A New Prop at Norbury Junction

Moored Norbury Junction, Shropshire Union Canal

She didn’t want to come out too far, but far enough to be able to change prop this morning.  This pic gave a few on the far side from her a bit of a fright as she was pulled up the slip..

The bows disappearing under the water!   But we had bunged up the scuppers, the drain holes on the front bow deck, because we thought they might go under the water.. done with wedges and silicon to be water tight, and also the gas locker scuppers, leaving the cover off for ventilation to that. 

It worked well and no water entered No Problem as she was left hight and dry with the prop just about out of the water.. she sure wasn’t going to go any further up that slip!  Simon’s tractor thingy tried, but the back wheels left the ground refusing to bite any more under the weight of NP!..

Down the weedhatch then to remove the prop, better than having to get the waders on I suppose.  The boatyard here does not have a trolly to bring a boat out of the water completely anyway.. they have a dry dock which they use a lot, just that it was booked out for the next month or so, and we really did want to get this job done.

It wasn’t long till the holding nut was loose enough to screw off..

Now to compare the sizes..

Just one extra inch on the prop size, going from a 16” to a 17”, and look at the overall difference.. we kept the pitch the same at 12”.  This should make a big difference to the revs and therefore save diesel as well as being much quieter on the lower revs.

That went on OK, and soon NP was happily back in the water again. 

A very thorough engine service followed, the first we have done since we bought her.. changing oil, fuel and air filters on this occasion as it was pretty obvious that servicing had not been done for a very long time!

Tomorrow we are getting the rudder stock changed.  NP has one of the old style stocks at the moment with the cast iron roundy bit with J Pinner written on it.. the boat builder.  We will replace that with a welded bit as there is quite a lot of play in that area.. I’ll take some pics tomorrow to show you what I mean..

Been out tonight for a lubbly dubbly meal over at the Navigation (see above pic, its the building on the opposite bank) while we are moored here in the boatyard.. so will post this blog before it gets too late, so you can see today’s pics.