The open hanging knees, by the way, provide a great place to attach a middle rope for the lee cloth.  It will stop you being hurled out in a knockdown as I can attest from personal experiience!

Good to know. Hobbit came equipped with no lee cloths or boards. 

last year, I put up a hammock to see if it fit my saloon. It does, just.  It's mounted at 45 degrees to the centreline. There is room to swing without hitting the mast. (I talked about this before.) There is room to enter the forepeak without any more ducking than usual. Getting in was easy, standing on the edge of the starboard bunk. Once in, the hammock folds around you like a peapod. I've not tried it at sea yet, of course. However I got the idea aboard the Australian museum ship, Endeavour. We slept between decks at 45 degrees to the centre. It was amazing, the difference. No matter what the ship did, roll, pitch or yaw, the hammock yielded enough to make it more comfortable. No need to brace yourself. I wonder though how it will work on a small boat like mine.

Sorry to hear about the back, Jim.  I have an old injury that, astonishingly, has given me no grief to date over this project, but about 10 days ago I slipped in the mud and gave my back a nasty twist.  I had just glued up the topmast, which was crying out to be planed, but couldn't do more than a minute or so's work before it started hurting too much.  However, it allowed me to do some of the less physical tasks that were awaiting my attention.  It's much better now, but this is the sort of thing that makes me refuse to even suggest a launch date!

We changed Badger's varnished deckhead for a white one and it was a great improvement.    The open hanging knees, by the way, provide a great place to attach a middle rope for the lee cloth.  It will stop you being hurled out in a knockdown as I can attest from personal experiience!

I have two working speeds. On and Off. A few weeks ago I really got ON. I couldn't stop, until... I went and did a silly thing. I lifted a 75lb battery and instead of shuffling to one side to set it down, I swung around and set it down. No pain at first... When I had finished sanding the hull and painting the Stb. side, that's when the pain struck. I could hardly walk. I traded an induction cooker for finishing the Port side. At least, the motor is in and the hull painted. The weather has been fantastic for outdoor work this year. And we have hardly any Covid cases in the province now. Like New Zealand, we are relatively isolated in our little province..... But, when winter comes and we move inside....We cross our fingers....

I am slowly recovering with a chiropractor's help. Meanwhile, I'll do what I can  and leave the rest until I recover.

As for the rest of the deck, leave it alone.  For heaven's sake don't scrub it - that will simply make it wear away a lot more quickly.  If you have the misfortune to live somewhere dirty, use a mop and soapy water to get the grime out.  Best of all, take it to sea for a week and get some spray on it!

I will leave the deck alone. There is already noticeable wear. However, the graphite/epoxy fillers stands proud making little "buttes" which serve to increase traction.

Graeme wrote:

Annie, a question (not quite on topic, but can't be helped): a friend of mine is restoring a beautiful Athol Burns motor-sailer which had been badly run down. Under the grime, she seems still pretty good - solid teak deck which is still sound and tight. What would you recommend for a solid teak deck - just scrub and leave to weather - or is there something you can put on the timber these days? 

I'm not Annie who will no doubt have her own input. But I think the idea of teak decks is to leave them unfinished where they weather to the grey colour, but importantly provide a non-skid surface. Any kind of coating will make for a slippery surface when wet. If some brightwork is needed the king plank, and maybe the outer deck planks can be varnished. 

I have tried many different timber finishes for that 'varnished' look over the decades. The most successful is a Cabots, (in New Zealand) product which an acrylic timber oil which I use on my outdoor furniture at home. It looks good and seems to last forever. I don't quite know how a timber 'oil' can be acrylic, but it works, although nothing like a few coats of proper varnish which brings out the character of the timber underneath.