Once the hull had been stripped and sanded the repairs could start. There was an area that had obviously leant on a rock at some time with the inner laminates split away. I also noticed that the bilge areas seemed to have taken significant bruising over the years probable from drying on slightly rough ground. I decided that if I fitted bilge rails these would take most of the scrapes and leave the hull better protected.

I also had to prepare the old plate slot holes for re-lamination by routering out a land for the new agba veneer to seated into. To do this accurately I made up some jigs from plastic strips that could be strapped to the hull and guided the router’s outer path thus giving a sharp accurate aperture for the new veneer to fit into.

Once the veneer inserts were shaped to fit the apertures I was able to glue with epoxy resin using micro fibre fillers to ensure a good bond the outer veneer was stapled into the old hull and also packing pieces under lorry straps around the hull increased the pressure on the patches. If I had mastered the technology I might of been tempted to vacuum bag the surface to achieve an even pressure. However I managed to get a reasonably even pressure and only found one slight hollow bit that I was able to fill with a little epoxy filler with a needle through one of the staple holes once they were removed.

Once this was ready it was time to prepare the new hog. When the boat was first built the hog would have had to be planed by hand, all I had to do was pass it over the table mounted router to get accurately rounded corners, so easy if you have the tools to hand.

For fitting the hog it was prepared by drilling and countersinking along its length so that once glued with epoxy resin and filler it could be screwed in place quickly. Starting screwing at the front the new hog slowly pulled up snug against the hull following the rocker of the hull in a smooth curve. The only difficult bit was making sure that the alignment of the hog was correct as a minor error in the first few screws would translate into having to force the timber further on.

The bilge keels were machined to shape and glued on using lorry straps and packing to keep them pressed around the hull until the resin had time to go off and hold them to the hulls curve. Once all the glue was set and straps removed I filleted all the joints using epoxy resin and filler into which I added sanding dust from the transom so that the filler matched the colour of the wood. To get a nice smooth surface on the fillet I had to enjoy an ice lolly just to get the stick!

Alella already was starting to look much better. It was difficult not to just look at her and dream of sailing around the islands. However there was much work to do and time was marching by as it was now mid September, the plan to be finished by Christmas was looking tight.