THE 'GLEDA' PROJECT

Firstly my heartfelt thanks to:

• Chuck
• Georges
• Ann & Neville
• Nonthawat
• Marc (In Paris)
• Bob Bois
• Chris Harrell
• Jacques

As always you guys never let me down. Your suggestions, comments and encouragement are priceless to me and when Gleda is launched you will all have played a part in getting her on the water. Thank you.

Its been an intense few weeks and whilst I have neglected Gleda I haven't been idle. This blog is not the place for details but suffice to say that my mind is much clearer regarding my long term plans for finishing the build and getting out there. As my last blog made clear I'd got to the point where I was losing sight of the goal and doubting my ability to get there. I couldn't see a way forward and I felt deeply frustrated. I'm pleased to say that I've regained my focus and now have a clear plan. It necessitates a slight change of emphasis for the rest of this year and accepting the reality that I won't make as much progress on Gleda as I had hoped, but it's all for the greater good and doing these things now will lay the foundations for years to come. I have a new inspirational quote pinned above my computer.

If you're willing to do for a year what others won't, you can do for a lifetime what others CAN'T

That sums up how I will be working for the next year and mark my words, things will be very different this time next year!

So, having had the longest period away from the build without being away on holiday, it felt a little strange to get back to the barn and to try and pick up where I'd left off. Ah yes, those bloody tumble homes. Well at least some time away had calmed me down a bit and I was able to look at them fresh and apply some rational thinking to the problem. It took a while but I now have one set dry fitted correctly and to an acceptable standard. I worked on the port inboard set having taken note of Jacques comments that there is a bit more leeway with the inboard ones as they are virtually hidden once the beams and deck go on. Taking my time and using the water level I got them fitted nicely and was able to re-cut some of the original panels to minimise wastage. If you look closely in the photo you should be able to see how the top edge of the panels lines up nicely with the horizontal lines of the brickwork in the barn wall. To use the old adage again 'if it looks right it probably is right'. It looks right to me!

It's now my intention to get some sort of balance back into things and to try and mix in some reasonable building time with my other activities. We'll see how that goes. Either way whether I'm working physically on Gleda or not I can guarantee that I'll be working hard on something that makes the future much brighter.

I'm getting stressed. I'm simply not getting enough build time in and it's mainly due to the hours and demands of my full time job and the knock on effect of fatigue associated with long working hours. If I gave up my little remaining rest and relaxation it would damage my personal life and ultimately result in burn out. What's the solution? Well I can't see one at the moment. It's a catch 22, I need to put the hours in to get the money needed to continue living and building the boat. I have some ideas that could make things easier but they are long term and also demand that time is spent on them. I feel stretched thin, trying to do it all and not making much headway with any of it. So what do I do? I don't see any choice but to throttle back on the boat and to invest more time in changing the situation. If I continue as I am it will take another 4 or 5 years to finish Gleda and I can't live with that. This means that I will have to sacrifice my evening sessions at the barn, as it is I usually only manage one or two hours anyway and if I've made the decision then I won't beat myself up about it when I get home late, I'll just sit down at my desk and work on Plan B. If I do this for a few months then I'll have lost about 48 hours of build time but I should be able to see some light at the end of the tunnel. It's a shame that they are valuable Summer hours but the timing is out of my hands it's just something I have to do to safeguard the project as a whole.

Given that I had all these thoughts buzzing round my head you can imagine how much I wanted to make today's eight hour building session productive. You can equally imagine therefore how annoyed I was that at the end of it I was further back than when I started! In a nutshell I've made a balls up of the tumble homes. I was far too keen to get them fitted and trimmed and it wasn't very long after staring to make what I thought were final adjustments that I realised it. As I've mentioned before, there are no dimensions given for these panels in the plans and the drawings have scant detail. I'd quite happily done what I've previously done when cutting panels i.e dropped on a long batten and 'faired' it by eye. What I missed this time however was the now obvious fact that the tops of these tumble home panels have to be level fore and aft and athwart ships so that the pre-fabricated curved sandwich deck panels drop on nicely. Because I had followed the hull lines I reckon 8 out of my 12 panels will have to be re-made. A huge waste of time and a pricey waste of ply. I would advise anyone following in my footsteps to use hardboard templates! Anyway after discovering my error I spent hours measuring and using the water and laser levels to get what was needed clear in my head. I'm still not sure I have it nailed but I'll get there. I suppose I've been lucky to get this far in without any serious mistakes and at least I spotted it before it affected anything else. Like I said at the beginning.......stressed!

A more typical UK Bank Holiday day today, cloudy, rainy and temperatures struggling around 8'C. My mood seemed to match the weather with a lack of energy and fighting a migraine headache. Whatever, I was determined to get the tumble home panels 1st fitted to the port hull so that's what I did. Not an easy day but more progress made. I'll now take time this week to check, adjust, and get them glued in position.

After losing a weekend last weekend and wanting to keep up some momentum, I took today off work and got a good solid seven hours in at the barn. After my little diversion with the aft deck hatch I returned to the main job in hand .... the tumblehome panels. I was a little apprehensive after my initial difficulties but using the techniques I showed in the last video update things moved along beautifully and I now have all the panels on the starboard hull cut and first fitted. There will be quite a bit of tweaking to be done to get all the angles and curves just right but I've learnt that taking a bit of time, and using the Mark 1 eyeball from different angles, any problems soon show themselves. The old adage about fair curves " if she looks right then she probably is right" is absolutely true. Going back to the hatch for a second, thanks to Jacques for pointing out that the tiller bars, if built as per plan, would foul the open hatch. That won't be a problem for me as I'd already decided that Gleda will be wheel steered, so the tiller bars will be cut short, Thanks anyway Jacques, great to heare that you've been getting some help and that work is progressing well.

I had a really good work session tonight, one of those where the time flies by and progress seems to come easily. After cleaning up the excess epoxy from the hatch frame I made last night I marked and cut the radii on the corners, made a few adjustments and then checked that the hatch fitted into it nicely. That done I used the frame to mark the position on the aft starboard deck. I took lots of time to check measure several times before marking and plucking up the courage to take a saw to my lovely new deck! I cut well inside the marked line so it took a while with the sander, checking the fit frequently, before the frame could be gently tapped into place. Then using the spirit level I tapped it level and dropped the hatch into place. I'm really pleased with it and I can now start fixing the frame properly and adding a few extra deck supports to ensure that everything is strong. Final fixing of the hatch and fitting a hardwood surround can come much later. I want to give some more thought to the hatch orientation i.e which way it opens. I'm inclined to have the hinges on the aft side so that the hatch opening faces the beam trough but I'm also considering having the hinges on the outboard side so that the opening faces the deck. Anyway plenty of time yet to ponder that one.