Restoration fully underway

April - June 2021

Action upped on Raybel, with major restoration work to side frames and bow.

In April the shipwrights were working all day in temperatures around zero; by June, as it was peaking at 26 degrees outside, the barge became a much pleasanter environment.

Timber supplies and prep
As featured in a previous blog, we've been careful in sourcing the timber used for the work. The first of the West African Opepe timber arrived in May – all Forestry Stewardship Certified.The deck planks are a uniform light orange colour, slightly oversized at 3 inches x 6 and a half inches x 30 feet ish long and very heavy. The volunteers have been charged with planing them down to spec and adding a caulking chamfer. These are expensive pieces of wood so the shipwrights kept a wary eye on them.

Roofing felt and mastics, a modern substitute for the coal tar and horse excrement of previous years was delivered from suppliers in Newington. The roofing mastic is kept in a heated cabinet to make sure it is nice and pliable. Temperatures down below are always lower than up top.

A constant stream of chainsaw parts, fuel, oil, planer blades, welding rods, cutting discs and fibre sanding pads was fed into the barge, and skip fulls of fine oak shavings emerged from it – along with lots of other debris excavated from the bilge, time served electrical wiring, internal furnishings, plumbing, bar fittings, a toilet and a couple of kitchen sinks.

Task 1 - the side frames
Our multi-skilled team of shipwrights Tim Goldsack and Jon Hall were assisted by Josh Goldsack (already a qualified carpenter), and in May, the latest recruit, Reuben Hopper joined the team.Down the port side, nearly all the frames have been doubled and capped. This involves taking a piece of green oak of similar dimensions to the original frame (approximately 6 inches square and 6 feet long) then planing it down to be a snug fit. It must fit in the gap between the existing hull planking and the lining and match the side of the old frame. This requires several dry fittings – lifting in in and out to make it fit and is exhausting work involving tape measures, ruler, ships bevel, feeler gauges good old Mark 1 eyeball.

Amidships the new frames go down to the chine but at each end the doublers are shorter as they cannot follow the turn of the bilge. With the new doubler in, the top of the old frame top was cut away and a new section – anything from 2 to 4 feet long grafted on top. A long drill is then used to bore at an angle through both frames which are bolted together with pieces of 20mm threaded steel galvanised bar. Big washers and nuts squeeze the two together to make an immensely strong bond. The grain ends were painted with red lead primer and the sides get a daily spray of 50% paraffin and 50% vegetable oil. This resists the oak drying too quickly which may cause splits or checks or twists.  Boiled linseed oil would be better, but it costs 12 times more than vegetable oil and we are using lots of it.

Then the carlins – the short steel deck beams that run from the gunnel to the hatch coamings were replaced. The corroded pieces are cut out with an electric disc cutter and replaced with 75mm x 75mm x 10 mm steel angle iron welded in place, etch primed and painted with an anti corrosion paint. The frames and carlins are replaced one at a time so that the shape of the barge is not lost, and the integrity of the deck is maintained. The upper sides of the new frames will be faired to the new hull planking and the tops will be cut to the new covering boards and deck planks.

Now to do the same for the starboard side.

Task 2 - the bow
Raybel’s bow created its own special challenges as, bit by bit, nearly all the framing in the bow is being replaced.When a barge is built, the skeleton of frames is constructed, then the outside of the frames are cut to match the shape of the hull planking. In a barge the inside is also shaped to accept the lining. This process, called fairing, is fundamental to boat building and was known at least 4 thousand years ago. The barge restorer has a much more complicated task. The hull planking is in place and if the shape of the barge is to be maintained, replacement framing must be fitted from the inside. This means shorter pieces of oak, in large dimensions, must be shaped to match the inside of the hull and requires full attention from very experienced craftsmen.

In the bow, the frames bend around to form the floors. In Raybel the steel keelson extends into the foc’sle and 5 feet was cut off the front to give access to the floors below. New floors were shaped from oak and shorter pieces, called futtocks, that join the sections, intimately matched to the frames and floors. Steel brackets carefully cut in many complex angles from 150mm x 10 mm steel plate were matched up, tack welded in situ, then welded together. The frames and brackets were then bedded down on roofing mastic. The shipwright finally has the challenge of deciding where to put a hole so that the drill, nuts and bolts, and spanners can all be accessed in the cramped space. Extra temporary bolts were driven through the hull to maintain the bow’s shape and will be removed when the hull planking is spiked to the frames with boat nails.

All the bow processes are done in sequence to ensure the shape is maintained while the new strength is put in.

Next up - refitting the keelson
Next job is to get the keelson back in place. The 5-foot section has been descaled – a very noisy process consisting of hitting it on every millimetre with a descaling hammer to break off rust that has got into the grain of the steel. Etch primer and three coats of anti-rust paint have been applied. The front of the piece, which looks like a standard large, rolled steel joist or “I beam” has been shaped into a shallow wedge and there has been some discussion about how this was achieved in the days before electric wielding. Perhaps you can tell us?

The new floors have been faired to allow the keelson to be replaced. A huge fore foot piece has been cut out from under the apron and the area forward of the keelson has also been flattened so that a steel extension can be added to the keelson, creating more stiffness in the bows and supporting the knee, stem and apron. We think Raybel’s makers would have done that too if they had access to our electric welding gear. Tim Goldsack advises it’s typical of many barges and a regular issue. Important to remember there was no “one design” for barges and different makers had different ways of doing things. Some worked better than others, but no one expected any of them to be around for another 80, 100, or 120 years. Testimony to the skills and dedication of barge owners, restorers and apprentice trainees over the years.