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Mark Pearse

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  • Gender
    Male
  • Location
    Sydney, Australia
  • Interests
    We own a small classic yacht - a gaff sloop - which is excellent for day use & racing also. Cherub gets lots of use.

    I enjoy fishing & used to surf a lot. These days I'm a family man but we sail together.

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  1. Hi Vaddoc, good progress. And your daughter's boat is lovely, she will remember the experience of making something with her dad. I know it's painful subject, but is Beech timber more inclined to change size with changing humidity? I think Phil's advice to seal the timber is good, it should significantly slow down humidity changes of the timber.
  2. Hi Steven, I went to a talk on the sailing of the Duyfken late 15C ship, they noted that the person on the steerage can get thrown across the boat. My thoughts are that your stance looks good, but perhaps a stance more braced...wider stance perhaps? Just a thought
  3. Hi Dick, The amount of timber in the ships of this type & era is an extraordinary thing to contemplate. With the deck timbers on this vessel, what actual size were they? (also, were they usually Oak?)
  4. Hi Steven, I hope you aren't in danger with the current bushfires in your area. Best wishes on that.
  5. Hi Craig I hadn't seen this log before, I clearly need to browse the forum a bit more. She's very nice. Is that a heavyweight sharpie?
  6. Thank you Håkan, that's a lovely yacht, & thee S & S dna is evident. I have been lucky enough to do a motor boat cruise through the Finnish SW archipelago, & we went as far as Åland (Avenamaa), so have some experience of the rocky aspect. It was slightly shocking that some rocks 1m or less deep can be unmarked.....but I suppose you get used to it. Avenamaa of course has historical ties to Australia, being the home of the last sailing trading ships between Europe & Australia, as late as the late 1940s, I think. all the best & thank you for the minor detour
  7. it would be nice to hear what sort of vessels you can & like to sail on, your part of the world has a rich maritime history
  8. The model has been progressing, but the planking is pretty slow, but it is getting there. The simpler nature of a 'strip plank' style hull does reduce the technical difficulties a lot, but balanced by the relatively narrow planks. And the previous planked model was using Huan Pine, which is very supple, this is Basswood / Limewood & it's much stiffer. The lovely lines are appearing, although it's not so visible in the model yet - the scallops from the gunwale line around the cockpit hasn't been cut yet .... & it's probably normal anyway. This one shows the technique: bulldog clip clamps to hold the planks to the moulds & rubber bands to assist pull the planks down to the previous plank. The gunwale scallop at the stern is marked approximately in pencil & will be cut after the model is fully planked & removed from the building frame. I'm starting to use the heat gun to put some pre-twist into the planks. The epoxy is messy, but all will be forgotten once the sanding starts, but for now another few weeks of a plank or two per day. thanks
  9. Hi Steven, I can confirm it works, I used acrylic paint (tinted to suit the colour I was after) plus 10-15% PVA, then rolled on with a 100mm roller. There's some more details starting from about post 344, linked below. I used a 6H pencil for seams & finished with clear matt spray finish. 5 years later & there is no sign of any delimitation or discolouring.
  10. Your post raised an issue of modelling accuracy - not accuracy to history but how close to square, how consistent in size & shape, etc. My boating experience is with smaller traditionally built yachts, & even boats that were built by recognised boat builders of the day have many inaccuracies. It's clear many things were set out by eye, & quickly at that. Hatches well out of square, portholes not aligning on each side of the hull..... I suppose I'm pointing out that what you described is probably more true than a high level of accuracy & consistency.
  11. Hi Scott Thanks, some of those strings would have been perfect. I did end up getting just the thing via the internet, 2nd time lucky.....see below, the New #1 was the first (& unsuccessful) string order, & the Final was deemed good enough. I see that this is your first post, are you interested in or working on any model yachts? Posting this, I realised that I never really finished this blog off, so I'll add finished photos below & give a short overview of the completed model repair. Overall photos, in the house of the owners. The model is large, as you can see here. And a gorgeous hull shape. I am guessing it's 1880-1910 in age, probably pre-1900, as the hull shape is typical of the 'lead-mine' hulls of the 19C. Bowsprit repair at the stem. I re-wrapped the bowsprit with brass wire, where it had been done to cover/strengthen a previous repair. Sail repairs, the cotton was weak, so I painted the tacks, leeches & heads with diluted PVA, then new stitched rigging using whipping twine. In this photo, I extended further down the sail in white so it's not so obvious, but adds some badly needed strength. Tip of the bowsprit, some of the hooks were missing & were copied. The repairs did not try to o'improve' on previous work that wasn't perfect, I made the decision to leave the model with it's quirks & eccentricities (below the whipping in wire...) Foredeck, also showing how the headsail sheets were lead. This model would not have been raced, I'm sure of that. Swapping the sheets for th opposite tack would have been slow. She was owned & sailed for the pleasure. As a final note, I believe she was built in Tasmania, as the bowsprit, I believe, was King Billy Pine. For those that know the timber, it's a lovely light-weight timber with an even grain. The hull & deck is Australian Red Cedar, which was shipped to Tassie, & I am guessing that King Billy Pine was much less available in other states than RC was available elsewhere. thanks,
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