One Step Forward, Two Steps Back...

By this time the original master plan had been revised umpteen times, and every bit of progress had been countermanded in some way. The most frustrating issues were with the repairs made by Peter Murton, both before and after I bought Jado. I began to think of him as the Jekyll and Hyde boat builder. Here's a summary of work that he did:

- Remove, repair and replace stem. Not a job for the faint hearted, unfortunately the old stem was so past it I can't believe it was ever re-installed. This and lots of brass screws!

- Replace damaged floor timbers x 3: Peter made wonderful laminated kauri floors and fitted them. Unfortunately he used rubbishy stainless screws, and a few brass ones, to fasten them through the planking. Plus the low profile of these timbers will not support the floorboards, so they will have to come out and the correct type fabricated.

- Build and galvanise trailer. A very nice trailer it is, too, unfortunately the axle had evaded the galvanising process somehow, the trailer had to be dismantled for this.

- Install engine beds. The originals had been chopped out as can be seen in the first post, presumably to give access for some other repair. Peter's new ones were nothing like these, and will be removed and replaced.

- Replace 7 ribs. Actually I can't fault this, apart from the fact that there were many more ribs needing attention.  [As it turns out, the one-piece originals were replaced with two-piece ones, butt joined in the centre.  I have scarfed in joints over the keelson to strengthen this area, as there isn't much support from the cross floors here.]

- Seat Risers. Again the originals sucumbed to the prybar and hammer to give access for rib replacement. New ones were made, but they don't accurately follow the shape of the originals and will be replaced.