Skipjack Kathryn by Mahuna - FINISHED - 1:32 - Based on HAER Drawings

[Mahuna]

36 minutes ago, EdT said:

Catching up again, Frank.  Love the meticulous attention to detail - and the methods.  Bravo.

 

Ed

Thanks Ed.  Always good to hear from you.

[druxey]

I find it easier to do nearly all the block shaping before cutting it off the stick, if that's any help.

[Mahuna]

Thanks Druxey.  Yes, that would have been easier (and smarter) than the way I made the blocks.  I didn't leave enough room between the blocks to do it your way, but I will next time!

[Mahuna]

Part 78 –Block Hardware

 

The next step in preparations for rigging was to add the required hardware to Kathryn’s blocks.

 

Adding a ring to Kathryn’s single blocks required a different approach than simply adding a ringbolt.  The single blocks did not have very much wood above the sheave slot, so a ringbolt set into that area would be fairly fragile.  I decided to make holes on each side of the sheave slot and then to embed a wire that had been bent to a “U” shape.

 

The first step was to make pilot holes using a small awl.

 

                       

 

The holes were then drilled out by hand.

 

                        

 

The wire loop was shaped and then CA-glued into the holes.

 

                        

 

                        

 

If a ringbolt was required to install the block, then the wire for the ringbolt was run through the loop and then was turned into a ringbolt.

 

                        

 

                        

 

                        

 

In the cases where a shackle was used to connect a block to a ringbolt, a shackle/ringbolt combination (prepared in Part 67) was added to the ring before it was installed in the block.

 

                        

 

Each of the blocks required for a particular part of the rigging was completed and then filed away in a small bag marked with its destination.

 

                        

 

Now it’s time to step the mast, which will be the subject of the next post.

[GuntherMT]

Great work Frank... but man you are just way too organized for me.  😂

[EdT]

Beautiful work, Frank - and so well organized.

 

Ed

[Mahuna]

8 hours ago, GuntherMT said:

Great work Frank... but man you are just way too organized for me.  😂

 

1 hour ago, EdT said:

Beautiful work, Frank - and so well organized.

 

Ed

Thanks Brian and Ed.  I've found that if I don't put things away in some order then I either don't remember what they are for or I lose them.  To me, organization is a defensive measure!

[HIPEXEC]

Wow!  

[Mahuna]

Ha ha - Rich, you have a way with words!  Thanks.

[John Allen]

10 hours ago, GuntherMT said:

too organized for me

Frank,

 

In a past life were you an engineer, my brother in-law is one and displays the same organizational skills. He visits and sees my workshop and cries.

Do wish I was that organized  would have saved me a lot of time on redo's when I lost a piece. Kudos.

[Mahuna]

Thanks John - I started out as a software engineer and finished up in project management, so I guess some of that does come into play.

[Mahuna]

Part 79 –Mast Installation

 

Prior to installing the mast, any holes required for ringbolts, cleats, or other items were pre-drilled in the mast.  

 

The tenon at the bottom of Kathryn’s mast sits in the mast step – or the mortise cut into the keelson.  The octagonal hole in the mast partners allows enough room for wedges that will keep Kathryn’s mast properly centered and angled.  The following photo shows these wedges installed and painted on the real Kathryn.

 

                        

 

The first step in the installation of the model’s mast is to insert wedges on the sides of the mast to ensure that it is properly aligned vertically.  The wedges used on the model are a little over 1” thick (1/32 on the model) with the sides beveled to fit in the octagonal openings.  The beveling was done by sanding each piece by hand, using a sanding stick.

 

                        

 

When the side wedges were satisfactory the fore and aft wedges were inserted.

 

                        

 

The stock used for the wedges was kept extra long while the fitting was being done – this allowed easy removal of a wedge for tuning the shape of the wedge.  The same is true on the real Kathryn, as the following photo from the HAER survey shows.

 

                        

 

Once all eight wedges were finalized they were initially cut to a satisfactory length.

 

                        

 

The wedges were then carefully tapped down to their final height above deck using a small jewelers hammer and a flat screwdriver.  (When one wedge was tapped too low, it was possible to raise the ledge by prying it up with a small awl.)

 

                        

 

The mast wedges were then painted to match the mast.  No filler was used – the paint was thick enough to fill any small openings between the wedges or between the wedges and the mast.

 

                        

 

A hole had been drilled at the point where the boom sits on the mast, and a corresponding piece of piano wire was installed in the boom to hold it in place on the mast.

 

                        

 

                        

 

Finally, there are two mast cleats, one on each side, just below the boom jaws.

 

                        

 

Each of these cleats has a longitudinal metal bar running through it, as seen in the prior photo.

 

The cleats were each made form a single piece of 3/32” square stock. After shaping, holes were drilled for a mounting peg and for the longitudinal bar which were all made from piano wire.

