sand off two fully painted topsides worth of expensive paint,
the topsides have a bunch of wooden fittings for lashing the
crossbeams to which would either have had to be removed
for glassing and then be reattached, or be glassed around.
I decided not to go there. All in all glassing of the hulls was
relatively easy, if a bit fiddly around the skegs. I overlapped
the glass cloth completely on the keel flat and then glued
and screwed a length of 100 x 30 H4 treated pine over that
for a grounding skid. The skids were given 3 coats of epoxy
prior to painting. Long term it will be interesting to see how
the treated pine skids fare. The old hardwood skids (or rather
their remnants) I had removed were full of worm holes and
crumbling after 8 years or so in the water.
One positive point in taking the boat back to bare wood was
that I was able to closely inspect the condition of the hull. I
was happy to find that there was not a single skerrick of rot
below the waterline, which I think is testament to the original
builder and to the efficacy of sealing everything in epoxy.
Doing the glassing forced me to reassess my timetable. It
was obvious she wasn’t going to be re-launched in time
The hull with new windows
for summer 2006, so I decided to stop rushing and set a
tentative date of January 2007 for a re-launch. By the end of
April 2006 I had both hulls glassed, fully painted and anti-
second window opening. The front port was blocked off with
fouled, standing upright with the rear halves under cover in
a ply filler epoxied in after which I glassed the cabin front
the carport and the bows under a tarpaulin. The weather
panels. Having discounted ready-made ports, I found a small
stayed reasonably dry through May so I was able to get
plastics factory that was happy to sell me rectangular pieces
the foredecks painted before the winter rains arrived and
of Perspex, cut to size, the whole lot coming to $50.00 or
continue working under reasonable cover on the rest of the
so. I rounded off the corners for a better appearance. At this
boat through winter.
stage I still wasn’t sure how to fit them and spent a bit of
time on-line checking out options. In the end I just used clear
At this point I stopped and made another list:
silicon and a screw every 75mm or so. They have yet to leak.

• Replace cabin windows
• Remove battery and electrical system
Remove battery and electrical system:
• Fashion new hinges for cabin hatches to enable
The original system used a wet-cell battery and had a
hatches to lay flat on cabin top
cable between the hulls. There was a a light in each cabin,
• Enlarge companionways
a VHF radio and nav lights. All the cables were corroded
• Strengthen bulwarks in vicinity of back stays where
and needed replacing along with the nav lights. I decided
people climb on the boat
that as the prime use was to be a day-sailer a wired in
• Get rid of stern crossbeam and Heath Robinson
lighting system was not necessary. So I ripped the lot out
outboard bracket mount
and purchased a hand-held VHF, a couple of LED lanterns
• Remedy 4 rot spots in deck on one hull.
and some dry-cell ‘emergency’ nav lights in case I ever get
• Build rudders, tillers, crossbar etc.
caught out after dark.
Later I added a couple of items I’d started to think about
Fashion new hinges for cabin hatches to 
tentatively; enable hatches to lay flat on cabin top and 
• Adding a sit in cockpit
enlarge companionways:
• Adding a dagger board in one hull
The original hatches were hinged in such a way that they
would only open 100 degrees or so and had to be tied open
Replace cabin windows: in a breeze to prevent then being blown shut. I had seen
I hummed and haa’d over this. The old windows were some hinges in an old magazine with the hinge on a sort of
stuffed, and I didn’t like the way they looked. In my opinion pedestal that would allow the hatch to open 180 degrees
odd shaped window layouts often make a boat look a little and lie flat on the deck. However I was unable to source
cheap or badly finished. I thought of replacing the windows any of these. After a bit of head-scratching I designed some
with ready-made ports but couldn’t justify the expense. Also hinges using small stainless dinghy chain-plates available
I wanted to remove the windows on the cabin fronts and from the local chandler. These work well and were cheap to
install a second window on the sides in an effort to make it make. The companion way was only half the depth of the
the side view appear a little more balanced. I spent a bit of rear cabin bulkhead. This made cabin access difficult so I
time with some brown paper templates and a roll of masking enlarged the openings down to the height of the crossbeam
tape and was able to come up with a configuration that that sits just behind the cabin. Apart from easier access, the
utilised the single existing opening, just requiring another lower opening also forms a nice seat in conjunction with the
behind it. That settled I got busy with the jigsaw and cut the top of the crossbeam. Its proven a popular spot when sailing.
36  MULTIHULL REVIEW : JULY 2009
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