Whilst we had some nice dry days, I've fitted the repaired bulwark on the starboard side, (The light grey bit in front of me) and today I fitted the chunk of wood that protects the corner of the hull. (the black bit in my hand)
During the evenings, I've removed the old galley completely, and re-worked the plumbing to get it out of our way.

out with the old :)

We've been repairing the old bulwark from the starboard side of the aft deck,
(the bit of wood that extends the side of the boat upwards to keep the waves out)
you can see the new peices of wood I've glued in place in this pic:


I've also started dismantling the old galley (kitchen) to make room for the new heads (toilet) I've moved the cooker to the new galley (just out of shot in the second pic)

I'm ready to move the cooker into the new galley, it will go in the space at the end of the worktop. the stripy white square is the stainless steel splash-back/heat shield to protect the wood from all the heat and low flying food. this evening I fitted the small door to the cupboard under the cooker.


We've also been working on the aft deck while the weather is good. We've been doing the fiddly bits of woodwork to cover the exposed structure on the insides of the hull with plywood. It's a lot easier to explain with a few pictures, but it was dark when I finished, so there's no pictures i'm afraid :(

We've been working on the aft deck this weekend, dad fitted some plywood to cover the inside of the hull, where is is visable above the new deck, which makes it a lot more water tight.
The new galley (kitchen) is coming together, I've been making the cupboard doors, here's one half finished,
and here is 3, knobs and all!

and finally here's a picture of the whole boat, just in case anyone was womdering how she is looking at the moment

We've had a productive week, I've got the rudder guard painted and back in place, which was involved walking the plank whilst carrying it!

We've just replaced the aft deck (the little deck at the back of the boat) Later I'll extend the side decks backwards to make seats/storage on both sides
I've been working away down below on the new galley, hopefully we'll be able to use it soon

Now all the ballast from the stern is back in place, We've been putting the Aft deck back together. This weekend with dad's help I put the deck beams back in place, and added some new woodwork to support the new plywood deck.
Juan gave me a hand, painting the rudder guard (aka heavy duty bicycle rack)

The new galley is starting to take shape, after some tweaking, I've fixed the worktop and sink in place, so I'm off to get some plumbing fittings :) meanwhile dad has been Putting all the freshly painted ballast back in place at the stern, so we will be able to start replacing the deck soon.

Here's the new sink, almost ready for a test run with some dirty mugs

I'm starting to assemble the new galley (kitchen) which involves a lot of head scratching, especially when the wind'e blowing so hard that the bubble on the spirit level is moving!

I've been fitting the worktop for the new sink, Juan is trying it out for size

watching paint dry

The most exciting thing to see in Southampton this bank holiday Monday, I've got some nice wet paint to watch!

I've just painted another section of the bilges, as we slowly work our way aft, cleaning and painting the inside of the boat.

grand designs

Mudlark saw a some visitors this weekend :)
Tom came down to help me, he removed and cleaned up the last (nearest the bow)
window on the port side. Then we put our thinking caps on, and built a cardboard mock-up of the new galley, to see if everything would fit in. the fridge is the box on the left, the sink is the flat piece in the centre, and the cooker is on the right.



whilst the tide was out on sunday morning, we replaced the pipe between the grease nipples and the rudder bearings, which got damaged when the stern was repaired.


And then I painted the next section of the bilges with primer

a quick update

I haven't been sat down long enough to update the blog for ages!
Dad has been cleaning the ballast, ready to paint it so it doesn't drop rust flakes when we put it back, it's one of those boring jobs that's more important than it seems
Further forward I've been sorting out the remaining bits of woodwork under the port side deck

waiting for the tide

We've had a busy day, repairing two ribs near the stern (back of the boat)
dad had cut away the old timber last time he was here, so we could get on with fitting new wood today.
In the photo I'm doing a spot of upside down hammering, driving home a copper nail, which fastens the planks of the hull to the new piece of timber. We had to wait for the tide to go out to do this, as the nails were below the waterline!

a sunny sunday :)

I've been doing a bit of demolition :)
the partition at the bottom of the stairs that used to divide the foward cabin is now gone. It feels a lot bigger with the cabin opened up again, it was originally open like this, until the previous owner divided it in 3! The picture is taken from the front of the cabin, looking aft.

Meanwhile dad has been carrying on with the scraping at the stern, and Juan had a rowing lesson in the tender this evening

During the evenings this week I painted the undercoat and topcoat onto the inside of the hull, which dad has been cleaning up over the last few weeks. so we can put the ballast (weights) back into position once the paint has had time to dry.

In the picture you are looking at the stern (back of the boat) from the inside

watching paint dry

I've been painting the transom (the flat bit at the back of the boat) in the first picture it is painted with grey undercoat


Here I am halfway through putting on the first layer of topcoat, this evening I put on the second.


