Another step forward .... she now has a bilge pump .... always a good feeling to have a working bilge pump 

Dennis worked on the bow today a rotten section of deck ... a temporary fix wile the transom is repaired fully ... more deck rot ... once the rot has been dealt with then it is putting the rebuilt engine back in and starting on the inside .... even though there is much of the deck and cabin to work on ... we need a bed and galley so we can camp on her while we work :-)

Today three weeks after coming out on the hard ... Marsude was splashed ... after much hard labour and many steps toward her full restoration ...

She has new Tassie Oak frames and stainless gussets and floor frames that should have been timber in the first place ... but now we just have to go with what is ...

The race was on we had a few extra days so we thought we would do the topsides as well while she was out ... we were fortunate enough to have about a square metre that virtually fell off .. the rest was just hard scraping ... 95% ready for sanding and priming and hopefully we can fit in some filling ... but the main objective is to protect the hull ... till we are able to strip back , everdure, re-dynal where required and then finally paint :-)

Interior ... frame repairs have proven a bit of an achillies heel due to preparation and the application of everdure to replacement components ... the few finished frames feel terrific and solid ... tight :-) Steel work will resume once back in the water ... it's been alot of hard work ... but this is one hell of a boat and worth every moment of effort :-)  

no photos ... too busy scraping the topsides ... on the outside and building beautiful frames insitu on the inside ... 

Taking advantage of a string of warm dry days in Oregon (if you lived in Oregon, you'd realize how strange is is to see those words all together) I started faring the Thistle. First I hit high spots with the long board and then sanded the whole hull with my Bosh 1/2 sheet sander. This is a great sander as it has a dust collector and uses 1/2 sheet of sand paper at a time. This helps in fairing and doesn't produce a wavey surface like a random orbital sander would.

Next the keelson and bow got a coat of epoxy and the first layer of micro-spheres and epoxy. It will take several layers to get things really smooth and then we'll sheath the entire hull in 6 oz. fiberglass cloth. It takes a good 24 hours for the epoxy to cure to a sandable finish. Then the long board comes out again.  

What next on the outside? peel off the topside paint, repair dynal then undercoat and paint ... while on the inside timber frames are being repaired .... replacing the rotten out lamenated frames made of Maple of all things with Tassie Oak lamenated frames ... she is so worth it

Some days when filthy and exhausted the day job sounds pretty easy and not too much of a pain :-)

Down below after removing the rusted steel, and because we didnt have room to replace with timber, we have replaced with stainless steel ... I'm learning new stuff every day ...