MV Cape Don Society
 

 Engineer's Blog - Tim Elderton

30 Sep 2008

Dear Shipmates,

Not to be outdone by the pair of Warwicks recommissioning the ships’ ventilation system (see below email report) the pair of Brians down in the engine room also had much success last weekend, when the recently recommissioned diesel fuel oil purifier was cranked up to full speed and approx 750 litres of old dirty diesel fuel was purified (cleaned). The dirty fuel was drawn from the starboard day service tank and the clean fuel was pumped into the cleaned port day service tank. Tomorrow will see the remaining 750 litres of dirty fuel oil purified, leaving approx 1,500 litres of clean diesel fuel in the port day service tank.

Meanwhile, above decks, my prayers for a Boson have finally been answered….. our new shipkeeper, Indrek (otherwise known as Indy) has turned out to be a brilliant Boson. As it turns out, Indy was a volunteer Boson on an Estonian tall ship for three years before he moved to Sydney. He has just completed the Coxswains’ course and is now studying the Master class 5 and Marine Engine Driver class 3 courses. Indy has whipped together a deck crew and they have been chipping and painting the forecastle deck fittings. Speaking of painting, Natalie and Carla spent last weekend painting more of the aft mooring deck deckhead. Our radio officer, Colin, also had a major success last weekend when he managed to get the main high frequency radio set to receive.

On a sad note, I need to mention that shipkeeper Natalie will be leaving the ship next week, as she heads off to work in the USA for a year. Natalie has been helping me looking after, cleaning and maintaining the ship for the past 6 months, as well as chipping and painting the aft mooring deck deckhead. On behalf of the ships’ company, I would like to extend a hearty thanks to Natalie for a job well done and wish her all the best in the US of A. Natalie’s shipkeeping role onboard has been replaced by Indy.

A special mention of thanks also to Dick Booth of Rustmasters, who recently donated another 2 x 20 litre drums of his magical rust proofing product.

Slowly, slowly, and bit by bit, things are coming together on the old Don. Quite obviously, the restoration progress would be much faster if more volunteers joined in. So, if you’re thinking about joining our band of happy volunteers, our chairman Derek will be following up this email shortly with all the news about what is being planned for the next major working weekend, being the long weekend, from Friday 3rd to Monday 6th October.

Best regards,

Timbo

9 June 2008

Ahoy there fellow shipmates!

Just a quick update on what’s been happening on the Don lately:-

Firstly a massive thanks to all those who helped with the preparation and crewing of the Youth Group album launch night. The function was a massive success and helped put the Cape Don on the map. We are still receiving positive feedback and curious visitors joining up to assist our cause.

Back to the coalface, last working weekend Woody Alan was busy removing the greater part of the VIP suite ceiling, allowing Sparks to rewire all of the perished lighting circuits, which he has nearly finished. Meanwhile, John Stokes has been busy finishing off rustmastering and undercoating the stb’d side superstructure, which is now ready for the top coat of two pack epoxy white….. whilst the old girl will look brilliant in her new gleaming white side, a part of us will be sad to see the Orient Line cream shade of undercoat disappear!.... she really does look like a passenger liner from the 60s!

Also last weekend Nigel, Lynda and friends did a massive tidy up of the tween decks area, whilst I spent a few nights during the week finishing the cleaning up after the album launch night and repairing the portable blue air compressor…. I modified a 5/16” brass countersunk screw into a non return valve to replace the one that self disintegrated.

Downstairs in the engine room Fred did an enormous job last week cleaning and tidying, with Mariana finishing off the job last Saturday. The engine room is now shipshape and ready for our first TAFE class of marine engineers who will be onboard for six hours hands on training tomorrow, Tuesday. Also last Saturday Mariana helped me service and recharge two more water fire extinguishers, whilst today I found two empty foam fire extinguishers, which I serviced and recharged. Fortunately the ship came with a few foam extinguisher AFFF recharge bottles. Our fire extinguisher complement now consists of:-

  • Three foam (blue or blue band)
  • Six dry chemical (white band)
  • Three water (red)
  • Plus one water and one foam extinguisher left to recharge, which I will do tomorrow.

This gives us a complement of 14 working fire extinguishers plus one fire blanket and eight new or near new fire hoses. I welcome our regular hard core volunteers to familiarize the location of all the fire extinguishers, fire hoses and fire hydrants, as we will now be conducting regular fire drills. This working weekend we will be running a life like fire drill, which could happen at any time and will involve running the emergency diesel fire pump, fire hydrants and hoses. I will also be conducting a short course on the use of fire extinguishers this Saturday for anyone interested.  

Jobs to do this working weekend include:-

·        Rustmaster, patch and undercoat a large area of the Monkey Island deck above the VIP suite to stop any more rainwater leaks getting into the ceiling and new wiring that Sparks has just installed.

·        Finish undercoating and top coating in admiralty grey the Forecastle Deck to stop the out of control rusting on this deck.  

·        Paint top coat white the stb’d side superstructure. (looks like a fulltime job for someone just mixing two pack epoxy paint all weekend!!!)

·        Complete the installation of the new 240VAC accommodation extraction ventilation fan motor and commission.

