After a bit of a lie-in and a cooked breakfast I followed up our discussions yesterday and phoned Calcutt. After a very brief phone call an appointment was made for about 75 minutes later to fit in between two boats having blacking done. We duly arrived and the problem was checked by one of the senior engineers and I went off to register at the office. My cake was waiting! Half an hour later the boat was up on the slipway. As the picture shows, the rudder stock was bent. All attempts to separate the rudder using the sledge hammer failed, so the gas torch was used to heat up the bent bit and a couple of whacks with the hammer had it back in line. All in all an hour and a half later we were on our way. I have to say that I was very impressed with the whole operation. The office communicates with the marina staff by radio. As soon as the boat was in the water, I had walked to the office. The invoice was waiting and by the time I returned the second boat was already up on the slipway being washed down. We then called our friends to say we were on our way and on arrival at the top of Stockton Locks a posse was waiting and we shot down to Blue Lias in 30 minutes. What a team!
What happened to the rudder?
Posted by: Brian | September 29, 2009 at 20:59
The rudder never came off Brian, they just hit it again with the stock cherry redhot and it bent back into shape. The boat runs better, truer that is, than before.
Mike
Posted by: Mike | October 02, 2009 at 17:19