9th March 2008

I managed to spend most of the afternoon on the boat as the weather wasn't too bad. As you can see from the photos the front deck is back down, on my next visit I need to grind off the screws that were holding the rubbing strip so I can trim and sand the deck. Once I'm happy with the deck I'll put two coats of epoxy on it and then use epoxy filler and glass tape to cover the joins which should mean the deck can last another 43 years.

Hopefully I can spend some time on her next week, finishing the side panel off, which will be used as the template to cut the right hand side. Before I start to put her back together I will strip off the paint on the inside of the hull and remove the water tank.

I ended up relaying the deck a further two times due to the new one getting damaged due to my infrequent visits to her, the same with the new side panel, although that was more to do with it not fitting right, which I only found out when I started putting her back together and the support timbers went in.

I did plan to use paper to make templates of the panels before I demolished them, but it was a bad idea, maybe I'm just need practise, but in the end it was easier to use the structural timbers assembled on a piece of ply and then draw round them, I've since found that its sometimes easier to use some cheap hardboard or scrap ply to make the template, seems to work a treat.

17th February 2008

I spent the afternoon on the boat stripping half the front deck off and cutting out a new panel to install in place of the rotten piece. I drilled some holes either side of the deck support so I could align the cut, it was just a simple case then of running the circular saw down the line.

Removing the old panel on the other hand took a lot more effort than I expected, like most things on the Sabrina, where she is rotten she disintegrates, where she is solid she is very solid. While stripping off I noticed two other patches of rot on the side decks, where they joined the front section.

The plan is to cut all the new pieces to size, dry fit them and then seal them with epoxy, infact seal all the pieces of wood before refitting. Once refitted I'll put another two coats of epoxy, which will hopefully stop her rotting again in the future,

25th January 2008

There are no photos for this update, I visited the boat after having not seen her since last year and spent a couple of hours pumping her out. Not having a roof on her, but having a tarp in place stops most of the rain, but some still seeps in and its been a couple of months since she was last pumped out.

I spent the day making a paper template of the front side panel, when I pulled the boat apart I deliberatly left the starboard side intack, knowing full well I would have to dismantle it at somestage, but not having any way of make a new panel as the existing one disintergrated when dismantling it.

It took four attempts to get the template right, a lesson learned is not to attempt to do this when stood on the side of a boat, four feet in the air, with a high wind and a 25 metre roll of paper.

One thing that I didn't realise is that the panel, because of the curved shape of the boat is actually at a slight angle. Once I had realised that and split the template in two things were a lot easier.

I then spent Saturday using the template to cut up a sheet of marine ply, I decided to leave a 1 inch border around the paper so that it would allow me to adjust it onsite at the boat, without having to man handle a 8x4 sheet of ply next to the boat.
I also spent the day striping the paint off the root supports, two will need to be remade, plus all the supports for the sliding roof so I will be taking them to Rotherham next week to get remade.

I went back to the boat on Sunday and dry fit the panel, I needed to trim it off in various areas and it fits pretty well, I need to make an adjustment to the front slope of it so that it fits a bit snugger, once I'm happy with the panel I can cut the other one out and remove the rest of the front.