The first thing I did was strip out everything that was not screwed down and some that where. It had been let go pretty badly the tide marks where obvious and the damage that had been caused was mainly superficial. Some of the glass had lifted around the bulkheads but none was past repairing. We pulled the head out and I put it in trailer up on the verge where it stayed for a couple of months much to my families disdain. Not a good look. All the soft furnishings cushions etc I kept for templates but all of it was mouldy and had deteriorated badly.
All the wiring was the next item of business to be completely stripped it had originally had B&G fitted as it had a water temp sender that was left when I got it. It had some Raymarine gear fitted that was not working which I tossed off. Next I pulled all the plumbing out. There was not a lot it. It had a manual toilet and foot pumps for the salt and fresh water system in  the galley. The head had another foot pump for the wash basin. It has 2 fresh water tanks one integral in the bilge and one under the port bunk both about 60 litres. It had also had at one stage gas fitted probably for a stove. I took this copper line out as well.
The acrylic fixed windows where mainly crazed badly and some had cracks caused by stress I think mainly from when they where fitted. You have to be extremely careful when you fit windows as to the tolerances expansion and contraction issues of the material. This was pretty big job as they had been glued on with who knows what and fastened with metal threads and nyloc nuts at intervals of about 50 mm. I used the old ones for templates making note of where they had been incorrectly drilled before. I got the guys who cut them out  to drill them so I would not cause the acrylic to crack. I used a "special" acrylic which supposedly has a UV inhibitor on one side. It seems to be working OK so far.  Fitting them is a slow cumbersome 2 person job. I seconded my daughter Mekayla in to help me it took a couple of weekends to get the all done with a good adhesive I used Simson it worked well and is an adhesive as well as a sealer. I used Csk Metal Threads with large washers and nyloc nuts I also used a nylon washer as a spacer in between the acrylic and the hull. This was something I had learnt from Bruce Arms.
 At this stage I got Mark Wirrell a shipwright I had known in the past to do the timber work. So I had previously got 12 sheets of thin ply with a veneer on it and put about 8 coats of varnish on them before Mark started to cut them up and glue them to the bulkheads etc. We used cardboard for templates and Mark glued them on. I also got another friend of mine Keith "Wood Working Legend" Dobins to make the trimming for all the edges.
On the outside we knew we had a fair bit of osmosis but not until I left it about a year did it stop coming out. I at different times would grind the spots and the depth and the size seemed always to be much bigger that I thought. In the end I stopped I got Oz Peel to come and give the boat a No 1 hair cut of about 3mm and this was the answer. It took off 90 % of the blisters so  bit more grinding and It was all gone. I left it another few months to completely dry and kept checking it with  a moisture metre . Next step was to epoxy it with 1 layers of cloth then a filler coat of resin and then another layer cloth and then another filler coat. I used ATL for the resin and fabric there pumps are pretty idiot proof and the setting times where accurate.This job was hard work and made us look like fools at times. We would wet up a layer of fabric on the table after applying a layer of resin to the are we were doing and then line up the cloth with what we had done previously some times it would fit perfectly and stay other times you would offer it up and it would not hold but in the end with the expertise we had among us mainly Mark Wirrell's knowledge it got up and stayed. In the end it was done really well but it was probably the biggest and most difficult job to do. I think I threw away 4 shirts and numerous "sperm Suits". Then the really good job of fairing up the hull to get it true not an easy job and one that takes many hours of hard work and mess. In the end it came up pretty well and then we put another couple of coats of epoxy resin over everything. Now I knew it was bullet proof. The hull was originally solid glass about 20 mm thick we had taken off about 3mm all over more in spots and we had put back about 5 mm. We faired it in at the waterline and it looks pretty good.

Back to the inside- I tried to do the boat system by system. The first system we looked at will be the engine and fuel. Hopefully next weeks edition will do the fuel etc. I was at METS last week got some new items I will confirm next week something really interesting and it will make seasick people very happy !!!!!

Thanks for reading I hope you find it informative.Mike

The Arrival of "Saltpetra"

Dear Guys,
Helen of Troy had a chequered life. She was born in Mona Vale in Sydney. We think in 1979 but we are not sure. She was christened "Salt Petra" and from what I can see under Peter Hinton she lived a life in the fast lane competing in Sydney Hobart's, Lord Howe Island races along with most of the races in the circuit during these years.

I am not sure when Peter Hinton passed away but after that I think the boat fell into disuse and was used occasionally by family for sunny Sundays. It came on the market down at Castlecrag Boatshed. I have always wanted to sail my own boat and be the master of my own destiny but dollars and a family and a business tend to stifle your dreams with reality. Lucky my business was a marine one. Well I went down to Sydney and had a good look at it up on the hard. It was a mess the inside was tragic it had a lot of water in it for a long time and the tidemark inside was high. The hull had osmosis and damage due to hits and misses from other craft and a total lack of care. There where two redeeming features a nearly new engine and what I still hope is true a good mast. Everything else was for the skip. I negotiated with Kim and we came to an agreement. I got Phil West from Sheerline a mate from my football and skiff days to drop the mast and get it ready to transport it up to Mudgeeraba my home at the back of the Gold Coast.
Truck dropping off the boat in my back yard.
One of the main problems with me buying the boat was I had not told my wife. Not a good move. When it turned up I had a few answers to come up with. I must admit not very successfully. I am very lucky she has put up with me doing some pretty irresponsible things and bring a 30 ft boat home was probably the biggest. I was lucky to have a very good neighbour in Steve who can make or build just about anything out of not much. He built a boat stand out of what had lieing around so when the boat came he helped and we had it landed in the yard. Well now it is up to me.