Through the power of eBay (remember that’s how I ended up in this mess in the first place!), I found a magazine from 1937 about fire boats. Turns out the focus is on the Massey Shaw rather than Beta III but interesting nonetheless.

Remember the previous post where I was scraping diesel sludge out of the bottom of the boat? Well, that was only part of the story…. First the sludge was shovelled… Then it was scabbled and that debris was removed… Then it was blasted and that debris was shovelled out… Now the underside of the decks have been blasted and the aware blast material needs to be removed. Hopefully this is the last stage of shit shovelling.

I haven’t been doing much of the shovelling (big thanks to L&L) but I did get involved in clearing the stern. Possibly one of the trickier sections as it’s in a slant with many many nooks and crannies.

The tools of the job

<br /

And a mid shovelling selfie. I look very cheerful as I have Sam Cooke blasting through the headphones at full volume. Fortunately the compressor drowns out my singing…

And yes, that is a red boiler suit. My best clothing purchase of 2014.>

The underside of the teak decks make up the roof of the cabins below with no steel sub deck in between. While they are structurally in fairly good nick and impressively solid, the undersides had become covered in paint and gunk over the years. I didn’t get a good before photo but you can get the idea from these earlier snaps.

To get the decks back looking spangly, the plan was to blast them with soda. We ended up going with superfine blast material in order to ping off the surface muck without digging too fine into the surface of the wood.

So once again Betty disappeared into a puff of smoke.

The results are pretty darn amazing. As good if not better than new.

The undersides had to be blasted as there was no other viable way of getting the paint and grime off. However there are conflicting schools of thought on whether the top – the actual deck bit – should be blasted. It is suggested that this creates grooves in the wood but a lot of the info refers to thinner more veneer style decks. Any thoughts on this welcome!

I have temporarily fled to sunnier climes but that doesn’t mean work on the boat has stopped. (Also let’s not pretend I have actually been doing anything on the boat recently that might chip the mani). Toby and team have been putting in some sterling work on the inset pieces and the cabin sides.

Here’s how they describe it…

And some photos – courtesy of The Riveted Narrowboat Company – showing how it is looking…

So I heard about Offshore on radio four. I was half listening to A Good Read while whipping up some gluten free sourdough to put in the Aga (Middle class cliches… I jest). Kathy Lette was slagging it off as – and I paraphrase – “a bit meh”. What can that brassy Australian know about boating literature? Turns out she is right. It is indeed very “meh”… Almost good but slightly wide of the mark with watery characterisation and a vague plot from start to finish.

So, I learnt that all boats leak and sink and that everyone who has anything to do with them is a little unhinged. True that.

Needless to say, I have archived this next to my copy of “Steel Boats” (see previous review). That is to say, it’s propping up the rear side of the caravan.

>

Well… The raised deck bit is finished. The whole project? Still some months to go on that!

All courtesy of the Riveted Narrowboat Company. Here is their accompanying description of what they have been up to…

And some close ups of the sections where the boat was cut…

OYSTER PIER
PLUS: New and well kept with a good boat layout. Moorings available.
NEGGIES: Less accessible by road and rail than by river and in a slight backwater. I am not sure how much of a west London gal I might be.
SCHWEFFINESS SCORE: 9/10 I will be in the company of sheikhs and right next to a helipad.

This whole mad cap idea started when I went to look at a boat moored on Oyster Pier so it’s only appropriate that I head back there. The sun was shining and life afloat was looking like a great choice. There are few negatives here – good layout, great mix of boats and a peaceful outlook.

>

Part of the plan was always to try and lift part if the deck and reinstate it to its previous position. This would give more headroom in the lower cabin and restore the original shape.

This will thereby restore the original profile as seen here on my fridge.

I had speculated that the deck must have been lowered in one piece as the wood is largely intact. Toby and Alex examined the joins and suggested that they would be able to put it back up after a bit of cutting and through the power of air jacks. What comes down must go back up right????

Well they’ve only gone and done it!

More photos to follow but it is starting to look pretty amazing!!

>