Long considered, long planned, finally here... time to strip away the old teak deck.

Trip to Antwerp - very relieved to find Guapa ashore and tucked away inside.
Better part of the first day was spent removing all the headlining down below. This would give me access to all the screws, nuts and bolts so I could remove winches, genoa track, cleats, toerail, windlass...
By the end of day two winches, windlass and cleats have been removed. Genoa track and toerails still to do (toerails are a ginormeous job - dreading it).

I had always been told that I had a GRP deck with a balsa core.
Last night I started scraping away some of the teak in areas where I knew it was bad. Bad as in 'I think the deck's lifting there a bit' Shock - horror
Removed some teak - what did I find? Compost is the closest possible term. Keep digging - finally solid GRP. WTF? Where's the top GRP layer gone? I assumed the compost was the balsa core.
Quick call to my 'shipyard guru' - 'I want to see this for myself, this is not possible'.
Didn't sleep much last night.

Called the yard that built Guapa first thing in the AM. Different story: only cockpit and coach roof are balsa core. Separate mould from the deck. Deck itself is solid GRP, then a layer of multiplex and then the teak glued on top of the multiplex. A sense of relieve.
Chiselled away most of the morning to clear as much of the deck in different places in time for the shipyard guru arrival around lunchtime.
Surprised to find most of the teak in condition going from 'not bad' to 'pristine'. The multiplex's condition OTOH - 'compost' to 'not bad'. In places it will need to be replaced. Just how much needs doing won't become clear till all the teak has been removed. Then - to be on the safe side - all the multiplex should be laminated and the the cork fitted on top of it.
Only day 2, and already we're looking at a couple of K over budget.

Amidst claims of 'we've seen worse', 'it's not that bad', and 'it's going to be all right' I'm left with mixed feelings. Structural integrity has not been compromised (she's still my yottie icebreaker), but the bills...

Decision made - I'm going to get a job on the side as a prostitute.
Ladies - this is your chance - a real man's yours for the night and for a price. Your chance to feel things you've never felt before. But not any time soon, as I expect to be too shagged out to shag for the next 10 days or so.