After various work on the decks and engines and transmissions, the time came to put the boat into dry dock to have the bottom cleaned, blasted and repainted. There was also an awareness in the back of our heads, unspoken for the most part, that there might be a steel hull plate or two that might need to be replaced.

This was to be the big surprise of the dry docking, as it rapidly turned out that the entire bow under the waterline needed to be replaced, which was going to cost a pretty penny.

The hull plates that needed to be replaced were because the Royal Navy clearly had managed to plow her into something underwater, because there was a crack in the plates, and several frames were bent. Other places there were a few plates to be replaced, but most of that work was plugging pin-holes, which turn out to be caused by fresh water eating on the plates from the inside. In most case these only required a welded plug an inch or so in diameter.

When she emerged from the dry dock with a mission fixed and rebuilt things (rudders for example needed work and they are massive) we had a boat that we pretty much ready to run.