I always thought that the boat should be in the water not the other way round. The BB had got a few gallons of the wet stuff floating around so the first task was to get her emptied. Various bits of flooring and other panels were bobbing around in the water accompanied by a good collection of leaves and dead insects.

It is surprising how quickly some of the work has come together. Not only that, finding various odds and ends has also been less of a task than I imagined. The internet has proved to be a great asset in tracking down specialists for both advice and materials. For example, try getting unseasoned oak from your local timber yard or certificated mahogany marine ply from anywhere.

As we thought, the varnish flew off, the anti fouling is another matter. There are several layers, each thicker than the one before. The hot air gun has been going for hours and this has been supplemented with Polystripper, cheaper than Nitromors and just as good. The mast, which looked pretty rough is coming back to it's original finish. Some bright spark had tried to fit navigation lights and in doing so had nailed plastic cable clips to the mast. These come with a steel nail and the nails had rusted badly. A procession of black rust spots ran up both sides of the mast until we applied a stain remover from H Marcel Guest, the Manchester based paint company. The dark spots have gone leaving the surrounding timber untouched.

The old decks are being retained as templates for the new 8mm marine ply panels from Robbins Timber in Bristol. Robbins are also supplying mahagony for the cockpit floor, sides and toe rails. They are an excellent company to deal with even if your order is not the biggest deal in shipbuilding you will still get real service and assistance.

It is only a few weeks since we moved the boat from the Lake District but she is already looking better. Some of the minor repairs have been done, such as glueing two of the deck beams which had split. Casacmite to the rescue. Sanding has been the order of the day for the mast and boom, they look like new apart from the odd battle scar.
The oak ribs are being cut and the new timbers from Robbins should be on their way to the workshop next week. I am looking forward to rebuilding the boat.