Image Credited to Magda Biskup

I came across this short photo blog the other day and it got me thinking. The post was written and photographed by Magda Biskup and placed on her Destination World blog (links at the end of this article)

She tells the story of a guy called Peter, he’s now 74 and spent 38 years constructing his dream yacht with the intention of one day sailing around the Pacific Ocean. The yacht is huge and requires a crew of 14 to sail her and thereby hangs the problem, Peter can’t get the crew together to fulfil his ambition…… shame.

I’ve been very aware from the start of this project that it was about going sailing and not about building a boat, I’m also very aware that it’s now coming up to 5 years since I cut the first piece of timber. If I achieve my launch target of May 2013 then I’ll have been working for the best part of six and a half years.

The clock is ticking and I’m not getting any younger. I can’t afford to spend another 5 years on the build, I want ‘Gleda’ on the water and soon! I started with the end in mind but the years can blur the focus and building becomes the aim not the means. I won’t let that happen. Somehow, someway, I need to scrape up some money for a new stock of epoxy supplies and get back to work right after Christmas. 2012 has got to be the last full year of building.

I hope Peter finds his crew and fulfils his dream real soon, ‘Gleda’ will be rigged for single handed sailing so I know that won’t hold me up, I just hope it doesn’t take me 38 years to launch because I’m not sure I’ll be up to the sailing when I’m 88!

I’d encourage you to go take a look at Magda’s blog, her photos are stunning and I particularly like the rope study I re-produced above.

Here’s the link: Sailing Sydney – Magda Biskup

Peter is 74 years old. He arrived in Australia in 1961 in a cargo ship and he was supposed to stay just for a few months, visiting his sister, and then going back home, to the Netherlands. But plans seldom work out. It was the same in Peter’s case. He was offered a job in Australia, then another one, and somehow what was to be just a few months in Australia turned into 50 years.

Peter has been sailing since he was 6 years old. And he always dreamed of his own yacht. So he decided to build one himself. Sometimes in the 70s he set up a workshop in his own backyard and spend next 38 years constructing a yacht of his dreams. He wanted his yacht to be a large one. And it is huge! It requires a crew of 14 to operate it and can carry up to 27 people. Unfortunately, the dream of having such a large yacht has worked against another of Peter’s dreams – a dream of sailing around Pacific Ocean. It is simply very difficult to gather a team of 14 people, who would be able to work and live together for many months.

But Peter is not giving up his dream. He keeps trying to find his crew. In the meantime, he gathers his family and friends and organises sailing trips around Sydney for them. I was lucky to take part in one of those trips last weekend.

Decent dry fit at last!

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.

Starboard Side Tumblehome Glued

Another heavy session today but I wanted to keep up the momentum and get the four tumblehomes in place. Before I started on them though I took a bit of time to finish and clean up the deck section themselves. A little bit of planing was needed to get the forward and aft edges nice and flush with the beam troughs and there were a few blobs of stray epoxy to get rid of. After that it was simply a case of working methodically, one section at a time, prepping, gluing, temporarily screwing and then cleaning up each tumblehome until I had all four glued in place. Now I’ve done that I can have some fun rounding off edges and strengthening the edges with glass tape. I’m going to leave all the interior fillets and strengthening for now as I want to concentrate on the outside of the hull during the Summer. My aim is to get the hulls fully enclosed and hopefully sheathed before the Winter weather returns (I know, but you have to think about these things!). My reasoning is that I will then be able to work inside the hulls, with heating if necessary, and not be slowed by poor weather.