What Have We Bought?

On the face of it we have bought a 42 foot wooden sailing boat, built in 1965 by David Hillyard based in Littlehampton, England.  She is a Bermudan rigged ketch with a deep centre cockpit and, unusually for a Hillyard, has extensive use of teak in the superstructure and deck fittings.  But what have we really bought?

Someone once told us that a sailing boat is a hole in the water into which you pour money.  This may well prove to be true.  However, we firmly believe that we have bought a source of dreams, adventure, and alternative living.  We also now know that we have bought a huge amount of hard work, frustration and panic.  But we need to break it all down into manageable chunks.  The only way to eat an elephant is one bite at a time (which I wouldn't do because I'm a vegetarian!)

The main problems with the boat concern the main deck areas, the top planks (shear strakes) and a couple of areas of soft wood on the bow (plank hood ends).  There are some areas of the foredeck that sound hollow, suggesting rot underneath, but may just be delamination.  However, until the deck sheathing is removed we will not know how bad this is.  So let's start by removing deck fittings, guardrails, stanchions, cleats, toe rails, etc, etc, etc!

This is easier said than done.  Most of the screws, nuts and bolts have not been disturbed in nearly 55 years, and appeared quite happy where they were.  However, after many hours and several cutting discs later, the deck fittings were all removed.  I now set about removing the deck sheathing.  The deck itself is constructed from pine tongue and groove planks, covered with marine plywood and then encased in something called cascover sheathing, which is basically resin impregnated canvas.  In most parts it had done its job well but there were areas of earlier repairs that weren't so good.  I ripped up the sheathing and plywood to reveal the deck planking, which appeared to be generally good.  However, on closer inspection it was clear that the whole deck needed to come up in order to repair the shear strakes and other areas of rot.  This was definitely more than we bargained for.  Still, best crack on...…………..