I’ve had this nice piece of 12mm Robins Elite for over 8 years, today it has met its destiny…. A new centre board

The off cuts have been pressed into service to reinforce the rear hatch

I put a lot of effort into removing all the remains of the buoyancy reinforcements and 50 years of Chichester Harbour mud, it was made much easier with a bit of citric acid

From my summer capsize tests I want to keep the buoyancy bag tied well down so made some pad eyes, there will also be two per side further forward.

There are screws sticking up into the bow tank that fix the rubbing strip. A couple have small signs of leaking but good considering their age. Rather than replace them I’ve made blocks to cover them, this will remove the risk of puncturing the buoyancy bag that will be fitted eventually.

These all the got coated with epoxy and bonded in

I also removed the rudder fittings, I’m glad I did as the bronze nuts just ….. disintegrated. The only bronze nuts left are holding the mainsheet, l’ll be replacing them. The rudder fittings went through timber bocks and these seam sound.

There are lot of very fine cracks and it would be impossible to grind these all back. I have an old tube Captain Tolley’s creeping crack cure. I liberally applied this very low viscosity liquid and it just sucked itself into the cracks

So lots of progress and now it’s all about rebuilding but plenty of planning, anchor storage, sleeping platform, cockpit cover, paint scheme etc etc etc