There has been little progress of the hull repair for the last 11 days mainly due to the temperature being too low and having to wait for the arrival of required items to assist with the next bit.

One of the items being waited for was a 3kW workshop fan heater. And as soon as it arrived, of course the temperature went up! It’s currently hovering around 13 Celsius although it is very windy.

While I waited I have scoured the Internet for cheap bronze fittings for Naiad. By cheap I meant cheaper than the full price I would have to pay if I bought them at a chandlers. They still are not cheap.

So, what have I found. Well, Wykeham Martin Furling Gear, two sets of No 1 size. Well, a drum and two upper swivels I still have to find a second drum and I may have to pay full price for that. Those are the main things. Then there is research in to such things as how to bed acrylic on wood with a long lasting watertight seal as well as the bronze fitting I’ve been buying. I also bought two books about cruising on the River Great Ouse and its tributaries. Mainly for motor vessels but still quite handy for sailing.

But today’s hull progress is the start of the removal of the damaged wood from the outside, something that I have not been looking forward to. Not because of the severity of the wood removal but because I cannot drive a router in a straight line to save my life. If you are after random grooves all over the price of wood, then I’m your man, otherwise, forget it.

One of my mantras when doing woodwork of all descriptions is ‘make a jig for it’ and was taught to me by my late maternal Grandfather who was a carpenter of some skill.

Bearing this in mind I set out to make a suitable jig for constraining a runaway router to a small area of the hull but one that could not only be moved along the hull as I worked but also would work on a three dimensional curve and didn’t make holes in the hull.

Well, I gave up on that last bit and after playing around with various things I eventually screwed the parts of the jig to the hull. Not all the way through, but far enough to make a firm restraint.

And then I routed away the hull.

I have about 2.4 metres of repair to do and I can manage to remove about 15cm each time before the veneer on the inside starts to move because it is no longer supported by the hull. That means I will need to this about 16 times for the first outside veneer. That’s too long so I’ll make a jig at the other end of the repair and start from that end as well meaning that I’ll take eight goes to finish. After that I’ll have two veneers glued together which should be strong enough to hold the shape of the hull while the other veneers are glued on.

We’ll see.

But before I continue with the repair I will have to find a face mask. I’ve breathed is some of the find Agba wood dust and am now trying to cough my lungs out to get rid of it.

Too hasty, that’s my trouble. I’ll have another cup of tea.

Two flexible battens lightly screwed to the hull and a test groove made with the router. Notice the myriad of pencil construction lines. That’s the ‘measure as many times as you need until you get two consistent results’ method.

The third aluminium batten has been screwed in place and the router used to remove about 2mm of the hull.

After several cuts, each one a little deeper than the one before you can just see some damaged wood start to appear.

And here is the result of the proper depth cut. You can clearly see the whitish epoxy and part of the new veneer that was put in from the inside.Note that the hull removal has gone beyond the new batten by about 20mm so that the veneers do not all start and finish at the same place but are stepped, each one a little bigger than the one before.

And finally 15cm of hull removed. The holes in the inner veneer are where I cut holes for the screws that held on the bilge keel.

Four scraps of Agba veneer in the hole showing that the repair will be very slightly higher than the original hull. This is very good.

Another view of the cut in the hull.

The aluminium and wood that you can see at the front of the hull are placed just where the repair will finish.