From 1993 I had more time to devote to the project. The unfinished part of the hull was where the prop shaft tube would emerge. The sight of bare chicken wire and rusty steel reinforcement bars emerging from a large hole in the bottom of the boat had for a long time concerned the casual outside observer. Having installed what the prop shaft would connect to at the front end and after consultation with Lancing Marine I had something at which to aim my tube former. That which I aimed was in fact a piece of plastic drain-pipe around which I arranged and tied the steel reinforcement bars and extra chicken wire to which I plastered the rich cement mortar in the manner in which I had now become so accustomed.

This picture shows the prop-shaft tube hole meshed up and ready for plastering.

My attention now turned to the reconstruction of the cockpit. I was determined that this would be done to a better standard than it had been previously. I had a large hole in the deck surrounded mostly by a ferrocement beam to which I would fit at first the timber and then the plywood. In contrast to the previous structure I started off with four timber uprights bolted to the deck-beam above and the frames below.

This shows the cockpit floor structure built of Meranti 4"x2" and 2"x2"

To this I could attach the timbers which would support the cockpit floor and the inboard sides of the cockpit seats. The construction progressed with care rather than speed. I wanted to be sure of doing a good job to a part of the boat which would see daily use.

 This shows the cockpit port-side seat and floor structure viewed from below.

Having almost completed this task as I write, I am happy with the result so far.

The exterior of the hull had for a long time been awaiting my attention. The polyester filler had been peeling off to expose the rough-cast concrete in some places, but in others appeared to be remarkably well stuck. I had spent some time slowly chipping the filler off with a hammer and chisel but had made remarkably little progress. I then observed the use of a needle gun and guessed that this tool might achieve the desired effect. It is in effect a hand-held pneumatic drill with a cluster of blunt needle-like points which batter an area of about an inch square. I hired this machine with its compressor for a week in May 1994 and at the end of the week when I returned it I felt thoroughly battered with ringing ears despite using earplugs inside ear defenders and goggles. It had though done the job as intended and the hull had passed another test and it was now ready for the reapplication of a better quality of filler.

This shows the bare rough-cast concrete hull after battering off the old filler. 

This I proceeded to do after giving the hull an acid wash, water neutralisation, thorough drying, and a very thin runny and penetrative epoxy undercoat. I mixed the epoxy filler myself (but sometimes with the help of a good friend) in small quantities with resin and a blend of the filler powders, finally adding the hardener from which time I reckoned on between 60 and 90 seconds vigorous mixing and then application within 10 minutes using a soft plastic “squeegee” from a plasterer’s hawk. If I mixed too much or if I was too slow in application (particularily on a warm day) the filler would go “off” and become unworkable before it was finished. This process also involved a certain amount of well practiced one handed scrambling between my mixing station (in what is now my forecabin) using ladders and scaffolding to the application site on the hull.

This shows the first coat of filler over most of the port side.

The colour of the filler mix was pink which gradually cured to a shade of orange. Now after about three and a half years at the back of the club car park the casual outside observer could see that I was doing something to the boat. I remember asking the club secretary in the bar one lunch-time if he thought that pink was a good colour for a boat. Obviously the club “machismo” culture influenced his highly emphatic denial !

This shows the shiny nature of the filler before sanding - keel port side and prop-shaft tube housing

After each coat of filler I sanded off with a belt sander. After three coats and three times sanding all over the hull I decided that it was “fair enough”. There are ways of achieving a greater degree of fairness, but they are inevitably more labour intensive than using a belt sander. I decided that “fair enough” was fair enough.

Then I made holes in the hull for the skin fittings and seacocks. For this purpose I hired a large hammer action drill with a variety of tungsten carbide tipped hole saws. Even with these I had to be careful. The cutting tips could have been broken by the reinforcement bars in the hull. And so in these cases I had to resort to using an angle grinder and subsequently deal with the inevitable jaggedness.

I then gave the bare concrete deck a similar fairing treatment to that which I had given the hull. Two coats of filler would suffice here to achieve a satisfactory finish. The precipitous nature of the drop from the edge of the deck had for a long time concerned me. With the help of Robin Peard I had found a supplier of a suitable type of aluminium extrusion toerail to which would fit fairleads and stanchion bases. These I proceeded to fit to the sheerline at the edge of the deck but not without some difficulty. Due to the thickness of the hull-deck joint the fixing hole would only rarely go right through. And so in these cases I glued rawplugs in and secured the toerail with stainless self-tapping screws.

This shows the hull with the 3rd coat of filler sanded off - Also note the toerail fitted

I then made a start at painting the hull. Below the waterline I applied epoxy resin with a copper oxide powder. This copper oxide would enhance the abrasion resistance of the epoxy and provide backup antifouling properties. I eventually applied three coats of this below my calculated waterline. Above the line I applied two coats of epoxy undercoat and then two coats of polyurethane gloss, sanding in between coats when necessary.

The design of the Golden Cowrie showed a rubbing strake approximately half way down the side of the hull between the toerail and the waterline. To provide a degree of protection and as a step up to the boat when afloat I decided to follow this part of the plan.

This shows the starboard side of the hull painted with polyurethane gloss with rubbing strake fitted.