Sep-Nov 2012. A slight madness came over me. Researching superstructures I noticed that nearly all the AHTS where it was visible had a prow that from a normal sort of rake above the waterline dropped vertically below. No solid idea why but as it seems to be a feature I decided to try to replicate this with a bit of a nose job. A secondary factor was that I thought it might also give a slight increase in buoyancy at the bow end which is where I think she will be short.

Of course one small change leads to a spiral of major works because as I did a bit of marking and showing bits to the hull I reckoned that it didn't look right - the vertical bit looked too short. It seems that the ones I've got as examples are deeper draught vessels; perhaps the Aziz was designed more as a local or inshore boat. So I decided to increase the draught a bit - 10mm as it happens - which should also give a further slight increase in available buoyancy, though I am aware that it will probably adversely affect the relationship of the CoG and CoB - ie. it may reduce the stability, so I'll need to test that in the bath. And of course, if I'd known then what I know now I'd have made the props deeper when installing them, and that along with the bow thruster was definitely a bridge that I'd crossed and was not rebuilding! But then I changed my mind about the props and moved them anyway.

This picture shows the nearly finished job (it's had the first coat of primer which has of course shown up dozens of places needing detail attention) and the next many show how I got here. Big job!