stranger and stranger.

Turns out the boat isnt a westerly but made by island plastics. an IP23/24. So looking to get some pics sorted and see where we go from there.

So I've started looking into crewing boats for a bit of experience and ordered this from amazon...

Decent beginners book for navigation, tide tables and general skippering. so will get stuck into that post exams.

Next up is a vhf course, but oddly cant find anyone in NI that does one!

what an offer!

So my dad I know has a 26ft westerly that may be surplus to requirements.

Mast/sails/engine runs and its GRP. However, its on hardstanding, in liverpool and the deck needs fixed, but he tells me its free, im sure the cabin needs work as well.

It'll maybe take us a week doing the deck in August, if we can time it with a few other boats being put in the water the crane may only be £250 and say £250 in materials to fix deck. I've not seen the boat yet, so I might see if I can nip over and get a look at it at some stage.

Almost your definitive 1970's cruiser.

First offer! aka "theres nothing as expensive as a free boat"

ok so got mailed regarding a massive 52ft barnett class former lifeboat in bangor. Now I am a little bit mental at the best of times but how class does this beast look.

"Hey there. This may be your lucky day. I have an ex-RNLI lifeboat that I would gladly donate to someone who wishes to revamp it. My intention was the same but circumstances have it that I cant do it now.

Norman B. Corlett is a bit larger than you asked at 13m but he is a beauty and would be free if you want him. See attached picture and get in touch if you are interested.

Cheers,

Jenny"

 Now I had a place I could put this monster even but I thought I best speak to a few men in the know first.

My dads short answer was "are you mad" to crane a boat of that size your talking something like £1500 either end and if you can float it between bangor and belfast another £2000 in transportation, so thats £4000-5000 before you have even touched it!

I spoke to a guy at my local sailing club who confirmed the situation and the kind of money I'd be talking to restore it. in short circa £40k.

My dad's line was for less than 5k you could have a nice boat, sails and ready to go! Also at 52ft a marina is a major problem as most marinas will only allow up to 40ft. So your in major problems here, lough neagh was my best bet but even then 40k is a bit much for a "free boat"

hopefully she'll make someone a great boat just not me.

Place to keep a boat.

Now, major problem with getting a boat is where to put the damn thing.

carrickfergus and bangor marina are pricey and if I get a resoration project I dont want to be spending a couple of thousand just to have a  boat out of water whilst i restore it. So been searching for somewhere that wouldnt be to expensive to store a boat and not mind the mess of restoration.

Found this place, beside the city airport - East Belfast Yacht Club.

 "East Belfast Yacht Club was founded by workers from the Belfast Shipyards in 1904, and has enjoyed both the high and the low years through its existence.  From the high points through the 1920s/30s/40s and '50s when the Club hosted many sailing races and entertained the owners and masters of the massive J-Class yachts down to the more plentiful and massively supported Belfast Lough one designs through to the Flying Fifteens and Dragons and others of the various periods"".

Memebership appears to be £80 a year plus £100 joining fee. so not too bad and they dont seem too sniffy about older boats or repair work.

Sounds very promising to me :) Gonna nip down and see them in the next few days when I get a chance.

The Story of the blog so far.

So Year One a Cuban film Poster became field telephones that ended up becoming a farmhouse table that was almost too nice to be swapped after being restored so ended up in my girlfriends house. I have eaten dinner off it, its a nice table. A solid start to swapping.

Then Year Two 4 cans of guinness became a MTB bike wheel that became a road bike frame that with the help of ebay and some old trainers became a fixed gear racer bike (check out a pick of it below). This bike spurned all kinds of bike related madness lol.

Now I made a sailing dinghy from a row boat when I was a kid with my dad and stripped anti fouling off his sailing boat and generally tinkered with boats and generally reading swallows and amazons too much.

So This Year, we are going BIGGER. This year I'm Gonna swap my way to a Sailing Boat.

Cant be done you say? check These guys out in the states who not only get one boat they get a whole heap of free boats.

http://www.instructables.com/id/The-Free-Yacht-Saga/

a whole site of free boats!

http://woodenboatrescue.org/?cat=4
Thing is boats need painted, retstored looked after, moored somewhere, basically they are a high maintenance date, I reckon is is do-able. Now all I need is something to start swapping with and we can get going.

I WANT A BOAT

almost done!

Almost done now, just need toe clips, matching rear tyre and maybe a more comfy seat.

p.s I've already adjusted the sadlle and got rid of reflector.

Swap news!

Got a message from Harry that I swapped the MTB wheel with for the frame, He's done a seriously impressive job with it.

Hi,

nice to see someting happening with the old Raleigh. Funnily enough I have a Raleigh 20 frame and forks that also came from the Dublin factory. I'm hanging on to them in the hope of getting enough money to make a nice fixed 20!

I've laced up the rim to my disc hub and fitted it to the bike. This one's my winter commuter (I'm working on it whilst using my Elswick as my "summer" bike). The chainline is 54mm so I had to make a nylon spacer to fit between the disc mounts and the cog. I took an 18t cog out of an old Shimano cluster and drilled 6 holes in it. I'm quite pleased with the outcome but think I'll invest in a proper bolt-on cog as it's ever so slightly off-centre. I think I'll probably fit a 19t cog so I can cope with heavy winter head winds.

Good luck with finishing the Raleigh,

Regards,

Harry

I have been doing a bit of detective work about the bike itself the frame was built in the Dublin. You can see the badge is different, It doesent have the more usual "made in nottingham" but instead has two stripes.

I found this picture of an irish built raleigh record from 1972ish. Same colour and looks very like the original frame.

Apparently the Dublin factory in hanover quay burnt down in 1976 and whilst another factory was built it really amounted to a distribution centre more than a factory, in effect production ceasing with the fire.

The serial gives the date of manufacture as either 1979 or 1969, Im starting to drift towards 1969 as raleigh ceased to used cottered cranks in england in 1977 which my bike has the fire in 1976 also factors in.

I also found a place that will sandblast and powdercoat frames at a good price, I wont be stripping a frame in a hurry again lol