Wishing you all a very Happy Christmas & a Prosperous New Year....

It is our final office day today before Steve and I head off the 'alternative office' to debrief on the year 2013........... Well that's the theory!!

It has been a short year in the life of Our Daddy with us, but eventful, her renovation/rejuvenation is coming along. The weather is now a huge player in the equation, we shall overcome it somehow and carry on.

In the short few months we have been working on Our Daddy there have been triumphs and the odd setback..... as everyone in the Heritage fleet in Brixham keep telling us "that's wooden boats for you", thanks fellas. We are happy to say that this beautiful old Lugger has not given us any major surprises.

From both Steve and myself we wish you all a wonderful Christmas and New Year and hope to see you aboard Our Daddy FY7 when she is working next year. A Special thanks go to our helpers who turn up regardless of the weather, Andy, Cameron, Kate Chan and Tim, without these guys help we would not be where we are now.

Blog soon

Tim

Well it had to happen........

Our Daddy is 92 years old and we have been happily stripping, rubbish, ropes, blocks, redundant kit, sails, paint, varnish, barnacles etc from her over the last few weeks. We have a shed bulging full of sails, ropes, blocks, various iron pieces and other sundry items.

Mmmm 92 year old kindling anybody?

We were advised by the surveyor to have a look at the stem of the boat, to the uninitiated that is the large timber which helps to form the bows of the boat, so check it we did. Tim started "checking" it last Friday and found the odd soft patch!! to say the least, weetabix was stronger, "Checking" was being done with a 1" chisel and a 1lb hammer, this meant Our D had a stem which looked more like a
game of Tetris with square, rectangular chunks missing. Well after Steve and Tim had a discussion about 'scarfing' in several new pieces of wood to strengthen the stem, they came to the conclusion that the best and long term repair was to be undertaken........ you can see the results of the decision to the right here..

The stem has now been cut back to good solid wood and a we are in the process of sourcing a replacement piece of seasoned hardwood which will be cut and shaped to fit the gaping hole we now have in Our Daddy's bow section. We are pleased however, that this is the only major area

Definitely something missing.....

of rot that we have found on her, a testimony to the build quality by the Cornish shipwrights of Looe that built her back in 1921. Not quite a triumph this one but of sorts it is, as we now know how solid Our Daddy actually is!

Other triumphs of the past couple of days, the hydraulic windlass on deck was looking decidedly corroded and tired, well a few of the nuts and bolts had succumbed to the ravages of time and the sea and were just a mound of iron oxide roughly shaped like a stud and nut. They were duly ground off and the weighty windlass removed. The corrosion on parts of it were very bad so we have had a new top plate made, new hydraulic coupling plate made and the whole thing has beed stripped down and serviced, We will add photos as soon as it is refitted. Not so much of a triumph! we also repainted the boot top line on the hull....... Shame most of it came off when Steve started stripping the paint off the topsides...Oops sorry Andy.

Our thanks again to all our willing helpers without which we would not be as far forward with the Our Daddy project. Role call this week, Cameron, Tim, Andy and Chan, thanks guys we hope you are not getting bored and continue to lend us a very welcome hand in renovating Our Daddy to her former glory. Well that's it for now, more photos on our Facebook and twitter pages.

Blog soon!!

The transformation is beginning

From what seems like an age we are now seeing changes to Our Daddy. The first few weeks were taken up working out a plan of works and moving the things we want to keep and removing everything we don't, there was a lot of that! It was also a voyage of discovery, in every locker, beneath every bunk and seat we found things that our part of Our D'. We found the unusual compass which will be renovated, checked and become our steering compass, a fuly working oil lamp in the aft crew cabin, once polished it will look beautiful plus lots of other bits and pieces.

After the survey we now have clear goals and milestones in Our D's rejuvenation back being the beautiful boat that she is, first up after we had checked nails and chain stay bolts was to replace the nails and fill the areas where we had pulled them. We have replaced the chainstay bolts that were removed after coating them in red lead paint and sealing the holes around the bolts with red lead putty, I was amazed that you can still buy all things red lead, but if you have a wooden boat there is nothing to replace it that works as red lead. The hull below waterline has had all the loose antifoul scraped back and any low spots filled and faired back using epoxy fillers for the deeper ones and red lead putty to fair the joints and any areas needing that little bit of fettlin'. She is now sporting her first coating of antifoul primers and the fist coat of primer for the boot top, it is amazing the difference just a coat of paint makes to the look of her...... I hope you agree. Once the outside of the hull is primered up to gunwale then we have milestone 1 completed..... Woop!

