We have long been aware that the money island leaks. It is an aluminium deck partially clad with wooden decking. The wood is rotten in places and corrosion in the aluminium is allowing water in.
After the recent heavy snow followed by the diluvian downpour on Saturday, the ingress of water was seen to be more serious than in the past and it is damaging the internal fabric of the ship.
So we made a plan, in fact several, plans A, B, C and D. I won’t bore you with the early marks, but the current plan is as follows.
Part one is, as far as possible, to protect the monkey island deck with tarpaulins until such time as the weather and available volunteer labour allow us to proceed to part two.
So today we removed as far as possible various swan necks and corroded steel girders added to the ship’s radar mast well into her career to minimise the danger of damage to our rather thin tarps.
After that we got on with attaching the first two of three tarpaulins. With a surfeit of chiefs and no indians, five grumpy old men did in three hours what would have taken a competent carpet fitter, or better still sailmaker an hour to do on his own.
The end result, if nothing else is something Tracy Emin would probably be proud of.
Part two of the plan is to remove the wooden deck, when probably in the spring/summer in order to survey the aluminium deck. We then plan to clean the deck of paint and other debris. Stabilise the deck along these lines. (guidance only)
Surface Preparation and Priming – Aluminum
After this we will either patch areas which require patching, or possibly plate over the entire deck.
This of course is a fairly large project requiring much labour and funding. (£2500 or much more)
If you want to volunteer and are within travelling distance of Leith email info@ssexplorer.org
If you are willing to donate any amount, large, huge or gigantic. (If we over run our target ? we have many other money drains on the SS Explorer).
