Baragoola Week Ending 12th May 2012

In attendance: Nick, Glen, Lance, Ernie, Geoff, Peter C, Peter H & Mark Visitors: One (ABC Radio 702)

Upcoming events

TBC June – Lady Denman Museum visit (day tour – tentative at this stage, more info to come) 27th May – General Meeting of the Association on board Baragoola – letters on the way shortly 28th July – Annual General Meeting of the BPA on board Baragoola – all financial members are encouraged to attend – details closer to the event

Historic Manly ferry events this week

None this week!

Baragoola Trivia Contest

Still no correct answer to this one (no Nick – you don’t count!) so we’ll leave it open.

Want to win one of our limited edition SS Curl Curl mugs?

First correct answer to the following question (emailed to landover@tpg.com.au) will be the winner:

How many crew did Baragoola carry as a steamship ?

Winner announced next week.

Volunteers Corner

None for this week – but watch out on Saturday as I’ll be cornering another of our stalwart volunteers!

Committee News

Next committee meeting will be on board Baragoola on the second Saturday in June – all financial members are welcome to attend as observers

Annual General Meeting will be held on Baragoola on the last Saturday in July – this is one we strongly encourage all members to attend as we will be electing the committee for the next year and presenting the financial records for the last year

A General Meeting will be held on board Baragoola on the 27th of May and details will be sent out – we are planning on changing our constitution and changing the membership dues for the next financial year – again all members will be asked to vote on the proposed changes and are strongly encouraged to attend – information will be mailed out shortly

That’s it for this week –you can keep up with all the latest on our forums and you can see our old newsletters at http://www.baragoola.com.au This week was busy – first off a visit from ABC Radio 702 who are doing a story on the privatization of Sydney Ferries and wanted to get some of the historical context; Karen was all over the boat and recorded interviews and took photos, hope to see (hear?) this soon. Thanks to Mark for another donation of rubber sheeting – it went straight on to the decks and will be invaluable in helping us stop water coming in through them, there’s now so many (and more to come) that we are doubling them up. Geoff noted how much of an improvement this simple thing has made to the interior hull and they are a very welcome addition. Geoff continued his work on the hull in the engine room and accomplished quite a stretch of plates done – we’ll need to follow up now with the anti rust paint but might let him get further ahead so a larger area can be painted in one hit. Geoff is doing an excellent job and the internal hull is starting to look great. With the roof now largely done (thanks Peter!) this now becomes our main focus of attention as far as preservation is concerned. It’s filthy work but the achievement of cleaning, stripping and treating the plates can’t be underestimated. Geoff starts by cleaning of the debris (often three or four buckets worth) then removing the rust by hand; this is then followed up by a further cleaning of the plate and application of a vacuum cleaner to remove anything left over. After this the plate is treated with Rustmaster to seal it and then it is given a coat of anti rust paint. Eventually these will receive their topcoats. Each plate receives up to six hours or more of attention – and there are hundreds of plates on the ship. Geoff gets some help but it would be great if a few more people assisted him – hint, hint (and not a subtle one either!). As I mentioned, this is critical work – the debris on the plates holds water and this eventually causes rust – something that if left undone would ultimately cause the plate to develop holes – definitely not a good thing! Painstaking work, but when each one is done it is quite amazing to see the change – and even better to see these completely dry after rain.

What Geoff is up against

Plates in various stages of stabilisation, shiny ones are anti rust treated

Vacumming away years of neglect

While we’re downstairs, Ernie began re-assembling the forward gearbox; last week this actually managed to move (as reported). Quite an effort has been put in on it (led by Ernie) and it is stepping ever closer to being operational.

Overspeed switch on the gearbox being reinstalled

Ernie also began cleaning in the aft steering gear compartment. There has been some attention given to this area sporadically over the last two years, but recently more has been given as the equipment in here is to be reconnected to the forward wheelhouse eventually. However, given that the aft rudder is frozen, it will be some time before it can be used – we don’t want the rudder snapping off and falling to the sea bed! Such a thing has happened with the Manly ferries in the past (at least twice and indeed one of Baragoolal’s rudders snapped in half once as well) and retrieval would not be fun (nor cheap). Freeing the rudder(s) will be a task that will happen when Goola is slipped.

