I was set to task to look for “a chunk of metal with a split on the one side, somewhere under the boat”. Patrick recalled seeing it about a 8 months ago when he was crawling around. He realised last week that this “chunk of metal” formed part of the rope cutter and would cost in the region of £400 to replace.
Here was the challenge: in the past year, the boat has been lifted back into the water and out again, re-positioned on the blocks. We have had months of rain, the boat has been shot blasted twice. Almost half the hull ground away and new plates welded in with men crawling around under the boat. The ground is just grimy, oily, mud!
Despite all that… using a piece of wood and adopting squirrel like movements, I found it. Felt like I had won the lottery! It cleaned up nicely too.