·        Repairs to the aft fuel oil purifier.

·        Repairs to the wharf decking.

·        Pump out rainwater in No.3 inner double bottom tanks (for dry access to finish off repairs) and portside void space.

·        Oh yes, and someone needs to volunteer to be our guest mystery chef!! Any takers?!..... please somebody…. Otherwise Derek will be setting off the smoke alarms again!! #$%&@#!!!!

Looking forward to a great productive weekend …. and …. how about a Kasbar party after dinner on Saturday?!

Cheers till then,

Timbo

18 Sep 2007

Dear Shipmates,

Sorry it has been a while since my last report but there has been so much happening on the Don I don’t have enough time to scratch myself, let alone time enough to write reports. In the last 8 weeks we have achieved the following:-

  1. Fabricated new ends for the No.2 diesel generator oil cooler (the original ends being corroded beyond repair) reassembled the oil cooler and fitted it back onto No.2 diesel generator. The engine fired first pop after 18 months of dormancy and ran like a well oiled sewing machine!
  1. Recommissioned the garbage compactor. With scrap aluminium at $4.00 per kg, we are now compacting our aluminium cans for recycling and cash.
  1. Recommissioned the shore power rectifier. This means we can now run our large DC powered machinery on our new AC shore power connection or our old AC generators.
  1. Replacing old rusted through toilet and shower piping on main deck and upper deck.
  1. More chipping and painting of the aft mooring deck.
  1. Patching up rusted through rainwater leaks on the funnel and boat deck.
  1. Replacing expired sacrificial zinc hull anodes.
  1. High pressure water blasted the loose rust off the Forecastle Deck and treat the deck with Rustmasters, ready for painting (done by Rustmasters free of charge).
  1. Last night we ran No.3 diesel generator and the crane for an hour, lifting equipment on and off the pontoon in readiness for this working weekends’ major task. The rusted bolts that secure the spare anchor to the Well Deck were oxy cut off and the spare anchor (weighs about 2 tonnes) was lifted up and slewed out to the starboard side, which has given the ship a 3 degree list to starboard. This has resulted in the portside of our hull being raised 300mm out of the water. So, this working weekends’ major task will start at 0700 Friday when a 4,000 PSI water blaster will be delivered and loaded onto the pontoon and our waterline area will be water blasted clean, followed by treatment with the kindly donated Rustmasters product. Painting of undercoat is planned for Saturday and top coats on Sunday. I wouldn’t mind raising the portside hull out of the water another 50mm, so we may end up pumping some fresh water out of the Port wing No.2 double bottom tank. In a few weeks time we can do the same to our starboard side hull.

So this weekend is shaping up to be a most productive weekend onboard and so we will need engineers to run engines and pumps; we will need deck crew to water blast and paint; and we will need deckhands and coxswains to maneuver the pontoon all weekend using our new ships’ tender. But after the work is done we have plenty of food and entertainment planned for when the sun goes down. Unfortunately, I am not at liberty to divulge who the mystery celebrity chef will be onboard this weekend; however I can say that for entertainment, at great expense, we have just managed to finalise the transport arrangements that will allow us the pleasure of having in our company onboard the Don, the lead violinist of the London Symphony Orchestra!   Hope you can join us!!

Cheers till then,

Tim     

Dear Shipmates,

 The other day David Willenborg asked me to draft a list of work the Cape Don engineering team had accomplished during 2006 as supporting material for a small Government grant we are applying for. When I finished the list, I sat back with amazement at what our small collection of dedicated volunteers had achieved in just 12 months. Here below is the list of engineering tasks performed in 2006.

 SUMMARY OF ENGINEERS LOG FOR 2006

  1. Disassembled, overhauled and reassembled No.1 main engine cylinder assembly.
  1. Disassembled No.5 main engine cylinder assembly ready for overhaul.
  1. Rebuilding of starboard general service pump (almost completed).
  1. Replace corroded 2” seawater cooling pipes to No.2 and No.3 diesel generators.
  1. Overhaul No.3 diesel generator heat exchanger and oil cooler.
  1. Disassemble emergency fire pump, currently undergoing overhaul.
  1. Pump out 60 tonnes of ballast water and mud from aft peak ballast tank. Internal clean and assessment.
  1. Chip rust and paint external hull plates around aft peak tank area.
  1. Cut out corroded sections of flight deck support columns and mooring deck main fairlead and welded in new sections.
  1. Overhaul main engine fuel pumps.
  1. Install new hot water heater tank.
  1. Lap in main inner seawater inlet valves.
  1. Unseize mooring deck fairlead rollers.
  1. Prepare drawings for fabrication of new deck and tank vents, fairlead roller covers and semi permanent staircase for cargo hold access.
  1. Attach new sacrificial zinc anodes to external hull.
  1. Serviced crane motor/generator unit.
  1. Fabricate and install new emergency diesel fire pump exhaust pipe.
  1. Pump out ten tonnes of accumulated rainwater and clean out mud and scale from portside workshop bilges.
  1. Recommission workshop motor/generator, lathe, radial arm drill, power hacksaw, carpenters’ wood saw, DC welder and pedestal grinder.
  1. Overhaul and install domestic seawater pump.
  1. Dozens of miscellaneous odd jobs and maintenance on machinery previously restored to operating condition.

