Happy New Year!

I’ve taken the plunge and removed a bit of planking! It was damaged at one end and had to go. It turned out to be the thin end of a scarf joint (hopefully not the thin end of the wedge!) which as you can see from the photo below, was very thin indeed! Not surprising it didn’t withstand the rigours of life below the waterline.

The plank came out fairly easily once I yanked out the caulking. I’m reassured that the cotton looks in good condition so hopefully if I can just rake out and replace the old putty from the obviously cracked areas I wont have to renew it.

Getting to the rivets inside was a pain and I ended up removing the bench seat… It came out relatively painlessly and I’m now considering pulling the other one out too, if only to make repairs and repainting that much quicker.

The next task will be finding some Pitch Pine and making a Scarf Joint routing jig.

Meanwhile, and for the first time since the Marx Brother’s Tarp install, I managed to persuade one of the boys to lend a hand. The leperous surface of the sliding hatch was soon looking a lot better after Toby’s hot air and scraper had been to work on it. More sanding needed but definitely starting to look more presentable.

Hopefully off to see a blacksmith in Goudhurst about the gudgeon (there’s that word again) and pintle on Friday. The more I look at it the more inclined I am to think it is a repair rather than replace job.

more soon.