She was built to the highest standards (as can be seen from this photo of the galley) and was launched in June 2010. She’s fully equipped for extended cruising and as I understand it the sale price wouldn’t even cover the price of the materials and equipment that went into this fantastic vessel.

Martin was the guy who organised the bulk purchase and shipping of the marine grade aluminium for the masts of  ’Al Raso’ Jacques Pierret’s ‘Pilgrim’ , Daniel Ganz’s ‘Marabu’ and my own ‘Gleda’. Sadly I’m the only one who still has these mast packed in the crate they arrived in but given that both ‘Pilgrim’ and ‘Marabu’ have now crossed the Atlantic and, as stated above ‘Al Raso’ cruised more than 6000Nm at least I can be confident they’ll do the job! Point is Martin went to huge trouble to research. source and negotiate price on the right material for the job so I know he will have done the same for every other component of the boat.

Martin can be contacted directly at sv.alraso@gmail.com but if you’re interested don’t hesitate, ‘Al Raso’ is currently lying in the NE area of U.S.A. and I’ve no doubt she’s going to sell quickly.

I confess to a twinge of sadness that Martin has decided to sell but having followed his story I know he’s made the right decision for himself and his family. ‘Al Raso’ has taken them on a journey they’ll never forget and I’m sure she’ll do the same for her new owner.

I saw this on the Wharram builders and friends forum today and it struck me as incredibly sad and led me to start thinking about why it is that most people with a dream never take action and start moving towards it. I’ve noticed that a high percentage of members on the WBF site have entered the words ‘I want a Wharram’ in their profile and I often wonder why more of them don’t quickly change into “I’m building a ….” or “I’ve bought a….”
The very fact that they have taken the trouble to find the forum and join in would seem to indicate more than a passing interest and we all like to passively consume content about things that interest us, but those words ‘I want a Wharram’ show that they have more than that and yet it seems only a few actually do something about it.
I’m not being critical, I myself spent some 20 years kind of thinking about building my own Wharram but never doing anything about it, its a common story.
So what is it that finally triggers the massive action and continued commitment needed to start moving forward? For me it was a traumatic relationship breakup followed by a period of deep depression. It was as simple as waking up one day and thinking ‘Sod this I’ve had enough of moping around feeling sorry for myself what’s stopping me building that bloody boat I’ve been thinking about for so long”
The strange thing is that at that point in my life I was mentally weak and poorly equipped to tackle the not insignificant problems of little details like finding the money, finding a place to build, finding the time etc. etc. etc. It’s easy to come up with reasons you can’t do something isn’t it? There’s never a right time. Too young, too old, too busy, no money, the list is endless. It has to be a leap of faith.
The one thing that sticks in my mind is finding the barn I’m building Gleda in. I knew it would be tough, the area of Warwickshire I live in has it’s fair share of barns but most of them have been converted into very expensive houses. I looked for cheap industrial units, bits of land to build a poly tunnel on, I cycled miles and miles exploring back roads and tracks looking for a likely site and I kept drawing a blank. It would have been easy to say ‘this is hopeless’ but I didn’t I just kept believing, then out of the blue my phone rang and it was a guy responding to an ad I’d taken out in the local business exchange newspaper. End result a near perfect build site at a price I could afford in the perfect location. I recite this story as an example of the sort of thing that can stop a dream in it’s tracks. If I’d been ‘sensible’, done thorough research, talked to lots of people made a list of pros and cons, I would have concluded beyond doubt that I didn’t stand a chance of finding anywhere in the area at a price I could afford.
This I think is the reason most people never get started on stuff, they spend too long thinking it through, planning and researching all the possiblities and problems. It’s a fine thing to do but it holds a hidden danger. If the project you’re thinking about is a big one your brain simply can’t cope with all the possibilities, it’s too scary, there are too many unknowns, so it does what the human brain has done for thousands of years, it induces fear. It may be conscious or subconscious but either way the result is the same, we run away, we find reasons we can’t do it, we are paralysed.

Don’t end up like our friend who waited 15 years for the right time only to find that it had passed him by. The right time is now!

