Baragoola Working Days

8th – 15th January 2011

In attendance: Gary, Nick, Craig, Peter H, Peter, Daniel, Lance, Geoff E, Geoff L, Glen, Ernie & Nick Visitors: Brian, Dominic Once again another theft has been perpetrated. This time not off the boat fortunately but rather our boat trailer that was chained up at Manns Reserve Greenwich – which means the thief had to cut through the chain. This is a substantial and irritating loss to us and makes it a little more difficult for us to run both our support boats. The chances of getting it back are slim unfortunately. If anyone has a boat trailer they aren’t using and wish to donate to the cause we’d be very appreciative. A reminder that next Saturday the crew from Sydney Heritage Fleet’s Kanangra will be visiting us utilising their boat Berrima. We have a few people who are attending but I require final figures no later than Tuesday so I can let the guys at SHF know. The itinerary is as follows: 08:45am SHF volunteers depart Rozelle Bay on board Berrima for trip to Baragoola 09:15am Berrima arrives at Baragoola and SHF volunteers board Baragoola for tour 09:15am to 12:15pm SHF volunteers tour Baragoola with Baragoola volunteers. 12:15pm SHF & Baragoola volunteers depart Baragoola on board Berrima for trip to Rozelle Bay 12:45pm to 1:15pm Lunch for Baragoola volunteers and SHF volunteers who visited Baragoola 1:15pm to 3:15pm Baragoola volunteers tour Rozelle Bay & vessels with Kanangra volunteers 3:15pm Baragoola volunteers depart Rozelle Bay on board Berrima for return trip to Baragoola 3:45pm Baragoola volunteers arrive at Baragoola & Berrima returns to Rozelle Bay 4:15pm Berrima arrives at Rozelle Bay Pickup for our guys from Greenwich or Waverton absolutely no later than 8:30am – no exceptions! This should be a great day for all and a good opportunity to share some experiences gained on these last two remaining Mort’s built ferries.

Another busy week was had (aren’t holidays great – you end up working harder than ever….) and the results are starting to show. Last Saturday saw the launch of our new pontoon that Nick and me immediately purloined to start work on the outside of the hull. Many thanks to Peter for the great effort involved but naturally the launch didn’t quite go as expected…..

The completed pontoon ready to go out the doors and over the side

Pretty sure it isn’t supposed to be upside down……

But with a little help it’s flipped over to the right side!

As I mentioned Nick and I made use of it pretty quickly. Supposedly it was built to make getting from the tinnies up to the deck a little more easy but we are able to easily access all areas of the external hull with it – except of course when those bloody wretched Rivercats go by and upset things! Dunno how Sydney Ferries can claim that they are low wash – they are anything but. We commenced work on the starboard side of the bow below the sponson, chipping the obvious rust, wire brushing the remainder and applying a liberal coat of Rust Master. Left to dry overnight this was followed with a coat of anti rust paint (undercoat) and a coat of green needs to be applied at a later date. After the white undercoat went on Nick was heard repeatedly muttering “Burra Bra, Burra Bra” – a reference to the 1928 Catholic conference in Manly during which Burra Bra operated as the flagship and was painted all in white – the following day she was back in her Manly colours – proof that you can paint a ‘B’ boat in one day if you have the will and the manpower available! I suspect he’s over his little problem now though I remain somewhat apprehensive of how he’ll react as more of the hull gets done…… All jokes aside, this is a great thing as we can now attack the problem areas outside the hull with relative ease. Yesterday I had Nick measure up a section of the hull in the battery compartment that has a hole (well above the water line) and the steel for the patch will be purchased this week. All volunteers to assist with this important task are welcome to put up their hand and offer please!

Burra Bra in 1928 (image courtesy State Library of NSW)

Baragoola’s bow – compare the treated side to the untouched side

Last Saturday we also purchased a high pressure water cleaner ($99 from Bunnings Artarmon) and we commenced giving Baragoola a long overdue bath to remove scum, dirt and build up that has been eight years in the making. The area at the forward end, port side was washed down and chipped of rust and the concrete gutters were given a good clean. Remarkably there is very little rust in the bulwarks in this area and we want to keep it that way. All that remains is a coat of Rust Master and for painting to be done. An opportunity was also taken to blast the superstructure along this side and wash down the exposed decks where they are still in good condition. All windows on the lower deck received a good clean as well – salt build up and grime is a continual battle that needs to be fought unfortunately. An opportunity was taken to wash down the walls on the port side of the area that contains the aft steering equipment – came up well but will obviously need painting and a small repair to a hole about the size of a 20 cent coin in the very tip of the compartment – meanwhile it acts as a fairly efficient drain!

