Just before Christmas 2006 the boat was hauled out on the hardstand for some minor repairs and antifouling. It was then I discovered two previous repairs to the bottom of the hull. Both were just sheets of ply glued over holes in the hull. One (on the starboard side) was covering a gash which appeared to be the result of hitting rocks. This was repaired properly by the local boatyard before antifouling (see photo below after the repair). The other, larger, port side hole seemed to have been the result of removing an earth plate. It was decided to leave this repair for a later date due to pressure of work in the yard due to the pre-Christmas rush.
The port side "repair" was left for a future opportunity. Fingers crossed it remained watertight!
The starboard side hole after the patch had been removed and a professional repair completed by local boatyard.
The original transom had no "step-through" and was rather inconvenient to climb over!