 Hmmmm…. Not bad for a bunch of weekend warriors!!!  Great work team!.... lets show those other Maritime museums how to restore a ship back to life!!

Cheers for now,

Tim Elderton

Chief Engineer

(and president)

15 Oct 2005

Not to be outdone by the Sparks department, the following was achieved by the grease monkey department:-

Our new chief engineer, Tang Lim, Peter Deliseo and Marcus, removed the exhaust mufflers on the new generator and welded up the exhaust leak holes, thence reassembled it all. Later on Sunday, the generator failed twice more. Two more wires had broken off within two hours, due to the vibration, hence we kept loosing a phase. Twice I crawled back into the back of the generator unit to make new connections and on the second occasion, I placed most of the loose wiring into a short piece of conduit to stop them vibrating around and rubbing up against the frame.

Meanwhile, Peter King disassembled the rocker gear on No.3 diesel generator and retensioned all of the cylinder head nuts, having previously found some loose ones. The rocker gear was then reassembled. This generator will be ready for service again as soon as the valve clearances are checked and adjusted.

We have known for quite a few months now that the inside of the hull needs a lot of work to stop the corrosion from spreading any further, however nobody seems terribly keen to work in the bilges of the ship. Tang Lim (Simon for short) joined our engineering team and has spent 15 years with Neptune Orient Lines based in Singapore as a Chief Engineer, Class 1. Tang has agreed to relieve my reponsibilities of restoring and maintaining the ships' systems, which will allow me to focus on corrosion prevention down in the bowels of the ship. I gave Tang a brief handover on Saturday afternoon.

Kind Regards, Tim

2 Jul 2005

The following surgery was performed on the old girl over the weekend:-

  1. Started and run emergency diesel generator and our newly recommissioned lathe. Machined up new odd sized zinc anode for No.3 diesel generator cooler, aft end.
  2. Removed the seawater thermometer fitting (broken) from the Port sea inlet strainer box, made up a new anode holder and machined up a special made to fit anode.
  3. Cleaned and oiled the lathe.
  4. Cleaned and tidied up the workshop.
  5. Chipped much rust from the fly bridge deck around the roof water tanks, where the rain is leaking into the VIP cabin. Rust converted and sikaflexed up the holes.
  6. Installed new piping and fittings to the roof water tanks, so that they are all interconnected..... meaning we only need to fill one tank only and not 4 which always ended up overflowing into the VIP cabin.
  7. Changed oil in petrol generator.
  8. Chipping rust, rust converting and painting more handrails down aft.
  9. Then made 3 gallons of hearty, home made vegetable, pea and ham soup in a mother of a pot I found hidden in the galley.
  10. Thanks go to Peter Delisio and Marcus (our two new Qantas engine fitters), Ruth and Tim.

See you in the Kasbah this weekend! Tim Elderton

Engineers Team Report 2004/2005 - Tim Elderton

Restoration of the ships machinery continues by the ship’s volunteer Engineering Team headed by Tim Elderton. The ships' machinery was found to be in generally good condition, with degradation due mainly to disuse (some machinery not having been run for up to four years) and in some cases to under-servicing when the ship was last operational. A great deal of the ship’s machinery has now been reconditioned and is run regularly. The machinery now operational includes:-

  1. Emergency diesel air compressor and air receiver
  2. Emergency diesel fire pump
  3. Starboard diesel generator
  4. Starboard air compressor
  5. Both main air receivers
  6. Port and starboard deck equipment hydraulic pumps
  7. Port and starboard hydraulic anchor windlasses
  8. Forward and aft hydraulic capstans
  9. Port and starboard hydraulic steering gear units and tiller vane motor
  10. Ships' wheel hydraulic pump unit and circuit
  11. Domestic fresh water pressure tanks
  12. Domestic fresh water pump
  13. Domestic hot water service
  14. Inboard and outboard main engine lube oil pumps
  15. Main engine lube oil strainer and filters
  16. Main engine mechanical lubricators
  17. Main engine turning gear motor
  18. Accommodation ventilation fan
  19. Crane motor-generator unit
  20. Crane boom motor
  21. Port and starboard gangways

Machinery on which work is now proceeding and which will be recommissioned during the next few months include:-

  1. Main engine seawater pump
  2. Main engine fore and aft jacket cooling water pumps
  3. Port diesel generator
  4. Crane hoist motor
  5. Crane slew motor
  6. Variable pitch propeller hydraulic system

Challenges facing the Engineering Team include:-

  1. Repairs to centre diesel generator – which will require on-board servicing in the ship’s workshops
  2. Total rebuild of the emergency diesel generator

    Tim has commented: “The ship’s machinery is in surprisingly good condition, and where repairs/reconditioning is required, don’t forget that we have a fully equipped engineering workshop capable of carrying out this work on board. We do, however, need the return to the ship of several parts taken off the ship by the previous owner for repair by Retromech Engineering (an engineering firm in Artarmon).” (Note: the return of this equipment is currently being negotiated with Retromech.)

 
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