When we inspected Grace before the purchase, we saw that many of the deck beams aft of the cockpit would have to be renewed. In order to do that, the deck, cockpit coaming and all deck gear had to be removed. With the structure revealed, it becomes clear that all beams and carlings must be renewed
Grace's original tongue and groove deck would have been covered in painted canvas. However, at some stage in the past, the canvas was substituted by a textured decking material. After we removed the decking material, the pine deck seemed to be sound. Unfortunately the deck beams aft of the coachroof have to be replaced for new ones. That meant that the cockpit coaming and deck had to be removed. We will reuse the cockpit coaming but the deck will be substituted for a plywood deck sheathed on glass epoxy.
The damage on the starboard side is most apparent. There are other areas of the hull that will require some extensive work too.
Grace arriving on a lorry at its new home in Milford on Sea, just a few metres away from the current Laurent Giles design office.
