Progress with Thea - Week 3

The painting of Thea has progressed well again this week. Here's a few pictures to update you.

The chequer plate front deck has been undercoated and the final topcoats of International Danboline have been applied. The front bulkhead has had it's first topcoat of Danboline too and the door jams have been sprayed to get good coverage in all those awkward areas.

The back cabin is coming on a treat too. The cabin sides and back bulkhead are in undercoat as are the rear cants. The counter top (back deck) has had it's first coat of Danboline too.

And here's a view of the other side.

The cabin top (roof) has been painted.

Mick has been busy making a new (wooden) rear slide which is now in undercoat.

He has also made and fitted new slide runners out of hard wood, which look a treat.

The engine hole slides are also receiving undercoat.

I'm hoping that you will see a real transformation by the end of next week, so keep an eye out for an update!

Best regards,

David.

Its nearly party time!

We have a great night planned for this coming Saturday evening, I just hope that all of the hard work and plans come off, We should be having a superb 7/8 piece band doing the early evening slot, they do some great foot tapping stuff and some excellent songs too, then they will be followed by Steve Hall or Stevo as some might know him, he might be bringing a friend or two with him to accompany him, he does some great stuff as as the night gets on he will no doubt be doing some of his own stuff which Can be seriously funny and a bit close to the knuckle, so that's the entertainment sorted! The food is being put on by Norburys own staff in the form of baked spuds with lashings of butter and cheese, topped with home made Chile if wanted, and on top of that if there is room left there is a hog roast too! The drinks list is a good one too, Bombarder (cask) beer, Doom Bar (cask) beer, Boddingtons (smooth pour) Becks veir (larger) and the usual wines and spirits, the trip boat will be alongside the wharf as the main bar, food will be served in the Tea room and the entertainment,stage, main tables and seating will be in the marque which will be adjacent to the shop on the wharf. So if you were thinking of coming but not quite sure think again because its going to be a great night!

If you havent had an invite we might have overlooked you, just drop me an email to remind me! info@norburywharfltd.co.uk 

Regards
Simon

It's been a very busy day here today. I don't know where the time has gone to today, no sooner had I seen the dayboat away it was lunchtime and here we are now, at 5pm!

We have run four one-hour long trips on the trip boat today. They have been extremely popular even during the wet periods that we have experienced today. 

Denise and Lynn have been busy in the tearoom all day, whilst Ange has floated between the shop and the tearoom. I have been here there and everywhere (or so it feels...). Sylvia has been with Will working the trip boat. Mick has been doing Mick things and Lee has docked and undocked a boat following a survey, done some strimming, pumpouts, diesel etc.

As the season draws to an end, we have to reduce our staff numbers, so today has seen us say farewell to Lynn. She has been an asset to our team over the summer and she will be missed. She says that she won't miss us, but I am sure that she will! Anyway, good luck Lynn and we wish you all the best in the future and please do pop in from time-to-time to say hello.

Anyway, that's all from me today.

Until tomorrow...

Regards, David.

Progress with Thea - Week 2

I thought that I would give you an update on Thea.

The whole boat has now been prepped and Richard has started applying rust inhibitor, primers and undercoats. Here's some of the latest pictures for you to have a look at.

The whole of the cabin top (commonly known as the roof) is now in primer as are the Northwich style handrails. These handrails take a long time to prepare and paint as they stand an inch or so off of the cabin top on little stilts.

It was decided to take the riveted part of the cabin (back cabin and engine room) back to bare steel to avoid any problems in the future with old paintwork around the rivets on the cabin sides.

The front deck is now in primer as are the inside of the locker lids and drains.

The fore-end has been prepared and is also in primer.

And the primer is now on the sides...

Mick has been busy making a new wooden rear slide and slide runners and will be fitting them over the weekend.

Another update next week!

Until tomorrow,

Best regards, David.

Thefts from boats

Well what a horrible day it has been today, the morning started off grey and dark and it really felt like a day in the depths of the winter, Brrrrr and its gone really cold, stoking fires is probabnly the order of teh day for most people but not here as work still goes on, Richard as you know is in the final stages of the preparation work on Thea and is now starting to apply primer, as well as some finishing jobs on Ben Cruchan, that is the last boat he painted but it remained here while we did some major surgery in the engine room and no matter how careful people have been there is still some touching up to do, Lee docked a couple of boats this morning with Simon, one of them has got to have a new stern drive rubber boot fitted, not the normal sort of job that we do and we don't see many stern drives so that is something other than the 'norm' Lee then went in to the warm to help Richard do some painting, Simon showed a day boat out (must be mad in this weather) just the one out fortunately! Joyce has been doing eBay stuff and Ange has been catching up on paperwork!

As the title suggests we are starting to see a few thefts from boats, or hear about them, nothing new I know but it is worth mentioning the latest thefts!  I had an email this morning to say that a cratch cover has been stolen off a boat at Gailey and we had a diesel heater unit and an inverter stolen off a boat here at Norbury recently, without a shadow of a doubt this has to be a boater as these items would be of little use to anyone else, stay vigilant and make sure that your belongings are protected as best you can when your boat is left alone!

Regards
Simon

well what can i say

hi all, simon has asked me to write a blog today as he doesn't know what to write other than the usual garb that goes on here. i will do my best.
well we've had no day boats out today, we've had phantom return from a 6 week cruise with very happy customers aboard.
joyce has manned the tea room which has kept her busy along with  keeping up with our e bay sales, wrapping parcels and sending them off to the post office. at one stage we had to send her to the petrol station in gnosall to get some fuel for the strimmer so that lee could carry on with the task in hand. she's as bad as i am in the company vehicle....can't reach the pedals and no rear view mirror and can't do reversing very well without one, but we got there between us.
simon answered his e mails then someone asked for a bottle of gas to be delivered to their house and there was only him able to do it as either we weren't old enough to drive the van or not strong enough to get the bottle out at the other end....oh well, it kept him occupied for 1/2 an hour.
i have been re-stocking shelves, collating orders for the chandlery....stove glass for one, as customers don't realise that we sell more glass at this time of the year because when they go to their boat for a visit they light the stove and the glass cracks as the weather is cooler.
simon (engineer) has been working on the hire fleet and mick has been working on a private boat. rich is making headway with "thea" and i'm sure david will be putting more photo's on as the painting progresses.
all in all not a very busy day, sorry about the lack of capital letters peter (underwood) you know who you are....until next time, byeeee ange.    

Old faces

I do like it when old friends and customer's pop into say hello and today has been one of those days.

Firstly we had Blue Diamond pull on the Wharf. Still looking resplendent in the livery that we painted it about eight years ago. We had a good catch up and natter about the current climate and the condition of the waterways. It was also good to see Tony and his wife Julie who used to be part owners in Oasis Too which was based here for a number of years. They turned up with their new boat, which they are really chuffed with.

It has been really damp here today, alright if you are a duck, but not much else really...

The lads have all kept their heads down today and got on with their relavent jobs. Fred has been blacking, turned a couple of boats round, done some pumpouts and diesel on the Wharf and a bit of painting - inside I hasten to add... Simon has turned Phoenix around ready for the customer's arrival tomorrow and finished a service on an engine on a private boat. Mick has been down the dock finishing some jobs off on another private boat.

Lynn has been cleaning boats and catching up with laundry, whilst Denise has been in the kitchen and Ange in the office with me. I've had my head glued to the computer screen all day designing the hire boat brochure for next year. Watch this space - we should have copies by the end of the month :-)

Best regards,

David