Monday 19 April 2010

Ashes to Ashes

(sorry, couldn't resist)

In fact, the only effect that the volcano ash problem has had on us is a positive one: my mum ended up staying with us rather than flying to France. It was lovely to have her to stay, and the weather perfect for enjoying Cambridge. We enjoyed drinks and dinner at the Fort, and several nice walks in the sunshine. As her weekend visit was unplanned (she was going to be arriving 4pm Friday and leaving 3am Saturday!) I still had to go rowing in the morning, and continue my coxing training. Surprisingly, I am quite enjoying learning to cox. On Saturday, I successfully negotiated the stretch of river going out of town past all the residential boats, and on Sunday, coxed the stretch with the most bends and cross-over points. My steering is not bad (I hoped this would be the case, having experience of steering the Duck) although my calls need to improve, but that will come with practice! I think that it will also improve my narrowboat handling skills, and certainly help me deal with other rowing boats I encounter on the river!


About to push off: coxing Chesterton's womens VIII Dawntreader

My mum left on Sunday morning, and James began a task that we have been thinking about for a while: the continuation of The Grand Repaint. He took about 4ft of one side of the boat back to bare and we have now primed it. However, we are thinking about hiring a scabbler to continue the task, as the anglegrinder is inefficient. We'll need to borrow a bigger genny though!

Here's my plan for the new colour scheme (using Grand Union blues). The lid of the roof that folds down over the cabin sides prevents any coach lines, as the horizontal line will always be there. Instead I think we should just work with it rather than pretend its not there:

3 comments:

  1. Hi Amy

    I passed The Duck on sunday but i was too busy to stop and yabber. I noticed the works in progress and James covered in dust! Ref Scabbler: where i come from a scabbler is used to rough up the surface of concrete before adding another layer of cementatious product to it and would damage your cabin sides. Neil on Herbie seems to have done a good job with flap wheels. I don't know of any 'remove paint to bare metal' system which doesn't involve blood sweat and dust. If Im wrong, someone let me know.

    Regards

    Navelmonster

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  2. Although we succesfully used a scabbler on our roof two years ago, I would personally be scared to use it on cabin sides as it is heavy and if you don't place it flat on the surface it can chew lumps out of the metal very quickly. Having said that, Phil Speight's guys use one OK. Maybe they are a lot stronger and more skilled than me!

    Good luck any way

    Neil
    Herbie

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