Back in the water

It was getting really hot and the planks were drying. Now she's finally on her pontoon.

Whew!

Seems to have gone OK - Russian redwood from our timber merchants in Bishops Stortford.

Getting There

All the major repairs done, painted and antifouled.

Darn

Some rot on the bullwarks - think I can do this myself.

Its pretty bad, but not too bad

Paul Stevens sent his report in. These are his conclusions:

Robinetta is in sound structural condition insofar as sufficient structural strength remains. However this survey has identified some general deterioration to structural members and fastenings, and it should be borne in mind that any dismantling of this type of vessel inevitably reveals some further deterioration. However for her age she is in satisfactory condition and with normal maintenance will continue to give good service. She is a very unusual design with an interesting and well documented history and as such deserves some time and money spent on her now to secure her future.

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.

We had her surveyed

From Robinetta

The surveyor came to find out the bad news