Having been battling with the cover for the last month or so, we have now got a watertight cover, having layered stitched up sails over the tarpaulins to hold the whole thing together. Tomorrow's low pressure may well change all that....
On the inside, we have started taking out the metal floors forward. Having considered all the options we have gone back to the more expensive but most reliable option of getting bronze floors cast. Using the old floors, we have made templates to get cast at a local foundry, in batches of 15 (there are apporox. 45 in all). This enables us to keep the structure of Fedoa safe, and we will be working from bow to stern. While the forward floors are out, we now have to release the front of the planks off the stem so we can replace the rotten sections there. Once that is replaced we can then refasten the planks and replace the smaller elm frames, which we have decided to do with laminated iroko to give us strength and shape. In this forward section these will be replaced entirely, while as we move aft there is a lot of good timber, so we will be scarfing new lower sections into the existing elm The larger frames are assembled from heavy section oak futtocks, which we will be replacing like for like where necessary with locally grown European Oak from the Isle of Wight.
While all this opening up is going on at the bow, we will also need to replace the few planks that have to be done at the bottom of the boat. We will be using iroko here, which we ordered with the timber for the frames to save costs. We be replacing around 10 planks on each side, from the garboard up.
Having spent time studying the drawings one of our other fears has been confirmed. We set up a reference line taken up off the deck and have found that the forward end of the boat has kept it's shape well even though the boat was left on a very short cradle with no support at either end. Unfortunately that is not the case aft, where the long counter has dropped considerably having had no props over the rear 20 ft for the last 10 years.
We have a number of acros in place to hold the shape, and will need to raise the counter over time, probably involving some major surgery on the stern post. Inside it can be seen that the frames have opened up a bit aft so it is a good time to move things before she is refastened.
So that will keep us quiet for a bit! Next thing is some decent lighting before the clocks go back....
