The Gleda Project » News

‘Amatasi’ – A Labour of Love

Neil — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 21:24:39 +0000

It will come as no surprise to those that know me personally or through this blog that the “Gleda’ Project’ is all about pursuing a dream to live better and contribute more by doing things that excite me, things that I’m passionate about. I’m constantly learning and working my way towards my goal and to that end I’m currently working through a book called Screw Work, Let’s Play: How to Do What You Love and Get Paid for it

The somewhat flippant title belies the serious content within and the premise of the book is simple – Do what you love and work becomes play. Make no mistake, this isn’t about slacking, quite the contrary. To be successful is going to take a lot of hard work but here’s the thing, if you’re doing what you love, if you’re in ‘flow’ it becomes fun.

The other day when I was catching up on news from the Wharram community I came across an item about the launch of ‘Amatasi’ which as I’m sure many of you will already know, is the Wharrams latest design. She’s a 27ft environmentally friendly fishing boat, she’s already won awards for her design although I had to smile at the following quote in the press:

“The boat has been hailed by industry leaders as a radical innovation in design”

Given that James designed and built a boat sharing a very similar design back in the 1950′s it’s taken them a while to latch on!

Anyway my main point is this, James has been described as the most prolific boat designer in the world and he is in his early 80′s, Hanneke of course shares much of the credit for the designs and in the ‘normal’ world would have retired years ago. But no, here they both are, still designing, still sailing and still innovating, still doing great work. I admire and envy their continued enthusiasm and energy and you can witness it in the photos and video of ‘Amatasi’s’ recent launch at Devoran. I wish them many more years of the same and thank them for their inspiration.

You can see photo’s of the launch HERE

You can see a short video of the launch HERE

Still Here and Some News About Hans

Neil — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 09:05:14 +0000

Hi All

It feels a little strange being back here after so long but I’m pleased to tell you that the business side of the project is coming along nicely and I’m more than ever convinced that the decision to focus all my attention on it was the right one. My lack of posts here simply reflects the fact that there’s nothing to report as far as the build go’s and I don’t want to bore you with talk of my business. That said I will try and post something interesting occasionally to avoid complete stagnation.

For those interested in news of Hans Klaar I have heard from David Davidson that Hans will be released on the 27th June so he only has a few more weeks to serve. I’m told flights are booked and I’m sure many of us look forward to seeing him back on the ocean soon.

Good News For Hans

Neil — Tue, 03 May 2011 18:58:54 +0000

I heard today that Hans Klaar is due for release on 23 June. I’m sure I’m not alone in hoping all goes without a hitch and that he can claim his life back. I understand that he spent much of his time inside planning his next boat so hopefully we’ll soon be able to get back to reading about his incredible adventures again.

News Of Sunshine

Neil — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 22:08:56 +0000

Well here’s a turn up for the books, not only am I writing something for my blog but I’m doing it sat outside in a T-shirt enjoying the gorgeous warm sunshine and double shock I’m still at home in the UK! At the risk of being ridiculed for being a typical Brit always rattling on about the weather I have to say that the last couple of weeks have been diabolical without so much as a hint of sunshine, dull, damp and generally depressing therefore I have no feelings of guilt whatsoever sitting out here for half an hour and tapping away on the keyyboard so as to avoid the accusation of being completely lazy.

Yet again I find myself having to apologise for the lack of blog posts over the past weeks, in my defence I’ve been busier than an extremely busy person at a busyness competition and I have also been writing regularly, I’m still using the wonderous 75o Words website to bang out my 750 words every morning and I’m still finding it incredibly theraputic and rewarding, unfortunately though the output isn’t suitable for blog posts and actually that’s a good thing because it’s an entirely selfish exercise and if the output was suitable for public consumption it would mean I wasn’t doing it right.