1. Lay the first sheet of ply into the mould and glue the transverse strengtheners
2. Glue the longitudinal strengtheners and the polystyrene sandwich material – Apply Weights
3. Glue the final layer of ply – Apply Weights

I’ve completed stage 2 of the port hull main cabin deck today and hope to get stage 3 completed before we go away to Portugal .

Longitudinal strengtheners fitted & glue spread

Polystyrene In Place

Polythene, Ply & Weights Applied

Solid Timber Fillet Faired In

I squeezed in a short session today, another holiday weekend just past, a 10 day break to Portugal starting next week and my own business to look after mean that time is short right now. No point stressing though I know that things will pick up pace by the end of June and I’m still on target. So today I concentrated on more sanding and fairing of the forward cabin decks, all pretty simple stuff really but quite satisfying. I also shaped in the Douglas Fir blocks that I’d glued in at the forward ends of the tumble homes. The plans suggest cutting small pieces of ply to cover the gap (the tumble homes are cut from standard 2.44m (8ft) sheets of ply but the decks are a bit over 2.5m long so they stop short of the forward beam troughs). I decided to glue solid pieces of timber in there instead and then shape them afterwards. Better job all round methinks.

I have invested a huge amount of time and effort to get to where I am now and although I’ve had feelings of doubt and guilt about my decision I now know  that it was absolutely the right one. If I hadn’t made it then I would at best have ended up with a boat I couldn’t use or at worst I would never have completed her.

I’ve gone down many blind alleys this last six months or so but, with perfect timing, my direction is becoming clearer and I now know what I need to do. I am incredibly optimistic going into 2010. a new decade, a new start, an exciting future. My new blog www.lifesteading.com gives me a better platform to talk about my plans away from ‘Gleda’ so please pay a visit if you’re interested.

My plan for 2010 is simple:

1. To become self sufficient financially
2. To create more build time and more flexibility to work when it suits me
3. To significantly advance the build with a view to getting ‘Gleda’ on the water in summer 2011

For now I’d like to thank you all for your continued support and wish you all a Very Happy Christmas if you celebrate it and a Very Happy Holiday if you don’t.

May 2010 be as exciting for you as it will be for ‘The Gleda Project’

Cheers!

I’m beginning to accept that because of these other commitments I may not make any more real progress on Gleda for the rest of the year. We’ll see how it goes but if that’s the way it has to be then so be it. Either way 2010 is going to be incredible!

So how do I get more time and more money? Well time is fairly easy isn’t it? Where do most of us spend the bulk of our waking hours? Working for ‘The Man’ so as to have enough money for shelter sustenance and maybe a bit of pleasure. Now I know that’s not true for those who have a vocation and truly love what they do, but I submit that the majority of us would quit tomorrow if we had enough money in the bank. How did we get to a point in our civilisation where it’s considered admirable to defer real freedom to enjoy life until the age of 65 or later! I thank Tim Ferriss for illustrating this point so well in his book The 4-hour Work Week: Escape the 9-5, Live Anywhere and Join the New Rich. In the book he describes retirement as ‘Worst-Case-Scenario Insurance’ – Here is the exact text:

Retirement planning is like life insurance.  It should be viewed as nothing more than a hedge against the absolute worst case scenario: in this case, becoming physically incapable of working and needing a reservoir of capital to survive. Retirement as a goal or final redemption is flawed for at least three solid reasons:

1.  It is predicted on the assumption that you dislike what you are doing during the most physically capable years of your life.  This is a non-starter, nothing can justify this sacrifice.
2. Most people will never be able to retire and maintain even a hot dogs for dinner standard of living.  Even one million is chump change in a world where traditional retirement could span 30 years and inflation lowers your purchasing power 2-4% per year.  The math doesn’t work.  The golden years become lower-middle-class life revisited.  That’s a bittersweet ending.
3.  If the math does work, it means that you are one ambitious, hard-working machine.  If that’s the case, yes, what?  One week into retirement, you’ll be so damn bored that you’ll want to stick bicycle spokes in your eyes.  You’ll probably opt to look for a new job or start another company. Kind of defeats the purpose of waiting, doesn’t it?

