It is only as we started to work through each cupboard in depth and open up each floor board have we started to realise how grubby and unloved she has been. There is so much rubbish and dirt to work through even before we start looking at the long list of work to do: cracked kitchen worktop, mouldy teak deck, no auto bilge in engine rooms, rattling rudder bearings, mast corrosion, mouldy hatch roller blinds, dysfunctional VHF, nonsensical electrical meters, leaky port toilet, baggy main sail, inner locker GRP cracks, redo antifoul, ... , ..., and the list goes on and on.

Above: Control panel in German and French with sticky tape labels. Fuel pump rusted and shot to bits. Gangway control panel corroded beyond use, missing water filter cartridge, missing panels and cracked worktop, broken shower hinges with doors half on, crazed windows almost losing transparency, and teak that is so unloved it has gone mouldy.

Bit by bit we start to renovate and try out sizing of lettering for her metamorphose from a grubby boy (Giramondo) to a beautiful girl (Giramonda). We start to explore the lockers full of rotten canopies and covers trying to reassemble the puzzle left to us. like everything else the window covers are discoloured and rivets corroded and broken. Poor little boat needs lots of love.

We explored the scarp pile of a local auction house to see if we could find any panels that resemble the woodwork on the boat. We found one panel that looked like similar grain but was very scratched and much darker in colour. Maybe this could work.

Many hours of random orbital sanding started to return the pin stripes to a neat crisp finish and restore the original teak colour. Already looking so much better. Although the black caulking remains tacky?