I decided that today was the day to take off the front cabin that I had assembled as it was only dry fitted and to glue it and screw it back into place. I started by carefully removing all the timbers off the front and then sanding the old paint off of them, its quite a large area the front cabin, but head height is restricted:
I started using brass screws when I first started doing her up, but they are too soft for use with a electric screwdriver, so I switched to stainless steel, there are harder, but their heads have a habit of twisting off so everything is drilled, counter sunk every 4 inches. You can see from the following photos that the panels at the side have taken on their curve shape:
You can see the extent of the wood that has had to be replaced by the colour difference, I've used about 10 sheets of marine ply and will need at least another 5 to complete her.
While clearing out the bilges I found a small patch of rot, that turned out to be a huge patch of rot, about 4' x 2'. It appears that this is an area that had been patched as the screws holding the rotten panel were stainless steel and the rest of the boat seems to be either copper or brass screws. I was very disheartened when I found the patch as I had no idea how I was going to fix it.
But thanks to Karens support I've managed to work out how to do it and am not as phased as I was, although it did feel at the time that it was going to be the end of the Sabrina.
The back cabin had become a dumping ground for bits of the boat, its getting tidier since removing the sea toilet, more photos to follow:
