Schooner Altair by KeithAug - Scale 1:32 - 1931 - Finished

[Guest Riccardo1966]

Hello Keith, nice to see you back at work, so much detail on that mast and beautifully done as usual.

Regards Richard.

[dvm27]

Bloody marvelous, Keith!

[Nirvana]

Stunning!

[KeithAug]

Richard, Greg , Per. Thank you.

 

Further progress on the boom:-

 

The detail at the end of the boom is minimal both on the plans and on the web. The mainsail must have an outhaul line and on some photos I can see a line running the length of the boom to a block and winch on the main mast. I surmise that this is the outhaul in which case the end of the boom must have some sort of pulley wheel. I decided therefore to slot out the end of the boom to take a .25" dia x .04" wide sheave.

 

The boom has 4 bindings at positions along it length. One is grey while the others are black. A raid of my wife's sewing box produced the required thread and I wound it by pacing the boom in the lathe (rotating at 60 rpm) with the thread being hand fed. I fixed it in place by wiping on some CA glue. The binding was then cut away across the slot (milled earlier) to take the track.

 

The track was then machined to fit over the various boom fittings and holes were drilled in it to pass through the various strops and lines. The track was glued into the slot using CA glue.

The end of the boom was then finished by adding a further strop rubbing strip, sheave and end reinforcing hoop.

 

Along the boom are various attachment points which were made from mahogany.

I also needed to make an attach some very small (at model scale) brackets. These were cruciform in shape and were made on the mill. They are about .2" x .2".

The brackets were then attached - pinned in place and glued with CA.

 

Every time I look at the boom I find more detail. I thought I had finished but then discovered a couple of cleats mounted at the mast end. A job for tomorrow!!! I also need to think about making the 60 sliders which are approx .080 inch wide and need to be slotted to run on the track. They are complicated little devils and I need to work out how best to produce them efficiently.

 

 

 

 

[Jim Lad]

Just catching up after holidays, Keith - she continues to impress.

 

John

[Guest Riccardo1966]

Hello Keith, there is a video by Richard Langdon at classic boat, in hd that shows the underside end of the foremast at 2.15. Looks to be very similar, if not exact to your solution.

Cheers Richard.

[KeithAug]

Thank you John.

 

Richard - I have used that video a lot. The image at 2.15 is a bit vague so requires some interpretation. It's the image below - cleaned up as best I can using photo processing

I am assuming that the main boom shares some common design features but I can't see any signs of the outhaul on this image.

 

The image that Infer the design is the one below. The tight line that is below the boom passes through the pulley before winding on to the mast winch. I'm not sure what this would be for if not an outhaul. 

However to add to the mystery I also have this image which shows a twin (triangular) rope arrangement going back to two eyes on the ring at the end of the boom. 

 

I bet someone will have a good explanation for the images?????

 

 

 

[KeithAug]

I have had another think,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, The line on to the pulley and the winch is a reefing line. You can see it going on to the final pulley on the side of the boom in the last image. Much head scratching!!!!!!!!!!!

[Guest Riccardo1966]

Hi Keith, I did wonder if you had seen the video and if both booms would be identical or not, the lack of clear photos is always a limiting factor that has had me hunting the web for many, many hours.  Could the answer lie on another Fife boat?, you have likely considered this I am sure.

Cheers Richard

[herask]

incredible details! beautiful work, mate! 

 

[michael mott]

Hello Keith... Kudos on the mast and boom work. Hmm Model railroad track such a valuable resource. I have thought about making cleats from the brass G scale track.

 

Michael

[jonny.amy]

Keith,

 

The line that runs under the boom and terminates at the winch is almost certainly the outhaul. This is the most logical place for the outhaul to be, and most of yachts I've sailed on have had the outhauls running through or along the boom to a clam cleat or jammer, and then on to a winch at the base of the mast. The outhaul terminating on a captive winch on the mast allows for crew to make small or large adjustments to the tension in the sail when required whilst keeping the pressure in the sail (which in turn keeps the yacht on course), and keeps weight in the center or slightly off-center (to windward) when adjusting the sail tension. The picture shows a crew member adjusting the outhaul, and a crew member on the winch to grind the winch. As far as I'm aware Altair is one of only a few classic yachts that still use the classic canvas sail material and not the modern equivalent that has a lot less stretch in it when under pressure. The crew will be adjusting the outhaul to match the wind speed and pressure (in this case its a light breeze) so they can gain the correct shape in the sail.

