My next project

snakemanStoo

Leaving the flooring to 'age' nicely then?

chillidoggy

That's amazing how being in mud for a while has changed the colour.

Emp_Fab

My colour vision isn't that great.... is it substantially different ?  Maybe it's a different boat entirely ? 

mike_l

Comparing the two pics of the boat it looks like roughly 2/3 of the boat is in the mud, and filled with mud.........

It's gonna be heavy

chillidoggy

And I suspect it'll be a gargantuan task to dig it out, given there's probably about 8 foot of it buried in the mud. You'll never pull it out, there's nothing strong enough to attach it to, so it'll have to be down to digging, probably over several tides.

As projects go, this doesn't look to be your easiest, Emp!

Axe_meister

How about pulling when the tide is coming in. The top layer mud will be a little looser an the direction of tide flowing in will be in the right direction giving the boat a little push

chillidoggy

I can see this project falling by the wayside. It'd be easier to launch a greenhouse into the cosmos.

Emp_Fab

I know it's likely to be a very heavy lump - but - the mud is like thick grease, and the boat moved slightly when I leant on it, so it's not welded in there.  The plan is to attach a rope to the bow eye - which is usually used for winching a boat onto a trailer, so that point will be strong enough to take the weight of the whole boat plus an outboard engine being winched slightly uphill.  Rather than try to pull it out in one go, my plan is to apply a decent tension on the rope (I'm aiming to tune it to middle C !) and wait.....  if the tension in the rope lessens overnight (if needs be), then the boat is moving (once I've allowed for rope stretch).  Re-tension the rope and so forth.  With each successive tide (and mud) seeping into the voids left by the shifting boat, it should become progressively easier.  It sank in the mud slowly - it ought to slide out slowly too if I can counter the weight of the boat.

I very much doubt there's 8 foot of it underneath....  my guess is that it's roughly 50% submerged, so I would put it more like four to five feet.  Either way, it's not a dead weight...  it's supported by the mud.  My bigger concern is getting the bugger across the mud once (if) it's out.  Then it'll be a dead weight - and upside-down !.

I would guess that the weight of the mud that's in the boat won't be massively greater than that of a large outboard (plus all the paraphernalia that would likely be in a boat being winched up onto a trailer), so, in theory, (unless it really does have a large outboard hanging off the arse already !), the bow eye ought to take the strain if I take it very slowly.  If it doesn't, and rips out, the boat is fucked anyway.

There will be no digging - at all.  If it doesn't budge with several hundred kilos of strain on the rope - it's staying put.  The rope I'm planning on using (8mm polyprop) has a breaking strain of roughly 1 tonne.  The winch can pull 2 tonnes.  I suspect the bow eye will rip out long before that point if the boat is stuck fast.

VimFuego

none of my business, but mebbe building your own boat may be a more satisfactory (and less hazardous) route. Some nice designs here:

 

http://www.selway-fisher.com/

 

 

Emp_Fab

It would be lovely.... I'd love to build my own... but, that requires money, a large empty garage and skill.  Out of those three, I'm lacking in three of them.

VimFuego

well, if you took all the time and effort you'll put into digging that boat out, then repairing it etc and got a part time job instead, then you'll earn that money in no time (I seem to recall working out that a 16' sailing dingy would cost approx. £1000, though my muddled memory may have got that all remembered wrong). I don't think it requires a huge amount of skill, just care and taking your time. The stitch and tape method is designed for home builders. Sadly I cant help with the space, you would need somewhere flat, firm and covered, maybe rent somewhere for the duration?

Even though I don't sail (well, I did years ago, it was one of the things I wanted to get back into when we moved down here, guess living only 1/2 hour from the sea is still a big enough excuse for me not to get off my arse) I really fancy having a go at one of them day boat designs. Gotta rebuild the garage 1st though.

fatherjack

It might well have moved when you leant against it, but you're not trying to extract it by shoving it backwards and forwards to work it loose (an action which creates gaps into which air can flow, ruining the existing suction holding the boat in place);  you're trying to pull it out by counteracting the suction effect of the mud against the quite considerable surface area of the boat that's still under the mud.

When you started sinking into the mud on your Cockle Picker Reenactment Jaunt, how well did the mud pull on the comparatively tiny surface area of your wellies?  Multiply that by the submerged surface area of the boat, and:

a)  Get a bigger winch.

b)  Get a VERY strong cable.

c)  Be prepared for a brief moment of considerable excitement should you think 'I think the cable can get just a little tighter' (and before you go 'I'd never do that', just review your attitude to this whole escapade thus far).

chillidoggy

It'll never fly.

 

The suction will be far too great to pull it out. You'll break the GRP long before anything starts to move in the right direction. Watch out for the flying cleat!

Jalapeno

What's the betting that the owner (from one of the houses overlooking it)  turns up at the last minute and says "Thanks for that, been worrying how to get than out !"

VimFuego

well, with all that deep mud they'd never find him...

mike_l

chillidoggy said:

It'll never fly.

 

Isn't that what was said about his greenhouse? Oh hang on....

chillidoggy

Well, of the piss-stained laminate flooring, the greenhouse electronic lazy-arsed door-opener, or the raising of the Titanic projects, I'd say the flooring has the best chance of actually being completed.

Still, stranger things have happened, and one never knows what he's likely to swing on to next, eh?

mike_l

Chilli, don't suggest he makes some swings on top of his other projects...

chillidoggy

Swings? Pfft!

Emp wouldn't stoop low enough to make a simple swing, he'd want something far more unattainable. I wonder what odds you'd get from the bookies on whether or not he manages to extract that boat from the mud? Or indeed manages to complete any projects?

mike_l

Ah yes , (adopt M&S ad voice)

These are not just any swings, these are Emp Fab's swings, usable for laying laminate flooring, firing greenhouses into space, and pulling semi-submerged in boats from mud...