Work begins...

Have the day off, so I went to work on the Neptune 16

Removed the 2" lag bolt the guy had been using for a drain plug and drilled the hull out for a new one.

Removed the gudgeons.  One was only held in loosely with no way of tightening the nuts on the inside of the transom.  The other came off in my hand and was held in by a bolt with no nut and a self-tapping metal screw.



Removed the 1/2" scupper in preparation for a larger one to drain the cockpit faster.




 Removed all the expanded floatation foam from under the aft end of the cockpit by crawling under the seats and hacking away at it with a small pry-bar.  Nastiest job of the day, hands down!  But, now I can access the interior of the transom to replace the rudder gudgeons, etc.




 
 

Fabricated a temporary mast crutch to transport the rig since the former one was held in place by the gudgeons.

Fabricated a temporary hatch to shed most of the rainwater and protect the interior and contents.

Placed a duckworks order including new gudgeons (was going to replace them with stronger ones anyway), some clevis pins, sail slugs, and a pulley for the mains'l outhaul.