20th November 2009

The main beams that run out to the piles that support the access ramp are now in place after a bit of difficulty interpreting the drawings and a phone call to John Davis to clarify things. Then as it was a midday tide the access ramps themselves got loaded onto the lighter and moored on the river. It was intended to also load the joists but we ran out of water at Eversons. Eversons have been really good about storing our kit; we had hoped to have it all out of the way at the end of October so they'd have the yard back as a boat store but we've still got stuff in there 3 weeks later.

Tidied up a bit as it's the AGM tomorrow and I wanted to hold it in the Club so people could see progress made so far. Of course the Club is half full of timber and super size nuts and bolts so it won't be very convenient, however the pile of timber is about the right height for a seat so hopefully everyone will get in OK. If I'm lucky and 80 people turn up there definitely won't be enough room so that's probably what'll happen.

18th November 2009

The top halves of the greenheart piles are now bolted on. A hard job as the bolts must go right through the greenheart pile and emerge in the right place to match the hole in the splice plate on the opposite side, and there are 6 bolts on each plate that must all match. Some plates look a bit funny as the two bits of greenheart pile aren't the same size; they are supposed to be, but the cutting tolerance is quite large. Took down the new T plates, they didn't hold things up after all.

16th November 2009

30-40 knots of wind, plus rain mean that there's no work today. The next job is to install the top halves of the 4 greenheart piles that support the top of the access ramp, Tam and Cyril don't fancy a quarter of a tonne of timber waving around in the wind, a sensible decision I feel.

Friday 13th November 2009

The last main beam goes in at the southern end of the Club. As there was no support for the joists at the South East corner the new main bean was carried under the joists to give additional supoprt at the corner. It made an enormous difference as now I can jump on the corner without it feeling like a trampoline with strong springs. The new T plates were due back today from the galvanisers, however the galvanisers failed to collect them on the day they were supposed to so they are now due back next Tuesday. I'm a bit anxious that the delay won't hold up work.

Went off to order the joists; thats been another saga as its now difficult to get more than 6 metre lengths of timber that are of the correct grade, in fact most timber merchants couldn't supply the specified size in the correct grade at all, only Buildbase seemed able to supply us. I presume that we've chopped down all the decent size pine trees in Scandinavia now and we'll have to wait for the little ones to grow up a bit.

Spent some time in the loft at the Club getting flags and glasses down as its the Laying Up Supper tomorrow night. I need to write a speech later as there's no guest speaker and I probably ought to speak for a bit longer than last year. Its a good job that I don't have to worry about organising prizes thanks to Alison and Sue; or the catering thanks to Christine and her helpers. Not only that but Kevin is doing more than expected so it looks like everything will work out OK.

12th November 2009

Work progressing well on the main beams considering how difficult it is to get them all level, and once the pile is cut, replacing the top half won't be easy. It's possible to imagine the size of the new veranda; I start to get quite excited again, thinking how it'll change the nature of the sitting area quite radically once the dinghy racers stop getting tangled up with the feet of those sitting on the benches. There may be enough space that you can actually stop for a chat without getting in the way!

9th November

Work starts on installing the main beams that link the new piles back to the exisitning structure. There are 10 of them, running out from the existing veranda, across the top of the new piles. Its going to be time consuming at the start to make sure that the new deck is level with the exisiting deck, especially as the existing deck isn't flat, it rises in the centre and is lower at each end. Its very much a case of "measure twice and cut once" rather than the reverse. Dave Wagstaff's laser level proves invaluable in showing how far out of true the existing deck is. A start is made at the oar store end, Cyril finds that the existing main beam is not only about 50mm too short, so doesn't meet the pile, but the pile is too short so the tab joist hanger is sort of wedged in place with an offcut of softwood. The new beam is cut away to form a tongue that will go over the top of the pile and fill the gap there, when its all connected Tam will try and push the pile in a bit with the crane to close the gap between it and the main beam. If you are walking down to the Club (for the AGM for instance) you can see this at the river side of the oar store). Decide to get some additional steel T pieces made to tie the two main beams together and also tie them down to the pile. Go to the metal fabricator and sketch out the design on the back of an envelope!

6th November 2009

As all the piles are now in, the air hammer used for pile driving is taken back to the hire place in Lowestoft, so there's no action at the Club.

5th November 2009

Its probably a 'eureka!' moment today as all the pontoons are bolted in place as are the landing platforms and...they all slide up and down the piles without getting stuck halfway or anything dramatic like that. They are left attached for the time being to make sure they slide OK, however they will have to be detached again so the barge can be got close in to install the main beams.

3rd November 2009

At last, all piles are now driven and work starts to attach the top halves of the pontoon location piles. As the piles have bee driven to the required depth with the splices below mud level, this requires the mud to be dug out to get the coach screw inserted. The piles are aligned and held in place with a set of coach screws, the timber is so hard to screw into that Tam and Cyril decide to buy an air driven spanner (like they use in tyre places to tighten your wheel nuts so you can't undo them if you have a flat tyre!) as they have a more than adequate air compressor on the barge.

30th October 2009

By this afternoon the three piles that locate the landing platform were in place. The good news is that they all went 4metres into the mud with the top of the tubular splice just level with the mud as intended. Today is the last day when we were permitted to pile, however thereare still 2 piles to be driven. The Environment agency had said that they would be flexible if we didn't quite finish so we will be able to complete the last 2 piles next week.

28th October 2009

The access ramp 'landing platform' is now assembled on the water withthe quides that enable the platform to slide up and down the piles roughly in position to give more confidence that the piles that locate the platform are going to be in the right place. When I arrived and saw the platform in place I felt that we'd moved on a stage. However the platforms were removed so the piles could actually be driven so progress then seemed to go into reverse.