Work is underway

On Wed 23 Nov as planned Valent was lifted and moved into the shed. After a day of getting more stuff off the boat the work then started. Every deck fitting had to be labelled, every headlining taken down and cupboards dismantled. Whilst this was going on the scaffolders came in and erected scaffolding around Valent to provide some safety, security and a working platform to allow us to work more efficiently. Once this was done the deck fittings needed to be taken off – there are an awful lot of nuts and bolts holding things down like genoa tracks.

Finally we could start to strip the deck. This was a time consuming process as small sections were prised free and then with the judicious application of force lifted up. As expected some areas of the exposed underdeck were particularly wet. On the up side the further forward we went the less water we found. Having cleared an area on the focsle we were able to take a good set of moisture readings and confirm that the only issues for’ard were due to the leaking deck fittings. However, the aft third of the deck was in a bad way, especially the section around the starboard turning block. A polite word for the state of the deck there would be soggy.

Once the Flexiteek deck was up we cut out a section of the top fibre glass skin. This allowed us access to the wooden core below that needed to be dug, levered, chiselled out. The idea is to remove all of the old core and to dig back under the remaining fibreglass deck to create a cornice like cave. This will allow the new core to be retro fitted and provide a solid lip for it to be bonded to. To give an idea of the state of some of the deck, we had a variety of different smells. The drier balsa had a pleasant marzipan smell. The rotten balsa had a smell that was rancid – very reminiscent of the oil in an old deep fat fryer that needed to be changed a long time ago. And then we had the rotten ply – that just smelt like leaf mould, just without as much structure!

The upshot of all of the above is that the whole deck does not need to be removed. The plan now is to rebuild the aft third, strengthen those areas that need it and then patch in Flexiteek to match the remaining deck. Whilst that is going on we will be heating Valent up whilst blowing air through it to drive out as much moisture as possible.

Other tasks involved labelling all of the electronics connected to the switch panel, taping up the waterline and sanding it off, stripping more rigging from the mast & boom. Today we started work on the electrical rewire and upgrade. Identifying the redundant wiring is going to take time, but a good start was made. The old house batteries are out and we disconnected the comms pole;(unfortunately it needs to come down to allow for the deck repairs). The new switch panel has been ordered as have the Lithium batteries.

In the meantime Suzy and the girls have settled into our house in Lymington and are enjoying the dry beds and being in the warm. The Saturday market has been a hit and we have enjoyed walking down to the sea front and along the coast. We are now getting ready to welcome our first visitors later this week and our spare room will be utilised.