By the way I read Tim’s book some time back and it’s really thought provoking. Although there’s some stuff in there that may be difficult to go with, the basic thrust of his theories, as can be seen from the text above, actually fit perfectly with those of us contemplating a long term life afloat. I recommend it, without doubt it was the starting point for where I am now.

Anyway to get back on track, the answer to finding more time was obvious….. give up the day job.  That leaves a bit of a glaring problem however, I don’t have money in the bank.  That led me to start thinking about alternative ways to generate income that allowed more flexibility, and did not demand my constant attendance or attention.  This is what I have been working on over the past months and although I have yet to earn a penny I now know what I need to do and more than that I know without doubt that it will work (more on that later).  All that was required was for me to take massive action and make it happen.  So, last week, I gave one months notice to quit the secure, well-paid day job!  I can tell you that it was one of the hardest decisions I’ve ever had to make, my self belief is high, but a decision like that is contrary to every rule in society’s book.  If people doubted my sanity when I announced I was building a boat they now have no doubts that I should be sectioned immediately! Strangely once the deed was done, my overwhelming feeling was one of relief.  At last I was free to be honest and open about my plans and to focus on achieving them.  An hour later, however, there was an unexpected twist. my employer, who to their credit, claimed understanding and acceptance of my reasons for resignation, suggested that a compromise could be reached.  The end result is that I have signed a new six months rolling contract to work part time three days a week.  To be honest, it was a bit of a no-brainer and works well for both parties.

So there we have it.  A new chapter commences.  I have shifted the balance towards my final goal, and I am free to make the best use of my time and free be more open about my plans.  There are some scary times ahead and I’m under no illusions that it will be easy, but as I said, my mind is set and I will get there.  If you’ve read this far, you have my thanks for your interest.  Over the next few weeks, I will be working towards the change and I can promise many interesting things ahead for those that choose to follow me.

I’ve so immersed myself in other things that I’ve not had time to keep in touch with my many Wharram friends around the world, again I apologise, I’ve taken steps to make sure that doesn’t happen again.

It was particularly encouraging to hear from Beat on Aluna and Dave on Dragon from Hawai and Huahine, Society Islands respectively. I can’t tell you how much of a boost it is to hear from guys that built T38′s from scratch and are now out there doing it. Any niggly doubts about what’s possible are well and truly blown away…. Thanks guys, fair winds.

Also great to see and hear from other T38 builders. Adrian Hall is making a great start and Martin Hivon has got the end in sight. Warren Matthews’ blog has been particularly interesting not least because of the disaster that befell Creed’s T38 and the subsequent discovery of serious defects in his own T38. I’ve been silent for many months since the original firestorm around Creed’s refusal to accept delivery from Raoul Bianchetti but I would encourage anyone who has any interest to head over to Warrens blog and read the whole story. It should act as a dire warning to anyone considering a ‘professional build’ to restrict themselves to those reputable builders out there with a good track record and a real understanding of Wharram boats.  I pity anyone out on the water relying on a vessel from RB’s yard. If these two T38′s are anything to go by God knows what defects are hidden away on other boats he’s produced. Warren and Creed are switched on, knowledgeable guys which just serves to illustrate what a class act Mr Bianchetti must be as they still got fleeced. History shows though that even the best con men get caught eventually, I hope that justice catches up with this particularly nasty piece of work soon.

Anyway I fought through the cobwebs and ventured into the barn today to re-acquaint myself with a sorely neglected Tiki 38. I’m a ways off making any real progress with the build yet but I’ve set myself the task of getting everything ready to roll when I can. The place is a tip and desperately in need of a mega clear out and re-organise, so that’s what I started today. My epoxy tent was in a sorry state due to the ravages of recent strong winds so I emptied it out and started re-building it, this time with a solid timber wall on the most exposed side. I spent a good 4 hours on this and will continue as and when I can.

Thanks again for your patience, please keep visiting. I promise more regular updates and some exciting news soon.  Cheers