Houses, are but badly built boats so firmly aground that you cannot think of moving them. They are definitely inferior things, belonging to the vegetable not the animal world, rooted and stationary, incapable of gay transition. I admit, doubtfully, as exceptions, snail-shells and caravans. The desire to build a house is the tired wish of a man content thenceforward with a single anchorage. The desire to build a boat is the desire of youth, unwilling yet to accept the idea of a final resting-place. It is for that reason, perhaps, that, when it comes, the desire to build a boat is one of those that cannot be resisted. It begins as a little cloud on a serene horizon. It ends by covering the whole sky, so that you can think of nothing else. You must build to regain your freedom.

Arthur Ransome - Racundra's First Cruise (Chapter 1), 1923

GLEDA (Pronounced GLEE DA) - Old English Female Name meaning 'To Make Happy'


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THE CLOCK IS TICKING

  • Project Started:
    3 years, 7 months, 3 weeks, 2 days ago
  • Launch Day:
    in 1 year, 9 months, 0 weeks, 0 days

TOTAL BUILD TIME SO FAR

1668 HOURS

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1668Hrs – Time & Tumblehomes

No Responses »
Jul 292010

It’s happened again, a little over two weeks just disappeared without a tap being done on the boat. I can look back and say it was unavoidable because we went down to Cornwall for a few days, I was busy working on my business etc. etc. and it’s all true but the reality is that it keeps happening and if it keeps happening then my launch date will keep getting pushed further and further away….. I’m not going to let that happen. To be honest this time management issue affected everything, I have 5 important areas of my life I need to keep making progress with and Gleda is just one of them. I’ve written more on my Dream To Sail blog and I’ll be expanding more in future blog posts but all I’ll say here is that I’ve made some serious changes and from now on I’ve scheduled at least 2 full days a week on Gleda with some extra flexible time available as well. This means I should be able to make some steady progress from here on in.

Tumblehome Fit

Decent dry fit at last!

Starboard Cabin Roof Inverted

Cabin Roof down safe

Today I spent some time getting reacquainted with the tumblehomes. I confess I’ll be very very glad to see the back of them, for me they’ve been the most frustrating part of the build so far. As I said before, when I dropped the cabin roof into place I could see that the second set of tumblehomes I’d cut months ago still didn’t fit so today I’ve re-cut two of them and made two new ones and I now have a full set of properly fitting tumblehomes on the starboard hull. After dry fitting them I manhandled the cabin roof back down onto the floor and turned it upside down so that I can sand and epoxy the inside before it’s fitted. It’s a big section to handle on your own and I was scared silly I’d drop it but with a bit of care and a lot of sweat I got it down OK.

Posted by Neil at 5:32 pm Tagged with: ,

1664Hrs- Squeezing The Time In

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Jul 132010
Polystyrene Sandwich Material Glued In

Polystyrene Sandwich Material Glued In

Once again the income generating part of the Gleda Project is demanding the greater part of my time hence the lack of update yesterday. I squeezed in a couple of hours today though and got the final upper layers of ply glued to the side decks of the starboard hull. I also took off the tumblehomes ready to  re-cut and re-fit. Workload and a long weekend trip to Falmouth mean that it’ll be next week before I do any more building now but a visit to Falmouth is always a great boost as it’s without doubt one of the finest harbours in the world and I shall be looking for lots of bluewater cruisers to photograph. It’s also the place highest on the list of possible launch locations so I’ll be keeping a weather eye out for prospective sites as well!

Starboard Hull Closing In

Getting There

Close Up Of Mast Beam Trough

Beam Trough Will Be Cut Out Later

Posted by Neil at 9:34 pm Tagged with: ,

1662Hrs- Connecting The Two

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Jul 112010

A good work session today working on the two side decks of the starboard hull connecting the large curved forward section of main cabin roof to the small aft section. I’d successfully joined glued the four longitudinal stringers and the lower pieces of ply the other day but there was a fair bit of cleaning up to do and I spent a good deal of time check measuring and taking levels to make sure everything was right. I had to trim a couple of partial bulkhead tops to get everything spot on and then drop in two little transverse blocks next to the inboard beam trough as this will be cut out later. Then it was a case of cutting and dry fitting the polystyrene sandwich material before gluing and clamping everything together. All in all a pleasing bit of progress. Apologies for the lack of photos, I forgot to take the camera. I’ll post some tomorrow.

Posted by Neil at 10:11 pm Tagged with: , ,