Baragoola Week Ending 28th April 2012

In attendance: Nick, Glen, Geoff E, Geoff L, Peter H, Peter C, Ernie and Lance Visitors: Nil

Upcoming events

TBC June – Lady Denman Museum visit (day tour – tentative at this stage, more info to come) 28th July – Annual General Meeting of the BPA on board Baragoola – all financial members are encouraged to attend – details closer to the event

Historic Manly ferry events this week

None this week

Baragoola Trivia

In 1922 Baragoola cost 80,000 pounds to build – adjusted for inflation, if she was built today she would

cost in excess of nine million dollars just in wages alone and not counting material.

Volunteers Corner

None for this week – but watch out on Saturday as I’ll be cornering another of our stalwart volunteers!

Committee News

Next committee meeting will be on board Baragoola on the second Saturday in June – all financial members are welcome to attend as observers

Annual General Meeting will be held on Baragoola on the last Saturday in July – this is one we strongly encourage all members to attend as we will be electing the committee for the next year and presenting the financial records for the last year

A General Meeting will be held on board Baragoola shortly and details will be sent out – we are planning on changing our constitution and changing the membership dues for the next financial

year – again all members will be asked to vote on the proposed changes and are strongly encouraged to attend – information will be mailed out shortly

And so on to what was done this weekend past, although most of the action took place off the ferry! This started on Saturday evening with a trip by me, Geoff and Nick to do a presentation at the Austin car Club, around forty people were in attendance and the talk, which lasted about an hour and a half, was well received. We even managed to sell a few mugs which is always a good thing as money is something we are perennially short of. On Saturday we did the same again at Manly Library as part of NSW Heritage Week – the figures were disappointing with only around eight attendees. This highlights a suspicion that most of the people interested in Baragoola have long since left that area of the world – consider that our last (well attended) open day most visitors came from western Sydney. People tend to move away from expensive areas as they get older I guess. However, on the upside, we did get an invite to attend Avalon Historical Society and we may have garnered an extra valuable volunteer, so worth it in the long run. Work was done by a somewhat reduced crew on board this week though with Peter C continuing the amazing work he has done on the roof, we are now very, very close to having a completely sealed (and largely new) roof.

Indeed, work was again concentrated on the wheelhouse deck with Peter C (with the assistance of Geoff L) doing more work on the forward wheelhouse, this week installing the panels for the starboard side. Peter informs me that he now has the timber to do the doors and plans on putting in the remaining top plate and beginning the demolition of the port side this weekend. Extra hands would be vastly appreciated so if you have an hour or two on Saturday why not drop down? We are still down our work boat so please take this into account – I’ve not yet heard from Gary in regards to the “savability” of the outboard but have my fingers crossed……. Peter has been using traditional methods for the wheelhouse construction – this is in line with our stated aims where, if we need to replace original material, it is done with the same material and largely using the same construction methods. It’s also a perfect example of how our volunteers are learning new skills while working on the boat – Peter has never done this sort of thing prior to now! This is just one of the many things that our volunteers have learnt and there is much, much more to learn on board. Add to that a great crew and volunteering on Baragoola can be a great experience. Peter also came up with a suggestion around increasing our volunteers this week and we’ll be acting on that – watch this space!

Forward wheelhouse progressing nicely!

Work on converting the old Engineers Quarters to a workroom is progressing well, Ernie has finished pretty much clearing out the years of rubbish and the first piece of equipment, a bench grinder, was installed. This space will also eventually contain a lockable store-room which means we can start clearing the old store in the funnel uptake – part of the work needed to return Baragoola to operational condition.

Ernie kept up working on the forward propulsion gear – a slow job but coming along nicely.

That’s it for this week –you can keep up with all the latest on our forums and you can see our old newsletters at http://www.baragoola.com.au If you are on Facebook you can follow us at https://www.facebook.com/pages/Baragoola-Preservation-Association-Incorporated/122851477818947 We’re also on Twitter as #MVBaragoola – updates are posted fairly regularly. Our main website is now www.baragoola.com.au and if you have Google Talk installed you can chat to us if anyone is online and nearby the computer – add baragoola@gmail.com as a friend. And, last but not least, we also have a flickr page at http://www.flickr.com/photos/65669741@N08/ Please note that the on board phone number has changed to 0478 519 033 – when you need access to Baragoola please use this one in the first instance; only call one of the crew directly if it doesn’t answer. For general business you should call our message bank on 02 9294 3168. There will be people about most of this week so feel free to come down (after 8am) to lend a hand or have a look around. Next scheduled work is on Saturday the 28th of April. We’ll send out the usual reminder mid week. There will also be people here most days throughout the week – ring ahead and check first.

Historic Images

Remains of Kuring-gai at Hexham on the 28th of April, 2012

Kuring-gai in better days