Mystery Flotilla

All these cruise boats which normally run tourists up and down the Thames have been laid up on this mid stream mooring in the centre of London for a few weeks now.

Perhaps its down to the UK economy or maybe some other reason.

Are the cruise operators assembling a fleet in readiness for next year's Olympics?

Is this the part of the Government's plans for a floating prison?

Could it be the latest buy to let or affordable housing?

Is there a marine Scrappage scheme?

If you think you know what they're doing there, then answers on a postcard to .....

Sea Legs

We were sitting by the slipway watching as a fleet of Optimists and their support boats were recovered from the river when a large rib drive straight towards the slip way, no sight of a trailer or trolley in sight. It didn't stop, instead rose out of the water on three large squashy tyres and proceeded to drive off through the dinghy park, the helmsman in full control.



Closer inspection shows that the rib is fitted with Sea Legs hydraulically operated struts and powered wheels which fold down to provide amphibious capability.

Progress on the SCOW

Work on the SCOW has been painfully slow all year, but I've finally got around to repairing the deck. The old patterned non slip deck was so crazed that I just sanded it all back flat with an angle grinder.



I also sealed up the 60 year old exposed ply which form the deck beams with epoxy. At least it's a start, now all I have to do is keep motivated

Another new gaffer

Spotted this open gaffer heading up river in breezy conditions, I don’t know if she’s a local boat or a visitor, she looks like she might be a Tosher.



A version of the tradional west country boat has been made in GRP for many years by Martin Heard's yard down in Mylor Creek, but we were too far away to tell if this one was GRP or wood.

Boatbuilding the wrong way around

I've started building a model yacht for Joe and rather than do the sensible thing and buy plans I decided to scale down and modify the hull shape I used for Gato Nego my rowing skiff. With a beam to length ration of 4:1 the hull should be easily driven, I also flattened out the stern section to hopefully give better form stability and the possibility of planning. All of which sounds about right and I’m no expert, but at least with a model you can experiment without breaking the bank.

The next challenge is to position the rig, keel and rudder, I decided that I needed to draw up plans, so having already built the hull pretty much by eye I needed to get an accurate drawing of the underwater profile. Using the home made gantry (I knew it would come in useful for something), a spilling board and a stick I was able to capture the hull profile with reasonable accuracy.



Next step is to draw it up with the sail plan, keel and rudder, then calculate the Centre of Effort of the sails and the Centre of Lateral Resistance for the underwater section. Most of the design guidance suggests a “lead” CoE over CLR of some 10% -12% of water line length. Whether that works at model scale I’m not sure (some more research needed), getting it right is important if the boat is to sail well.

To complicate matters the keel and rudder when I decided where to put them and how big, will also change the underwater shape and CLR, which will change the lead and so on.

Interesting stuff this yacht design.

Steamboat

This steam boat was out on the river at the weekend, it was delightful, slipping along almost silently with that faint, fresh smell of steam and coal as it passed by.

The not so great fire of London

Walking along the South Bank yesterday just after lunch it was obvious that there was a serious fire over near the Strand.

I had a meeting over near Gresham Street and on the way back heard from the taxi driver that the Strand was closed and around a dozen fire engines and vehicles.

From the news reports the building is Marconi House on the junction of the Strand and Aldwych which is being converted into a luxury hotel. Around 75 fire fighters were called in to fight the blaze which seemed to have wrecked most of the roof area but was under control when I left work - lots more pictures here