THE 'GLEDA' PROJECT

The holiday break is already a distant memory. I was back to the grind today with a 12 hour day on the road. By the time I got home tonight I was tempted to scrub round a work session but I didn't. I put a lot of effort into getting the build site close to home so that I could put in shorter work sessions with minimum wasted travel time. These extra efforts all add up and help with the overall progress. I now have a starboard forward deck all sanded and shaped that I didn't have yesterday. With luck I'll finish the port one tomorrow.

Well, as per normal, what seemed like a decent period off work has just disappeared in a flash. As always I look back and beat myself up for not achieving anything like the amount of work I'd planned to. The reality is that I've put in 28 hours and am now close to having all the single skin decks completed, I've had a good period of R&R and feel re-charged. Work permitting I will try and put some extra effort in during the evenings this week as next weekend we are off to the South Coast for the Beaulieu Boat Jumble. I'll be making up a big list of things to look out for and hopefully will return with some useful stuff.

I'm concentrating on getting the newly installed bow decking finished off. The work involves removing redundant screws, grinding down the heads on any retained screws that are sitting too high, routing nice curved edges, filling crew holes and shaping the sheer stringers to a nice shape at the bow itself. Once all this is done I may well have a look at beefing up the stemheads.

Apologies for my failure to post anything these last few days. I've been mixing things up somewhat with boatbuilding, relaxation and pleasure activity and have deliberately let my routines go for a while. I've made some decent progress though and I thought that rather than bombard you with lots of text and photos I'd add another video update. I hope you like it.

The weather is typical for a UK Bank Holiday....grey and damp, well wet actually. To be truthful this makes it a bit easier to go the the barn as I don't feel like I'm missing out so much!

First job today was to give the first coat painted areas a light rub down and then, after a wipe over, I got cracking with the second coat of white epoxy primer. I used a small foam roller and a brush for areas the roller couldn't reach and got a nice consistant coverage. As always I really enjoy painting as it suddenly brings things together and makes a huge visual change that gives great satisfaction. After getting both bow sections second coated I also painted the round water tight hatches, the underside of the last port hull aft deck section and the undersides of all the forward deck support stringers. After making sure all these freshly painted bits were well under cover I then cracked on with sanding the starboard deck and beam trough doubler I glued the other night.

So it's been a gentle start to the hols but I'm pleased that I've made the session a productive one. Happy Easter to all, I hope it's a happy and peaceful time for everyone.