A couple of the Spars have also been stripped of paint and varnish ready for their first coats of many, we will be Dutch varnishing the Spars which will make them gleam in the sunlight, it is a slow process though as each layer has to dry and be rubbed down in between..... The beauty of a wooden classic. We still have the gaff and boom to take off the boat to revarnish but they can wait a while as the two yards for the mizzen, the bowsprit and bumpkin are enough to be going at for the moment. We removed the windlass yesterday, after having to grind off what was left of the bolts that have been there for a few years, it was working ok so just needs a service, removal of all the rust, repainting and cleaning out of the oil reservoir, we will also clean the deck under it and  paint it which will help in future as the deck is quite stained from previous hydraulic oil leaks.

Steve and I would like to thank Andy, Cameron and Tim for their help so far in preparing and painting what we have so far, Cameron also has a large box of blocks that we have stripped down to renovate :-)

Will post the next update next week, once we are hull primed we will be de rigging the masts and cloaking Our D in tarps while we start on the deck area.

Blog soon.

The work starts now....

We have now received the hull survey for Our Daddy and have been able to set out our plan of works.....

There were a couple of advisories on the survey which needed further inspection, one of which were the nails attaching the hull planks to the frames. As you can see from the picture there is some rust staining along her side, this is caused by the small wooden plug that was originally used to cap the nails, shrinking or having fallen out being replaced with filler, water seeps into the wood and starts to corrode the nails. It has a lovely name 'Nail Sick' so because of this we had to pull several nails to check in their condition, now that was a task and a half bearing in mind some of these had been there for close on a hundred years!!

New

Old

We have to say that the nails we have pulled are in very good condition, that is a relief as having to refasten her hull planks would have taken a fair old time, it is not just a case of whack a nail in it is far more time consuming than that! That was one question asked resolved the second was the condition of the Chain stay bolts, well we have removed a couple of these and they are also in good fettle, all in all very pleased.

So the tasks begin, first up is to remove and fair up the topsides and get them primed and sealed for the winter, fair and prime/antifoul the hull so as to seal it, then it will be onto the bulwark timbers, again this is fairing the timbers, priming and top coating to seal the timber....... there is a lot of fairing and finishing to be done!!

Well enough for today, next Monday we are taking down the topmast so that can be..... you guessed it, faired, painted but 6-10 coats of varnish this time!!

We will be posting up the sailing schedule in a couple of weeks time so keep your eye out on here and the websites for the interesting places to visit and sailing trips we will be offering in 2014.

Blog soon

Keep you eyes peeled...

As Our Daddy is on the move. With a crew of 6 and lots to eat all made by the crew Our Daddy is shippin' out tomorrow at about 1030. We are heading for Galmpton where she will be craned out at 1545 for the start of her refit so that she is ready for next season. Give us a wave if you see us. Pictures and videos to follow.

Blog soon

The next chapter is about to start.....

Our Daddy will very soon be making her trip round to her winter home. On the 15th of October Our D will be making the trip with Steve and I and a few willing volunteers round to Galmpton to be hauled out for her winter refit, paint and varnish.  I have uploaded a few photos to the Gallery page of how she is now before any work has been done to her, click the photo below to go there.....

The plan of works has yet to be scheduled but obviously there is plenty of work to do to her ready for next season.

We will be repainting her hull in the original Pengelley family colours for Our Daddy which we understand were white boot top, pale blue topsides, Dark Blue bulwarks with a yellow pinstripe. The decks will be cleaned and the insides of the bulwarks painted in the cream of the coachroof, all the varnishing on deck will be stripped and replaced, all fittings on deck cleaned/polished if needed and painted if not.

Down below we will be refitting the galley, repainting, revarnishing, polishing, recovering and making sure she has a welcoming and comfortable feel to this beautiful boat.

