One year on.....

Christmas always seems to be a time for reflection. Technically it is the first birthday of Golant Gaffer 134 in the sense that it was Christmas day last year that we sat down to work out what it would take to build a boat of our own and decided that we would. We had admired our friend's boat for a while, got to see her in more detail when we both took our boats to Holland last Summer and had pondered since our return of the possibility of building one ourselves. Events had conspired to delay our Christmas celebrations last year which left us with time on our hands on the day itself and it seemed an ideal opportunity to finally decide or let go. One year on where are we ?

Well the hull is built, sheathed and sanded. The waterline is in place (the prescribed technique is epoxying a piece of string along the waterline - nothing over technical there then ! see photo). D has been working out how best to construct the mast and we have sought a quote on the timber. We are after spar grade Douglas Fir and are thinking of using the bird's tooth construction for the mast as it is more economical on timber and should result in a strong mast that is a bit lighter and allows for wiring down the centre. Below is a diagram of a cross section of masts showing different types of bird's tooth construction. We are going for the one on the right.

We have also started the process of ordering some of the fittings. We were advised to order the fittings and then make the relevant parts to fit given slightly variable tolerances so we have. Also on the horizon is the ordering of the 650kg of lead keel. Whilst others have told us they have cast their own, we have decided to leave it to the experts and have it cast and delivered ready to go which avoids us having to heat up a bathtub of lead in the back garden.

In terms of the blog, I finally found time to work out whether I could enable followers to subscribe and I checked today and found I have two. Welcome both of you !  That's it for now. Happy Christmas everyone.



Sheathed and sanded hull

Waterline marked with string applied to the hull with epoxy. It will get tidied up when dry.