 

                        

 

The longitudinal bars were oversized when installed.  After staining and an application of wipe-on poly on the wooden cleats, these bars needed to be trimmed to size.  All of the protruding lengths of these bars needed to be the same, so a small ‘jig’ was used as follows.  A piece of aluminum tube was cut to the final length and was slid over each side of the bar…

 

                        

 

and the bar was trimmed to the final length using a small nipping pliers.

 

                        

 

So the mast is now in place, and Kathryn is now ready for rigging.

 

 

Thanks all! 

[John Allen]

Frank,

 

I look at your build, and always see something I missed, and when I compare it to the pics of the real thing I am amazed every time I open this site. Your attention to details is just spot on even down to the small cracks running up and down the mast.

Absolutely superior craftsmanship. There are a lot of skill sets your passing down us builders in training or should I say apprentices, or wanna bes'. Kudos.

[druxey]

Lovely work as usual, Frank. Real mast wedges are something rarely seen on a model!

[EdT]

Nice detailing, Frank.

 

 

Ed

[Kurt Johnson]

Frank,

 

Very precise work!

 

Kurt

[Mahuna]

3 hours ago, John Allen said:

Frank,

 

I look at your build, and always see something I missed, and when I compare it to the pics of the real thing I am amazed every time I open this site. Your attention to details is just spot on even down to the small cracks running up and down the mast.

Absolutely superior craftsmanship. There are a lot of skill sets your passing down us builders in training or should I say apprentices, or wanna bes'. Kudos.

Thanks, John.  This build has been a good learning experience for me, and I'm glad if others are benefitting from it as well.

 

2 hours ago, druxey said:

Lovely work as usual, Frank. Real mast wedges are something rarely seen on a model!

Thanks Druxey.  Since I have lots of photos of the real thing I decided to try to have the model as realistic as possible - including the mast wedges.  I have to admit, though, that it took a while to work up the courage to step the mast.  Now, after the fact, I don't think it was too difficult.

2 hours ago, EdT said:

Nice detailing, Frank.

Ed

Thanks Ed - as I mentioned above, the many photos have been a real help.

 

1 hour ago, Kurt Johnson said:

Frank,

 

Very precise work!

 

Kurt

Thanks Kurt!

[Mark Pearse]

Hi Frank

 

thanks for the detailed posts. Are those cleats for the mainsail halyards?

 

Mark

[Mahuna]

Hi Mark.  Yes, the main halyard runs to the starboard cleat, and the jib halyard runs to the port cleat.

[Kurt Johnson]

Frank,  I hadn’t followed this from the beginning, but in the past several days I have rectified that. You have some seriously great modeling skills. Now I’m hooked. You set a high bar to b sure!

 

Kurt

[Mahuna]

Hi Kurt - glad you're on board - better late than never!  Now, I'm looking forward to your Newsboy build (right?)

[Mahuna]

Part 80 –Rigging Plans

 

Kathryn’s rigging is fairly simple, especially as compared to square-rigged ships. However, there are still opportunities to cause rigging problems by performing some of the work before other components that should be installed first. Avoiding this situation requires a bit of planning to understand the sequence that will work best.

 

The first step was to develop a description of each line, including rope and/or wire required, the termination points of the line, and the route that the line would need to take.  This was developed as a Word document.  The following is an excerpt from the document, describing the Topping Lift.

 

                       

 

The next step was to identify each task required to install the particular line or component, as in the following excerpt, and to build these tasks into a spreadsheet.

 

                        

 

A sequence of tasks was then put together, where the tasks were numbered in the sequence that they should be performed, blending tasks from the various components or lines where it made sense to do so, and then sorting them by the sequence numbers.  The following excerpt shows a portion of the resultant plan.

 

                        

 

I’ve attached the Rigging Details and a sorted Rigging Plan as PDF’s for those who may be interested in seeing these documents in their entirety.  I fully expect that some changes will be made as work progresses, but these are good overviews of what needs to be done.

 

KATHRYN Rigging Details.pdf

Kathryn Rigging Plan - Sorted.pdf

[Mahuna]

Part 81 –Mainsail

 

Kathryn’s sails will be furled, so I decided to use silkspan for the sails to reduce the bulk of the sails.  David Antscherl offers a very good process for using silkspan in his Swan IV Sail Making Supplement, and I used some of his suggestions in making the mainsail.

 

I found a good source of silkspan – Brodak Control Line Flying.  They offer a medium weight and a lite weight version, and both come in packages containing 2 24” x 36” sheets.

 

http://brodak.com/catalogsearch/result/?q=silkspan&x=0&y=0

 

The first step was to build a frame that would hold a large piece of silkspan.  I mounted the silkspan to the frame using chart tape, and then held the frame vertically in an old artists easel.

 

                        

 

Following David’s suggestions for painting the silkspan, I mixed acrylic titanium white and raw umber to give an off-white color, then diluted the paint so that it could be used in an airbrush.  I have a couple of cheap single-action airbrushes that gave a nice broad spray for coverage.

