Friday, 22 January 2016

Keeping a Bee


***New book "Emily's Journey" out soon! *** 
***Check my website for details***

***New short story "A Pause for Thought" available.   Check website or Facebook.
http://www.michaelnyewriter.com
This post started in January.   Scroll down to find the he latest update

****POST UPDATED 12th August 2016****
(update title is "Dawn")

Apologies for the break between updates.   I have had a very busy time of late getting the new book ready to publish!

Bee 1


The one that got away (almost)
I found this photo of a once prolific style of boat on the internet.
 
***If you would be kind enough to like my Mayfly Page on Facebook I'd be much obliged.***
The google shortcode below will take you there


 Not long before my sixteenth birthday we were heading slowly back down the river at the end of another summer holiday and were tied up for lunch on some nondescript concrete edging at the end of which was a half sunken boat. After over forty years I can't remember where on the river we were but I do remember the 19 foot front cockpit plywood Dolphin cabin cruiser half full of water with a couple of small fish swimming around inside it. It had clearly been there for some time, and would, if nobody did anything, have sunk. The name “Willow Wisp III” was clearly visible on the bow, the steering cable, which I was able to lean over and try, was completely seized solid, as were the throttle and gear-shift. Seeing my interest, my dad suggested that I should ask the nearby boatyard if they knew anything about it. Surprisingly they knew of the owner and, better than that, they wrote a phone number down on a sheet of paper for me. In the days of mobile phones I'd have been able to ring straight away (making the assumption that I'd have been allowed to have one) and the story may have had a different outcome. As it was, I had to wait until we were back home two days layer to get in in touch with the owner. The man that answered the phone sounded a little surprised, and said that he'd lost interest in the boat for reasons he didn't want to go into, and that I was more than welcome to make him an offer for it. Twenty pounds was the sum we settled for, and the man said there was an 18 horsepower Evinrude outboard that I could have for another twenty if I got the craft back in order. I contacted the boatyard to say the deal was going ahead and they said they'd lend me a “Henderson” pump which would be more than adequate to get the water out of the thing, after which Dad said he could tow it back behind the extremely underpowered Nyzark, where it would eventually find its way onto some hard standing in Kingston Power Station's unused barge house where I could work on restoration. The whole project seemed viable as, even with my limited abilities in woodwork, I would have been able to repair and replace bits of the sheet plywood hull, and other parts, as required. Two days before the proposed expedition to raise Willow Wisp III we were contacted by someone who had kindly towed the boat in its half sunken state to the dinghy rollers alongside the weir (I'm afraid I can't remember which lock it was attached to). I wasn't too worried abut this as we were allowed access and, with the borrowed pump, set off to complete the rescue.
On arrival at the rollers we found that Willow Wisp III, having been towed without being emptied first, had finally sunk to a point that the outboard well was now underwater. Worse than that, the powerful “Henderson” pump was an old, but rather large, semi rotary hand pump. Worse still the thing didn't actually work either. We did our best to heave the craft onto the rollers but, yet again they were meant for much lighter craft, and were not in any fit state of repair either. In particular, the shallow gradient at the bottom end had at some point, snapped or sunk, to leave a step that was too much to get the water laden Willow Wisp III onto. Another tack was tried, which was to lash tarpaulin over the outboard well and manually bail the craft out. This too resulted in failure. The whole afternoon was spent in ever more futile attempts to re-float the craft, but without the cash to hire a decent petrol powered pump, and to get the outboard well even a little bit watertight we were forced to give up. I've often wondered if the boat was rescued and still regret that I wasn't able to be the person that did it. I was only sixteen and, though disappointed, accepted that the job was too big for me. I remember Dad saying that If I really wanted to own a boat, he was far more in favour of that than me owning a motorbike. I know my limitations as far as balance goes, and never really fancied the idea of hitting the ground at anything more than walking pace. I said nothing though, but was pleased that Dad wanted to help.
After looking round for some time, we found, at Thames Ditton marina, a small clinker built cabin cruiser sitting on blocks in the car park. She wasn't in the best condition and was rather expensive as part of the deal included a nearly new 7.5 horsepower Mercury outboard. A closer look revealed that the deck on top of the cabin was in a very poor state, and light was visible between the cabin front and the bow deck. We were given the phone number of the owners, and that evening I rang them. The first thing to ask was if they were willing to split the boat and motor into two separate sales, and to ascertain how negotiable they were on price. They were happy to do both, and we agreed on £150 for the boat, leaving the marina to sell the outboard. My life savings at that time were £180, which was in a building society account that I had no access to without parental permission. That night there was one of those conversations between Mum, Dad, and Granny. Dad had an uphill challenge, the clincher of which was that in just over a year I'd have been able to buy a second-hand motorbike, without permission. At that time it was permissible to ride a 125cc machine on a provisional licence which, given that I hadn't so far even ridden a push-bike, struck fear into Mum and Granny who saw the boat as a suitable money pit to keep me distracted from alcohol loose women and road going vehicles.
One condition of sale was that the owners, a retired couple, wanted to see me before they sold the boat to me. They were both canal enthusiasts, had visited several festivals and wanted the boat to go to someone that had the same enthusiasm. I must have impressed them, as, without my asking, they said that I could have the boat for £125 rather than £150. My memory of them was that they were a really nice couple. I seem to remember their name was Nicholson, but I may be wrong. I handed them a cheque, and Bee 1 was then my boat. All I had to do was get her ready for the water with very little cash. 


