Odyssey launched.

Here's one that seems to have slipped in under the radar!
Aleksander is currently undergoing sea trials aboard his new paradox, "Odyssey" after launching his boat last week. He is exploring New York Long Island coast right now after sailing the boat from Barnegat Bay, NJ.
She looks great and those teak decks are a work of art!
Congratulations Aleksander.

Almost there!

Well the to-do list is all but empty and next time I post, I hope it will be from on the water.
I've had some busy days finishing things off and dealing with some snagging. The rigging went without too much of a hitch; I need to trim the mast foot a little as it's too tight in the mast step.
The tack strop worked well and seems pretty strong.

The sail seems to set nicely and furls well on the boom.



The rudder lift and steering lines all work as expected.

The interior has been tidied up, cleaned and, because of unexpected guests last night, slept in!

Finally she has her windows and name added.

Mix it all up, add a little light music and this is what we get.

Where have 4 (yes that's four) years gone?

Looking back at my blog, I see that my entry for 1st May 2007 was Real Sawdust!
Where the time has gone I don't really know. That was the start of the build and what seemed like a pretty quick project to complete has turned out to be anything but! OK, so I shut up shop all winter, so my build window has really been April - October, so we're  only looking at 2 years work
Yes 4 years later and I'm still making sawdust and shavings. There really is very little needs doing, it's mainly fitting out rather than building, but today and yesterday I was still cutting wood, planing and sanding.  This was for the fabrication of the ballast supporting structure. This believe me is pretty critical. Those lead pigs are seriously heavy and I don't want them moving around.

I built some retaining boxes after glassing the bilge for abrasion resistance and extra strength. Each "box" is lined with closed cell foam to further reduce any possible movement of the lead pigs. There are 3 compartments each side,  two behind bulkhead 3 and one forward.

Here we have three little pigs mounted in their pen. The straps are left in place so that I can actually lift them out again. Even with this aid it's hard work. There's no way I can get my fingers in and gain enough purchase to lift these without them.


Here we have the starboard three clamped down with 12mm ply using 6mm bolts. it just needs a coating of epoxy and some tidying up to complete.
Whilst waiting for epoxy to go off, I also gave a lick of paint to some of the outstanding smaller items. This turned out to be not such a good idea. The wind increased throughout the afternoon and I've not got a lot of gritty  paintwork to rub down and repaint!

I also spent some time doing a couple of modifications to my trailer. When I loaded the boat on, which I did single handed winching straight off her temporary trolley, I encountered a bit of inconvenience with the rear rollers. I've now made some improvements and added a couple more rollers at the same time. I'll have to wait till I launch and recover to see if the mod is completely successful.

Is that water on the horizon?

A useful spell of dry, warm weather has lead to a mad sprint to get as much work done on the boat as free time allows. I've been painting (again :o) but I'm hoping that the end is sight.
The spars are now all varnished, just a little lick of white paint required to finish.
I have the vent trunk to paint and seal up, the tiller to mount, deck hardware to mount, Hatch and runners to fit and sail and rigging to complete. All these are waiting in the wings ready to go.
Most importantly, now the boat is on the trailer we can go off and sail it.




I'm counting down the days. Watch this space....

Is it Spring yet?

Well I've every intention of getting this boat in the water before the summer arrives, so every bit of nice weather is going to help me make that target. Today was fine and mild, I didn't do much on the boat, but every little bit helps. The to-do list is actually quite short now and I'm hoping to tick quite a few of the items off fairly quickly.

Today I cut my lead pigs in half, as , at almost 40kgs each, they were just too heavy to safely manhandle. They're now a more manageable size so I'll be preparing the mountings in the bilge for their eventual installation. It was remarkably easy to chop them in half using an old cross cut saw.

Now I need to lift this little pile (110Kgs) on board!

I've also been sorting internal rigging etc. so she's starting to look a bit more ship shape.

More to come.

Shore Leave Launched

Congratulations to Terry in Florida, who launched his Enigma clone "Shore Leave" on Saturday.

Enigma is of course Paradox's little sister, and Terry's version is 12' 3" long with a 43" beam.

A fantastic piece of work accomplished in a very short time (wish I could work so quickly).

See more of his build at his website here.

Cachivache Launched Today

Congratulations to Alberto who launched his boat "Cachivache" today on the river Chubut in Rawson, Argentina.

More details of Alberto's build can be found at his website.

Well Done.