I had a phone call from the nice man at Classic Marine Chandlery as I'd sent him an email a few days ago asking about the metalwork that I had ordered. He said that it had returned from the galvanisers, they just had to leather up the gaff saddle and should be able to get it dispatched possibly by the end of the week or the beginning of next. The is good news.

I decided that the first thing I would do was to fix the gooseneck. I've calculated the height at 18" above the bottom of the mast and the reinforcing on the inside goes up to 24" so I took a tape measure and measured up 18" to see if it was really high enough. It was and if I was being picky I'd probably say that it was a bit too high but that is where it is going to go.

I drilled the gooseneck for the anti-twist screws then, using epoxy with high density filler as a bedding compound, I screwed and bolted it into place.

This is the aft end of the mast and the attachment point for the boom.

A view from the side. This gooseneck has four belaying pins, not shown here, but that makes eight places to tie up ropes at the bottom of the mast, four belaying pins on the gooseneck and four cleat on the tabernacle.

The next thing on my list was to cut the other spars to length. These are the bits that were cut off.

None of them very long, but they had to com off.

The next task was to start on the curved centre plate case top and as I was drawing the required curve for yet another time, it occurred to me that I'd not checked to see if I could get the centre plate into the case now that the roof was on and the case extended.

So I cut out another plywood centre plate having traced around the metal one. I did this once before but then cut the top off when I needed to find the required curve as the trailer and the ground won't let the plate swing down far enough. I took this plywood plate into the boat and tried to slide it into position.

Just as well I checked as it failed!

So I removed the front end of the case extension as you can see here and without that in place the plate goes in easily. So I started work on a new front end, one that will be screwed in place and bedded in sealant once the metal centre plate is in position after launch. I don't expect the plate to come out that often but it may do and all this palaver allows that to happen. Thinking about it, Im not sure that you can take the plate out of Shoal Waters from the inside. If it needs to come out you have to lift it off the pivot and lower it through the bottom of the case.

Still, a good three hours work, even on small jobs, and the new case front is glued up and waiting for the glue to set. I'll continue this at the next work session.