Meanwhile Dad has been working away cleaning up the inside of the hull just forward of transom, ready to paint that as well

We've just replaced another big chunk of wood, a 5 inch square beam that connects the two sides of the boat together. It was quite a struggle to drill the holes for 10 bolts that hold it all together, but we got there in the end.
sorry for the picture, my phone isn't good at seeing in the dark!

This weekend we've been carrying on the work at the stern. We spent most of Saturday fitting the large bolts that hold the new wood to the rest of the boat.
I managed to give it all a coat of grey primer before heading to the pub :)


Dad had been working away under the cover sorting out the inside of the hull ready to paint it. The next job for me will be to fit plugs into the line of holes you can see,
to cover the heads of the bolts.

repairing the stern

We've spent today fitting two new planks to the transom (the flat bit at the back of the boat) Dad had cleared away the old timber over the last few weeks.
This morning we removed the rudder guard, and the thick aluminium plate which had been fitted to cover up the horrors that lay beneath. I came very close to going swimming as I balanced the heavy metalwork on the dinghy and floated it over to the pontoon.
In the photo I'm checking the fit of the first plank, the transom is made up of two layers, each 2 1/2 inches thick!

easter bunnies

We've got a lot done this Easter. I've replaced a rotten stringer (the bit of wood with the clamps on it) which had been hiding under the loo for years

Juan has been cleaning some of the ballast, out in the sunshine


and Dad and I have just glued the first new piece of timber into the transom (the flat bit at the back of the boat). We have got some big bits to go in on top.

I've just tidied up and put the first coat of varnish onto the new timber in the foward cabin, it's nice to be putting something together again :)

Meanwhile dad has been chipping away under cover on the aft deck, cleaning out some old timber that needs replacing

filling in a few gaps

Whilst clearing away some rotten wood at the stern, dad found some well preserved old newspaper which had been stuffed in a gap, dated may 7th 1999

The transom (back of the boat) has had a thick aluminium sheet fitted over the top of it to add strength, this newspaper was rolled up and stuffed behind it! Mudlark was sold by the navy in 1998, so the date on the newspaper suggests the Aluminium was fitted after this date. presumably by the next owner.

mudlarking properly

Dad suggested it would be a good idea to change the anode, it did indeed need changing, look at the new and old ones in the photo...


However, this did involve me spending and hour and a half messing round in the mud under the stern, lying on the liferaft. I think Juan found the sight of my legs sticking out from under the boat quite amusing, though he didn't get a picture :(
The corroded anode is the one I fitted last april (there's pictures of it if you dig back through the blog.

chipping away

Dad has joined us for the weekend, last weekend he removed the planks from the aft deck, and this weekend he's started cleaning out the mess they concealed. I think it will keep us busy for a while!


Meanwhile I've been working in the foward cabin, replacing the timber below the windows. In this picture I've offered it up to mark where to cut

windows

I took a break from the woodwork, and replaced the cracked glass in the window above the new timber on the port side. Luckily the window frames at the bow are in better condition, so I managed to re-use the original fittings.
Dad has been working on the aft deck, removing the old planking, so we can sort out the woodwork below
One new window, the cover gives everything a surreal green tint!

We've had a busy weekend, Dad's been working on the aft deck, removing the tired old planks. We've also just re-fitted the renovated guard rail to the port side, unfortunately it's too dark to take a picture now!
I've been fitting new timber on the port side of the foward cabin, here's a pic of the latest piece of the jigsaw

We've taken a break from the painting to do some woodwork. This weekend we replaced one of the beams that supports the deck on the port side.
It had been hidden behind the toilet and shower until I demolished the "bathroom"
last month

I've just painted another section of the inside of the hull :)
Here's the port side in primer:


We've also started cleaning up the next section of bilges, I'm going to be playing hopscotch with the ballast!

scraping along

Here's another picture of the inside of mudlark!

we've been working on the port side, scraping off the old paint, and doing some woodwork. I've had to replace a rib, (middle of the picture) in the picture i've cut away the old wood, now it's been replace with iroko

space!

This weekend, I demolished the shower and removed the toilet as well as it's plumbing. you can see an unpainted square on the grey floor where the toilet was!
Dad came and gave me a hand, scraping away a lot of the old paint that had been hidden.

demolition

Now I've painted the inside of the hull on the starboard side, it's time to sport out the port side, which means the demolition of the old heads and galley, to gain acess to the hull behind. It seems a little extreme, but unfortunately nobody has cleaned or painted these bits of the boat for since the last century.

Here is the toilet, with the with the surrounding woodwork removed, on the right the hull is freshly painted, and to the left is the next part to be sorted out.

This week we've been painting during the evenings, The woodwork we cleaned up over the last few weeks is now primed and undercoated, which makes the inside of Mudlark look a lot cleaner :)

scraping and painting

We've just painted the next section of the inside of the boat with primer.
Over the last few weeks we've all had a go at cleaning it up, and I spent most of yesterday fixing the bits of woodwork that needed attention.

Here's Juan painting the fiddly bits, whilst I spread paint everywhere else with a roller! All the woodwork to his right is now painted white :)