The end of the hull repair and reinforcement is now in sight with the arrival this afternoon of a set of PZ1 screwdriver bits that fit the screws I bought to fix the keel bands to the keel. The bits I have are all knackered and about 40% of the screws have to be removed and thrown away as the bits have been destroying the cross-point slots and making them round. At this point the only thing to do is to try and cut a straight slot in the top of the screw with a hacksaw and use a flat screwdriver to get the screw out, If that doesn't work then you have to resort to drilling the screw out.

The bilge runner bands were unscrewed and the runners themselves sanded.

Both sides had screws that needed to be forcibly removed...

... and this one had to have the head drilled off leaving behind the shank in the wood I'm not too sure what I'll do with this, probably drill a pilot hole alongside the recalcitrant screw and hope that I can get a new screw in that.

The skeg was sanded a lot more than the runners as it had the remains of barnacles still adhering to the surface.

It is ready to have the keel band fitted all the same.

However, before fitting the keel bands there was some epoxy filling to be done and this time I remembered to take the rudder blade down the the workshop. There are four holes here that needed to be filled.

And two more here.

This it to remind you to what the two photos above are related.

A few areas on the stem were touched up and peel ply added...

...as were a couple of places on the keel.

I didn't bother to coat these in neat epoxy since I made the filler a little sloppy so that it would not be necessary. As you can see, the epoxy is soaking through the ply.

The main piece of work for the epoxy, however, was one of the bilge runners where the roller on the trailer has compressed the wood leaving a dent in it that needed to be filled before the runner band was fitted, otherwise there would be a gap under the band.

Wood was clamped to the side of the runner and once the epoxy had been applied, also to the top of the runner to give it the correct shape (I hope). Plastic was used to stop the epoxy from touching the wood so that it can be removed once the epoxy has cured. Peel ply was also used to prevent amine blush.

These are the new acquisitions for today, the PZ1 screwdriver bits and two four-packs of stainless steel scourers. PZ1, by the way, means Pozidriv bit #1, just in case you were wondering. The scourers will be used to scrub the hull once most of the remaining muck has been sanded away.

Time for a cup of tea.