Time to build is an issue again and one I’m going to address very soon. For today I just sneaked in an hour and got the outboard tumblehome/cabin roof joint of the starboard hull sanded, routed and prepped for gluing of the half round finishing strip.

It’s been a busy business week this week so I was eager to get some build time in today. My intention was to crack on with the other two cabin roof/tumblehome strips. As we’ve had a couple of days of torrential rain here the outside edges of the barn were, as usual after a rainy spell,  pretty wet, so I opted to start on the driest side first i.e. the starboard hull. After about 5 minutes I realised that I was getting more and more annoyed as my head kept coming into contact with the heavy polythene ‘inner roof’ I put up back in July 2007 (I can’t believe that!) Realising that I was in any case going to have to do something about it before I could continue building up the starboard hull cabin top I decided to bite the bullet and do it then and there.

So instead of spending 5 hours building I spent five hours clearing all the stuff from that side of the barn, unfixing the polythene, lifting it further up, re-fastening it and then putting all the stuff back again. It was quite a tough job as there is a fair weight of polythene up there and raising it involved much pulling on ropes, climbing up barn sides and balancing on the very top of ladders about 20ft up.

I have a slight pang of regret that I didn’t make any progress on the boat today but it was a job that was going to have to be done at some point and I know have plenty of space to bring the hulls up to full height and work on deck when the time comes.

The Problem

Down It Comes

Up It Goes

That's Better

Annoying Little Screw

Not withstanding my planned day of rest on Sunday I did nip up to the barn with the intention of whipping out the 40 or so temporary screws I’d used to to hold the two half round cabin roof/tumblehome strips in place. 5 minute job that, I thought ….wrong! I soon discovered that the small screws I’d used were quite soft and as soon as I tried to remove them they just rounded out. A stupid little mistake that’s cost me two hours today. I did manage to get about half of them out using a perfectly fitting pozidrive and a lot of pressure but the others required a bit of clearance chiseling around the head and then a vice grip wrench to twist them out. Just one of theose annoying things that knocks you back occasionally but they’re out now and I shan’t make the same mistake on the other two edges!

The weather has been lousy today, very heavy cloud and regular heavy rain. The temperature was high though and very humid with it. I put in a seven hour session and I think I’m going to pay for it later! Seven hours of climbing up and down step ladders, clambering around, in and on the hulls, handling heavy power tools and general lifting definitely constitutes a good workout. I was dripping!
My hard labour has been worth it though as I have finished the two inboard edges of cabin roof/tumblehome joint. I deliberately chose the inboard edges as they will be virtually hidden when the decks are fitted so I was free to master the finishing techniques without stressing too much about final appearance. that said they’ve turned out OK.
The building plans show this edge made fair with an epoxy fillet on the underside of the overhanging cabin roof. I didn’t like that idea for two reasons. 1. I wasn’t confident I could achieve a really nice finish just using epoxy 2. My overhangs turned out a little small in places. What I decided to do instead was glue a small softwood half round section along the joint to even out the inconsistencies and give something to work to for the final epoxy finish. First job I had to do though was to cut out the cabin roof sections over the two mastbeam troughs. My Fein Multimaster made relatively easy work of that job. next it was out with the plane and the sander so that I could blend in the line of the cabin roof edges to those of the tumblehomes and then out with the router to round off the top edges of the cabin roof. All very satisfying. After sanding and preparing the joint edges I was able to glue on the half round strips, adjusting them to a fair curve by eye and then temporarily holding them in place with small screws.
Day of rest tomorrow, I need it!

Port Inboard Edge View 1

Port Inboard Edge View 2

Starboard Hull Edge Finished

Another three hour session, starboard cabin roof section all glued into position. Exactly the same routine as yesterday, exactly the same amount of time taken, pleasingly, exactly the same result. Now looking forward to planing, sanding and fairing them both in so that they really become part of the hulls.

Propped and Glued Up

Glued In Position

Business is demanding time from me again but a three hour session today was enough for me to get the cabin roof section glued into position. It went pretty smoothly although I did have to give some thought to how I could hold the roof section clear of the tumblehomes and bulkheads whilst I applied the glue and then get it dropped into the right position first time. I managed it with three strategically placed wooden props that, when pushed forward allowed the roof section to drop just right. Yet another example of how working on your own demands ingenuity sometimes. It was great to get the comment from Jacques about his enjoyment of closing the hulls, I’m itching to get there!

Dropped & In Position

Roof Section Propped, Glue Applied

Jacques Pierret was kind enough to share this video by Alexis Pierret of his newly launched Tiki 38 ‘Pilgrim’ sailing in close (and I do mean close, check 3 minutes in!) company with Ann & Neville Clement’  Tiki 46 ‘Peace IV’. “Peace IV” was built in the UK and launched in 2002, Ann and Neville have lived aboard and cruised extensively ever since. I believe the video was shot in Chesapeake Bay but I’m sure Jacques will correct me if I’m mistaken.

Given my recent post about ‘sense of scale’ it’s interesting to note how big a Tiki 46 is compared to a Tiki 38!

Many many thanks to Jacques and Alexis for sharing this, I can’t tell you how inspirational it is for this lone builder longing for the day when ‘Gleda’ takes to the water!

Sunrise Sail from Alexis Pierret on Vimeo.

After removing the temporary holding screws from the tumblehomes glued yesterday ( I needed a mole wrench on a couple that I’d managed to epoxy in!), It was out with the belt sander and I spent a dusty hour getting the tumblehomes sanded to something like a nice fit, then, after key grinding all the contact points I grabbed two volunteers (Thanks Rich & Charlie) and got the cabin roof section lifted up into position. The rest of the session was spent planing and sanding to get a nice dry fit and it’s now ready to glue. It’ll be great to get these two big cabin roof sections firmly in place and I’m enjoying the feeling of progress I’ve been getting these last couple of weeks, it seems a long time since I felt I was winning!

Portside Cabin Roof Dry Fitted

Other commitments kept me from the build over the weekend but I got a good session in today and finally got the tumblehomes glued in place on the port hull. Enough said about them! I also sanded and second coated the cabin roof section so that’ll be ready to lift into place next time. My session today bought the total hour count up to a nice round 1700 against the designers build estimate of 3000 and other builders estimates of 3500 +. This gives a sense of the scale of the project and whilst on the subject of scale Eric Dobson commented last week that it was difficult to gauge the size of  ‘Gleda’ from the photos I’d posted recently so here are a few that I hope will help Eric and others who are interested. (I’m about 5′ 6″)

Me In The Starboard Double Berth

Me In The Navigation Area (Starboard Hull)

Me & Starboard Hull (By Nav Area)

Me & Stern Cross Tube

By The Starboard Bow

Unbelievably its been over a year since I originally started on construction of the tumblehomes, talk about dragging a job out! Today though I re-cut and re-fitted the ones on the port hull and they are now ready to glue. It was all relatively painless and if I knew then what I know now I wouldn’t have wasted so much time. But there’s no point moaning, they’re nearly done now and I can move on to more exciting things. Despite being on my own today I managed to manhandle the completed cabin deck section down onto the floor so that I could sand it and get the first coat of epoxy on. If I can keep this pace up I should have both deck sections glued in place next week and I can make a start on the raised doghouse sides.

Starboard Hull View

Both Hulls Growing

Deck Section Halfway Down