It wasn’t a great winter for Fly. Consistently cold temperatures, flu and other things contributed to losing most of December, January, February and March, so we find ourselves coming into spring well behind a logical projected schedule from the summer and autumn. But some limited work was achieved in February, and enough’s been happening again since Easter to discuss another collection of photos here.
The first six are from February showing the underside of the bow well (from which yet more port-side wood was removed this week to reach solid laminate above), opened-up bow void and fully-coated water tank:
Next we have two from last week showing Twig’s internal bow well repairs complete and one of the companionway bulkhead facing’s back getting epoxy-coated on my workshop floor (at which point I must observe that Fly’s restoration here would likely have proved anything from significantly more difficult to impossible without the 2016–17 creation of said workshop!):
The next three show the forecabin paint stripping as complete as reasonably possible. I had just awkward corners left from the autumn, but these can be as much effort (requiring yet more care to take as much paint and little laminate as possible) as more substantial flatter areas and there’s a definite ‘leave well alone’ stage protecting both laminate and those last, most solid, deeply recessed specks of paint. There’s still old glue to remove from the deckhead before that can be relined, but (unlike the hull sides) any paint left up there can stay:
And finally seven where Twig’s coated the external bow well floor (the bow tarpaulin came off for good today!) and I’ve done the forecabin surfaces. You might not see the shine in every photo, but should catch the limited pigment confirming they’re not just more of the stripped surfaces. Most of this will be covered by cabin linings, but the bottom sections won’t. I now have what seems like acres of white-painted and varnished surfaces (both fixed and movable) to sand and refinish, and we have a galley to rebuild with some original parts and some new over the new main cabin starboard bunk top:
