Still, with a massive project like Jane, you have to begin somewhere.
I had many offers of help but, frustratingly, no way to actually do anything. This great idea was starting to seem a bit out of my league. I slowly got to know people and quickly discovered that everyone had ideas about what I should be doing. All too often, it felt like some people had their hands in my pockets feeling for cash while dispensing advice. I listened to them, thought about it all and decided what to do for myself.
TIM NOLANStuart cuts back the rust.I decided it would be with the creature comforts. The boat had no running water and the galley's little gas cooker was nothing short of dangerous. Perhaps most concerning was the wheelhouse where the roof leaked–right over my bunk–making it a priority repair.
Running water was a relatively straightforward fix, requiring a new pressure switch. But this lead to another interesting problem. I sort of knew what I wanted, but had no idea where to get it. Lady Jane is really a small ship and much of the "stuff" on board is heavy duty or domestic–not the type of thing that a regular chandlery carries. Forced to buy things on a large scale–such as ballast by the ton–I found new places to shop.
The cooker presented different problems because it needed a safety certificate and required an authorized technician to handle the installation. I decided to buy new appliances.
Delivery of these new amenities was the first real challenge. I had measured the space and purchased the appropriate stove and refrigerator for the boat. The problem was getting the big stuff out to Lady Jane. As it happened, Jan, a tug owner, happened along and offered to help.
This was when I learned another all-important lesson: Measure the size of the doors before bringing anything aboard. After the delivery I was left on deck alone, freezing cold in a howling wind, with a fridge too big to fit through the watertight door. In the end the appliance had to be dismantled to fit inside.
TIM NOLANTim proudly displays the last of the big flakes of rust.Suffice it to say that it's staying in its new spot for good.
WINNING THE RUST WAR
Having running water led to the realization that the shower room was in a desperate state. What I had was a rusty steel box with a rusty door, a rusted-through vent on the ceiling, some rusty pipes leading to the shower and a worn out wash basin. There's simply no point in taking a shower if you come out dirtier than when you went in. This launched a long crash course in rust busting. Of course, I had no power tools. And power tools would require power.
I had just seen a small, quiet Honda generator at the Southampton boat show, and soon I made a nervous trip in the inflatable with a new, expensive generator nestled in the forward end. With the generator on board, my options expanded. I could add an angle grinder and a wire brush attachment.
Rust is to Lady Jane as sand is to Iraq. After a lot of experimentation and time, I won the war, but not before chipping off the big flakes by hand; eliminating tough scale using an air hammer and a light concrete breaker; digging at the remaining bits with a needle gun; cleaning the surface with an angle grinder; skimming over difficult spots with flap disks; applying a rust converter (I use Rustroy); priming and then–finally–painting.
The process seemed interminable.
Like most tasks on Lady Jane, the wheelhouse leak proved to be a bigger challenge than I had expected. That's because I needed a welder. It was through Jan that I met Robin. On his first visit he quickly determined that I had plenty of 110-volt DC power.
But what he needed to weld was AC power.
THE FIRST VOYAGE
Robin mentioned he could get a berth for Lady Jane in a town called Fareham, just north of Portsmouth, where he could weld using shore power. This would have the added advantage of putting the boat in port, where I could take care of other tasks.