 And the one that didn't.
This is yours truly at age seventeen with his life savings in wooden form.



An Accident with Custard.



Here is the bright red cabin top of Bee 1 about a year after restoration.

 The following weekend, I caught the bus to Thames Ditton, walked into the car park, and couldn't quite believe what I'd done. Sitting on blocks on the hard standing with cars parked nearby was Bee 1, and I owned her. Rather than go straight to her, I went to the chandlery shop to seek permission which, given that they already knew me by association with Mum and Dad, they said I didn't need. I walked back to the boat and stood looking at her with a feeling that the situation still wasn't quite real. I owned a boat, albeit a somewhat shabby one, but I owned her outright, she was mine. I undid a few of the brass turn-buckles that secured the rather rotten canvas and found a stout looking box to use as a step. Once in the cockpit, I unlocked the cabin doors to start assessing what needed to be done. The boat had been out of the water for a long time but was still pretty well equipped for something that small. All of the contents, however, would have to be unloaded before any repairs could be done, and there were plenty required. The cabin top was probably in the poorest state and, with hindsight, it would probably have been a good idea to replace it with a new sheet of marine ply had I have had any money to do it. The worst thing was that it had been covered with a diamond patterned plastic covering that was supposed to seal it completely, which it probably did for a while, until water started to creep in from any glued edge to leave a permanently wet layer between it and the wood. Also one of the deck rails had been badly knocked, and had come away with a few layers of the plywood, leaving a small hole near the back of the cabin. There was the gap that I'd noticed between the front deck and the cabin front, through which light was visible across the whole width. Dad had suggested that canvas and old paint were the solution to my problems, and, with un-proofed cotton “Duck” being cheap, and old pain being more or less free, it seemed a good solution. I was able to set to work to get the old rails and deck covering off the craft, a task that was surprisingly easy given that the glue holding the plastic no longer had any strength whatsoever and the brass screws securing the deck rails were all pretty loose.. A tin of wood filler, which cost very little closed the small hole in the cabin roof, and, after a day sandpapering I was good to go with the paint. After a raid on the garage for old cans, plus a couple of cans showing up that were being thrown out by the marina staff, I started the job. The dried out wood soaked the paint up quicker than toilet paper, but I soon had a suitable coat of sticky gunge to lay the canvas across. Once this was done, a task that didn't take too long, it was time to stipple more paint through the canvas until it was totally saturated. I had a large tin of custard yellow gloss for this job, and all went well until I was almost finished, whereupon I dropped the tin on the top of the cabin, spilling a fair amount which proceeded to run down the side of the boat, which I had intended to keep in its original varnish finish. It now had an untidy vertical yellow stripe down it which took me longer to clean off that it has taken to do the whole of the decking! I finished the day late, covered in various colours of paint, and seriously fed up. The job was, however, done. The decks of Bee 1 were now watertight, and, as soon as they were dry, I had a tin of Royal Mail red paint to put a top coat on. Thankfully I'd learned my lesson, and was very careful not to spill this one, and it took one sunny afternoon to apply the final coat, tack the beading along the edges, and trim the canvas. I finished the weekend with yet more paint on my trousers, but a feeling of both achievement and of optimism that I could actually see the job through. I think my total spend that weekend was less than £5 which seemed, even then, to be a tiny amount for the transformation it made.


