Baragoola Week Ending 5th May 2012

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

Upcoming events

TBC June – Lady Denman Museum visit (day tour – tentative at this stage, more info to come) 27th May – General Meeting of the Association on board Baragoola – letters on the way shortly 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

8th of May, Barrenjoey (later North Head) launched in 1913

Barrenjoey not long after launch

As North Head in Port Jackson company days

North Head now (E. Chalker)

Baragoola Trivia Contest

Want to win one of our limited edition SS Curl Curl mugs?

First correct answer to the following question (emailed to landover@tpg.com.au) will be the winner:

How many crew did Baragoola carry as a steamship ?

Winner announced next week.

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 on the 27th of May 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 on to the busy weekend just had – Peter H has been down during the week doing yet more work on the roof – the footing around the for’d wheelhouse is now in place!

While we’re on the subject, Peter C was again working on that wheelhouse and has now installed the new window sills. Awesome job being done by Peter and the wheelhouse is certainly coming up a treat.

We’ve had a lot of people making comments about how well this is coming along – want to make it happen quicker? – Come on down and lend Peter a hand. No skills needed – just enthusiasm to join the crew and learn.

The foredeck again received attention this weekend – this is a long and slow task to return it to useable condition and myself, Nick, Ernie, Peter & Chris. Ernie started the day by cutting away the rusted out vent above the men’s toilet – this will need to be refabricated. Next up was some further work in the same area we have been beavering away at – more rust removal, repairs, anti rust paint and a layer of waterproof skin applied and this little section is now ready for a topcoat of Warm Stone.

The darker black in the above image is the newly completed part (including the top of the bulwark). While this side was drying Nick moved to the opposite side to begin work. The starboard side is in far worse condition and after Nick’s initial work both Peter and Chris moved in to weld up the holes that had been opened. It has now been treated with a rust preventative and this week will receive the anti rust paint and membrane. This is an extremely slow job, for example, the small section that Nick worked on took the better part of five hours to do – this gives an indication of the mammoth task that even this small part of the vessel requires. Again, this work would proceed a lot quicker if we had a few more willing hands – it isn’t difficult work but you do need to ensure that every piece of rust is cut out. There’s usually competition for the air tools – believe it or not this is actually quite a satisfying job! Add to that it does the old girl a world of good too.

Back downstairs, Geoff was hard at work on the interior hull – this is the stuff you can’t see but is absolutely crucial to the long term survival of the vessel. Painstaking work, but at this point it is the most critical thing that is happening aboard Baragoola.

A nice thick coat of Rustmaster has been applied to these three plates…..

… and then Geoff moves on to the next section

In the above image, to the left of Geoff, you can see one of the untouched plates – note the amount of debris on it – this has to all be removed as it traps water – causing rust.

Geoff working on the oil tank in the engine room

Other work was done in the engine room by both Chris and Ernie and the big news is that the forward gearbox that the guys have been working on for several weeks has finally managed to turn over – quite a major event. There is still much work to do on it but many kudos to Ernie and the team. This one was in much worse condition that the aft one but has finally succumbed to Ernie’s tender ministrations.

Looking down into the gearbox

In the meantime Chris re-assembled the turbo blower from #2 English Electric.

Fuel pumps from #2

The installation last week of the bench grinder last week into the Engineer’s Quarters proved a boon to Glen this week when he took the opportunity to use it to polish some of our brass – the results are remarkable and will make this particular job much, much easier than doing it by hand – a long and painful process, trust me! These are the door knobs for the men’s toilets:

They come up beautifully and we also took the opportunity to do a couple of the massive brass caps from the handrails (sorry, no pic!) as well as a few other bits and pieces. They’ll all look very smart when the go back into place eventually – but not straight away –they’ll stay locked up for the time being to prevent theft – something that has occurred in the past but fortunately much of Baragoola’s brass fittings are still intact. Some has been returned and eventually we hope that other missing items will be returned as well. 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

Burra Bra at Putney, early 1930s (Head of the River)

Baragoola at Circular Quay © S McPherson