Hinton 4.5m, from sometime in the early 80's.

What a handsome hound! The dog's not bad either.

Here's a shot of the transom - a 2 stroke 75 yammie (fairly recent) came off here before I took delivery of the boat. The transom seems in good nick.

That's cabin's got to go!

Boat was originally a half cabin; that had been converted into a cuddy cab of sorts. The original front benches had been removed and replaced with a small raised deck - the workmanship was shoddy (see below) and some of the wood rotten. Two front side pockets remain, as well as one rear (starboard) pocket.

Somebody put this in - judging by the decent state of the carpet, this boat hasn't had a lot of use since then.

Note the protruding nail!

Ready to get to work on the cuddy, shiny new angle-grinder in hand!

The diamond cutting wheel makes short work of fibreglass.

Looking better already I reckon. With the cabin gone the boat feels more spacious and I can start to get an idea of what she'll be like as an open fishing craft.

Quite a sleek looking hull without the cabin.

Rear moldings still need to be removed and the cuts along the gunnels will need to be cleaned up.

Seize the carpet and bin it! Also removed the two squares of ply that had been glued on as seat bases. There's a lot of carpet glue to chisel off.

Dusty work - not that you can tell from this photo. Grinding out the remnants of the original deck, front and rear side pockets as well as the added deck.

Pockets and deck are gone

rear pockets ground out

Time for a beer!

With the help of a hired sabre saw, gunnels have been cleaned up and the rear moldings removed.

... view from the front - gunnels have been cut more or less straight.

Rear moldings and gunnel pieces added to the growing heap of ex-this-boat junk.

Last vestiges of front decks and pockets have been ground and sanded flush.

..and also at the back

Starting to look much more like a potential fly-fishing platform.

The boat is going to have front and rear casting decks, which will also provide a great deal of storage. The rear deck is first to go in - this will also replace the strength lost to the transom when the rear moldings were removed. Here the uprights have been cut to the shape of the hull (using cardboard templates, and alot of trial and error!).

Rear deck supports are 12mm CD grade ply, glassed both sides with 300gsm chopped strand matting. Here the supports are waiting for their first coat of resin.

Supports have been bogged in. Note the crossmember that is clamped to the splashwell.

A bit of boo-boo here - the rear deck was initially cut as one piece, but I didn't really think through the installation. It turned out to be impossible to get the deck past the existing gunnels and into position.

With the rear deck cut in half (side-to-side) the deck installs easily, and is looking good. Deck is 15mm CD ply, as is the frontmost of the rear supports.

Rear deck will have four hatches - two completely waterproof at rear for dry storage (with shop-bought plastic covers) and two with ply covers at front. This is the front section. Cut outs will become the covers once the jigsaw starter hole has been filled.

Each seam of the rear uprights has been glassed on both sides, making the structure incredibly strong - strength lost when the rear moldings were removed has been replaced and then some.
Inside of rear hatches has been flowcoated white and things are starting to look a bit better.

Rear deck section has been coated with polyester resin on both sides. Supports for the front hatch covers have been cut, coated with resin and bogged to the underside of the front deck piece. The deck will be glassed at the edges and that will more or less be it until carpetting.

Supports for the front deck have been cut and resin coated. Supports are 15mm CD ply. I have decided not to glass the sides of these supports as I did for ther rear for reasons of weight, cost, time and the fact that it is just overkill - especially using 15mm ply. Note (having said all that!) that the front-to-back supports are 12mm ply.

Front deck supports have been bogged in. Note the 40mm pipe on both sides - these will serve as fly-rod holders (all will become clearer later).

40mm pvc pipe is glassed in both sides of the back two uprights, and the back of the front upright.