she did sail, and will again, have found a rig off another one suprisingly, so thats the winter project, need to work out how to get 12 metres of very heavy wooden mast plus spars and rigging from wales to the tyne first

from what I can make out she was originally a dipping lug rig, then in the 70's someone rigged her as a gaff ketch, according to the survey there's an estimated 6-8 tons of ballast still littered about in the bilges!

the previous owner removed the masts though, as all he wanted was something to potter about the canal in. Have spoken to the yard that did the work on her 4 years ago, and its was then that the masts came off and they reckon they were the original sticks as well

on the putty front... just a final thought, how long before you can over paint??