Stripping Out

Its amazing how much stuff can be crammed into a little 26ft yacht. I discovered this when clearing out the boat so that we could make some progress on messier jobs like the headlining. The shear amount of sails, parts, accessories, pots pans and other paraphernalia that was stored on the boat was enough to fill a small house!

Here is a picture of the boat completely stripped of anything that could be removed.

Removing the old sagging headlining proved to be one of those really messy jobs. The foam backing has disintegrated over the years and removing the old lining sent dust everywhere. It didn't matter wearing safety glasses - it still managed to get into my eyes.

Removing the remaining bits of foam and glue that adhered to the hull was equally unpleasant. I found the best tool for the job to be one of these:

They are helpfully called "surface preparation wheels" and came from Screwfix. Available in both a drill fitting or one that goes on an angle grinder. Either makes short work of removing anything on the surface. If you try hard enough, they are quite good at roughing up surfaces too!