What’s Been Going On At AQSC

On the day of the Harmony Chorus visit Rodger, Dave, Bryan and myself dragged our safety boat out onto the lower slip to repair a serious leak in the hull. A number of rivets that attached part of the alloy hull to one of the frames had pulled through, allowing water to accumulate in the scuppers. This water was often up to the floor boards, that’s several gallons.

On the Wednesday we chocked the boat, bailed it out, cleaned the area to be repaired and punched out the offending rivets. Actually they almost fell out. Dave then jet washed the boat and we left it to dry overnight.

On Thursday we injected marine mastic into the joint between the frame and the hull and then bolted the whole thing up. Once the mastic had cured the boat was put back into the water ready for sailing on Sunday.

On 17 August Nigel emailed to say that our Hampton Fuel Allotment Association grant had been approved. Together with our earlier grant from Grass Roots this now paves the way for our kitchen (galley) refurbishment.

On 22 August Nigel undertook what must be THE worst job ever done at AQSC. Because of the increasingly bad odours coming from underneath the clubhouse he delved into the septic tank to ensure that the float switch and pump were working. The problem seemed to be the float switch, which had stopped working enabling the tank to overflow. Nigel managed to get it working again and at the moment sanitary disposal is working as normal. A BIG thanks to Nigel for doing this VERY unsavoury job. Well done mate!

Also on 22 August, using our chain hoist Nigel, Bryan and Ken managed to remove from the river the assorted metal work in front of the reservoir outflow, located at the bottom of the ramp down from the car park. This was a hazard to boats moving along the Middlesex bank and was best disposed of. Well done guys!

On Tuesday 14 September Bodgit & Son started the kitchen (galley) refit. Much of the first day was spent clearing the area and stripping the room back to floor, walls and ceiling. That included electrics and plumbing. Next the existing floor was taken up ready for the installation of a new floor on the same level as the main clubroom. This entailed pouring a concrete bed under the floor to support the joining of the old and new joists.

On Wednesday the new joists were laid and levelled and a fully boarded 18mm WPB floor put down across the joists. Three of the old walls were then ripped out and the exposed structure battened out to take new thicker wall boards. This took a while because the walls had to be perfectly straight, at what will be work surface level so that the new work surfaces would fit exactly. The galley electrics and plumbing were run at this time. On Thursday and Friday the new 12mm walls were installed together with the electric outlet boxes for power and switching.

On Saturday 18 September a Social Committee meeting was held at the club. This had to be ‘Al Fresco’ because of the work there was limited room inside, but the layout of the new galley and the budget were discussed and approved. Nigel worked on in the afternoon and installed a working sink, the dishwasher and fridge. On Sunday a limited amount of work was done being mainly concerned with clearing up the galley and clubroom and removing the vast array of building materials and tools.

During the next week the new equipment was ordered. On the Thursday the dishwasher, water heater and water softener were delivered to Nigel’s. We then loaded it all up and took it to the club. On Monday 26 Nigel worked on the electrics, plumbing and started laying the hardboard floor covering on which the vinyl floor will be laid. On Wednesday 28 September B&S, ably assisted by Pete Carpenter, work started again. Pete plumbed in the water heater while B&S continued with the electrics, finished laying the floor, lined out the wall between the galley and the sail loft and started installing the structure for the new ceiling with its down lighters. During that same morning the Bain Marie was delivered, unfortunately this turned out to have quite bad panel damage and will have to go back.

With Rodger’s ‘Roaring 20’s Night’ looming and the need to have a working kitchen up and running by then it looks like B&S will have to work overtime on Sunday to have any chance of providing this. Once that event is over we then have a little more time before the kitchen’s needed again for the Annual Dinner and the AGM.

Bodgit & Son (Building & Maintenance Contractors to AQSC)