The alleyway is back together and the corrosion behind the starboard water tank has been cut out and repaired. Yesterday I also took the opportunity to melt down some of Sylph’s lead ballast and cast it into clean compact ingots using a baking tray as a mould (with KK standing for Kate’s Kitchen embossed on the bottom – seems apropos). These have now been stowed in the bilge in the alleyway. I have a whole heap more ballast to remove yet in the vicinity of the compression post. When I acquired Sylph she was a bit tender so I purchased half a tonne of scrap lead mostly in the form of old roofing sheets. Back then I simply rolled it up and beat it into flat bars with a heavy steel mallet. I don’t think it will be practical to convert all of the lead into neat ingots but I will see how I feel when we get to that stage of the refit. The ingots are certainly more compact and a lot neater looking.

This week’s mission is to paint out the area under the starboard water tank and work towards refitting or replacing the tank. I have obtained a quote for two professionally custom made plastic ones. Unsurprisingly, they are a tad expensive. Most likely I will refurbish and refit my 22 year old home made plywood/GRP tank.

 

All is well.

 

Shiny lead ingots (with one rolled up bar at top) stowed in the alleyway bilge:

 

 

Alleyway back together – hooray!:

 

 

Repairs in the alleyway cupboard:

 

 

Starboard hull under water tank work in progress: