Progress up top
January to May 2022
Winter and Spring 2022 showed once again how global warming is affecting all our lives. No snow or extended sub-zero temperatures this year made travelling to, and working on, Raybel easier than usual. However, in 2020 we had the creek overtopping the wharf on one occasion, and twice in 2021. This year we have had 5 overtoppings starting on 4th January and the massive storm surge on the 15th February which saw 400mm of water on the museum steps.
Then we had Storm Eunice on the 18th February.
Raybel’s cover consists of two 18 metre x 18 metre plastic tarpaulins kindly donated by the Deputy Lord Lieutenant of Kent, but one was ripped to shreds and landed between dry dock and the wharf. A hard days work clearing it off by shipwrights and volunteers and another when the £700 replacement arrived next day from D and S Tarpaulins in Sheppey. Well over £2000 loss in total. Then work continued ...
Outer wales on
During December and January Shipwrights Tim and John had replaced the outer wales. They are 5 1/2” thick made up of 2 layers of 1.5” Opepe and a 1.25” layer. Each plank is individually spiled to fit perfectly then bedded down on sheathing felt and mastic. Getting a very heavy, 28 feet long piece of wood, covered in slippery mastic, in place, without bashing any of the edges, was challenging when we had all the volunteers at hand – but most days the shipwrights had to do it on their own.
Towards the ends the curve of the stem and stern added the complexity of chain winches and big wedges to bend the planks around. Spikes into the wooden frames and big bolts through to the inner wale hold the planks.
Deck planking and caulking
Tim also supervised trainee shipwright Josh fitting the deck planking. There isn’t enough cash for a full redecking so this process started with the removal of all the planks that were rotten and an assessment of what remained. When all the new machined deck planks were fitted, the volunteers used bigger offcuts to laminate up some more. More are needed and douglas fir is on order to complete the job.
With most deck planking on, volunteers could begin to learn the joys of caulking. The oakum comes in a heavy box and consists of hemp fibres that have been steaped in Stockholm tar – the naturally occurring sap of fir trees. The bale is in the form of a rough string. Each string is split along its length, then pulled apart and teased out to align the fibres and make it a consistent thickness. Its then rolled into a rope which theoretically is about half an inch thick. It’s hard to keep up because several feet of this rolled rope is needed for each foot of seam. The process of caulking – hammering in the oakum then paying it with hot pitch is covered in detail elsewhere and arguments about best technique rage daily on youtube. Volunteers Alan, Stephen and young Ryan are all working their way down the seams but lots and lots more to do. Alan is an ex Medway pilot and Master Mariner but the last time he did caulking was 1971. All his ships were metal after that.
Paint schemes are also a contentious issue on barges. If it can’t be galvanised it will be going rusty sooner or later. In the foc’sle and on deck, metal fittings are descaled with a sharp hammer then wirebrushed with a grinderette. Then an etch primer in grey or black followed by a compatible top coat in black or green. In May our delivery of Jotun paints Vinyguard primer arrived. This is a zinc rich primer which can be used for wood or metal and is being used on all surfaces below before our colour consultants move in (probably more arguments in store).
The shipwrights are keen to get the opepe surfaces covered up with Vinyguard, which is a shame, as the wood has a beautiful golden hue and some interesting grain patterns but it crazes in the sun and summer is hopefully on its way.
Bitheads, covering boards and rigging chocks
Alongside deck work, Tim had shaped a piece of Opepe approx. 15 inches x 8 inches x 13 feet long to make the starboard side windlass bit. The port side bit had been replaced in the last 15 years. These bits hold the windlass – the big winch on the front which is used to raise the anchor and the mast. The forces are considerable. It’s bonded to the frames in the foc’sle and the deck beams and strengthened by the decking around it.
During March the covering boards went on – 3 inch thick pieces of timber that straddle the inner and outer wales and frames running the length of both sides, but not before the position of the frames is marked on the outside of the hull so that fixings will go into solid wood. John does one side, Tim does the other, and they work from midships towards bow and stern.
Then in April - a new port side rigging chock in Opepe and half the saddle chock on the transom replacement with oak.
Prepping for rigging - the mast case repaired
Volunteer Roger and his hearty assistant Kevin are our resident wood machinists and as well as making deck planks and D section wale bands with circular saw and router, they have been rebuilding the steel mast case. It’s a slightly undersized item as it came off the Barge Asphodel in the 1970’s but was very rotten at deck level. A new 15mm deck base plate was specified and made in Sheppey. Roger then cut plates to build the bottom panels of the case which were welded on by Tim. The bearings have been rebushed, and threaded bolts to secure the ‘turned’ wooden mast winch barrels with a nut and split pin. Shot blasted and painted with an etch primer and Sully green enamel.
The finishing touches
At the start of May, the rails aft were completed and John and Tim got to show their skill on a small but very significant decorative feature. The ‘cove line’ – like go faster stripes on cars – are highly regarded and soften the heavy features of a barge. John completed the starboard quarter board. Raybel is unusual as she has arrows pointing aft rather than the usual pointy end with a scroll at the back. The rails are the most visual and tactile feature of a barge and shipwrights take great pride is making them and the intricate, and unique, carved badge-boards and name banners, as beautiful as possible.
Another splendid item from Raybel's past is the skylight hatch at the sternm, above the skipper's cabin. This has had an interesting history. It was a splendid mahogany and brass hatch with opening windows and seating areas each side. The Sully family who commissioned Raybel used her as a showbarge for customers and for their annual family holidays. That feature is long gone but the aperture in the deck had been extended as a motor barge. Josh has replaced the missing beam and extended the decking. The plan is to fit the hole with a steel hatch with wooden opening skylights and incorporate a cupboard for engine controls and navigation gear, but replicating the original. . Mahogany and brass may return one day.
