Friend and Face-book Fiend Annie Meadows high lights a nice piece of video available from BBC News covering the rebuild of SB Vigilant down in the South West by boat builder Dave McCabe. It’s on http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-21525933 if you fancy a look. It’s only a few minutes long but shows some nice rebuild shots. It even includes some clinking pawls (and regular readers will know how much I love that noise!). Dave says that he intends to actually use the barge, once restored to try to move some cargo about, perhaps potatoes. I did smile though as at one stage the sprit-pole winching results in a huge baulk of timber swinging against the wale with a resounding clunk – I suspect Dave would have prefered they edit that bit out.
Westmoreland model 220213
Meanwhile in our own ‘barge building’ – the model sized version of SB Westmoreland currently being constructed by Dave and Tony Brooks, Dave has the following update. “The model continues to move forward. With the hull practically complete we have started to move up. The mainmast is now in place and the iron work almost complete. We fitted the jackstay tonight which was quite intricate work. We also worked on the Sprit. Fitting the muzzle, and preparing the Stanliff. We are hoping to be able to hang the sprit next week”.
Thanks for the update, Dave