Post by quaysider on Aug 5, 2021 5:58:03 GMT
yesterday didn't go as planned.
We swapped roles - I was locking and the bosun on the tiller... I knew we were in for a long day when I glanced down at Stone bottom lock to see the boat diagonal and unable to enter the lock... something muttered about lost steering from the rearend.
Long story short , he'd picked up something on the skeg that was jamming under the tiller as it got to the centre, making turning difficult. Once I'd removed the prop foul associated, we muddled on for the day, making repeated attempts at getting whatever it was off.
To no avail so by the time we got the Stoke lock and turned on to the caldon, spotting a space just big enough at the start of the 48 hour mooring so we gave in and I went in to have a feel. Whatever it was (water too couldy to actually see) appeared to have gone so unless something is now stuck in the rudder cup , I'm hoping we'll be ok - having lifted the rudder OUT of said cup, I couldn't feel anything with my fingers (but was aware if he dropped the swan neck down I could lose them) so I called it a day.
Whilst in the water, I'd asked him to put the baffle plate back in and clamp it down. Never sure if that's been done properly, upon checking, I found in his optimistic re-fittign, he'd stripped the threads off both the threaded bar and the nut welded to the cross bar . Thinking I might get away with refreshing the nut, I made an attempt to tap a new one and planned to insert a bit of wood to enable "fresh" threads on the bar to get a grip.
This didn't work.
A bloke on the water point was watching me faff about and came over - returning a few mins later with a length of 35mm box section.
In the old days I've have had a welder and would have drilled a 12mm hole through and welded a 10mm nut on, then got a bit of 10mm threaded bar, cut a bit off and welded a T on to it for easy turning.
Instead, I'm going to B & Q shortly to get some threaded bar - and OR some long bolts and will have an attempt or 2 (the box section is twice the length I need ) at tapping a thread into it to receive the bar.
If that doens't work, plan b is to walk up to the boat yard near the potteries and ask them if they will weld me one like the one I'll be carrying... not the plan I had for today. hmmmf.
On the plus side, I think I might put a sign up in my window saying "broken down" - after all , I'm rather conveniently moored near a tap, toilet AND shower!
We swapped roles - I was locking and the bosun on the tiller... I knew we were in for a long day when I glanced down at Stone bottom lock to see the boat diagonal and unable to enter the lock... something muttered about lost steering from the rearend.
Long story short , he'd picked up something on the skeg that was jamming under the tiller as it got to the centre, making turning difficult. Once I'd removed the prop foul associated, we muddled on for the day, making repeated attempts at getting whatever it was off.
To no avail so by the time we got the Stoke lock and turned on to the caldon, spotting a space just big enough at the start of the 48 hour mooring so we gave in and I went in to have a feel. Whatever it was (water too couldy to actually see) appeared to have gone so unless something is now stuck in the rudder cup , I'm hoping we'll be ok - having lifted the rudder OUT of said cup, I couldn't feel anything with my fingers (but was aware if he dropped the swan neck down I could lose them) so I called it a day.
Whilst in the water, I'd asked him to put the baffle plate back in and clamp it down. Never sure if that's been done properly, upon checking, I found in his optimistic re-fittign, he'd stripped the threads off both the threaded bar and the nut welded to the cross bar . Thinking I might get away with refreshing the nut, I made an attempt to tap a new one and planned to insert a bit of wood to enable "fresh" threads on the bar to get a grip.
This didn't work.
A bloke on the water point was watching me faff about and came over - returning a few mins later with a length of 35mm box section.
In the old days I've have had a welder and would have drilled a 12mm hole through and welded a 10mm nut on, then got a bit of 10mm threaded bar, cut a bit off and welded a T on to it for easy turning.
Instead, I'm going to B & Q shortly to get some threaded bar - and OR some long bolts and will have an attempt or 2 (the box section is twice the length I need ) at tapping a thread into it to receive the bar.
If that doens't work, plan b is to walk up to the boat yard near the potteries and ask them if they will weld me one like the one I'll be carrying... not the plan I had for today. hmmmf.
On the plus side, I think I might put a sign up in my window saying "broken down" - after all , I'm rather conveniently moored near a tap, toilet AND shower!