The more I see the more I find.

Now that I have had more time to go over the boat, I noticed, when compared  to pictures of an original wooden Wayfarer,  that there were some anomalies present, 

1. The aft storage and buoyancy compartment was absent, although, it gave a larger area inside the hull and would be great for sleeping in.

2.  The floor was installed with wood strips 20mm x 40mm and spaced 10mm apart. Possibly a good idea as it will allow air movement throughout the bilge area and won`t trap water in this vulnerable area, prone to damp and rot. 

3. The fore deck washboard was absent.

4 Due to the lack of the aft bulkhead, the side benches could not be fitted, of which there were only one complete seat, this I could use as a template to make the starboard seat.

5. The forward bulkhead hatch was absent, this is required to seal the forward buoyancy compartment in the event of capsize and flooding.

6. Centre board was not movable, I needed to inspect this and the centreboard case.

7. Mast is a original Proctor spar complete with all fittings, however the stainless rigging were fayed and needed replacement.

8. Mainsail is 50 years old, did not look too bad considering, but baggy and out of shape.

9. The boom was of wood and could have been original boom ? unfortunately it was split at the goose neck and very bowed, needed replacing.

10.  Jib/Genoa was absent, needed new one made. 

11. The hull was sound, however there were some repairs made and glassed over ?

12. The deck was new but 4mm ply was used, and was a little thin especially the fore deck area.

The decision had to be made, either to renovate or rebuild and I needed advice !. 

First I ordered the new edition of "The Wayfarer Book", from the UK Wayfarer Association - The book contains very good advice on setting up the boat and how to sail it, included is the history of the Wayfarer, describing all the variations over the years.

After more research, I found `The Wayfarer restoration manual` published on the web by Mike Smith, It is absolutely invaluable as he describes re-building a Wayfarer from the hull planking up. Thank you Mike !

I decided to renovate and restore the boat as close as possible to the original " woodie" Wayfarer, All the timber and plywood in the hull was sound and there were no evidence of rot, it therefore did not require a complete re-build.   

After explaining all this to a friend of mine, Peter asked me " and how long is all this going to take you". "Well ooh.. um, probably 200 hours"  I replied.  Until that point, I never really gave it much thought. Although it was a perfect logical question, the time involved is never seriously considered by amateur boat builders as time is not necessarily money !

Now here is the rub, I started seriously pulling up planks, prodding into corners and revealing the dark corners, so guess what ? more work !