It has, I have to say, been a bit of a frustrating few days. The parts for the trailer rebuild finally arrived and I found out that not only can I only fit one axle set on the trailer instead of the two I'd wanted to fit, but I needed another cross bar. So after measuring up what I needed I ordered a suitable bar and now have to wait for it to arrive.

With Tina's help I crawled under the boat and put my head into the cabin. As you can see it is a bit dirty in there, the whole reason for getting in there, and I used the vacuum to clean out all the mess. It amused me to find that every flat surface has muddy cat paw prints.

I couldn't reach the forecabin, but that wasn't too messy so I'll clean that up once Naiad is back the right way up.

The is the old wheel axle set. I liberally applied some penetrating oil spray for a few days and the nuts came off easily as a result. There is going to be a problem with the new axle set since the old trailer is built to imperial measurements and the new parts are metric. Hopefully this will only be a small difference but one I'll need to be aware of nevertheless.

The is the start of the rebuild itself. The new 50mm x 50mm bar was cut to length so that it just fits into the space.

One of the mounting plates was put in position to ensure that the side-bar fits between two sets of holes, which it does as you can see.

I cuts eight lengths of 12mm flat bar which will reinforce the mounting plate.

Next came the drilling of the flat bar. I started with four as I don't quite know how many I'll need. 

I took the opportunity over the last few days to varnish the repaired bottom board...

... and to make a tablet holder. This is the outer case which will be screwed to the aft cabin upstand, probably on the port side as the compass is mounted to starboard.

This is the inner case which will fit in to the outer case and allow the tablet to be tilted up rather than be held vertical. this should make it easier to see and use.

I dry fitted one of the axles and at this point I realised that I needed another bar.

There is a gap between the bolts and the cross bar.

Here I have demonstrated the problem on the other mounting plate. Since the mounting plate and the cross bar are not welded together, it is entirely possible for the axle unit to twist so that the wheels are not parallel and that would be a disaster. Not only would it make the trailer unstable but it would also cause excessive wear on the tyres. Once Naiad is back in the water I'll probably get the whole axle and crossbar assembly welded together, but I don't have the time to do this right now.

So while I wait for the second cross bar to arrive, I started galvanising the untreated parts so that they are ready to be assembled when the bar arrives.

I really need a cup of tea!