Working windows

I take a lot of pleasure in seeing someone at work who knows what they're doing (with the possible exception of synchronised swimming), and especially in learning from it. Yesterday it was Lyndon of Aqua Boats taking out our leaky window, and re-working the way it was secured to the boat. The hull had properly tapped holes for machine screws, but at some point in the past someone had decided it was better to put wood screws through these and secure it straight into the wood of the internal window frame. Not particularly well either – one or two were too near the edge of the wood and made it split. No wonder I got confusticated when trying to look at it myself last autumn.

Don't think the window is completely water-tight yet. There's some light showing through one of the aluminium frame's mitred corners that needs some sealant, and where water had got in before there's a bit of steel that needs to be rubbed down and re-painted. But I do now know a lot more about how to work with windows, and have a much better idea of which bits I could do myself and which I should get someone more skilled to look at. I also discovered that you remove the opening part of the window by just lifting it out! Such a simple ruse had never occurred to this muddled brain – oh the sleepless nights wondering how to clean the bottom quarter inch of glass and the rubber it sits in! Just lift it out!

Lyndon had acquired his traditional engineering expertise the best way – starting with keeping his own motorbike running at age 7. Together we lamented the lack of incentive for young people to gain practical, worthwhile skills. He wondered, as he worked, where the next generation of engineers was going to come from, while I watched, and admired, and learned.