I made an early start on the hull this morning, after feeding the animals and before breakfast, although that could also be classed as feeding the animals, but I digress.
I decided to start on the middle section between the bilge runner and the keel since this was the area on the other side that I found most difficult to work on due to the stretch.
Imagine my surprise when I found this. It is the pointed tip of a screw. On the inside there are two reinforcing battens about half an inch thick and two and a half inches wide and as long as the bilge runner. These were screwed, and presumably glued, into place from the inside. Either the batten in this area was a little thinner than the rest of the screw a little longer or the countersink bored to recess the screw head was a little too deep and the point has just protruded from the hull.
I’ve hightlighted the visible parts of these reinforcing battens in the photo above.
A little bit further on I found another one, only this one protrudes a lot further. The first one I found can be left alone, it only just sticks out and the sanding will probably make it flush with the hull, but this one requires some attention to make it level with the hull.
I managed to get the strip next to the bilge runner done, the hardest part as the runner gets in the way of the scraper, and a section about a foot wide at the front.
Time for a cup of tea.
And breakfast.
I scraped more at lunchtime and then again ager work and found a few more surprises.
Firstly a gripfast nail that I think was supposed to go into the bilge runner and missed.
The another doing the same thing. In both cases the nails were covered in filler. I’ll cut these two short rather than leave them proud.
One of the scratches on this side of the hull appears to have been filler with putty It certainly fill the scratches well and required some effort to get it out.
Time for a cup of tea.