Golden Syrup

Bee 1 with her new nameboards



Having got the cabin top and front deck watertight, it was time to sort the peeling yacht varnish from the cabin sides and all the hull. I was lucky in that, along with the boat, came a reasonable amount of the stuff and other paint products that had been used for general maintenance which had been stored either in the cabin or cockpit. There wasn't quite enough varnish but I only needed a relatively small quantity to add to what I already had. First though, I had to prepare the ground. In these days of cheap Chinese made power tools I'd have risked electrocution with an unbranded mains powered sander, or explosion with a battery powered one. Then though, I only had one option. Cork block, sandpaper and elbow grease. Though tiny by cabin cruiser standards, 15ft 6 inches is a lot of boat to sand, and I also had the joy of keeping finding little bits of yellow paint that I hadn't managed to get rid of in the previous clean up. The whole job took all of my spare time for a week, at the end of which I felt that I'd made Bee 1 look a hell of a lot worse than she'd looked at the start of my effort. There was only one thing for it, start varnishing! Another bus ride, with some more paint brushes I'd purloined from the garage, and I was again ready to go. The weather was warm, and I have always found that painting is quite therapeutic, so I settled to working away, brushing the syrup coloured yacht varnish on the cabin sides and hull whilst listening to my radio which was perched inside the cockpit. The wood was quite dried out and soaked the first and second coat up with little change to its appearance. I think I put four coats on in all over the period of a week, and perhaps a fifth on the cabin sides which had been in a very poor state. One of my happy memories of the time is standing back looking at a newly varnished plank glistening in the sun and the new single by Roy Wood's Wizzard, “Angel Fingers” got its first play on Radio One.
As is the case with boats, there is always another job to be done when you think you've finished. I'd taken the name boards off in order to paper behind them, and was simply going to reattach them when the varnish was dry. Having looked at them though, I felt they were a bit too battered and decided to take them back home for a repaint. That evening I set about sanding the first, only to find that water had got behind it (where it hadn't been painted) and, as a result, it had decomposed quite badly. Checking the two, I found that one was in as poor a state, and the other wasn't so hot. The following day I managed to find a suitable piece of scrap wood that was big enough to make three new name boards. It took me quite a while to get them all the same size, and each got three coats of white paint before I started with the lettering. Using graph paper as a guide, I drew the letters out and then traced them, going over the back with a very soft pencil so that a mark would transfer over to the pristine white gloss of the boards. It took a few hours to paint the name three times over, and get each board looking the same. I used a small artists brush and black Humbrol enamel (from my Airfix kit days) for this. By the end of the week I had some quite presentable boards, which I proudly attached to the boat. I now felt I had something that looked quite presentable, and which was also beginning to feel believably mine. There was still a lot to do, including getting something to power it with. I'd been told by the previous owners that the 7.5 Mercury had been a bit of a mistake on their part when they bought it to replace an earlier outboard. It was a very well engineered machine but was a bit on the heavy side, and Bee I was overpowered with it. On the river it wasn't so bad, but on canals, on the low throttle settings, they found that it tended to run a little too cool, and, even with the 50 to 1 petrol oil mix, spark plugs used to oil up quite frequently. With this, and a budget of £30, in mind, I set about the task of finding something suitable. It was to be a long search.

I need power Scotty!

