593Hrs – 1st Build Anniversary!
It seems incredible but it is now a full year since I started building. I’ve averaged just over one and a half hours work per day. I missed my target of getting the lower hulls completed and turned. Looking back I’m pleased with what I have achieved none the less, I’ve learnt a hell of a lot and proved to myself that I can make Gleda a reality. My enthusiasm is undiminished and I am determined to get to my hull turning target before 2007 is done. Strictly speaking though I am treating December 12th as Gleda’s official birthday because that is the day when I cut the first actual pieces of wood. Looking ahead I know that I must make more effort to increase productive building time. If I were to continue at the current rate, and assuming a 3500hr total, I would be looking at a 6 year build. I can’t live with that.
Dec 4th 2006 – Dec 4th 2007
Tonight I finished shaping the last keel strip and then, because I felt like it, walloped a coat of white on the hullstands to make them look a bit prettier! Thanks to Thomas for his idea regarding waxing the screws and injecting the holes with epoxy. It’s an idea I might just try. I did some trials with the method tonight including a variation using petroleum jelly on the threads instead of melted paraffin wax. I’ve got the piece of wood sitting on the radiator at home to cure off and then I’ll see if I can get the screws out. Matti, it would be impossible to screw wood screws into a hole drilled in solid epoxy you would have to treat it like solid metal, drill and tap a thread into the hole and then use bolts. That’s way too much like engineering for me to cope with!
Happy Birthday! It may seem like a long year, or possibly a year that has flown by like a cloud in the sky, but you are getting there and you will realise your dream. Dream Well- Be Happy
Back to the hole in the hull issue. Wait till you get further along! There are so many things that need to be mounted. Bolts, screws on and on. All those holes need to be treated one way or another. One thing to consider in a release agent is can you waterproof or get stuff to stick later. When I mounted hardware and the likes I tried to standardize. I used only two sizes of screws #8’s and #10 and a few sizes of bolts or machine screws. I’m not a big fan of screws, they pull out. I labeled and dry mounted everything then removed it. I then syringed in a thin mix of epoxy that would mostly soak in and once cured scred or bolted everything in place. Almost everything. At the end I wanted to be on the water and there are elements on the pod/cockpit that didn’t get that treatment. Maintenance is a key to understanding that entropy will work always trying to un do the order you believe you have created!
Congratulations on achieving so much in your first year and Many Happy Returns to Gleda, but hopefully future ones will be spent peacefully swinging around the hook in a deserted anchorage!