Baragoola Week Ending 21st July 2012

In attendance: Nick, Peter C, Peter H, Lance, Ernie, Geoff E, Peter M , Geoff L and Glen Visitors: Nil

Upcoming events

28th July – Annual General Meeting of the BPA on board Baragoola – all financial members are encouraged to attend

Historic Manly ferry events this week

25th July 1855 Black Swan operates to Manly for the first time

Fundraising Information

Grill’d at Crows Nest has a tin out for us this week – it will return either $100 or $300 (we are

“competing” with two other charities).

Baragoola Trivia Competition (#2)

This week you can win one of our North Head commemorative mugs if you can answer the following

question correctly (two wrong answers received so far):

All five of Baragoola’s sisters were built at Woolwich – what was the reason for Baragoola being built at

Balmain? (Hint – it had to do with a downturn in Mort’s revenue).

This one is proving difficult for most people with several wrong answers received!

Answers to landover@tpg.com.au – first correct answer wins.

Committee News

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

Membership renewals and AGM packs were posted out six weeks ago Your renewal pack and AGM info pack were posted you should have them by now. It contains a cover letter from our president, an invitation to our AGM (you will need to RSVP) which we are encouraging all members to attend, a renewal form, a proxy form for voting if you can’t attend, committee nomination for and the agenda for the AGM. Attending the AGM is a great way to see your vessel – quite a few of our members have never been on board so this is a perfect opportunity to see her first hand. If you haven’t received your pack please contact us ASAP. Remember, you must be a financial member to participate in the AGM and in the Association generally. Please let us know if you are coming to the AGM as we need to plan numbers, transport to and from Goola and catering – it would be appreciated if you can do this by no later than Wednesday.

Finances

Our bank balance increase by $119.82 this week and there were no outgoings.

From the editor

I had an interesting email this week from a member (who has decided not to renew) – it would appear that their sole reason for joining was to get updates on the conservation activities and they were complaining that we were proving updates, info and images on our facebook page and web pages. We use multiple channels to get our message across and the more that see it the better – it is to our advantage to advertise Baragoola and what we are doing as far and as wide as possible so that we gain new members, donations and publicity. One thing we have stressed many times is that the BPA is an organization that is set up for the benefit of the Baragoola first and foremost. Her conservation and survival is of paramount importance above and beyond any other consideration. To this end we will continue to seek new ways to advertise and promote her. Another question raised was what are the benefits of membership – there are several; we run regular members only (and sometime volunteers only) events on the vessel herself –there were four in the last financial year for example, we also from time to time advertise off-vessel events to our members that are not available to the general public. As well Baragoola is available to all members for activities they may wish to hold on board – just run your ideas past one of the committee members. On our public open days we invite our members to attend to help out promoting the vessel to the visitors and take an interest and pride in what is being accomplished on board. Lastly, your membership fees (which are very low) go some way towards running the association (ie day to day, insurance etc) and towards material costs of the activities on board itself. Our annual membership renewals are our principal income and help us to continue our activities as an association.

This week

The return of the large work boat last week has been a major boon with Peter H removing nearly all of the accumulated bagged rubbish and building material off the boat this week – many thanks to Peter for doing this job and the outside decks certainly look a lot clearer and tidier as a result! Ernie too attended during the week and did some plumbing work in the engineer’s quarters as well as applying some paint to part of the floor plates there and at the foot of the stairs in the battery compartment – looking quite smart as a result. After a great week weather-wise Saturday arrived – cold, breezy and damp but a reasonable turnout all the same. First order of the day was to continue the basic maintenance tasks on board – there is always cleaning to do, brass to be polished and a multitude of small tasks to be had. We don’t employ a cleaner so it’s important that all volunteers help out by doing work like this and tidying up after themselves. Thanks to Geoff L for attacking water stains throughout and tidying up the appearance of the paintwork in many areas this weekend. Work this weekend (apart from cleaning) revolved around maintaining water tight integrity of the vessel with a small section of decking repaired, deck covers added and more work in the battery compartment. Last week Ross brought down four large pieces of thick plywood and this week they were prepared for use as deck cover – suitable treated for water resistance these are then placed over the old deck and make a fine barrier to rainwater coming down into the hull below. We happily accept any and all pieces of timber like this and we still need much more – we intend sheathing the entire deck so that we can delay the major time expensive and cash expensive job of redoing the decks themselves further on down the line. For the moment enclosing them is sufficient and protects the internal hull from much water damage.

Temporary deck sheathing under preparation

Boards in place, next week these’ll be nailed down & the joins sealed up to provide water tight integrity

The major work continued in the battery compartment again with Peter C constructing a wooden walkway to improve safety and accessibility at the foot of the ladder running into the bilges. Geoff E took the opportunity to do more hull cleanup in this area before the crew were assembled to do the major work and this also gives a good chance to eyeball the plates directly and determine which ones will need work in the near future. Most of the work in here is currently being concentrated in the aft shaft tunnel – a cramped area and difficult to work in and (of course!) the one area that has the most degraded hull plates. Work is proceeding at a good clip though and we can all rest assured that what is being done up here is providing a high degree of safety for the ferry in the long term prior to a future slipping and replating. Add to that Peter is doing a very neat job as well and we’re happy to hire him out (for a reasonable fee) if anyone needs any concreting done at home Once that end is done some minimal work will be applied to other plates in this compartment before we move on to the compartment at the opposite end of the ferry to do the same work (the old crew quarters).

Peter inspects his handiwork in the shaft tunnel

Formwork being put in place for the next section

Peter working on the port side of the area – the shaft makes working here difficult

Geoff in a tight situation!

The battery compartment is one of my favourite areas on the ship as it shows construction methods used at the time very clearly and some interesting curves!

Battery compartment looking aft

Raw materials ready for deployment – just add water

The crew at work

If you are on Facebook you can follow us at https://www.facebook.com/ManlyFerry 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 14th of June. 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

Black swan (early Manly boat) on the left with possibly Fairy Queen (right)

Blue Dolphin, only hover craft to have operated to Manly