Works begin in earnest – January and February 2023
By early February the bulkheads had been removed, the engine lifted out and ballast removed. Tingles used to carry out repairs to the hull were removed – a 3” soft-shell crab was found living in one of the cracks revealed. The first four planks were taken off, fully revealing the floors. In order to retain the shape, alternate floors were removed. It became apparent that the floors had sagged by approximately 2 inches along the whole of the starboard side, though it is impossible to know at what stage in her life this happened. She certainly would not have been built like that! For this reason the boat framing has been patterned from the Port side and the patterns butterflied so that Port and Starboard are the same shape.

It would be fair to say that these weeks, removing rather than replacing parts of the structure, did feel somewhat destructive to all who visited, though obviously necessary.