The right tool for the job, a 1968 Mercury 3.9


In the days of no Ebay or Gumtree, it was classified ads, the Exchange and Mart, and basic cycling around to every boatyard in the phonebook that was the method of searching. There were quite a lot of old outboards available, but most of them seemed to be the 1 ½ horsepower variety that wouldn't have had the punch to push the boat on the Thames, though they'd probably have been fine for canals. The first machine I remember finding was made by a company called Clinton who, I thought, made motors for lawnmowers. The thing was pretty old and battered, but had the look of a “proper” outboard. The person I spoke to at the yard said he didn't know much about it except that it made a bit of a clatter, and that he wanted £50 for it. Next in line was a 4 horsepower British Anzani which would have been suitable on power, reliability and condition. They were a simple machine, with a permanently engaged forward gear, meaning that when you started the motor, it immediately propelled the boat, and kept doing so until you stopped. O.K. for going along the river, but not so good for manoeuvring in locks etc. I would have bought this but someone wanted it for a sailing boat and offered the seller more money than I had. The same place had a 4 horsepower short shaft British Seagull for sale at a price that I could afford. Problem was that it was a short shaft, designed for either an outboard well or a sailing boat with a lower stern or motor bracket. The yard must have had the thing cluttering the place up for some time, as they offered to fabricate a bracket out of scrap steel for me as part of the deal. Feeling that this was about as good as I would get, I accepted the offer and now would be able to move Bee 1 when she eventually went in the water.

The bracket, when it did show up, was made of pretty thick steel, weighing about a quarter as much as the outboard. It was well put together and I duly attached it to the back of the boat with four large bolts. My “Jim Stratton” moment came some time later when, at the power station barge house, I attached the British Seagull, and set about pulling the starter cord. In my book, “Mayfly” Jim simply goes through the motion of starting a rather better machine on a day when nobody else seems to be around. I wasn't so lucky. The wharf area for the barge house was alongside Canbury park, and I attracted a small audience as I tried, and repeatedly failed, to get the damn motor to fire at least once. Of course, I eventually got the guy who “knew a bit about outboards” who gave me all sorts of spurious advice which resulted in the carburettor flooding and absolutely no life from the little outboard. There's something about starting recalcitrant machinery that is mildly annoying, and it gets even more so when someone keeps shouting advice through a stout iron fence. After about twenty minutes it was probably possible to cook an egg on the top of my head (though I never tried) I simply disappeared into the barge house to see if there was anyone that actually knew anything, and ask them. Thankfully by the time I returned, fuelled with the advice to simply leave it for the petrol to evaporate, put a new spark plug in (of which several were supplied in a box of bits for the motor) and then pull the cord once with choke and again without. I was also now accompanied by my dad, who had finished work for the day and was interested to see how everything went. The advice I'd been given worked, and with the motor on tickover I cast off. I got as far as Gridley Miskin's Timber yard near Kingston Bridge (no more than a couple of hundred yards) when I noticed that, instead of being perpendicular, the outboard was now leaning at quite an angle, having vibrated its clamp screws (which I had made sure were tight) to a point where I could easily have lost the thing in the river. Thankfully I was able to grab hold of a moored barge, stop the motor, re-tighten the clamp, and head back to the power station barge house. The run hadn't exactly been the success that I'd hoped and, despite encouraging words from Dad, I couldn't help feeling that I'd wasted my money. I can't remember running Bee 1 with the British Seagull again, though I may well have done, and I sold it soon after for a small profit to pay for something entirely better.

During the restoration of Bee 1, the new owners of Lady Jena, the boat Mum and Dad had bought before they got Nyzark, had decided to sell her. They'd enjoyed their time with her, but with a new baby on the way, they needed to get some money together. A buyer was soon found, but they couldn't afford the boat with the engine and, much as I had done, planned to find one when funds were available. I'd always liked the single cylinder 1968 Mercury 3.9 that had powered Lady Jena more or less since she'd sunk and been brought back to life. This now was just within the absolute limit of what I might be able to afford so I offered the owners £40 for it, thinking that it was probably worth more and fully expecting to be turned down. Thankfully they accepted and I was now the proud owner of a long shaft outboard with a real gearbox and proper remote fuel tank. I was also completely skint, but I really didn't care. With a smile on my face, and some stout plywood on the back of my bicycle, I set off to my little boat to remove the well made but rather unsightly (and now unnecessary) steel bracket. Once I'd taken it off, I reinforced the stern with plywood either side of the stern post, fixed firmly into place with the bolts from the bracket, several screws and a good dose of marine grade glue that I'd found in one of the lockers. It is the Mercury that I decided to build the opening scene of Mayfly around. The motor never really set a foot wrong, and I'd like to think that, like many of its kind, it is still around today.
 

