The need for some further work was triggered by this sight of cracking like this in various parts of the outer skin. This apparently superficial cracking went right through the paint from the wood underneath, and seems to be were the outer skin - in many cases under quite a lot of tension from hull curvature, and in other places just very thin and old - is breaking up. This was partly triggered by the need to keep the boat outside over a few winters in the mid 1980s. I cocooned her very thoroughly in polythene, but it just didn't do enough to stop the frost damage. What I propose to do is to strip off as much paint as possible, soak the outer skin in epoxy to give it some more structural integrity, and paint again.
The above photo shows a few of the cracks in the skin. These seemed to be restricted to certain panels, mainly in high load areas - the floor aft was particularly affected, as were some of the less well supported areas of topside.
In places there was more serious damage to the skin, but mostly just over small areas. Most irritating was going to be damage to the topside in the crew area on the starboard where the skin had cracked right through and was detached from the gunwhale for about 6 inches. This was going to need a patch or glass reinforcement. The topside was also distorted out of a fair line, so would need pushing back into shape somehow.
Elsewhere there is less work to do. I redecked the foredeck and the side deck in the crew area in the late 1980s,and all that is fine, as are the decks in the helmsman area, which are still in as good condition as they were in the late 80s when I decided they didn't need replacement. The interior of the hull seems basically OK, but its all covered in black paint, which doubtless hides a multitude of sins...
Anyway, the next step was to start stripping off the old paint from the outer skin ready to get the epoxy on.