 

To help with sail shape, on modern racing yachts, a tweaker block is set up with the main sheet. I'd hazard a guess at the two lines in question attached to the underside of the boom are tweaker lines for fine tuning of the main. It would allow for additional twist in the sail when heading to windward and would eek a few additional fractions of a knot on that tack. In this example, by bringing the leeward (in this case, port) tweaker line done by a few inches you could add significant twist to the sail and increase their boat speed. Likewise, in the event of a large gust or squall hitting the yacht whilst hard pressed to windward (likelihood is that the yacht is trying to fetch to the windward mark in one tack), by easing the tweaker line on leeward side would dump about 40% of the power from the sail, meaning you avoid being hard pressed and potentially rounding up. The tweaker lines are mostly used whilst sailing upwind or reaching, but can be used to achieve finite adjustment of the sail whilst sailing downwind.

 

Just my two cents, but it seems logical that it would be a tweaker.

 

Cheers

Jon

[KeithAug]

Richard and Herask - thank you.

 

Also thank you to all who have liked my recent posts.

 

Michael, I hadn't thought of the cleat option - I may look into that.

 

Jon. thank you for your detailed and considered reply which I read with some interest. It felt right but then spurred me on to dig further. You may have further thoughts on my ongoing investigations:-

 

These are different but quite poor views of the end of the main boom. The mainsail seems to be lashed to the 2 fixed eyes and i can't see any sign of an outhaul. I'm wondering if the sail is fixed and does not have an outhaul. It may just be re-tensioned occasionally when not under sail.

In the photos below the line below the boom is quite slack even though the sail is full. It the line were a conventional outhaul the line would be tight????

In this shot looking up at the mast end of the boom the "assumed" outhaul line does not exist - but yet again the sail is full.

 

Also I thought i would add the following to feed someones tool envy:-

 

 

[michael mott]

Keith that is a really beautiful tool, when it is cranked up does the flywheel effect of the face plate also disengage from the handle so that the user can just take hold and give more turns to keep up the momentum like the free wheel on a bicycle.

 

Michael

[Guest Riccardo1966]

Hello Keith, the mystery deepens, your further research seems to confirm your thoughts hmm. Would the scottish maritime museum hold any plans for Altair as they have detailed plans on Eileen I believe ?. Thank you for posting the simply beautiful lathe, I did wonder if you had made it at first, It would not have surprised me.

Cheers Richard

[KeithAug]

Michael,

 

No, the large and small helical gears are fixed, as is the face plate. The larger gear is however mounted on a bracket and bolted to the main frame to make it easily removable. This is a design feature to allow the lathe to be quickly converted to belt drive. 

 

I have never seen one of this pattern that is as nice as this one. The baseplate and pedestal are typically made from wood or at best a rough piece of iron. This one is machined from bronze and the whole thing weighs 18kg.

 

It has very few signs of damage or wear and is still silky smooth after a century and half. My guess is that it was never used in anger and was a demonstration model or something of that sort.

 

it has however one flaw. The hand turning rest and mounting bracket is missing. I have spent a long time looking but as yet have not found one. It's on my to do list to make one but at the moment is some way from the top. 

[KeithAug]

Richard

 

Mr Fife seems to have been a bit of innovator with his mast and rigging designs. Eileen is just different enough to add to the confusion.

 

 

 

 

[jonny.amy]

Keith,

 

I think the tension of the outhaul / lack of outhaul in the aforementioned pictures could be based on three aspects:

1 - In Photo 3 - lack of tension is because of the use of cruising sails (a lot of these yachts will own multiple suits of sails, at least 1 set for cruising and deliveries, and possibly 2 or more sets for racing in various wind conditions), these would be a synthetic canvas material for longevity and robustness (last thing you want to do is rip the canvas sails with charter guests aboard), and would probably be cut to give ample shape to the sail for a short handed delivery crew or charter crew to get the best boat speed. 

2 - In Photo 5 - the outhaul is tied off to the cleat (top left corner of picture) and coiled away (also top left). This is probably due to the (again) the use of cruising sails? Tell me, are these pictures taken from a promotional charter website/video/photo gallery? I've done fair bit of charter work as crew, and the mantra for most boats is "keep it simple" - 90% of Charter guests are not interested in the sailing aspect of the charter (mostly the looking good one a good looking yacht thing), and the yacht will be sailed with a small crew (usually a Skipper, Bosun and 2 Mates), so sailing her needs to kept simple.
 

3 - In Photo 1 - Just because the sail is full, it doesn't mean you have to have an outhaul running all the time. Photo 1 shows two short lashings at the boom end-cap, which suggests to me that the crew have removed the outhaul in place of the lashing. The natural stretch in the rope lashing would allow for some ease of pressure, whilst retaining a constant pressure and curveture on the foot and luff of the sail. Again, I assume that these are candid cruising shots, so she isn't fully powered by up in all of her racing fit out (read any Supersail World magazine and that will highlight the fact that all of the yachts have a cruising and racing set up for their rigs). I'm sure Photo 2 also covers this use of lashings.

