Essentially the appearance of the hull below the rubbing strake hasn’t changed since Rathenice arrived almost 4 years ago. Having worked on 
rigging and interior finish during lock-down, I was ready to start on the hull just as the weather changed for the worse. Paint has been ordered and delivered but there just hasn’t been the right sort of weather for a week or two to encourage hours of outdoor sanding and painting.
On May 25th I was able to make a start by sanding the white stripe on both sides of the hull and eventually applying 2 coats of white paint. 
This process revealed that she had originally had her name on the forward end of the stripe because initial sanding revealed a slightly raised level so you could read the name as I sanded off the grime and aged paint.
After that the weather went grey and wet apart from a few single days when I was at work so the forecast warmer weather this weekend prompted action. It is rather frustrating sanding large areas with my battery sander. I bought it when we had no working generator because it seemed to be the only way to get sanding capability in the storage yard. I can use 3 fully charged batteries more quickly than the first one is charged and ready to use again which makes the job rather a stop – start exercise. We do have a mains powered sander somewhere and I am reluctant to buy another just because I cannot find the original.
On Saturday I managed to sand the transom and most of the starboard 
side in two “3 battery” sessions and also masked up most of the edges. The part done photo does have the benefit of showing the contrast between 10 or so years of surface fading and the freshly sanded look.
Sunday morning meant a 10 o’clock start to sanding again, followed by painting a first coat of Pillarbox red. The photo doesn’t really do credit to the improvement but it is a big step 
towards having a presentable boat on the drive. Of course that is the side that is visible from the house so the rest of the street still saw a faded, neglected wreck until I had another sanding session this afternoon. If the weather holds they might also get a coat of semi-gloss red to look at by tomorrow night. That will also be my chance to fix the waterline issue as the two sides were about 2 cm different distance down from the rubbing strake. Of course I dont really know the true waterline because the only lines drawing I have is a scanned version that I can print on A4 paper – Not really good enough to make a decision from as the line thickness scaled up to full size works out larger than the error. So the plan is to make the port side colour transition the same distance down the hull as the starboard (lower) one. Chances are she wont be loaded to float exactly on the design waterline or the painted one anyway.
The transformation will eventually be finished off with a coat of black anti-fouling below the water line. I may give in and get a mains powered sander for that job as there is a lot more sanding to do. At least I dont think I need to be particularly careful with the sanding dust but I will try to capture as much as I can with the hoover. It seems very unlikely that I would get as much algae growing on the hull as I do if there was significant toxic material left in the anti-fouling paint.