1809Hrs- Head Up My Own …..

Today I’ve spent six hours cramped up in a tiny space trying to get my body into positions it wasn’t designed for , trying to reach unreachable places and all the while fighting claustrophobia….. and I thoroughly enjoyed it! A certain degree of masochism is required to build a Tiki 38 and today it was required in quantity, why? Because I got all the epoxy fillets finished in the starboard bow watertight compartment and it feels great to have finally got things moving again after yet another involuntary break.

Obviously I’d completed all the fillets I could before I glued the foredeck in place but that still left the deck stringers and joint to the stemhead to do and they are a bugger, frankly, if I’d been any bigger I’d have had to employ the services of a young boy to have got them done but as it was I managed…just.

As I said it was just plain awkward but with a lot of contorsions and the use of an epoxy mixing stick taped to a length of wood I got the job completed to an acceptable standard, mind you I don’t know if I’ll be able to move tomorrow!

One casualty today though was my ‘Dremel’ tool. It’s flexy drive and a small flap wheel sander were proving perfect for preparing some particularly awkward corners but it suddenly stopped working and I then realised that in my efforts to reach the work area I’d been lying on the tool and blocking the airvents so it had overheated. I think it’s dead but to be fair it’s already done stirling service. I can’t afford another one though so I’ll just have to make do