The first task for the day was a trip into Downham Market where there is a fuel station that sells red diesel. The workshop heater is low and will run out sometime today, it's too cold to be trying to work in the workshop without the heater on.

The second task was the preparation of the anchor chain locker for the bottom to be epoxied in place and the inside to have a layer of glass fibre matting epoxied to the sides. This will reinforce the locker from the knocking of the chain rattling in and out.

Running out of things to prepare I then started preparing the Oak and Sapele laminates that will be used to make the tiller.

The chain locker with the edges sanded smooth.

Two pieces of plywood were cut to the correct shape for the bottom of the locker.

The Oak and Sapele laminates. The Oak was bought already planed but the Sapele needed to be run through the planer. The tiller will be glued with resorcinol glue due to the Oak.

This piece of softwood was used as a former when the bronze was bent to shape that will hole the tiller in place on the rudder. It has been shaped a little so that it just slides into the tiller slot and will now be used as a template for the end of the tiller.

At this point I stopped as my fingers were getting too cold to do any fine work even with the heater on. My toes were also cold from standing on the concrete floor. Once I have warmed up I'll find some non-delicate work to do that can be carried out with my gloves on!

After a lunch break extended by some house changes, we moved a drawer and cupboard unit from the workroom upstairs to the living room downstairs, I did a few things that did not required finesse.

The hull where the spacer pads for the chain plates will be glued needed to be sanded back to the epoxy layer under the paint.

Both sides. I found it interesting that the aft-most chain plate for the new rig as measure from photos of Shoal Waters is in almost the same place as the mounting point for the original rig as can be seen bye the eight filled in holes in the hull. I must be doing something correctly.

Next up was the card shapes for the stem which will hold the epoxy in place whilst it cures.

The shape is only approximate as the final shape will be made by carefully sanding off the excess epoxy.

The transom received some attention next as the paint was sanded back to the epoxy layer.

A piece of the moulding was cut and shaped and then tacked in place as can be seen here. This part is now ready for epoxy.

I also tried to determine the shape of the skeg but apart from measuring to as 44" long, 4" deep and around 1 1/2" thick, I cannot really do much more until the boat is inverted.