THE 'GLEDA' PROJECT

As I hinted at last time, I'd been thinking about breaking up the gluing of the tumblehomes and filleting work with making the decks and cabin tops. I've decided to go a bit further and make these sections before I start gluing the tumblehomes. My reasoning is that although I'm fairly happy with the tumblehomes I'm not absolutely sure they are right. It makes sense therefore to construct the curved deck sections before I do anything else because I can then make sure that everything fits together properly before things are permanently glued. So today's work session has been spent making the carcass for the curved mould that will be used to make the decks. It took quite a while to get everything square and to get the radius right but I know have a good base to fit the ply onto. All in all I'm pleased to have moved onto this next stage. I'll be sourcing the sandwich material this week. Thanks to Jacques for the info about the cheaper polystyrene foam, I'll probably be taking that option.

The weather pendulum swung back again this weekend and it's been warm and sunny. I put in a really good eight hour session today and managed to get the all the starboard hull tumblehomes re-cut and dry fitted. I'm really pleased to have gotten this particularly trying task out of the way. For sure I still have to get them glued in position, but I know that they are near enough not to have to worry too much. I can just plod on with fixing them in position without too much thought needed. Come to think of it my next problem may well be one of boredom as I have a huge amount of filleting to do inside the hulls. That said I'll probably break it up with construction of the moulds I need to make the radiused sandwich decks. I also need to decide on and source the core material. Balsa, foam ? I really haven't given it any thought. I'd welcome any ideas or thoughts.

For those of you who haven't spotted it I have now added a Twitter feed to the blog so that those of you who are up to speed with the latest micro blogging craze can 'follow me' if they wish. I have set up a Twitter Feed to 'Tweet' updates to the Gleda Project Blog. I'm using Twitter as part of my 'Project X' work under the alias Affiliate Afloat. If you're interested go take a look at AffiliateAfloat.com.

 Thanks to David, Nonthawat and Chris for the comments on last weekend's post. Cheers guys I appreciate it. Keep a lookout things are getting exciting!

Last weekend it was dry, sunny and hot (25'C). This weekend it hasn't stopped raining and hardly got above 9'C!. I'm glad I made the most of it last weekend! I'm still spending valuable time on other projects but I put in a good work session today and, finally, got the tumble homes on the port hull dry fitted to my satisfaction. It seems to have taken forever but I now have my technique sorted and should be able to get the starboard ones fitted much quicker. I thought it was time for another video update as well. Thanks for bearing with me during this slow building phase, I promise that things are going to be speeding up in the not to distant future.

I should have done more this weekend but the sun was shining and I felt in need of a bit of a recharge, so apart from a few hours working on the tumble homes the weekend was spent relaxing in the sun with friends, eating good food from the BBQ and keeping hydrated! I'll try and make up for my laziness during this week.

I'm trying to adapt to a new routine.Since the beginning of the build I have really only had two things to worry about, 1) doing my day job and 2) fitting some build time in during the evenings. Now I also have to fit Project X into the equation. Project X is the name I've given to the time I'm dedicating building a long-term alternative to the nine to five. In reality, this means working late into the night and cutting back on sleep.  I've historically been an eight-hour guy, but I'm forcing my body to adjust to less.  I simply can't afford to waste time.  Anyway I got a good couple of hours work done on the boat tonight, concentrating on the port hull outboard tumble homes.  I'm beginning to get my head around them now, but I'm going slowly so as not to repeat my previous mistakes.  It's very satisfying when you get it right, though, particularly when you drop a spirit level into place and see that bubble sitting smack in the middle!  By the way, thanks to Boatsmith, Martin, David and Georges for last night's comments.  Much appreciated guys.