The machinery that drives the rudders on both ends was installed in 1948 and replaced the original chain steering gear. Bellubera (unlike Baragoola and Barrenjoey/North Head) kept her chain gear throughout her entire working life. At the time that the gear was changed she also received new wheels. There are photos of Bellubera’s wheelhouse that show what the originals would have looked like. The new hydraulic equipment was manufactured by Brown Bros and still remains on Goola, only one item (from the aft end Ernie was working in) is missing and work has been done to scope replacing that with a modern alternative. There’s a small amount of patching in the extreme end of the bow here that also needs to be done – probably a fiddly job as it is in a difficult to work on area, but at least it is so high up that it doesn’t present a water problem, just looks none too good.

Peter H was working on the roof area again this weekend, making a start on the edges at the aft end. The work involves reseating the frames for the dodger (wind break) and this means cutting away the decayed material around the bases. I spoke with him about it and it looks like the railings and metal supports will need to come down as they appear to have been relocated outwards at some stage (probably by David Ashton). At the same time the ply that surrounds the edges will be removed exposing the original metal once more. Initial examination shows some rust holes in this but mostly ok (from what we can see).

Peter cutting away decayed metal and wood

There was also some discussion had about replacing and repairing the railings too and a couple of ideas were come up with. There is a mix of original and replaced railings evident – the originals are solid wood (and still mostly ok) whereas the replacements are laminated and have long since failed. In the above picture note the brass end caps – more on these later. Peter wasn’t around long this weekend but he did do other work during the week – you can usually tell how much by the bagged material that waits downstairs for removal – looks like this week was a ten bag week for him! Eventually (once the big work boat is back in service) this’ll be disposed of off site. As usual, Peter’s work is greatly appreciated by all of us.

The exposed rotten wood – also shows the “new” (circa 1988) fascia that needs to be removed

An opportunity was taken to remove the brass end caps from the railings for restoration. This job is much, much easier now that a polishing wheel is available to us (installed downstairs by Ernie and his team). The brass on Goola is heavily tarnished and when done by hand takes forever – automation is a wonderful thing!

Big difference!

Once again this weekend work was concentrated on the forward wheelhouse and the progress being made here is amazing. Again it’s good to see most of the people on board assisted Peter C in some way or another on Saturday, it really makes a difference having many hands helping out. Windowsills were installed, a weather/rain strip added, more undercoat applied and demolition of a section of the port side at the front was done. At the rate things are going we’ll be at lock up stage before long and then we can start reinstalling the equipment back into the wheelhouse. I tossed out an idea to the regular crew this week about concentrating on the forward end as a whole (bow, deck, deck equipment, dodgers, wheelhouse etc) as the visual impact of a completed end will hopefully inspire a few more people to join in and assist us. As well, most of the work has been out of view so the appearance externally is that not much is happening aboard. Obviously anyone who reads these newsletters knows differently but we do need to engage a wider audience. Again this comes down to more volunteers being available – as I’ve said before even a couple of hours that can be spared is of enormous value to us.

Last (but not least) Geoff did a little further work on the bulwarks on the starboard side (sorry about the awkward camera angle) with another small section being stripped, treated and painted with green and with the addition of another section of the white stripe.

If you are on Facebook you can follow us at https://www.facebook.com/pages/Baragoola-Preservation-Association-Incorporated/122851477818947 We’re also on Twitter as #MVBaragoola – updates are posted fairly regularly. Our main website is now www.baragoola.com.au and if you have Google Talk installed you can chat to us if anyone is online and nearby the computer – add baragoola@gmail.com as a friend. And, last but not least, we also have a flickr page at http://www.flickr.com/photos/65669741@N08/ Please note that the on board phone number has changed to 0478 519 033 – when you need access to Baragoola please use this one in the first instance; only call one of the crew directly if it doesn’t answer. For general business you should call our message bank on 02 9294 3168. There will be people about most of this week so feel free to come down (after 8am) to lend a hand or have a look around. Next scheduled work is on Saturday the 19th of May. We’ll send out the usual reminder mid week. There will also be people here most days throughout the week – ring ahead and check first.

Historic Images

Accident damage to Bellubera in 1970 – she kept her chain steering all her life

Bellubera showing damage after striking Parramatta in 1970