Baragoola Week Ending 27th October 2012

In attendance this week (members): Ernie, Peter C, Peter H, Peter M, Geoff E, Nick, Lance, Glen and Ross Visitors: nil

Upcoming events

Baragoola Preservation Association Member Christmas Party (details soon)

Historic Manly events this week

2nd November 1878 – arrives 29th October 1905 – runs first revenue service to Manly 1st November 1905 – Binngarra’s first accident – collision with retaining wall

Fundraising Information We need to raise an additional $24,540 in the next couple of months and all donations are very welcome. Donations $2 and above are tax deductible so please consider making a donation to help save this very last original Manly ferry for generations to come.

Committee News Nothing from the committee this week!

Finances Our bank balance increased by $290 this week

From the editor Our new postal address:

PO Box 374 Crows Nest, NSW, 1585

Please ensure you address any correspondence to this address in future.

Over the coming weeks and months we will be increasing our fundraising activities and looking at ways to vastly ramp up our ability to earn money. The restoration of Baragoola needs a large sum of money – we are totally funded by donations and will be seeking ways to interest large commercial donors and sponsors – for this we need the help of all association members and are looking to the broader membership to assist. The small amounts we gain through private donations and sale of items is enough for the day to day running of the association, but we need some serious money if we are to achieve our goal of getting Baragoola slipped and the hull repaired (or areas replaced as needed) if we are to keep this important heritage item going as a viable entity for many years to come. We will shortly be asking all our members to assist with this task and helping us find the sort of funding we need – this is something we hope all our members and friends can help out with.

Our sites Have you visited our Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/ManlyFerry ? It’s updated (sometimes several times a day) and is one of our primary methods of communicating with the public at large. We’ve got over 100 ‘likes’ so far! There’s quite a few videos posted there as well. Our posts are also being distributed to a wider audience by another Facebook page called What’s On ? (http://www.facebook.com/Whatsonnorthernbeaches) (not affiliated to us) which is a great resource for people living on the peninsula – check it out. Our main source of important information is our own site at http://baragoola.com.au For people with an interest in Sydney’s (past and current) we have a sister site at http://www.ferriesofsydney with a very activity community forum and on a wider rage, our other sister site Forgotten Sydney (http://www.firgotten Sydney) is all about Sydney’s historical past.

Souvenir items Recently we introduced some new promotional items and they are in limited quantities so if you want one you’ll need to get in quickly. For the first time we have caps and indeed we had to refresh the order twice to cope with demand!

If you want an item, send your details (name and address and what you want) in an email to [email protected].

Prices – Mugs $20 including delivery, key rings $20 including delivery and caps $30 including delivery.

A special offer of the PJ&MSS Co mug, cap and keyring can be purchased as a set for $60 for the set.

Bellubera and South Steyne

Baragoola in PTC colours

South Steyne

PJ & MSS logo from the 1920s

This week A gorgeous day on the harbour this weekend for our BBQ (thanks to all those volunteers who turned up and thanks to Glen for the catering). Before and after much work was done as well starting with the continuation of the plate ultrasounds that is currently in progress. Each plate is divided up into a segment measure between its upper and lower boundaries and between the ribs and then sixteen measurements are taken (eight for the very small ones), the plate photographed, dimensions and reading recorded, notes regarding each plate taken and future work decided. (If you are interested the details are being posted up on our forum at www.baragoola.com.au).

No big surprises thus far with varying results coming back; the major problem areas are of course on the waterline and we’ll remediate any big problems as they are located. This is a very time consuming task and we are limited as we only have the one gadget (hint a donation of another ultrasound machine would be wonderful – they aren’t expensive either). At this point we are doing about half a dozen plate segments a week.

Nice to see that our problem area in the battery compartment is responding well to the work that has been done with improvements there being seen every week. But of course there’s still a lot to do and a few extra hands from time to time would be nice to have. We have a lot of people saying what a great job we’re doing –one or two hours a month from those would help us immensely! Also this week all eight of our anodes were replaced with Nick, Peter M and myself doing the work; these are supplied by AMAC Corrosion (http://www.amacgroup.com.au/index.php?ID=2) and are very heavy beasts but do a wonderful job of protecting the ship.

