50th BIRTHDAY REBUILD OF A YACHTING WORLD DIAMOND
The "Slippery Beaver" - Auckland, New Zealand

Stripping 50 years of paint

The start of the mammoth task of paint stripping

Yacht and keel leaving Half Moon Bay

Almost paint free

On the crane

Moving the boat to the shed

Boat and keel soon after arrival

Skillsaw to the deck!

Skillsaw to the deck!

Hacking away at the old

Building side walls for new cockpit

Flipping boat

Inverted

Sealer soaked

Stripped and upside down

Flipping

Original keel (drawing half the depth of new keel)

Removing lead from original keel. The 550kg being used very inefficiently

Sabre-sawing old lead for melting down

Original floors and king plank

Old floors come out for keelson crack repair

Original floors and king plank

Interior paint stripping

Sealing for new floors

Custom wood prep for new floors

First stage of building new floors

Sealing the new floors (75mm cedar up from 45mm)

Dry fitting new floors

New floors to accommodate new keel. Alaskan yellow cedar

Keelson build up for rebated keel landing