But will it float?



With all the work done, it was time to put Bee1 back in the water. She was severely dried out, and it was suggested that I put some water in the bottom to allow the planking to take up the slack. It was a good job that I did, because there was a bit round the bow where there was quite a bad leak. Nothing too serious to fix, but sufficient to have sunk the boat overnight had she just been put in the water. As with all similar situations, suggestions as to how to fix the problem came thick and fast. In the end, someone from the yard workshops said he'd go over it with a product called “Farocaulk” which would sort things. I've never seen a tube of the stuff, and can find very little information on it other than it was well liked and had a long shelf life. It did the trick though and Bee 1 was lowered into the water on the slipway the next day. The following weekend, I reassembled the interior of the little boat, having done my best to repair items made with interior grade plywood that had separated. I also bought (with the last of my cash) a small brass bodied pump for the bilges. All was good to go. I had turned seventeen and I owned a boat. Sadly it was close to the end of the summer break and I had no money whatsoever. I did have a tank full of petrol though, so I was able to enjoy a few short runs before going to college of further education. With the Mercury outboard Bee 1 had a good turn of speed, and was easy to handle, a lot of which was down to the beautiful hull design. She did roll rather more than some boats but was a willing little craft and it was on one of the runs I made with the original tankful of petrol that I decided I was going to have my own holiday, the following summer. I sat down and worked out the cost, and whichever way I did, I came to the conclusion that I would either be able to afford food, or fuel but not both. Then petrol shot up in price. I calculated again and things did not look too good but I was still, at an age where one really wants to assert independence, determined to go. The answer was simple. Apart from the odd LP record now and again, I saved every penny I could, putting the cash either in a tin on my windowsill, which once had about £10 worth of 1971 two pence coins, and a wooden box near my bed for anything that would fold. A whole lot of that was lost on the licence, but I kept the regime, and by the end of the summer term at college of further education, instead of revising for my exams, I was busy on Bee 1 preparing for what, for me, was an epic voyage. I remember arriving by bicycle, with all I needed for the exams stuffed into the pockets of an old anorak. Actually the pockets had long worn through so I had steel rule, drawing set, slide rule etc. in the lining which amused people as I pulled the items out, appearing to lose weight as I did. A friend was filled with horror when I told him I'd put a coat of white gloss on the inside of the cabin top that afternoon when he'd had his head in a textbook the whole time. I had been warned by the tutors that I would probably get a worse mark in the exams than in the mocks mainly because of my attitude to revision. I still got a distinction though (Which is as good as you could get in City and Guilds), so I must have been doing something right.
The day finally came for that “Jim” moment. This part of it was the heading into the unknown. I am aware that many teens my age claimed to have been everywhere and done everything, which did rather belittle my talk of my own personal adventure. It was my adventure though and I was going to have it. The Mercury fired up perfectly, and I was on my way up the river Thames. Hardly uncharted territory but this was my boat, and my home for two weeks. Then it started raining and I was a sitting duck. I got soaked through, stopped at Molesey Lock, changed my clothes, put waterproofs on and continued. Then the sun came out and I started sweating like a pig. Whilst still steering, I took the waterproofs off and tossed them in the cabin. Cue another heavy shower.
By the end of the day I had been soaked to the skin and dried out several times. I also had had a splitting headache. I tied up for the night near Halliford school on the old river behind Desborough Cut. Next it was time to try my luck with the rather old and equally dangerous looking Calor gas stove.
One burner on the thing looked like a sawn off blowtorch, and the other was disk like with four vents. Both burners were quite rusty, and the knobs very stiff. The main body of the thing was made of steel, painted with faded custard yellow paint. Not feeling too hungry I decided to boil and egg, which, using the blowtorch burner, boiled too fast and exploded in the pan. The meal was not set to be a resounding success, but it was food. I was in my boat and it was my holiday and I was going to enjoy it even if it killed me!