New anodes lined up ready to go

Old and new anodes We’ll get a good 12 months out of these and will shortly order their replacements so that we have them ready for placement. We have a regime in place whereby we measure these regularly, again the results are available on our forum.

Nick lifting one of the wasted anodes

Meanwhile downstairs Ernie with some assistance from Peter C refitted the circulating pump to the starboard Gardner – the inlet to this had been cleared a few weeks back by the Navy diving team and the pump now back in place was connected. This provides seawater cooling water to the engine and we can finally take off the hose that has been feeding the engine for the last 18 months. A test firing was done and for the first time in around 30 years or so the Gardner was being cooled as designed. This is a great thing as we can now (if required) run this engine for an extended period of time without worrying about overheating.

During the week Peter H has been on board replacing the rotten timber in the deckhead over the top of the aft stairs and much has been accomplished, we will need to paint this up but will let him get a bit further ahead before we commence this – tall people needed!

This area had suffered badly from the rainwater coming in through the now repaired roof above (plus via the wheelhouse as well) and it’s really great to see how dry this area now remains even in heavy rain. Once completed new lighting will be installed and the top deck is then one step closer to being used to raise revenue for the ship – our aim is to have Baragoola start funding her restoration as soon as possible – an increase in revenue means an increase in the speed of restoration which in turn means a shorter period of time before she’s back in full, functional, service again. Again, the more people that can assist with this means the quicker the work will go and the sooner the ferry will be ready. Even one or two extras helping out with the painting of the deckhead significantly shortens the time.

A redo of the mooring lines was also completed this week – one set of bollards have been taking nearly all the strain and 800 tons of ship pulling on a couple of lines was creating problems with the bulwarks under the bollard being noticeably deformed. All hands assisted in relocating the springers over two further sets of bollards and with that out of the way we were able to commence repair work on the bulwarks in preparation to welding in a new piece of sister metal to strengthen and repair the broken section.

It was also an opportunity for us to test the air compressor after Ernie repaired it some weeks ago – after some initial issues with the needle gun (caused by lack of use) things proceeded quickly with Geoff getting stuck into the work. Believe it or not this task is one of the more enjoyable on the vessel with a few of us vying to take on the needle gun and of course, the results are always great!

The damaged bulwark under the bollard

Back upstairs work proceeded on the forward wheelhouse and its fittings with further work being done on the telegraph – this is now repaired (it didn’t need much beyond cosmetic restoration) and work on the lower part has also started. A note around this – these fittings are not left in situ as they provide too much temptation for potential thieves – they are always removed after work has completed for the day. Interesting to note that on Sunday after we released a picture of the telegraph someone was on board – made the worse by the fact they took a photo and published it on Facebook...... there really are some stupid people out there.

Other work on the wheelhouse included some further undercoating applied in preparation for a coupkle of coats of cream. This is another area that is proceeding slowly and would benefit from a couple of extra hands.

Forward wheelhouse The deckhead in here has been cleaned back and is now ready for a coat of white as well.

Once that’s done new decking will be installed in parts, the partition returned and windows installed. Following that the fit out with the original equipment will be done and power and hydraulic lines returned back into it after which it’ll be quite a showcase area on the ferry.

The aft wheelhouse needs some temporary work and we are looking for a donation of several acrow props. Full work on this end will need to wait for a while longer though – again due to the lack of resources available to assist with the work. The danger on that end is collapse of the roof if remedial work is not done which will set us back many months.

That’s it for this week, we hope to see a few extras next Saturday to help out with the all the work on board!

If you are on Facebook you can follow us at https://www.facebook.com/ManlyFerry

We’re also on Twitter as #MVBaragoola – updates are posted fairly regularly. Our main website is now www.baragoola.com.au and if you have Google Talk installed you can chat to us if anyone is online and nearby the computer – add [email protected] as a friend. And, last but not least, we also have a flickr page at http://www.flickr.com/photos/65669741@N08/

For general business you should call our message bank on 02 9294 3168 and leave a message – we’ll return your call pretty quickly as this is checked daily.

Historical Images