Anyway what’s been happening I hear you ask, well firstly I’m very pleased to say that Gail has recovered from her illness, is back driving and will be back at work next Friday, secondly we have finally got everything moved out of both our rental properties and are officially under the same roof and pretty much sorted out, thirdly my business is picking up due to some concentrated effort on my part, I’m going through a bit of a re-branding exercise and fine tuning of my services at the moment and I’ll tell you more when that’s all done. This week I’m working hard to catch up with a backlog of client work and to get everything back under control so that next week, unbelievable though it might seem, I can get back to a routine that allows me to do some boatbuilding. It’s a real shame I’ve lost over a month of work on Gleda but it was completely unavoidable and I think that in the long run the changes that have resulted from my F***ed up Feb will ultimately be beneficial to the project as a whole. Now all that nonsense is out of the way though I need to get cracking again and catch up. As shown by the fact that I’m sitting outside in the sunshine the year is moving on already, the first quarter will be gone in just a few short weeks and I need to maximise my productivity during the spring and summer months. On that vein I’d better quit rambling now, pull myself away from this garden chair and get working at my desk (which by the way is still a stand up one, it works brilliantly for me and I’ll never go back to sitting down to work again) it makes sitting in this garden chair even more enjoyable though, OK I’m going now, catch you next time!

Are We All Pirates?

Neil — Tue, 08 Feb 2011 22:59:53 +0000

Apologies for my absence guys I should have know that British Telecoms promised efficiency in handling the transfer of my phone and internet connections to the new place wouldn’t turn into reality. End result was some 36 hours disconnected. It sound pathetic but it caused me a real problem because it was unplanned and although the Gleda Project can survive for a few days without updates my client work needs to be done and as luck would have it I had one of my busiest weeks yet scheduled for this week. So now I’m playing catch-up big time.

Never mind it’s all for the good and things are settling down to the point that next week I might even be able to ease back into some boatbuilding!

Now on to something that’s been bugging me this last few days

My posts about Hans Klaar both on this site and the Wharram Builders and Friends Forum continue to provoke responses. I confess to a bit of concern that things were straying too far into details of the case against Hans and that’s potentially dangerous territory that could have all sorts of legal and moral ramifications I don’t want to get embroiled in. My original post simply intended to pass on the sad news that a well respected guy active in our community had been jailed and although I knew that Hans was well known I did not anticipate so many positive comments. I’m entirely happy however that expressions of gratitude for past favours and attempts to help ease his time in prison are entirely justified and I’ll continue to help where I can. I would ask however that my readers refrain from making reference to the criminal proceedings, court case or anything else that could fit under the heading ‘legal matters’.

That said I do think that a wider issue has arisen here which combined with the other information passed from people closely involved with the case would seem to indicate that there is more to this than meets the eye. Martinique Stilwell, the lady who wrote the South African newspaper article I referenced, posted on the Wharram Builders forum to the effect that she’d attempted to keep the article balanced, however she finished with the comment, and I quote “Being a great sailor does not exempt Hans Klaar from following the law, or give him an excuse to hurt women”. Personally I find the suggestion that any of the members of the Wharram Friends Forum or readers of this blog would condone such actions offensive and this comment seemed completely unjustified. Several people who know Hans well and were involved more closely in the case have now posted comments to the effect that Hans may have been a victim of a miscarriage of justice and this information combined with some of the text of Ms Stilwells article do seem to point to a larger agenda. Jacques Pierret picked up on a sentence that I also noted but didn’t think too much of at the time, which stated

“Lawlessness attracts a certain cachet among a sector of the sailing community ‚ those who escape for a life at sea often do so to be free and not necessarily to be better people”

That’s a pretty sweeping statement to make. ‘Those who escape for a life at sea OFTEN do so to be free and not necessarily to be better people”. That sounds like a feeble attempt to play to the fears of ‘normal’ 9-5 home owning, consumers who could never understand that the opposite is true. Speaking for myself, yes, I believe that an escape to sea will bring me the FREEDOM but does that freedom automatically mean that I will become some sort of pirate with a criminal mind and the morals of a sewer rat? Ridiculous. There is overwhelming evidence that the vast majority of people who seek what we seek are far better people for it and are considerably more tolerant, helpful and considerate than the vast majority of city dwelling drones who, and call me cynical if you will, may well be the prime audience for Ms Stilwells new book ‘Thinking Up a Hurricane’, a memoir of her years at sea as a child. I also noted that she has an MA in creative writing, just saying.

