An unconventional docking challenge

Douglas McGowan bought the paddle steamer Waverley from Caledonian MacBrayne in Scotland for the princely sum of £1. He is now retired from Waverley Excursions, but works on a voluntary basis as project communications manager.

Waverley is currently alongside at George Prior Engineering at Great Yarmouth in the UK. The vessel has been recently towed upstream after a seven-week period out of the water. Waverley?s drydocking was not conventional, it was lifted out of the water on a submersible barge so that blasting, hull inspection, resultant steel renewals and internal steelwork repairs and modifications could be carried out.

The vessel presents an interesting problem when it comes to the refurbishment of such an old ship. Waverley was built on the Clyde in 1947. Most of the old skills have died out, or are in very short supply. It is not often that riveting steel panels is called for, or repairs to a steam reciprocating engine and paddle wheels, so McGowan says that was why only four yards in the UK tendered for the job of refitting Waverley. These included, Greenock and A&P Falmouth, but George Prior won the contract as the yard had a big advantage over the others ? it had carried out the first stage of the refit in 2000 and knew the ship well.

The first part of the refit costing four million pounds saw the refurbishment of the aft end of the ship, including restoring the ship?s dining saloon, passenger lounge and installing new boilers and funnels. “This is very specialised work,” says McGowan “and not many yards have the capability to do it.”

A large proportion of the seven million pounds for the current refit came from Britain?s Heritage Lottery Fund and it was keen to maintain the old aspects of the ship and to take it back to its 1947 appearance from a passenger point of view. However, this caused problems in itself, says McGowan, as there was a conflict between this and what was required from a health and safety point of view. He says the task was to marry up the obligations of both organisations ? which inevitably resulted in

compromise.

The work programme for the refit includes new passenger accommodation, new passenger lounges on both the promenade and main decks and over three miles of wooden decking will be replaced. On the technical side, the paddle wheels and main engine will be completely rebuilt, a new sewage plant installed and, to comply with the latest safety regulations, part of the hull will benefit from a double bottom.

Some of the skills to repair Waverley have come from unusual directions to say the least. McGowan explains that two or three guys were persuaded out of retirement in Lowestoft.

However, it has not all been plain sailing. He says: “Had the Heritage Lottery Fund not have contributed, the advent of SOLAS would have seen Waverley cease operations.” Waverley Excursions has always had what McGowan describes as a “great and long term relationship with the authorities”. This goes back to when the vessel was allowed to carry 1,350 passengers. It is now able to carry 925 on a class five certificate.

McGowan explains that when the vessel was being rebuilt three years ago, the authorities were concerned about the open engine room alley and wanted the company to fit glass panels for passenger protection. However, the company pointed out that one of the main attractions of the ships was to see and hear and smell the triple expansion engines working and that not one passenger had met with an accident since the vessel was built. The authorities relented.

The engine, a Rankin & Blackmore 2,100 hp triple expansion steam engine “will run for ever more,” says McGowan. However, the company has taken the opportunity to remove the crankshaft and have it taken to Mitchell Shackleton?s works in Manchester for machining of the main journals. He explains that the company does its own running repairs on the machinery in general.

Poor steering

Waverley does not steer particularly well when going astern, as it tries to head up into the wind. This can make manoeuvring difficult, particularly if it is windy. Waverley Excursions had thought to improve the vessel?s manoeuvrability by fitting a bow rudder “and we went into quite a lot of detail, but were advised not to proceed,” says McGowan. He explains that this was because although the vessel spends most of the season on the Clyde, it does tour the rest of the UK and there is not a lot of water at some of the places it calls at in the Bristol Channel. Waverley draws about 6ft forward and about 7ft aft and is inclined to just nudge its bow on to come alongside in some of these ports of call. If the vessel was equipped with a bow rudder and damaged it, the vessel would have to come out of service for repair. The company had also thought about the possibility of installing a bow thrust but McGowan says, “it didn?t sit well ? we?ll just have to rely on the skills of the ship?s officers.”

The paddle wheel design has also been looked at ?- “they were researched in great length about eight to 10 years ago to see if paddle wheel design could be improved upon,” says McGowan. Three years ago eight new floats were installed that hit the water at 90 degrees, but tests proved inconclusive. “We?re sticking with what we know ?- these floats are pretty sturdy and reliable ? engineers in the late 1800s knew what they were doing.”

The ship has been made much lighter ? weight reductions in the last refit resulted in Waverley floating higher in the water and able to achieve an extra one and a half knots. This has been continued in the current refit.

The aft deck shelter was made of aluminium in the last refit and the new funnels are of aluminium. “We have reduced weight at every stage and at the end of the refit and in June the vessel will be higher out of the water still. Speed is very important if you are doing long voyages,” explains McGowan.

Waverley has been upgraded to comply with new regulations and has had a new sewage processor installed. He hopes that this work will keep the vessel going for another 10-15 years before any more major expenditure is needed. n