THE 'GLEDA' PROJECT

Logically I should be continuing with the tumble homes but I've sort of got sidetracked into fitting the large Lewmar hatch I bought at the weekend. I think it will be a nice psychological boost to get it fitted so that's what I've decided to do next. It will be quite challenging as it doesn't quite fit between the aft deck support stringers and needs to be fitted flat. Tonight I've started making a frame that the hatch will fit onto and which in turn can be cut into and fixed to the aft deck. I pretty sure I know how I'm going to so it but as always I'm making it up as I go along.

Its been cold and wet today, only 5'C at the barn tonight. A world of difference from the super weather we had at the weekend. Beaulieu was blessed with light winds and some nice sunshine, perfect for strolling and browsing the ranks of stalls packed with all manner of boat related stuff. I had my list and I did quite well. I got a super new Lewmar hatch for the starboard aft deck and two long port lights that I couldn't resist. I'm not sure where they are going yet but I know they will fit somewhere and look great! I also got a couple of mushroom type dorade vents, a selection of internal butterfly vents and a sink for the heads. I spent up to my budget and could easily have kept going but I controlled myself and I'm pleased with my purchases.

St Georges day today. In recent years being English has seemingly become something to keep quiet about, and the cross of St George is usually only seen when an important international football or rugby match is going on, but I'm pleased to say that there now appears to be a year on year increase in awareness of our National Day, hey maybe one day we may even get a holiday! Whatever, I'm proud to be English and as many of you will know 'Gleda' is an old English name and she is being built in the very heart of England so I feel it right and proper to highlight the fact. The photo above was taken outside the local cricket club just down the lane from where I live and it put a smile on my face on the way to the barn.

It's amazing what a difference a night's sleep can make to dealing with problems. After the frustrations and anger of last night things couldn't have gone better tonight and I now know how I am going to tackle the job. I decided that the best way to show you was with another video. Many thanks to Jon Sutton for the suggestion of using hardboard templates, it was certainly a possible solution but hopefully I've cracked it without needed to do this. As always though I really do appreciate helpful comments like these.

Only yesterday, during a conversation about the build, a collegue asked me if I would prefer to have more help with the building or would I rather continue working alone. My answer was that if I was starting from scratch I would love to have someone to share the pleasure and pain but, having now come so far on my own, it would be difficult to accept such a change. I'd be fearful of losing complete control and I didn't want to dilute the ultimate satisfaction of seeing things through to the end and knowing that I'd done it all myself. There are times however when the sheer frustration of not being able to do something alone comes boiling up and tonight was one of those times. As planned I decided to start on the tumble home panels. There are no dimensions given for these in the plans because JWD feel that they are better fitted if measurements are taken from the boat and there are no detailed instructions on the best method for fitting them. Although the ply pieces are not particularly large they are 2.44(8ft) long and need to be held in place high on the hull sides to enable any marking out to be done. They have to be bent in 3 planes and there is nowhere for them to locate until they are fixed. Holding them in place requires pressure on the outside, marking them requires drawing on the inside. Trying to do this alone whilst standing on step ladders is impossible. I tried temporary screws, clamps, scrap pieces of ply as retainers, you name it. I cut one piece of ply completely wrong and slipped off the ladders grazing my wrist and twisting an ankle. The air was blue and nothing was working. I did eventually get one piece very roughly in place but I'm not happy with it. I know glass tape and epoxy will make good many a poor fit but I also have standards that I won't compromise.

Another push, another session, and I've got the port forward deck finished. Its pleasing to have put some decent shape into the bows all the way up to the stem heads. I'm on the lookout for some really nice hardwood to finish these off but there's no rush and it's a job that can be done anytime if I fancy something different to tackle. For now I can say that all four single skin decks fore and aft are finished for now, so what's next? I think it's the tumble homes. These are the long narrow tapered panels that form the lower part of the cabin roof sides and are fixed to the angles at the tops of the bulkheads. There is plenty of filleting work left to do inside the hulls but my focus for the summer is to try and get the hulls enclosed so that I can work inside the boat when the weather turns cold again. In addition there is a lot of motivation to be gained from adding some more decent sized bits of ply that will change the hull shapes again.