28th March 2011

I found another soft patch in the hull, this time on the port side, near the bow.  Using the tried and tested method of:

1 - Chop
2 - Resin all surfaces
3 - Resin filler on all surfaces
4 - Screw the two pieces together
5 - Create a fillet bead around all edges

The patch was about 3' x 2' and only took about an hour to sort, its getting to the point where rot doesn't bother or upset me anymore and it doesn't surprise me as much as it did.

While chopping the old timber out I had to cut the old screws out of the chine using an angle grinder, however I slipped and for one nasty minute I thought I'd chopped my finger off.  I had a sick feeling in my stomach and it took me all my effort to look at it.

Thankfully the finger was still there, but I'd cut a groove in it, the below picture doesn't really do it justice, the wound was sealed by the heat of the grinder so there wasn't much blood.

I've also managed to get more paint on the inside front cabin, it looks so much brighter and cleaner as a result. You can see the small heater that I've been using to keep the damp off at night and help the water based paint to dry.

I also had a bit of a clean up around her and bagged up all the rubbish that I had been accumulating in her and under her. Looks like I'll be doing a few trips to the tip. 

6th March 2011

The transom has received its first coat of resin, ultimately I'll be painting it a the timber isn't in good enough condition to varnish.

     

I've put the new edging strip in place around Sabrina, its 3 inch by 1 inch hardwood, glued and screwed in place. To bend the timber around the bow I drilled the screw holes in the wood at the correct spacing and then used a 6 inch screw in a screw hole  a couple of holes further on than the screw I was ready to insert, to slowly force the timber into shape, tightening the screw slowly over a period of time to force it to bend.

The new rear doors look smart, the have been made out of solid hardwood as opposed to plywood as before to hopefully give them some longevity.

The timber that edged the bow broke when I removed it so it was time to splice in a new piece.  You can see from the photos the process. First attach a new piece of wood, larger than is needed, making sure its securely glued in place.

Once the glue has dried you can see the new piece in place.  The final stage is to sand it to shape, being careful not to over sand it.

  

You can see the finished look, complete with the first coat of varnish. Definitely worth the effort. 

 

The inside is looking better and better, the sadolin is going on very thinly and is needing 4 coats, but the satin white looks very good.

   

The 4 tiles that make up the splash back are in place and looks good with the granite effect work surface. The new kitchen sink is in place with its tap.

 

The new stereo is in place:

 

Time to make the front windows, not a job I've been looking forward to. The first stage is to make some templates out of thick paper. Its cheaper to buy a pad of A2 craft paper than it is to buy some cardboard, I taped two pieces together and used drawing pins to hold it in place while I adjusted it.