Lastly a reminder that there is a dedicated e-mail address for messages of support and reading material for Hans. Anything sent to that address will be printed off and taken in by visitors.

Help4Hans@gmail.com

Help 4 Hans

Neil — Fri, 04 Feb 2011 21:32:52 +0000

Following on from last nights post regarding support for Hans Klaar some of our community have come together to try and give Hans some additional reading material whilst he is detained. There is now an e-mail address to which supporters can send messages of support, interesting news items and other stuff that Hans may be interested to read.

These e-mails will be printed off by friends in South Africa and taken in to Hans when visiting. Please bear in mind that the content will likely have to pass prison censoring and also that some of the volunteers have slow internet connections so please try and avoid large attachments.

It’s also planned to set up some sort of online information page which may allow photos and document files to be uploaded. I’ll pass on any news I get.

The e-mail address is Help4Hans@gmail.com

I think this is a great opportunity for those of us that have directly or indirectly benefitted from Hans’ trail blazing voyaging, knowledge and skill to repay him in some small way and make his time in prison a little easier and I for one will be sending him a few things. Please pass this e-mail address on to anyone who you think would like to help.

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I’m also pleased to tell you that my partner Gail is much improved on her 10th night in hospital and I’m hoping the news I’ve been waiting for will arrive this weekend.

Thanks again for all your support, I’m truly grateful

1651Hrs- Sad News

Neil — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 14:13:45 +0000

Being a bit of an internet geek I use Google Reader and Google Alerts to keep me up to date with all the various things I’m interested in and this morning, as usual, I got a couple of alerts on the subject of Wharram Cats. One of them was from a New Zealand news website called SunLive and it immediately caught my attention because of the headline - ‘Salvage Worry For Stranded Cat’. I hate these stories, it was the same when the pictures of Creed O’Hanlon’s Tiki 38 on the beach in Puket came through, it means someones hard work, dreams and hopes have been dashed and it’s tragic. My feelings of sorrow became even more intense though as I read further and realised that the boat in question was ‘Ika Roa’ the 42ft Narai built and owned by Tim & Heather Whelen.

As those of you who’ve read my ‘About’ page will know I got to know Tim and Heather in 1983 when they were berthed on Church Beach in Penryn next to ‘Morgwas’ . ‘Ika Roa’ had only just been launched and they had sailed her down from Hull to Falmouth to carry out their final preparations before heading South. ‘Ika Roa’ was the first Wharram catamaran I’d seen and the first I had the pleasure of going sailing on and she’s the boat that unbeknown to me at the time planted the seed that after many years became the ‘Gleda’ project. You can imagine how I felt as I read the story reproduced below:

The catamaran stranded on Matakana Island in Monday’s gale is seriously damaged.
Ika Roa’s port hull has opened below the waterline and is full of sand, says owner Tony Murray after inspecting the 42ft catamaran on Monday afternoon.

It means she cannot just be towed off the beach – or higher up the beach out of reach of the sea.
“It is the most gutting experience, ever,” says Tony.
James Wharram Polynesian style design broke free of her mooring in Pilot Bay about mid morning on Monday and blew ashore on Matakana Island.
The normally sheltered bay was subject to south easterly winds of about 20 knots, gusting to 30 knots.
At the time, the Port of Tauranga wave height reader on A beacon was recording six metre swells, which dropped during the day to five metres.
Ika Roa is upright on the beach with her bow pointing towards Tauranga

http://www.sunlive.co.nz/15824a1.page

This afternoon I received some sadder news in the form of a comment left on my ‘About’ page by Leo Murray the son of the owner:

‘Hey Neil. Ika Roa broke her mooring in Mt Maunganui and was washed ashore on Matakana Island yesterday (monday 5th July)’

‘After a night of 6 foot swells, and a few brutal tide cycles, she has returned to the sea. My father bought her from Tim Whelan in 1990, I was 3 years old and she is my first ever memory… She has instilled inspiration into many. In this respect we are much alike’

It’s a sad end for a boat that has inspired and given pleasure to so many, my sympathy goes to all involved with her.

As I worked at the barn today I was cheered however by the thought that the spirit of ‘Ika Roa’ is in some way part of ‘Gleda’ and that she will soon be sailing the oceans again.