Some Photos

Been damp for the past few days but got down to Silver Spray today.
With regard to my to do list, I haven't bought any Cuprinol yet but today I did remove everything from the inside so I have a real blank canvas. Then I continued scraping, hoovering and cleaning.
Seeing as I seem to be focusing on the stern (to avoid the stempost problem I think), I have taken lots of photos of the area.

This is the before and now of the exterior of the stern. Last year I stripped it all back and did some experimental caulking using black pudding on this area before painting the whole lot with a primer for the winter.

This is the aft deck as it is now, stripped of all the canvas and paint and sanded. The middle plank was rotten so removed.

This is the space under the aft deck and the following are of specific joints and areas within this space

Starboard side

Port side

Centre section

A Bit of Research

Yesterday was a good day for Silver Spray in many ways.

In terms of just getting on with it, David and I went down and did paint stripping of the decks and washing out of the stern cavity. We left feeling like we had made progress.

But in other ways I also made some progress with getting advice and making a proper plan. With prodigious use of Google I found a range of resources which could be useful as well as a few forums which answered a specific question I have been thinking over for a while. I have added links to all of these pages.

This question I had was what to paint the inside of the stern cavity with, the use of bilge paint and primer etc. The answer it seems to paint everything with Cuprinol (of all things) first off, then with lots of primer and topcoats of gloss or bilge paint. (perhaps locker paint). So that all seems easy enough.

Another thing that has been bothering me is what to do about replacing the various bits of wood that will inevitably need it. I'm not sure what type of timber I should use for each purpose. And I really need to replace these bits of wood before I start painting the area. There are a couple of sites with advice on this but I think the decision will probably hinge on cost mostly. I do however need to find out how much I am going to need before I can realistically go off and buy it - a chat with Thoroghgoods the other day told me that. So I am going to do my own proper survey of all the structural timbers. There is a useful site on exactly what to look for when doing this.

So with all this in mind, here's a quick to do list for the next few days.

1 Remove everything that's not fixed down from the inside of the boat

2 Continue scraping, stripping and cleaning whole interior

3 Buy Cuprinol

4 Examine and record the state of every bit of timber in the hull and decks

Time for action

Despite wanting to tell the whole story from the beginning I realise I need to get started posting as well or I never will.

So for the full story so far read the pages above as I add them.

I have owned my boat for nearly two years now and am getting more and more embarassed at having to confess to people who ask that I haven't actually done anything to her in 9 months. So its time for action.

I need a proper plan.

I need tools and materials

I need to keep track of what I spend

And I need advice and help since what at first was supposed to be a simple cosmetic procedure has turned into a full on restoration project.