Volunteers pitch in for club boat repairs

When preparing for the coming season, Yo-Han joined a merry band of volunteers tasked with maintenance of the club boat.

I remember my first dives off a RIB. It was off Byron Bay in Australia. They were also my first dives as a qualified diver. After signing up for a day’s diving, I rather excitedly headed out to sea on the dive centre’s RIB. I then did my first non-training backward rolls and descended into a world of excitement.

Clifton Sub Aqua Club’s RIB, Badger, doesn’t go out to sites quite as exotic as Byron Bay. Since I’ve joined Clifton SAC, it has usually resided in Queen Anne’s Battery in Plymouth during the summer and stored elsewhere during the winter. Not all clubs own a RIB (or hardboat), but it’s a great piece of kit for those that do, as it allows more diving opportunities and greater self-sufficiency for the members. 

However, the RIB does need to be able to function reliably. So, over the winter, the club’s Boat Officer, Haydon Saunders, organised a weekend for volunteers to help him with essential maintenance. On top of the usual tasks, Haydon had decided to tackle some of the other jobs that had built up over time. And as I had nothing better to do that weekend, I turned up on the Sunday. 

Not all clubs own a RIB (or hardboat), but it’s a great piece of kit for those that do, as it allows more diving opportunities and greater self-sufficiency for the members

I’d apparently missed a lot of excitement, industry and colourful language during the previous day. Clifton’s volunteers, under Haydon’s direction and guidance, had washed Badger and its cover, replacing the prop, the hatch and winch strap. They’d also fitted a new wheel bearing and throttling gear cables. The brakes had also been adjusted on the trailer and a new shot had been cast from scrap lead, I’m told in a very safe manner - I asked no further questions.  

They’d also found that during Badger’s lifetime, some of the work done to her had involved the use of non-stainless-steel screws and bolts, which had inevitably turned to rust. Haydon maintains there’s a special place in Hell for people who don’t use stainless steel on boats, and there were further exclamations in Anglo-Saxon as he tried to remove a bolt that had rusted into place.

As my boat knowledge is limited, I was one of the volunteers given the job of measuring the new shots, which had the main advantage of being an indoors job. It wasn’t your typical rainy Bristol Sunday, but it was certainly a chilly one! Measuring and labelling the new shot lines, none of which I’d done before, involved more equipment than I expected. I certainly hadn’t expected that the process required, among other items, a blow torch and heat gun.  

My next job was to sort out the various keys that had been collected over time. I know, I got all the fun jobs! But it all needed doing and I learned a lot about the time and effort required to keep a club RIB properly maintained. Many thanks go to Haydon and everyone who turned up over the weekend to help. And many thanks to all the other volunteers in all the other BSAC clubs who do the same, hopefully with less rust to deal with and about the same level of colourful language! 

Article ‘Re-glazing the RIB’ by Yo-Han Cha first published in SCUBA magazine, Issue 144 April 2024.