 

I hope any of that helps, and I would suggest that the outhaul is a roving line that only comes out in full force when racing or on very long distance sailing. I would also speak with Fairlie Yachts on the Hamble River to see if the current rig is as per designed, or has been optimised for the current owners requirements. Its is also noteworthy that Fairlie did the restoration of Altair in 2004/2005... https://www.fairlieyachts.com/

 

Cheers,

Jon

[KeithAug]

Jon

 

Thanks. I had sort of got to the point of thinking the outhaul was removable. I'm sailing into the Hamble in a month or so's time so will call in to Fairlie if time permits.

[KeithAug]

So finally the main boom is complete and awaiting rigging.

 

I had missed the final pair of "side" pulleys so added them and I also put the sheaves in place (.100" diameter x .035" wide).

 

I cheated a bit with the boom cleats as I had some of the correct size left from a previous build. They were however too bulky on the base so I cut them down and attached a central mounting pin.

 

I then made a start on the main gaff. It is .275" diameter and I needed to turn down the dowel to size before cutting to length and adding the end reinforcing rings.

 

 

[KeithAug]

Progress on the main gaff has been fairly rapid (for me).

 

Once again the boom was machined on the mill. 0.040" wide longitudinal slots were machined to take the rubbing strips and various other pockets were cut to take surface mounted pulleys and strop restraints. The fittings were then mounted - predominantly glued with CA.

 

\

I needed .100" x .030" strips of brass from which to make the straps for the throat. These were slit from sheet on the mill to ensure accuracy.

 

...and once made they were drilled with .040" holes to take rivets.

 

I made myself an anvil and used the brass wire to form rivets. No glue required.

The boom is now complete awaiting the manufacture of the gaff saddle.

 

Post script - Durrrr --- I have forgotten the sheaves!!!!!!

[Guest Riccardo1966]

Hello Keith, The precision milling that you have done on the booms and gaff is very impressive, she is looking highly detailed.

Hope you have had a good Birthday today.

Cheers Richard

[KeithAug]

Thank you Richard - I was allowed extra shed time as a present.

 

So to continue todays work.

 

I needed to make the gaff saddle. A slightly tricky little number.

 

The body was made from solid bar - very wasteful, tube would have been better but I just didn't have the right size. Tin bashing was also an option but it is one of my least favoured skills. I remember in the apprenticeship school being let loose on fabricating a funnel. Mine seemed to be a bit of a mess. So bar it was - bored and turned on the lath and slotted .001" wide at its waist to take attachment of the straps. The bore is about 5/8".

I drilled the straps, bent them to shape and did a test fit. Straps .100" wide by .03" thick.

The holes turned out to be in the wrong place so I threw them in the bin and made another pair - it just seemed to be one of those days.

 

I drew two oval templates to make 2 bodies and stuck them to the pre turned bar using double sided tape. The shape was then roughly cut out with a piercing saw and finished with a file and wet and dry paper.

The remade straps were then soldered  in place while being held by forceps. The forceps were removed early (before adequately cool) and it all fell apart. Messy clean up of the components and try again.

At least I'm on the way to making the second one.

[KeithAug]

I finished the gaff so I thought I would post the photos to get the log up to date.

 

Stirrup - for attaching the gaff lift.

Assembled - 

[TBlack]

Keith,

Sorry to be late to the party, and fabulous work that you are doing. Do you suppose the slack line that runs along the bottom of the main boom is a topping lift?

Tom

[jdbondy]

Some day I hope to be able to machine parts like this...are you formerly a jeweler or something??

 

 

[KeithAug]

Tom, 

 

Thank you for taking the time to look at my log. The topping lift on Altair runs from the base of the mast to the head of the lower mast and then down to a position 2/3 way along the boom. I don't believe that the slack line below the boom is the topping lift.

 

JD.

 

I did 30 weeks of machine training at the start of my engineering apprenticeship in 1969. We got a good grounding in turning, milling, grinding, casting, fitting, sheet metal work and metal forming. I then didn't use the skills seriously until I retired in 2012 when I bought a small   Lathe and mill. Fortunately I had remembered the basics from 43 years before. So no I am not a jeweller but thank you for the compliment.

 

 

 

 

[Guest Riccardo1966]

Hello Keith, The gaff fittings came out beautifully.

Cheers Richard

[shipmodel]

Keith - 

 

What great metalwork !  I would be proud to own a yacht with fitting half so nice.

 

Dan

 

 

[KeithAug]

Dan, 

 

Thank you. Its easier when you are working at larger scales. I am equally impressed by builders like yourself that manage to create detail at much smaller scales.