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Thanks Tony!
Here she is from behind - mangey transom now all but invisible.
Thanks to another car breakdown yesterday the hull was sanded back to primer and now has two base coats ( epoxy will be next winter) . Ready for a top coat tonight ( god willing)
Centerboard stripped back bare - so disapointed. It is a beautiful piece of straight grained mahogany - but with a great chunk taken out of the back which has been filled with isopon so clear epoxy was not an option.
Epoxied, undercoated and ready for a top coat tonight as well.
 

Hi Tony,
Thanks , that would be useful.  As a matter of interest the middle bit of Grimalkins original Needlespar is now my TV Aerial mast- Towers above mere B&Q alternatives !
Tom, Thanks also, thats good - I will compare and contrast with Tonys 'Actual' measurement.
 

First picture of Grimalkins new top clothes !
Reasonably happy so far.

Ah ha, an interesting question.
Tony, I now have an ex Lark Proctor 'c'  which is in great nick, but the spreaders are sooo low.
I was wondering about just copying the height and length from Grimalkins Needlespar ?  I have been looking for a Proctor oriented website that might have suggested positions but thus far without success.
I wasnt going to try geometry for spreader length, just get the mast set up in the right spot / rake and measure  from a tall stepladder.
I also have a 'razor top' needlespar to play with but the spreader length and position are significantly different to the 'original'.
 
 
 

He certainly wouldnt as he now has no knuckles and no fingernails left !
What a cracking job John - She looks great.  Did you use some form of hypnosis on yourself to cope with sanding that lot !
 
 

Wa Hey !!!
 
First coat of epoxy on - what a difference !
Question is now is Does she need two coats ??   will that add strength and durability or just weight ??
 

Thanks for that Tim,   but  You  dont know my wife !!
I did fully expect to find last week out how much  Cheshire Cat could be stuffed down my throat ( or elsewhere) , she has calmed down a bit now  as she can see the butterfly emerging from the chrysalis but another one !! Oh No No No........
I am going for 2 coats of Epoxy, 1 of 2 pack varnish  and then as many ( hopefully 1) coats of yacht varnish as needed to get the deep gloss I want.
 
Must say that getting the fillets in place has given me an uplift and the rest should be easy.
Thanks for your encouragement.
 
 
 

After closing up the garage, taking dinner and a couple of glasses of Merlot I couldnt resist nipping back to have a self-congratulatory look at how things had gone and saw to my horror I had left a piece of masking tape in place !
Dash it ! I thought............
 
May well leave it there and varnish over it.

Following advice from Tim, and armed with a supply of Tesco Icing bags I launched into filleting stringers , knees, transom and bulkhead with gusto. Turned out to be less than 3 hours work in the end. 
I now need to invert her and do the bulkhead/ foredeck seam and the foredeck/stringer seams then phase 1 of epoxying is done. Just need then to 'sterilise ' the garage.

Saturday pm 16th May - finally sanded enough to move on to the filleting stage. I think if I had realised how much work was involved I would not have bothered.  I shall be seriously depressed if she doesnt look good when finished.

After a while sanding she has come up quite well - not exactly invisible - but at least servicable!

As my refurb of Grimalkin is starting to gather pace - well at least the sanding is now finished ! I am looking to the refit and trying to plan where bits will go  and what new fittings and cordage I need.
It seems that the 'split tail' mainsheet is regarded as the favourite option by most N12 sailors?
 
Would that be a correct assumption?
I will be sailing most of the time on a very restricted river so ability to tack regularly without losing boat speed and orientation will be the key to success. I had thought of a Laser II style system with the sheet going from boom/transom/boom/ along the boom/ cockpit floor ratchet / hand as being more practical ?  I am unsure about the 'skiff' type sheet arangement   ( with the sheet exiting the boom from a centre block direct to hand) but this may have some advantages I guess particularly in 'flicking' the main over in light winds.
I would welcome any advice and also some enlightenment on what a 'split tail' arangement looks like and what its advantages are.
Thanks
Jeremy
 
 

I did that to my Mirror in 1978 and its still going strong ( and dry) - though a little out of class.
I bonded some plastic drain pipe from B&Q to the outer of a holts screw bung thing with plumbing adhesive then sunk the assembly into an oversize hole that was coated in resin.
I left the tube bits long enough to exit the transom where they exit through a slightly oversize hole that was rammed with silicone. After it was bone dry I trimmed the tube with a hacksaw and the silicone with a razor blade, overpainted and you could hardly tell. I just use rubber bungs in the transom.  I guess it can be done the other way around so the screw in bung is on the transom but I was concerned about having lying water against an 'unsealed' edge.
It keeps the cockpit dry and hence sound.

A few minutes attention with a fine bladed saw and I remoddled the transom to fit around my new bit of mahogany. 
 
A quick slurp of epoxy and the hole was filled.
Now to cut it back out again - and to talk to Mr Gatti on the art of 'filleting'.

Several hours of sanding, and several more to go I guess, but getting there !
A visit to Dinghy Craft and some advice ( and timber) from Mr Herring has given me a solution to the transom issue, a piece of Mahogany will be let in to the area between the transom flaps, epoxied and filleted etc.