It is now 9 December 2022 and six months since Xavier first entered Gweek boatyard. Unfortnately the boat was in Gweek less than 10 days before water was again found in the inside of the hull. This time the murky stuff washing around in the bottom of the boat tasted salty. So this was not from rain or from any other internal source, it was from the water outside. We had sprung a leak.
The story of the last 6 months is full of twists and turns, highs and lows. We have lost the warm summer months to renovate the boat. It is now a shell inside and we are not looking forward to working in the cold. But at least the boat is back safe and overplated over almost all of the areas that are underwater - fingers crossed! Here are photos of return.
 |
| Swan family drift by prior to the boats arrival. |
 |
| Xavier returns to Gweek after 6 months in Penzance Dry Dock |
 |
| A calm but freezing evening. Lit by full moon and floodlights. High tide 5.30pm. |
Back in June, Xavier spent just a few tense weeks in her mooring at Gweek. Once the leak was identified and temporarily plugged we had decisions to make. The pre-purchase hull survey gave the hull a clean bill of health, no corrossion, no major damage, we started to lose faith in that survey.
We suspected this may well not be an isolated hole but could be part of a wider problem. The pinhead sized hole looked unlikely to be the result of damage by an underwater object. We had to quickly decide our next move. Whilst our immediate reaction was a panicked application of quick drying post hole cement, the only longer term solution seemed to be to plug the hole properly and find out the extent of the damage. We took the decision to contact Penzance Dry Dock, who were already booked in to do some welding for us) for assessment and repair.
Waiting for the boat to leave Gweek when the dry dock became available was tense. We did not know what the extentof the problem or the likely cost. The the hole continued to leak a bit. We decided to ask the best Dutch barge surveyor in the business, Baliol Fowden to carry out a hull survey as soon as Xavier entered the Dry Dock and before any work was carried. This would either confirm or draw into question the hull survey carried out in Holland on which our purchase of the boat was based.
Balliol found 20 actual holes in the boat and severe corrosion all over the hull. He found pitting, little holes that were eating into the hull and also areas next to the pitting where the Dutch surveyor had taken hull thickness measurements. The measurements took no account of the depth of the pitting.
After samples of the corrossion were taken and locked in the Dry Dock safe,work began on overplating the hull.
 |
| Xavier at dry dock |
Xavier leaving Gweek all too soon after she arrived. Destination, Penzance Dry Dock
Our dream of renovating our Dutch Barge in Gweek and making it ready to live on lasted a very short time before we realised that things were not going to be 'plain sailing'
Despite the hull having been given a clean bill of health by our Dutch Surveyors before we bought the boat, a survey that cost well over £2000.00 it turned out that this boat had a number of holes in the hull.
Xavier made the chanel crossing with some points so weak that the paint was the only thing keeping her watertight! Our Dutch surveyors stated in their report that there was 'No' corrossion. In actual fact there was pitting and corrosion inside and out and the inspection with our UK surveyor identified over 20 holes.
We started taking on water soon after moving to Gweek. As the tide moved in and out each day, the boat took on water and we pumped it out. All the time ripping up floors to try to find the leak. We spent a few days grovelling round in the bowels of the boat, ripping up everything that was preventing us seeing the steel bottom and eventually we found one very small hole. We took a serious look at the hull below the waterline, which we were able to do for the first time as we were on a tidal mooring, and we found that there were large areas of very serious corrosion that could turn into holes at any point.

We now know that this is called pitting, and we can actually see this on the photos of the original survey. At the time we just thought it was blobs of uneven bitumen paint.
This problem was not picked up by our surveyor in the Netherlands and so we bought a boat that was in danger of resembling a collander!
Thank fully we has already commissioned some welding work from Penzance Dry Dock so that was who we turned to when we realised that our boat was going to need serious work that would involve another survey and a plan of works that would ensure that the barge remained watertight.
We went through a very tense period when we had no idea what work was required or what it was going to cost.