June, 2004
Count the windows! There's a lot to be done, but Fintry's wheelhouse is four feet longer, weathertight, and ready to go.
June, 2004
Count the windows! There's a lot to be done, but Fintry's wheelhouse is four feet longer, weathertight, and ready to go.
June 28, 2004 -- as I was leaving to come home, we passed a big milestone. Here's the Cat 3406 sitting on the tarmac.
Ten minutes later it's just visible on its way down.
And, in another ten minutes, it's more or less in place. It actually looks small there, particularly to anyone who has seen the Lister Blackstone dominating the space.
Those with sharp eyes may have noticed something missing above.
Rumor had it that it was going to Russia on the oil mop catamaran behind it, but the folks at Manor assure me it's out to be fitted with the new muffler.
The old muffler was mostly held together by its lagging.
There's good progress on other fronts as well. This was taken a month ago -- they're almost finished now, although the last plate on the port side has to await slipping to remove a dead depth sounder transducer in the midlle of the tank.
Note that there's still almost eight feet of headroom, even with floor raised a foot to put 4,000 US gallons below the #2 hold.
Late March, 2004 -- Fintry is on the slipway! By the end of the month, old paint had been blasted off and reprimed down to the main deck. The
two pictures are about two weeks apart, as a close look at the bow thruster tube will show.
Removing the concrete and pig iron ballast from the #1 hold took a pavement breaker -- and there were
certainly moments when some of the team thought about using a little dynamite.
Installing the bow thruster was a challenge, as there wasn't much room to work in the bow while
welding the tube. That's natural, however, as the whole point is to get it as far forward and down as possible.
March, 2004 -- Trevor Kent, the new owner of the Dive Tender Ilchester, invited me along as navigator on her delivery
from Rosyth (across the Firth of Forth from Edinburgh, on the East Coast) to Holyhead (on the island of Anglesey, Wales). Photo courtesy of Trevor Kent.
March, 2004 -- I stopped off to see Ruth and Dave Jones and Lamlash after leaving Ilchester. It's a good thing the fleet
tenders have flat bottoms -- there isn't much water under Lamlash here at the north end of the Menai Strait. That's Dave
pulling up the pilot's ladder in the second photo.
March, 2004 -- I had heard that one of the class was in Exeter, so I stopped on my way back from Anglesey. Sure enough,
here's Harlech, in the basin right in the middle of town.
February, 2004 --
Lechlade is newly painted and moved into the far north end of the marina at Weymouth.
November, 2003 --
Ironbridge is now all alone at Portland, as Babcock's disposal operations have moved to Portsmouth.
She's being prepared to be taken to sea to act as a test target for a new missile system.
November, 2003 --
Holmwood has moved from a mooring in Portland Harbour to alongside the quay in Weymouth Harbour. She's undoubtedly easier to work on here.
See more about her at "Holmwood Comes Home"
November, 2003 --
Lechlade has just been water blasted, overall in preparation for a new paint job. Note the light rust on the steel and the shiny aluminum of the wheelhouse.
You can see her new deckhouse (in red primer) forward. As you can see, the Manor Marine slipway is right in the middle of Castletown, Portland.
The Fleet Tenders have nice bows. Not easy to do in 7/16" steel plate...
September, 2003 --
Dornoch has a new crane from Crane Engineering.
It's a NATO surplus Grove M977 which will lift 1.5 tonnes at 6 meters. Makes a neat package on the foredeck.