a bit of TLC. From this…

To this…

Minus this…

Today involves sitting watching the carpenters hard at work while waiting for the welders to arrive. Glorious sunshine in Rye and I have fashioned a sun lounger out of some pallets. A good opportunity to provide an update of some of the things I have found and removed from the boat…

All removed and stashed and awaiting blasting. These may be the perfect victims for me to get to grips with having a go on the shotblaster. As you can see, they were fairly well secured in place.

Having hauled out the engine, we found another load of vintage tools hiding underneath.

Finally, I unscrewed the deck prisms with my own fair hands. Four in total, two larger minus any glass and two smaller with still some slightly chipped glass in place.

These are pretty cool. They lay flush with the deck and the glass prisms let’s through light into the deck below. Definitely one to get fixed back up and reinstate.

I have been tipped off by Geoff of Marine Power Services that as Beta III is now registered as a National Historic Ship, I am entitled to fly a special ensign.

As Geoff said in his email, “how cool is that?”. Very cool indeed Geoff. I am loving the thundercat-esq logo.

The full entry on the register is here.

A while back I was puzzling over entries in the Lloyds register. This has now been clarified…

From Lloyds Register of Shipping rules.

+100A1

The + should be a “Maltese cross symbol and means that the ship was built under special survey

100 means it is a steel ship (will last 100 years) fit for sea-going service… Ermmmm, so about 12 years left then 😉

A means that the ship has been built into class in accordance with Lloyds’s Register Rules and Regulation, the ship is maintained in good and efficient condition.

1 means that the ship has onboard anchoring and mooring equipment in good and efficient condition.This last one is where the gorgeous bronze mooring bits come in.

*Big thanks to Richard Walker for help decoding *

So turns out that those boat tie-y up-y thingies aren’t actually called boat tie-y up-y thingies. I stand corrected.

Ben – from Liquid Highway – has been in touch to fill me in on the terminology and some extra detail on what they do and why. Here goes…

“B2 are known as bollards or sometimes called cleats, although technically cleats are T shaped , but basically you make fast to these you just do a figure of 8 in and out of the two and the friction does the rest.”

“These are known as a ‘fairlead’ and re-direct the rope from an angle back onboard to the bollard or cleat on the boat but with roller edges they stop the rope from chaffing and snapping at such sharp angles”

“This type of square post with pins through is known as a “Bollard” , the pins you tie to, or if you have the eye of a rope dropped over it and the rope tied off ashore, the pins stop the rope popping up and coming off”

If you haven’t seen Ben’s website Liquid Highway, take a look here. A tonne of fascinating information on the boats that work and worked the Thames.

The engine has had a quick pit stop with Arc Fab Sussex and Toby in Lewes en route to Dorset. This is so it can be put on a cradle to support it and make it easier to move around when Geoff and Martyn are working on it.

More HIAB action…

Soon (when I have arranged it), it will be back on the road and down to Poole.

My first encounter with a HIAB (as I discovered it’s pronounced high-AB. Not H-I-A-B. Not the best way of showing you know what you’re talking about!) I now have serious truck envy.

It is an amazing bit of kit and able to move with millimetre precision. It’s quite hard not to anthropomorphise it as it does move incredibly fluidly and gracefully, even with a three tonne hunk of rusty metal hanging off the end.

First the hatch was removed revealing the engine lurking in the depths of the boat.

This is basically what it would look like if you performed open heart surgery on Thomas the Tank Engine.

The strops were put round and the clips clipped on and then, with a massive clunk, we were off.

Within literally five minutes, the engine was on the back of the lorry.

Excuse the gurning but was massively relieved not to have had my head smashed in with a three tonne engine or accidentally swung it through the decks or any other of the myriad of potential gaffes.

Having it out in the open means you can get a proper look at it. And it is a real beauty and will be proper gorgeous when it is all polished up (the engine, not me. I need more than a gallon of jizer).

The big gaping hole left behind is now ready for clearing and blasting. The engine is en route to Poole via Lewes. I can now relax in a deckchair in the sun in Dungeness and get my chops round this. All in all an excellent day!

After craning a 35 tonne boat out of the water, lifting a three tonne engine seems like a much simpler exercise. Still the engine needs to be fully unbolted and all the extraneous bits – exhaust, water pumps, random bits of piping – removed. There is also, rather unhelpfully a big bar welded across the deck in the path the engine needs to be lifted which also needs to go.

Some of the extraneous bits…

We (and, to clarify, by that I don’t actually mean me) are also in the process of removing the deck furniture that sits on the margin plank. This means the rotted wood can be removed, the metal lip underneath blasted and painted, the margin planks replaced and the deck furniture re-bedded.

These have been numbered clockwise from one to six, b for now or s for stern. Must not forget this.

Now to heft the palettes and debris away from the side of the boat so the lorry can pull up alongside. Hopefully I’ll be getting muscles out of this adventure as well as a tan and some grey hairs!