Category: MS Watergeus - page 10

22nd October 2018 – While my parents removed the paint from the bow, I continued chipping rust from the waterline at the stern of the vessel. I did around 7 meters and both rudders. Once finished, I put a coat of primer on it. She starts to look like a red hull.

While chipping rust from the rudders, I made a hole. It has to be welded as well.

Am I happy about the Tercoo discs? Yes! They do their work as promised. In some areas where there is a lot of tar, they fail, but I think most methods would get stuck in it. For removing hard rust, I have the feeling you need to push a little harder, but this not good for the disc itself. If you have a flat surface and you want to remove paint quickly, Tercoo is good. If it is an area with a lot of pitting, sandblasting would be better.

21st October 2018 – In the morning I went to Rotterdam to visit the skipper who used to own Tordino when she was a sleepschip. He had several objects and documents for my museum. During his years of working with cargo, he collected a sample on every cargo that was ever in the hold of his boats. He gave me around thirty boxes with that cargo. It will become a center piece in my museum. On the way back I picked up a ship model for my museum. It is a model of a sailing klipper. A hand made model, nearly 100 years old.

In the afternoon, there was only on job I could do: remove rust from the waterline. It is not a job I can do when I’m Bruges, it is not a nice job to do, you are dirty in less then five minutes and it is a noisy job.

20th October 2018 – Realising I won’t have enough zinc primer, I drove back to Antwerp to get some more. I bought everything they had to make sure I have enough. Since I also cleaned the decks with their high pressure machine, I can paint them as well.

The rest of the afternoon, I spent chipping the hull and removing rust. I did a part of the stern and a lot of rust came off. I even discovered another weak rivet.

19th October 2019 – At 10 o’clock, the surveyor arrived. He had a look at my paperwork, went to see the wheelhouse and the engine room. Then he came back in and started writing. my navigation lights had to be replaced and I need to mount an AIS.

Then we continued on the hull survey. For the first time, I didn’t use a grinding disc but a disc used to remove paint from cars. Since cares are built thin, it doesn’t take metal, just paint. A disc costs around 9 EURO. I bought two discs, and they were each mounted on a grinder. So I could easily swap without having to use a spanner or anything else.

Halfway my ship I ran out on the first disc. With the second disc I didn’t get that far since the surveyor marked more points at the back of the ship. It was understandable since the back of the ship looked very bad. A lot of rust and some deep pitting in the plates. At the end I used a big grinding disc. Once the grinding was finished I walked away and started talking with my neighbours. I didn’t want to know the values of the measuring. Halfway the hold, I did have a look and all the thickness measurements were above 5 mm. Great! The more he got to the back of the ship the happier I became. I didn’t have to remove any interior. Even the engine room was good. The first plate I had to mount was around an old pipe. I could live with it. The next plate was above the tunnel of the shaft. Fine to me. The third and last plate was where I made a hole in the hull. Besides those three plates, I had to weld five rivets. I never had such a good survey in my life!

Part of his recommendations was to clean the waterline thoroughly and protect it well. Something I started doing that evening after I called a few friends and told them the result of the survey.

I am using a Tercoo disc on a drilling machine to remove the rust and old tar. On their website, the company calls it the best thing after sandblasting. It are expensive discs, so I hope it will be worth it.

18th October 2018 – The surveyor had another job, so I started hammering the hull. I removed the biggest parts of the rust until I went through the hull in the engine room above the shaft tunnel.

In the afternoon, I continued cleaning the hull with the waterblasting machine.

17th October 2018 – Cleaning day, the bottom of the ship was cleaned with a high pressure machine. I couldn’t do much, so I went to Antwerp to get some paint.

In the evening, I borrowed their high pressure machine and continued cleaning the hull of the ship.

16th October 2018 – What should have been an easy day became a long and slow process of getting the Watergeus on the slipway. I arrived at 8 o’clock, my skipper one hour later. The engine was running, I woke up my neighbour and he also started the engine.

The fridge and freezer were off because some skipper had decided to unplug me in favour of his ship. I can throw away all my food.

First, they had to move a spits barge with a dismantled engine, then they had to block a steilsteven, , unblock a spits and launch it in the water. Halfway the operation, it was lunch break. It took another two hours before they pulled the Watergeus out of the water.

Cleaning the hull is a job they will do tomorrow. There is to much work on the yard.
When I got back from the shop to get some new food, I started chipping the bollards. Since there are no ropes around them, it is the perfect time.

My new neighbour has a lovely steilsteven. A very nicely shaped vessel. Nice to look at and friendly people.

10th October 2018 – The tug Kobbe came alongside the Watergeus. It will be drydocked somewhere next week.

7th October 2018 – I didn’t sleep at all! To many boats passing by, to many waves, to much shaking around. When I was back from Aalter, I started working on another content project for Museumschip Tordino. I didn’t have the energy for working aboard the Watergeus. Maybe tomorrow evening.

6th October 2018 – I was up way to early, but nervous as usual. Not like Tordino, the Watergeus is a ship that doesn’t move at all.

There were still a few ropes I had to undo. In Bruges, it is sadly enough often the habit of people to undo ropes for fun. Therefore most boats have enough ropes and a steel cable to make sure it doesnt’t happen.

The crew arrived at 6:30 and we left straight away. The first part took us 45 minutes since we had to go in reverse. One we were through the lock and the multiple bridges in Bruges, the journey went flewently. The plan was to keep the engine running under 1000 rotations a minute and so we did. The journey took 2 hours longer because of this, but there was no overheating the fuel consumption was 70 liters for the whole journey.

At the yard, I managed to get some shore power, so I’m living now with extensions leads from the bedroom to the bathroom… Something I will change are my lights. I must be able, when I have no 380v available, to use the lights aboard.

5th October 2018 – There was a list if things I had to do and things I forgot to do. Both lists were equal. Slightly panicing of what could go wrong, I realised I was less prepared then usual. Since my car was already at the yard, there were no other options then to be creative with my tools and equipment aboard the Watergeus.

1st October 2018 – The anchor winch is fully working now. I mounted the last break. Another item I can remove from my list.

27th September 2018 – I just got the news the Watergeus will be dry-docked around the 15th October instead of next Monday. Nothing I can change, so I have another week of small stuff I can do aboard my ship.

24th September 2018 – The Watergeus hasn’t moved since a few years. Not very professional. I started undoing the ropes of one neighbour. Her boat is now attached to the wooden support of the canal. I did a small paint job in the engine room and sealed a forgotten hole in the bulkhead. The exhaust of the generator is now also insulated. 

At the end of the evening, I welded a broken bracket on my anchor winch. All jobs I should have done in summer time…

10th September 2018 – Preparing the Watergeus for the yard is more then just filling up the tanks and getting the right tools aboard. I let the engine run with the shaft on for about two hours. Temperature was fine and never got over 80°C.

While the engine was running, I cleaned the wheelhouse. It was a storage unit for the last couple of years.