Frances-Anne

[PeteThePen1]

Hi Folks

I have bought myself a smart phone as a birthday present and, having discovered it has video capabilities, have tried it out. Here is the result:

http://youtu.be/_sFroHKTddg

The quality will improve for the future when I work out how to avoid keeping a finger over the lense...

Regards

Pete

[Mike Rometer]

Nice one, Pete. I didn't realise you were filming, I thought just stills. A little sunshine (and less wind) would have helped, we've had better days this summer.

[gondolier88]

We were both lulled into a false sense of security as far as photos being video is concerned... It hasn't come out bad considering the weather on the lake though- there's nothing wrong with your inbuilt sense of 'level' Pete!

Greg

[PeteThePen1]

Hi Folks

Whilst some of you know about the progress of Frances Ann's refit I expect most of you will have forgotten all about her. The refit is coming closer to completion, i.e. the jobs list will probably fit on one page now, which has pleased my Dearly Beloved. I will skip the family politics, but she asked for a current photo of the boat since a number of her friends wondered what it looked like. Herewith the attempt to get it all in one frame:

The attachment FA in the garage 1 (600 x 450).jpg is no longer available

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The main changes that have occurred are the plumbing in of the condenser and the addition of a tiny hot well. The larger water separator, for use when puffing, has been replaced with a rather lighter one (the 'mahogany' sausage on the front of the boiler). The boiler casing has been radically altered so that it now possible to remove the two 'shoulders' of the casing and get at the tubes with a brush. I doubt if that is visible with the low res photo. Revising the brass strap fixings has enabled the cylinder drain pipes to be brought forward to a position on the side of the boiler casing where one can operate the taps. Thinking taps, the Windermere Kettle has also been installed in the saloon just right for a warm brew on a wet day when mooring and retiring to the saloon has greater appeal than braving the wind and rain.

Of course we will have to see if all these changes work out when steam is raised.

Regards

Pete

[Mike Rometer]

Getting there Pete! Soon be time to get her back on the trailer. Give a shout, I'll come on over with a muscle or two.

[kno3]

That's a very elegant boat!

[PeteThePen1]

Thank you. It has ended up looking the part but I just need to get it finished off and steaming now.

[PeteThePen1]

For those of you who like to know that Forum members get up to in their spare time, here is the latest from Wildest Cheshire.

With the welcome assistance of Mike Rometer, our task has been to get Frances Ann off the 'build' trolley and onto the new 'big boat - small garage' trailer.

We had a bit of an anxious start as it was clear before we even opened the garage door that the trailer as set up was not going to fit. Of course, I had forgotten that the builders said that they would build to width ignoring the mudguards and that they would have to come off when putting the trailer in the garage. That we did and it became clear that there was not going to be a problem, though the vehicle driver would need to be very skilled.

Initial anxiety.jpg (95.53 KiB) Viewed 2227 times

[PeteThePen1]

The rear ofthe new trailer is surprisingly low which was useful in some ways.

However we did suffer a senior moment or two and forgot Mr Shifta.

We did not need to jack up the build trolley to get the trailer rollers and the keel to align. The only trouble was that the trolley did not pull underneath the back of the trailer as we had hoped so the boat was very precarious once it had pulled away from the rear vee.

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[PeteThePen1]

In the end Mike suggested that we rig a sling around the stern from the hoist and then use the mobility of that to bring the boat to the trailer.

Suspended.jpg (50.07 KiB) Viewed 2225 times

That worked very well and the rest of the load was without anxiety.