Meeting the Surveyer

The day of reckoning! (in other words, the surveyor came). I’ll put his report in the folder when we get it, but basically all the bolts holding the keel saddle in place are gone, as are the bolts reinforcing the scarf joint in the bows. Amazingly this is not a huge structural problem (unless I misunderstood him) but they must be replaced before she goes back in the water or she will leak.

The sprung planks on the bow should be reparable without having to replace all of them, the hull below the waterline is sound and can just be anti-fouled, and the few areas of wood that need replacing are all above decks, including (unfortunately) ones on the port side of the cabin.

I’d made a replacement shelf for the one made of ply that was de-laminating, and I took it up to check it fitted before painting it. It does, as does the bunk end stop I also checked for fit.

The estimate for the repairs from the yard is over £6000 due to the high labour costs. They think they’ll need at least 14 days labour to get the keel saddle bolts replaced! This can be reduced by Julian and I doing things like taking the cabin benches out to allow access.