I have been to visit Naiad and even to sail her since my last post here, but I've not really had the energy or inclination to write about it.

Still, here's no point in having this site if I don't make some effort at posting, so here goes.

We are currently preparing to haul Naiad out of the water for a bit. She has a leak that needs to be repaired, the chain plates need replacing with longer ones, the starboard side needs to be sheathed over the repair that I didn't do before and it's been preying on my mind and she needs to be measured for a new set of professionally made sails and the sailmaker would rather not do that on the water.

The leak. Well, I've written about that before a few times and even found where the water is getting in (finally), but the temporary fix I put in place is just that, temporary, and a real fix needs to be done as the temporary one has not stopped the water getting in, just slowed it down a bit.

I visited Naiad last Friday and in the three weeks that had elapsed since my prior visit, about a litre of water had come in. Not a lot but annoying since she should be dry.

However, before I can fix the leak I have to find out one thing. I don't know where the water is getting in. I know where it is coming out, but that doesn't mean to say that directly opposite the water egress is the water ingress.

Still, it occurred to me last night that when I first got Naiad she had a large pintle fitting at the bottom of the transom that was screwed into the keel, wrapped around the transom and screwed on there as well. Now there was a reinforcing web on the inside of the fitting and a slot had been cut into the end of the keel to accommodate this web. I removed the pintle and filled the screw holes and the slot with epoxy. Or I though I did.

If I did not do this properly when I was rebuilding Naiad, then either of the screw holes in the transom or the slot might be the place where the water is getting in. It could be all three, come to think on it.

Still, that, I think is the most likely place for the leak.

This is a photo of the keel before I fitted the skeg...

...and this is the back part expanded out a bit so that you can see what is going on. The slot is clearly visible and you can just see two or three screw holes in the transom and it is one or more of these that I believe is the source of the leak.

When I bought the chain plates I couldn't really afford the 12" versions so I purchased the 8" ones thinking that they would be sufficient. But this is yet another thing that has been preying on my mind and cost or no I will be replacing them with the 12" versions. Again this is something that cannot really be easily carried out whilst Naiad is on her mooring and so it has been repeatedly put off until she was back on the hard.

Here is a recent photo of Naiad's port side showing the position of the chain plates...

...and here is an expended version showing the chain plates in more detail.

This is how I left the repair do the hull and this is now the only part of the hull that is not sheathed with glass matt and epoxy. Time to rectify that and this is certainly something that cannot be done in the water!