April 2019

Whilst the loss of Phil Magin and Dave Lowndes is still very much in our minds, they would want us to press on with the good work that they had put in over the years, and that is precisely what we have done.

On the boiler front, as we go to press, we have now re-threaded 100 of the 120 tube holes, so on this facet of the project, we are now on approaching the home straight. This has been achieved with a huge physical effort from the volunteers, and whilst this is mainly the domain of the Engineering Dept, members of the deck crew have also put their strength to good effect. We have also been able to use this exercise as an opportunity for a number of our Young Volunteers to learn the necessary skills in marine steam restoration in order to maintain Kerne as an operational vessel in the coming years. The next stage rests with contractors who will swage out the tubes to the required diameter, prior to retreading.

Serious progress has also been made with the wheelhouse project. The manufactured structure was delivered to the vessel in sectional form, and in April, we were able engage M Dowd Joinery of Swinton to undertake the critical assembly job. This is not as simple as it sounds, as due to the method of the vessels original construction, there is little uniformity in the curved shape of the boiler casing onto which the wheelhouse sits. It was therefore necessary to modify the curved base saddle, so that it fitted the boiler casing snugly over plates and rivets, whilst providing a perfectly square and level surface onto which the wheelhouse proper could be mounted and attached. For those of us more used to spanners, it was intriguing to watch the joiners with wood chisels and planes fitting the saddle perfectly. This was then bolted to angle iron previously welded to the casing. The following day, the wheelhouse structure was assembled on the quayside and carefully checked for square and level prior to lifting into place.

Day 3 started early with the removal of the scaffolding ‘tent’ that has covered and protected the new steelwork top of the boiler casing. Once the crane arrived on site the assembled structure was carefully lifted and lowered into place on the saddle – perfectly square and level. The roof was then craned into place and fitted perfectly. The various sections were glued, pinned, screwed and bolted into position to provide a strong and stable structure. Now all we have to do is install the flooring, paint, glaze, rewire and generally fit-out as before! Once again, our grateful thanks to the Pilgrim Trust whose generous grant helped to fund the project, to Moorside Joinery for the manufacture, and M Dowd Joinery for the fitting.

Whilst on the subject of wood, the completion of the Forward Cabin bulkhead is within our sights.

Away from Sandon Dock, we attended the Easter Historic Boat Gathering at the National Waterways Museum at Ellesmere Port with our new HM Tug Terrier display which attracted a lot of attention over the holiday weekend. We are also pleased to note that the gates to Weston Marsh Lock have now been repaired, which means that when we are back up and running, we will have access to the River Weaver again.