Friday 23 December 2011

A peek at her bottom - you know you want to...

DIY Bottom Blacking part 6
November 2011

There is something strangely compelling about looking at the bottom of a boat when it is out of the water. I remember seeing photos of Granny Buttons and Indigo Dream when they were out of the water and staring long and hard at their base plates.

Base plate - front

There are very mixed views about the need to black the base plates - they are certainly very difficult to reach and most tend to the 'leave it alone' camp. I didn't fancy working in the small gap and having looked at the state of the bottom decided to leave it alone. The steel it thickest down there (10mm) and from what I could see, it looked ok for its age. In fact, considering the amount of obstacles I have hit, it looked absolutely amazing.

Base plate - middle

The annodes seem to be doing their job - the bows and stern sections were notably better than the middle where some rust was evident.

Base plate - stern

So, for the sake of completeness here are three photo's of Wand'ring Bark's base plate in late 2011. I will use this as a reminder of its quality and measure the deterioration over the coming years.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

It is a fascinating sight - I had a wry thought that wouldn't it be great if you could map the bottom of the canals by the pattern of scrapes along the baseplate :-)

Season's Greeting to the crew of Wanderin' Bark.

Sue, nb Indigo Dream

Nick Holt said...

Captain - what a fine bottom! I'm very envious... after taking a closer look at '18686's' bottom whilst out the water, I've got to admit that yours looks a picture of health and 'as smooth as a baby's' in comparison!

Ah, the joys of having a very old boat, with dramatic 3mm pits...

Merry Xmas and 'a good road' ahead...

Nick

Kath said...

Oooo nice pictures! Can I use them in my embroidery project - Rust!!
Kath (nb Herbie)