Tim, Colin, Boris (a local), and Remy inspect the slightly rotten, but otherwise suitable wooden dory on the banks of the Angara near lake Baikal It turned out that the owner had died (apparently been knocked off by the mafia), and so we could take it for free
The hull and inside of the boat would need a lot of work, but essentially it was a beautiful boat that we all fell in love with Colin affectionately named it 'rotten.'
After flagging down this truck with an in-built winch and crane we picked up the boat and carried it back to the dacha of 'yershee' near Irkutsk where we hoped to spend 2-3 weeks repairing it.
Ben, Colin and Remy work on sanding the flaky paint away.
Remy applies fibre-glass and resin to a particularly rotten plank Large sections of the hull needed glassing to ensure the boat wouldn't sink (let alone leak)!
Colin uses silicon to cork the hull, filling in as many of the gaps between planks as possible!
Colin and Ben add some finishing touches in preparation for layering the hull with tar.
Colin stirs a pot of boiling tar, ready to be applied to the hull We had to be extra careful that the tar didn't catch on fire.
Ben applies the tar We used around 20-30kg of tar on the hull in total
Remy, Ben, and Colin work on painting the hull We used an enamel car paint that we bought locally in a market.
Remy and Colin discuss how to build the cabin whilst Ben films.
Remy and Colin begin to put the cabin together It had to include space ofr three people to sleep The fourth person would always be rowing as we had a 24-hour rowing routine to make it to the Arctic Ocean in time.
The inside of the cabin complete The double bed is at the far end in the v-berth, whilst the sette to the right formed the third bed On the left is the kitchen.
