Having had a cup of tea and a sit down, I decided to tackle the locker hinges and the old gas bottle box.
As it turned out, three of the six screws to be removed came out easily, the screws being in quite good condition despite being brass. The other three, those on the aft-most hinge, snapped as they were unscrewed, but the locker lid came off easily even so.
Emboldened by that success I turned my attention to the six screws holding the box to the side panel.
These came out fairly easily but only after being persuaded. In this case that meant putting a screwdriver into the slot and then hitting the end of the screwdriver with a hammer. Not too hard, but hard enough to break any seal between the screw itself and the wood. That’s the theory, at least. In this case it worked.
After the box was removed, you can see that the white paint on the hull was done after the box had been installed. It was fairly clean in the lockers, which was nice to see.
The box itself was taken into the workshop with the intent of reusing the wood, but all the brass screws have distigrated so I’ll have to put some thought into getting those out without damaging the wood too much.
Time for a cup of tea.