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As I am aware that not everyone indulges in the joys of Facebook, I thought I should give everyone a little update on Ferret's progress at the museum. All of this can be found on the National Waterways Facebook Page, as well as other regular update. We are now nearing completion on the steel work on the stern end of Ferret. Unfortunately a lot of it was in far worse condition than anyone could have anticipated, but this only became obvious upon removing the cabin. We have attempted to keep as much original material as possible which made the job far more labour intensive. Needless to say, I think many people would've written the counter off and replaced it. To give you an idea of what we were working with, this is what the uxter plate was like upon removing the bed ole The cheek plates of the uxter on both sides needed replacing as it had worn away to almost nothing. As the chine still had a good thickness to it, it was decided to just replace the worn area. Although it would've been nice to replace the whole section, it would have been near on impossible to be able to fit a plate in in-between the chine and the swim angle without dismantling half the boat. It was decided instead to leave half an inch to weld onto, and then re-rivet it to the swim angle. On the starboard side, the swim angle also needed a couple of feet replacing: New cheek section waiting to be riveted. As you can probably see from the above picture, above the uxter chine angle had worn quite thin. Rather than replacing the sides, which were all perfectly serviceable apart from less than an inch along the bottom, welds were put on to add a bit of thickness. Fortunately, once ground back and painted, these wont be visible and it means saving a lot of original material. Two out of the four cabin frame angles were also beyond savoir: These were used as patterns to make new ones up. The bottom section of the second angle on the port side had also gone, but rather than replacing the whole thing, a piece of steel was let in: Most of the swim was in surprisingly good condition, with the exception of a small area on the starboard side that was heavily pitted. This area was removed and a new piece let in: (Not quite finished her, the red oxide is just to stop it from going rusty until we finish it off. On both sides of the counter round, doubler plates had been put on. These have now been removed and new pieces of steel have been let in and are now just awaiting the original piece of guard to be riveted back on: The counter round itself is incredibly thin in places, and quite a few holes have appeared where weve been cleaning it back. As I mentioned, I think a lot of people would see it as being beyond savior. We are currently letting in very small pieces where there are holes and trying to beef up places where it was down to a couple of mm thick whilst trying to keep the character. Although it has meant a huge amount more work, she does have a particularly nice counter, and itd be a shame to loose it. Weve also had to replace sections of the gunwale and deck angle, although again weve only replaced what is absolutely necessary, and all will be riveted back on: This picture shows the new section of back deck angle await riveting. The central angle around the counter will have a new vertical piece welded on as this had completely disappeared. You can probably see the chine angle is black as well. After cleaning everything back to good iron, it was all coated in rust treatment, just to be on the safe side! So all in all we are edging completion of the steel work on the back of the boat, which means that the cabin can start to be rebuilt alongside refooting the rest of the boat. Still an awful lot to do, but were getting there, and shes going to look superb when finished, and done properly. Im more than happy to (attempt) to answer any questions anyone has, but please, I really dont want this to turn into a slagging match like it does when ever I post anything about the work Im doing Correction for spelling, I meant visible not viable!