Turning a corner – Saunterer’s ballast keel is finally removed
Date: 18th September, 2015“The process involved in removing Saunterer’s ballast keel has required much thought. The overall weight of Saunterer with all her equipment is some 16 tonnes, and we now know that the ballast keel weighs 8 tonnes. Consideration has to be given to how to achieve this – not only finding facilities and skills to carefully lift her clear of the ballast keel, but also to think through the effect of removing the ballast keel on the stability of the vessel on the hard, and also on her structure – so that she does not bend when it is not in place.
Having taken all this into account, the keel bolts are loosened – the keelbolt nuts at the upper end, and melting the tar which was usually placed around the lower end, it was a matter of patiently and gently easing them out. We did not wish to disturb Saunterer’s timbers with the major impact of driving the bolts out.
This picture (at an angle to show the light) shows the lower end (the head) of a keel bolt moving clear of the ballast keel – we think for the first time in 115 years!
The same treatment was given to the bolts which traverse the hull through the butterly plates at the fore and aft ends of the ballast keel.
With Saunterer lifted high enough on her cradle to create sufficient for clearance for the long bolts to be pushed clear. the keel bolts are eased out of the hull…
Once all the bolts are clear, the crane can return and Saunterer can be lifted clear of the ballast keel, and set down again on her cradle – and the keel itself can be turned on to its side separate from the hull so it can be prepared for refastening to the hull in 2016.
The pictures above show (left) the entire ballast keel with some of the 10 keel bolts still in position, and (right) the top of the keel where it joins the hull – this surface will be faired, some weight being removed (to be calculated so that Saunterer lies on her lines again), and a watertight joint involving leather and tar created.
The actual task is much harder than these notes suggest!”
The Project Team – September 2015
