3495Hrs – A Little Bit Here, A Little Bit There

As the post title suggests, my work has been somewhat unfocused today. None the less the work I’ve done has all been necessary and it’s all helping bring completion nearer.

Unlike the weather in Texas where, as Chuck commented last night, it swings from UK Winter to UK Summer in a few days, the weather here is consistent i.e. shite. Not much rain today, just a strong bitter wind and near freezing temperatures.

As it was so cold I took advantage of the fact that the heated paint shop adjacent to my build barn was not being used, and moved my gaff build table complete with gaff I glued yesterday into it so as to give the epoxy a bit of a curing boost. There wasn’t anything else I could do as far as gaff building was concerned so I moved on to other things.

Before I tell you about those I’ll take a minute to answer Eric’s question about where the gaffs fit on the boat and what they do.

A Tiki 38 is designed as Gaff Rigged Schooner. A schooner is a sailboat with two or more masts of similar length, usually two and usually with a slightly shorter foremast. The gaff attaches to the top of the sail allowing it to be rectangular in shape rather than triangular thus increasing sail area without increasing height. The angle between the gaff and the mast can be changed so as to adjust the shape of the sail.

Here’s a picture of Tiki 38 ‘Tapasya’ to clarify.

The gaff isn’t mechanically fixed to the mast, it’s ‘jaws’ sit loosely around it so it can slide up and down and change angle easily. Here’s a close-up of the jaws on ‘Pilgrim’.

I hope that helps readers like Eric not so familiar with the technicalities of sailing rigs 🙂

Other jobs I’ve done today include some epoxy filleting and beam trough strengthening in the starboard forward compartment and some more experimentation with the deck pod roof. I’m still keeping my idea to myself mainly because it’s not yet formulated enough to explain. All I can say is that it involves a 9mm ply canopy and some adjustable height stainless steel support posts.If it works it’ll be brilliant!

Taking a day off tomorrow but I’ll be cracking on again next week. See you soon.