Steve and I cannot wait to get started on Brixham Sea schools new flagship, Our Daddy FY7, we will be looking forward to working her out of Brixham in 2014. From now on the blogs will be coming fairly regularly as she transforms into the stunning boat she once was.

Keep checking back to see her progress and if you want to see where we are going next season why not sign up for the Our Daddy newsletter, we promise not to bombard you with them, we will just send them with information and latest offers.

Thanks for reading

Blog soon

Steve & Tim

A fantastic original of Our Daddy....

When Steve decided that he was going to buy Our Daddy we asked our friend and local artist, Toni Knights, if he could do a line drawing of Our Daddy so that we could create our logo. Well Toni came up with an absolute cracker... we currently have the originals which we will be having digitised and printed onto various things and you could also have them as a signed limited print from us.

Thanks Toni......We love them, they are true to Our Daddy in her current form and will be looking great adorning the walls of our office once we have them framed....

We will hopefully be bringing you news regarding Our Daddy in the very near future....

Blog soon.

A bit of help for our friends at.....

Trinity Sailing trust.  The guys at Trinity are setting up a "Charting a New Course" project, their mission statement for this project is:

A Project which will use offshore sail training to help disadvantaged young people from the area develop confidence, self-esteem and the life skills necessary to overcome the challenges they face and make a positive start to adulthood.

 

 

Just buy a Herald Express today or next Thursday, fill out the coupon and send it off to the FREEPOST address to help them achieve their goal.

Thanks

Blog soon



   

Another new look to the website....

Well that was a mad few weeks, some sailing, some teaching some maintenance and some restoration... Phew!!

Hence the reason that not a lot has changed on the website recently, so today I have mainly been twiddling.  The look of the page has changed, for the better, I hope you agree. We will soon have a newsletter which you can subscribe to on every page, if you would like to keep up to date with what is happening with Our Daddy, what trips we are programming and of course if we have any offers available then signing up is a must :-)

As things start to slow down here at Brixham Sea school I will have more time to add the content to the site so please keep revisiting to keep an eye on me!!

Don't forget all the latest will be added to our newsletters so please do sign up for it, we promise not to bombard you with junk mail but only interesting topics and links to all things Our Daddy and Brixham Sea School.

A picture of our friends boat Sea Fish, a 1927 Worfolk Smack, this is the restoration bit of what we have been up to! She is up for sale if you fancy owning a classic.

 

 

Pretty isn't she...... interested? She is for sale for £25,000 not much to own part of the UK sailing heritage... Contact us if you are.

 

 

Blog soon

 

Tim

Afternoon sail on Pilgrim

I was sat in the office ploughing through the odd bit of paperwork as you do when Steve, the Skipper of @PilgrimBM45 put his head through the door. We are sailing this afternoon if you fancy it? Well, conputer screen or sail an old gaffer....... no contest, Pilgrim won! I have posted some photos on Brixham Sea School's Facebook page if you want to have a look.

Thanks to the Pilgrim team, a perfect afternoon.

Blog soon

Twitter account over 60

After a late #DevonHour tonight we have reached a milestone on our twitter account for @OurDaddyFY7 over 60 followers. We have been a bit quiet over the last week due to water activities but this will be resolved tomorrow. Follow us to keep an eye on Our Daddy's progress.

Zig Zag up for sale

Brokers been to do photographs detailed brochure available in a couple of days.

It is hot hot hot

Not that I am complaining of course the temp readout in the car says 28º and the sea breeze is strangely quiet at the moment. One brave sole in the Bay trying to sail...

Amazing I'm on

Website moving on......

And we also have our Facebook and Twitter accounts set up. Please like our Facebook page and follow our Twitter account

Facebook is - Our Daddy Classic sailing
Twitter is - @OurDaddyFY7

We will be updating all of these with the progress of getting our beautiful boat Our Daddy FY7 back to concourse condition. It is going to be a busy autumn and winter for us but it will be worth every minute of it to see this classic boat sailing again.

Blog soon

Welcome....

to the new blog for 'Our Daddy' our soon to be classic Cornish Lugger.  We will keep you updated on progress of her winter works and once afloat again we will be posting here all of the antics we get up to aboard this 1921 Classic.

Check back soon or add us to your blogger list to see how we are getting on.

Blog soon