1856 Hrs – Springing Into Action

Shock News! ………. I’m back building a boat!

I can’t believe that the work I’ve done today is the first I’ve done on the boat for over a year. 25th January 2011 to be precise. Even more incredible is that what I’ve done today is pick up a job I originally started on 17th October 2010 and gave up on because I couldn’t get the glass tape to stay in place!

Ah well that’s all ancient history now, what’s important is that I’ve started again and I will be doing all in my power to ensure that I now keep going until ‘Gleda’ is launched.

It seemed fortuitous that I’d picked today to re-start as the weather turned out to be amazingly Spring like for February. The temperature peaked at 16’C (61’F) which is way above what it should be. Let’s hope it’s a sign of things to come.

If the weather stays kind it’s my plan to continue work on the outside of the hulls reinforcing all of the structural joints of which there are many. Upper/lower hull, upper hull/deck, beam troughs, deck/cabin tops and more besides. The process involves applying 150mm (6in) glass tape to each and every one. I’m using the masking tape method to keep nice neat edges and to be honest it’s fairly straightforward work.

The joint that caused me the problem back in October 2010 was the one between the upper hull stringer and the hullsides. It’s got sharp angles underneath which, as I’d discovered are impossible to get glass tape to stick to. The building instructions suggest forming an epoxy fillet underneath to smooth the angle but I decided to speed up the process by ripping down some of my timber stock into triangular fillets that can be glued underneath the stringer. Stronger, better looking and easy to glass over. 

I was able to do this because I now have a fully fitted woodworking shop at my disposal right next door to ‘Gledas’ barn. I can’t say too much about it right now but it’s an exciting development in more ways than one not least because of the time I’ll save cutting timber.

It feels great to be back and I’m excited to be making progress again. I know exactly what I need to do over the next few weeks, I have all the materials I need for some months to come and I’ll be scheduling at least two full days of building every week as we move into Spring so look out for regular updates from now on!