Projects: Life After Pi lifeboat refit
Oarsome Chance, the Gosport based charity, has been using WEST SYSTEM epoxy® to aid in a classic engine refit.
It’s ‘fixing-up’ the lifeboat which was used in the award-winning documentary Life After Pi. The short film told the story of how a visual effects company won an Academy Award for its groundbreaking work on the film Life of Pi.
The vessel which can hold up to 80 passengers was kept in Emsworth until the owner said it was too big to store and offered the lifeboat to Oarsome Chance. The charity jumped at the chance, seeing it as a great opportunity for their students.
The vessel was in great shape apart from the fact it required a new engine.
Oarsome Chance saw how fitting and reconfiguring a new engine would be a great task for the young people. Working on this specific project is an Oarsome Chance boat builder and four students working on rotation. They removed the internal buoyancy and then the old engine, a Bukh 10 hp, and replaced it with a Volvo Penta MD2020. This job required WEST SYSTEM® 105 Epoxy Resin and WEST SYSTEM® 205 Fast Hardener. John Gillard, Principle of Oarsome Chance, says WEST SYSTEM epoxy was “invaluable in helping us create the space for the engine to mount and align” on the rebuilt engine bed.
WEST SYSTEM 403 Microfibres filler, added to the mixed WEST SYSTEM epoxy, has been used to bond everything in place and WEST SYSTEM 405 filler, added to the epoxy, will be used to fillet all the gaps and cracks. The sole board has now been cut and is ready to fit and the team plan to build a small cuddy on the top.
Oarsome Chance aim to finish the project by the Autumn, with plans to take the lifeboat out on Forton Lake. It’ll be stored in Gosport, with annual refits.
