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.