Phil started by grinding off all suspect primer and any surface rust resulting from exposure to the elements from July to November.

You can pay anything from £20 to over £100 for an angle grinder, but what you want is a good quality unit with good performance at a fair price.

At this point the external topsides, having been cleaned up, were ready for re-priming.

Primed and ready for the undercoat.

(Photo taken 4th December 2002).

The first topcoat of Mason's Midnight Blue has been applied. It looks good but there's another coat to go on yet.

(Photo taken 11th December 2002).

After the final topcoat had been applied, the signwriter was called in to paint the boat name and registration number.

The name was painted in metallic gold, to match the window frames. The coachline (to go between the twin rows of pale blue masking tape, top and bottom) was gold too.

(Photo taken 18th December 2002).

You could of course do your own signwriting after reading this book!

I had the roof painted midnight blue too. Sharp sand was integrated into the paint to give a non-slip surface, and I think the end result is quite pleasing on the eye.

In the foreground is the flue outlet, ready to take the flue. To its right is the multi-directional TV aerial mounting. Further along you can see the brass mushroom vents and the brass Houdini hatch over the galley.

The external paintwork was almost finished when this photo was taken. The gold lettering and coach lines matched the windows well, and complemented the dark blue topsides.

There was just a little bit of bright colour work to finish off at the bow and stern.

(Photo taken 30th December 2002)