Three weeks and counting down the days until I can get back to my normal self

 

Next time I am up at Chance, my first job will  be to continue on removing these butterfly hatches and bring them back to my workshop so that I can rebuild and restore these beautiful hatches back to their original condition and complete with their original fittings back on the opening. So far I have cut through the screws holding down the hatches to the deck.

However, the butterfly hatches are not fitted on top of the deck planking, they are screwed up through to the deck beams and through their own carlins that are set into the deck beams. So the next job will be to clean out the deck caulking around the four sides of the hatch upstands to release the sides from the deck planking and the seam compound. Then hopefully with the aid of some small oak wedges lift the hatches off of the  deck beams and carlins and then off the boat. Then cover the hole that is left with a piece of plywood until it is time to refit the hatches back in their positions. 


This fore cabin hatch is past being saved as it is rotten and falling to pieces as you try to remove the steel nails that somebody nailed it closed a sometime in the past. 

So, this will have to be carefully removed from the forecabin deck beams and the carlins and removed in as much as is possible in one piece and careful measurements taken to make a new hatch to the original design.


Hopefully next time I am up at Chance I will have my brother and my son and wife all helping me with jobs on the boat. There is not left to take out of the main saloon has it is only the "L" shaped port berth to expose the hull as far back as the engine room forward bulkhead and the remaining old floorboards.  Then the same  job to remove the  starboard lockers and top to expose the hull as far back as the engine room forward bulkhead. That will be the forward end of the boat interior that will have access to the hull planking so that the work can start on sorting out which hull planking and any frames that need replacing. 


Although the toilet is now out of the aft head compartment the rest of the lockers are still to be removed, so then that area will cleared of any wood in the way of getting to the hull and not being able to do repairs to the hull planking and frames or bulkheads which will possibly need replacing. The toilet compartment will be redesigned back to as much as original as possible as over the years this area as been messed about as different owners had different ideas about how to use the space. 



 Then comes the last major job before we set about sorting the hull out. The engine room and removing the two 1948 3.0 litre diesels which are past their working life and only produce 20 hp each. I am hoping to replace them with modern hybrid engines which are going to be more environmentally friendly. Any money made from the old engines will go into an engine fund to purchase the engines when it is time to refit the new engines in the boat.

So all I am waiting for is the all clear to get back to the boat and restart the work on it.

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