By the Chemring Apprentices

Steven Dunlop (Mechanical Fitter) – 4 th Year Apprentice David Thomson (Mechanical Fitter) – 4 th Year Apprentice Jamie Henderson (Mechanical Fitter)– 3 rd Year Apprentice Ian McDonald (Mechanical Fitter) – 2 nd Year Apprentice

The Wheelyboat has been specially designed with a bow door that is hinged and lowers to form a ramp enabling roll-on, roll-off access, to accommodate disabled people and wheelchair users in particular, easily and safely. The wheelyboat gives mobility impaired members of the public of any age, safe dignified and ready access to motorised boating and fishing.

Deck welding Chandlery, Cleats & Rope Buoyancy foam Plus donations from local businesses and friends

Unfortunately we struggled to source some of the materials that were requested by the Wheelyboat Foundation. These materials are listed below; Black Nylon(For Skids) - £100 Aluminium Paint - £50

Remove rivets from deck Cut existing decking and remove from boat

Removing the buoyancy foam Replacement of new buoyancy foam

Door seal was beyond repair and needed replacement. The bow door had to be removed in order to do this. Rubber grip was also replaced.

The winch, cleats and rowlocks were all overdue replacement which can be seen to the left. Existing door hinges and oars were beyond repair and also needed replacement.

With the new buoyancy foam installed the deck had to be welded back into place and new rivets applied. Any seams were filled with a marine spec silicone to prevent any water entering the buoyancy chambers.

The bottom of the boat showed signs of leaking along the seams (circled red). The boat was removed to the local engineering company as welding is not permitted on site. All the seams were welded and plated to give the floor a more watertight seal and to aid in rigidity.

The local chandlery store supplied us with cleats, however these were too large for the boat and had to be cut to size. The rowlocks came with a set of sourced oars and were fitted to the boat along with the new oars.

New rubber was sourced within our store, measured and cut to size. Two part rubber adhesive was used to fix the rubber to the boat.

With a new winch proving difficult to source, we resulted to refurbishing the original winch as it was still in working order. A new handle was made and new nuts & bolts were fitted. Marine grade rope was sourced from a local chandlery store and fitted to the boat. Together, the winch and rope operate the bow door.

New rubber matting was glued down using a two part adhesive. A replacement door seal was sourced and fixed to the door using the same adhesive.

New drainage bungs were fixed in place to allow and water accumulation to be drained from each buoyancy chamber. This was done using existing fittings we had available.

The boat was badly needing cleaned. We rubbed down the surface using scotch-brite grinding pads and painted the boat using an aluminium paint.

To finish it off we managed to convince our on site joiners to make us a replacement seat made of Marine Plywood. The Wheely Boat Foundation provided the team with Vinyl stickers for the boat. All that was left was to give the oars an undercoat of paint and then gloss them. Paint was donated by on site painters.

We would like to thank everyone who donated materials to our project. Everything was very helpful towards us completing our Apprentice Challenge. We would also like to thank Ayrshire Business in the Community for giving us the opportunity to take part in the programme. We have learned many valuable skills such as Team Working, People skills etcc.