Steering gear compartment showing newly washed plates

We then moved on to the aft weather deck. Until this week it had been a very filthy run down part of the boat.

Deck head detail showing cleaned section and still dirty section as a comparison

The deck head after cleaning

This deck requires further work to the exposed metal with chipping and rust proofing to be done. Nick and I got stuck into the starboard railings with much accomplished and fresh white paint started to re-appear on this deck. We also painted the front of the accommodation in the correct colours – cream walls and red oxide for the doors and window trim. Not completed yet but what a difference! Baragoola is turning into a thing of beauty again. Not bad for something that had been condemned as ‘derelict’ only a few short months ago. And with Baragoola (unlike South Steyne) we will have a Manly ferry that is sympathetically restored back to her original looks – something that hasn’t been seen since the early 1970’s.

Aft weather deck beginning to look like it should

We have been very careful to use exact paint matches throughout. Although Baragoola is a 1922 built ship we have been restoring her back to the look she had when she re-entered service in the early 60’s – although the paint scheme was used much earlier as well. We are very, very fortunate in that Baragoola looks substantially as she did after her upper deck was closed in back in the 30’s – she’s had very little alterations ever done to her since then. Indeed thanks to the costly conversion of Barrenjoey to North Head, Baragoola’s conversion was done cheaply and a result we have (apart from the removed steam engines and associated equipment) a substantially intact Edwardian vessel with nearly all of her original fabric. A very rare gem of Sydney’s maritime history indeed! But unlike a modern ship this one is bloody fiddly to paint!

The forward weather deck was also cleaned down and Geoff L commenced the painting work at that end this weekend.

Geoff at work painting the forward end

Superstructure painting on this end is already in progress as well

Big thing for us this week was the retrieval of the floor plates for the engine and control rooms. Many thanks to David Ashton for locating these – the engine room crew will be pleased to get their hands on these as it’ll make it a lot safer to work downstairs. They need to be cleaned up and rust treated first so the guys downstairs have a big job ahead of them (and I want them off my nice polished decks!) So far we have retrieved half of them thanks to Shorty’s assistance with the loan of his work barge. Daniel, Nick, Shorty, Peter and Gary retrieved these and we’ll collect the remainder soon. Each has been numbered and it’ll be quite a jig saw puzzle putting these back.

Arrival of the plates

Half of the so far retrieved floor plates

In further work this weekend, Ernie commenced work on the 240 volt generator and took off part of it to work on off-site, Geoff E was once again cleaning plates internally and managed to do quite a few in the control room – from what one person did it is not beyond the realms of imagination that a small crew could make short work of this important task, Indeed with Christmas out of the way it’ll be good to get a larger crew back on board again. Glen set to on one of the remaining padded seats to give it a good clean up – results are great – and Gary began the task of sorting out the remaining wooden seats in preparation for rebuilding and replacing. As well, further painting was done on the aft stairs and these are now very close to fully restored.

Aft stairwell showing restored seating In fact, with a decent amount of people the cosmetic restoration work will take very little time indeed which then only leaves us to work towards getting Baragoola slipped for hull cleaning, essential patching and repainting – all of this work can be done very, very quickly with a good crew and takes Baragoola much closer to the goal of making her available for adaptive re-use. But we need more volunteers to see this happen. On January 26th (Australia Day) we require a total of six people (we have two so far) to assist with BBQ catering aboard Lady Wakehurst. We will be paid for our volunteers time so if you want to assist for around five hours (and get a free harbour cruise, food and drink into the deal) let me know. Remember, next week’s Kanangra visit – let me know by Tuesday if you are coming. We’ll also be on the boat Thursday and Friday this week so give me a call if you wish to come down. Lance Lyon president@savethebaragoola.com 0405 945 465

Show your support!

We’re pleased to announce some additions to our range of collectable items.

All items can be ordered by sending an email to help@savethebaragoola.com with the following details:

Your name Postal address Size (for clothing) and quantity Your contact phone number All items will be sent with an invoice payable within 30 days. Due to Christmas mail deliveries these may

take a week or two to get to you.

White T-shirt, printed with Baragoola’s build year and our web address, available in white cotton only in

sizes S, M, L, XL & XXL.

Price is $22 including delivery.

Limited release coffee mug with MV Baragoola on her last trip, printed with our web address and

Goola’s operational years. Only ten of these have been ordered and further runs will not be

commissioned.

Price $20.80 including delivery – available now and only five left.

SS Baragoola – Baragoola as built in 1922 and SS Binngarra (class vessel), white coffee mugs.

Price $20.80 including delivery – available now.

Wall calendars, printed on high gloss card (not paper) with a different image for each month and a cover

photo.

Includes highlighted dates with significant anniversaries in Baragoola's history

Cost is $28.50 including postage