On the rocks

Familiarity and over confidence. I was slightly distracted by Joseph who was fishing from the stern, I also knew the old stone pier near Holly Hill extends a long way out, but it was high water, I wasn't really paying attention and so we crashed into a barely submerged rock going at a fair old lick which tore a hole about 10 inches long on the port side - ouch.

I planked Gato with 4mm ply which frankly wasn't the best quality, it was light, but 6mm would probably have been better.

Close up reveals the damage, we were lucky that the breech was contained and only flooded the first compartment, see below the buoyancy chamber is divided by a bulkhead about half way, which also seems to have provided more impact strength.

The hole after initial surgery, once I've tidied up the incision  a backing piece from 6mm ply will be epoxied to the inside and a piece of 4mm will go in the hole plus some more epoxy filler to smooth off before the paint.

 All in all could have been a lot worse.