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I bought her last May from a chap in Gloucester advertising on this site, to use on the Scottish lowland canals, however having had her brought home I discovered dry rot in the bilge areas so every piece of timber has been stripped out, including some of the bottom stiffeners which I have replaced, the timber was black and spongy, and the transom doubler which had 35 holes of various sizes drilled through by previous owners. I have had the windows out, resealed and replaced the non original hatch with a home made hardwood version so she is almost weather tight, the only leak now is from behind the false ceiling moulding which will be hard to find. Things to do,-everything, nothing actually works even the steering control was seized and broken at both ends, still the summer is coming and she was bought as a project.

Currently its still stripped out but I am working on it but don't want to rush and need to get it right. Think I've cured the rain water leaks so I can now reinstate the timber. From the picture you will notice the strange windshield, this has been set further forward (not by me) to give extra height to the cockpit, but visibility is rubbish so this has to be remodelled somehow.

These photos show 3 years of work so far restoring Clanky Tiff my 23. I've noticed in the forum recently many of the problems I have encountered so they may be of some use to folk.

The white painted interior was before strip out, very little was salvageable due to rot, so the lot went to the tip for recycling.

I have dealt with several rotten stringers, a rotten transom, a missing splash well, leaking windows, a rotten ply windscreen with pokey windows and there will probably more to come.

I've used polyester resin and csm for repairs and glassing in the woodwork for cheapness, sikoflex for all bedding in -not cheap but good, and proper marine ply (Robins Elite from Bristol) definitely not cheap but I was after the colour and finish of the timber. The construction technique -of course furniture first- has come from my shipwright training in the navy and my aim is to have no ply edge visible as every panel is lipped in mahogany. The varnish is an experiment as I am using Le Tornkinois oil based varnish, seems ok so far and the colour is great.

I managed to get my hands on loads of hard wood from a guy clearing his garage, including old science lab bench tops which are solid teak, ideal for my worktop and maybe the table.

The biggest headache so far has been the windscreen, so many angles and curves and it has yet to be fitted. I have the glass, cut to size and toughened from a local glazier.

One thing I have learnt is that straight lines don't look good on a boat designed with 60's curves so more angles and headaches.

Current task is making a set of paneled double doors to open inwards for the cabin, a previous owner decided to cut out a square in the roof by the door so I will incorporate a sliding hatch with a strong frame to compensate for the loss of roof structure. To be continued