 
Dawn.

The next day the weather was a bit more settled, and I woke up without the headache. Everything seemed fine so I had breakfast (I can't remember what it was) and then set about getting the boat ready for the day. Most things seemed neat enough, and there wasn't a lot of water in the bilge, so it was soon time to start the Mercury and head off. Bee1 was a very pleasant little boat to handle, and cut through the water without a huge wake. The outboard was pretty quiet, and I settled to the days cruising happily, hoping to get to Cookham by the evening. I'd always been told that two stroke American outboards had a tendency to be very thirsty as far as fuel was concerned, but I seemed to be getting between 4 ½ and 5 hours per gallon from the little 3.9 horsepower single. There were no issues with going through the locks, although my care with getting the boat in the right place, did get me asked to speed up a couple of times. After a few more locks though I fully got the hang of the role of the one man boater.
The meadow at Cookham was a bit packed when I arrived, but I found a space that nobody seemed to have spotted. I fount that this may have been because it had the misfortune of being something of a trap for wash from the boats still going along the river. At the time, I think the 7 knot speed limit was regarded by a lot of the more well heeled boat owners as being more of an advisory thing, and they pushed their craft well beyond it at times. This resulted in the wash hitting the bank and eroding it, but where I was it caused a lot to funnel between the bank and my boat, landing quite a good deal of it in the cockpit. Eventually I partially fitted the canvas over the back to deflect it. This was far from ideal as the cover was nothing more than that. It clipped to the cabin top with turn-buckles and sloped down to the stern, leaving pretty much no room to sit. Still, when the traffic had finally ceased, I sat out for the rest of the evening. I think there had at one time been a hard top for the cockpit but this had been removed long before I had the boat, and probably accounted for the several holes left in the cabin top before I fixed it all up. The second, and subsequent nights got better as time went on and I eventually found my way to the beautiful meadow by Halfpenny bridge in Lechlade. It had been a while since I'd been there, with the Thames being used mainly as a route to the Oxford Canal by my family for a few years. The distance had to be covered as quick as possible, with no time to spend simply dawdling. Even then the town of Lechlade was changing. The beautiful old café that was A.Smith had long gone, and the shops were just beginning to homogenise into what we have today. It was still nice to be there though, and I spent an enjoyable time browsing at some places. A trip to Park End Wharf to get a few necessities made an interesting diversion, and I eventually decided to take a look at the old Thames and Severn junction. The best way to look would have been by water, and the wharf, who used to hire small motor boats by the hour, now only had a selection of rather battered fibreglass skiffs. They had the advantage of being cheap, so I spent a little of the limited cash I had on one. The thing was in a poor state of repair, and the oars were in even worse condition. To start with they didn't match! One was about ten inches longer than the other. They didn't locate properly in the rowlocks which themselves were severely worn and malformed, being bent to a point that should have snapped any self respecting piece of cast iron. Eventually I gave up on the attempt and decided to walk instead.
When I got opposite the junction I found that the long demolished footbridge had been replaced and I spent a couple of hours doing a rather poor watercolour of the area, this being the only image I have from the holiday. I sometimes wish that I'd taken a camera with me, but with no more than the one image, I feel the memory of the holiday has stayed a lot fresher in my mind that it otherwise would have. I'd decided that if the time was to be a getaway, which was something I really needed then, that I would take a minimum of clutter with me. Following this ethos, I also left my radio and cassette recorder behind, taking a guitar, which I wasn't that good at playing instead. Although it was no more than a repeat of early family holidays, it formed a special part of my life that eventually sowed the seeds of my changing direction and going to art school. It could be argued that the two weeks were truly life changing in that respect as, when at Sunderland Polytechnic on my fine art degree course, I met someone called Janice Armstrong at someone's birthday party. The rest, as has been said so many times, is history. A year after I completed my degree, we were married in Kendal, and are now rapidly approaching our 34th anniversary. In the Mayfly books I have written a lot about the benign influence boats seem to have on the lives they touch. Maybe Bee 1 knew something that I didn't.


 http://www.michaelnyewriter.com

Mayfly series Facebook page

No comments:

Post a Comment