 

                        

 

Cardstock was used to make patterns for the sails based on the drawings of Kathryn’s sails in the HAER documentation.  These patterns had the locations of all of the grommets for mounting mast hoops and other rigging details marked where appropriate.

 

                        

 

Using the outside of the pattern as a guide, the outline of the sail was drawn on the silkspan and the location of all of the grommets and reinforcing pieces was marked OUTSIDE the boundary of the sail.  Making the marks outside the boundary enabled me to keep the actual sail clean and free of pencil marks.  The sail was cut out leaving enough excess to still show these marks.

 

                        

 

                        

 

                        

 

Reinforcing strips of silkspan were cut for the areas that would have lines attached. These strips were stuck onto the silkspan using acrylic matte medium.  The medium was applied to the strips using an artist’s paintbrush and then while the medium was still wet the strip was attached to the sail.  More medium was brushed over the strip to ensure a good bond.  The matte medium remains flexible after it has dried.

 

                        

 

 After the reinforcing strips had set, a small awl was used to punch holes in the sail’s perimeter as indicated by the pencil marks that had been made previously.

 

                        

 

                        

 

The sail was then trimmed just inside the border line to arrive at the final correct size.

 

                        

 

Because the sails will be furled, I decided to make both the mainsail and the jib somewhat smaller than the full sails.  The mainsail is about 2/3 of the height of the full sail, while the foot of the sail remained at the correct length.  Also, due to the furling, I didn't try to make any of the seams on the sail.

 

The next step is to install the mast hoops and other connections on the mainsail, which will be the subject of the next post.

 

Thanks everyone!

 

 

[Mahuna]

Part 82 –Mainsail cont’d

 

After creating Kathryn’s main sail, it was easier to install the mast hoops on the sail before bending the sail to the mast.

 

Kathryn’s lower mast hoops are attached to the sail using a jackline that runs through the lower grommets, allowing the mast hoops to move up and down with some flexibility.  The upper mast hoops are seized directly to the sail.

 

                        

 

Since the sail will be furled, I decided to seize all of the mast hoops directly to the sail using some light thread.  The first action was to secure the mast hoop by running a loop around the hoop and running the loose ends through the loop.

 

                        

 

The loop and loose ends were pulled tight and then were held using a couple of third hands, and the line was fixed in place using some matte medium.

 

                        

 

After the knot was set and with the mast hoop held perpendicular to the sail, the two loose ends were run through the sail from either side.

 

                        

 

The two lines were tied in a knot below the mast hoop.

 

                        

 

And then the loose ends were brought above the hoop and tied again.

 

                        

 

The process was repeated, tying knots below and above the hoop at least once more, and then the knots were painted with matte medium to secure them.

 

                        

 

After the medium had set, the loose ends were trimmed.

 

                        

 

                        

 

After all of the hoops were attached, the lower double block for the main halyard was seized to the head of the sail.

 

                        

 

Finally, lines for securing the lower corners of the sail were seized to the tack and clew.

 

                        

 

                        

 

The mainsail is now ready for installation on the model, which will be covered in the next post.

 

Cheers everyone!

 

 

[Kurt Johnson]

You’re an inspiration. Your metal work skills and all your other skills seem to go way beyond skills transitioned from bird carving (which I know is extremely demanding), but all this fiddly stuff.  Your builds remind me of those guys in my father’s old model railroading mags from the 1940s and 1950s. Where the guy would take an old shovel, do this, then that to it. Took his Unimat and did this and that and behold a perfect replica of a .... I dreamed of the day I could get a Unimat and when I could, they where plastic Lego versions. I have a Sherline Lathe and Mill but still haven’t mastered them. Anyway you are a master model maker. If I ever grow up (which apparently isn’t going to happen, and time is running out) I would like to be like you.

 

Kurt

[druxey]

Nice sail loft you have going there, Frank!

[Mahuna]

Kurt - thanks for your kind words.  Both hobbies - ship modeling and bird carving - have their own unique challenges and have been very satisfying for me.  I'm still learning and don't consider myself a 'master' by any stretch of the imagination, but I'm enjoying the whole experience.  

 

Druxey - thanks!  Your sail-making supplement answered a lot of questions for me - without it I don't think I would have attempted to put sails on Kathryn.

[thibaultron]

Frank

You may have to unstring the lower mast hoops. The reason they are attached with a pendant on a real Skipjack, is that as the sail is furled, the fore edge of the lower sail pulls back from the mast, as the boom is lowered. The pendant is released so that that section of the sail can pull away from the mast and not tear.

Sounds crazy, but I found this tidbit when researching for my Pyro Carrie Price model. The partially furled cast sail for the model shows this, and I thought that they had made a mistake, nope, that's how the actual sails furl. See the lower part of the partially furled sail on the box art below. Not sure why this is, but that's how it works.

 

[Mahuna]

Hmm - that's interesting, Ron.  I looked back at all of the photos I have of Kathryn and didn't find any furled sails that look like that.

 

Here's a photo that was taken during the HAER survey during the 1990's:

Here are a couple I took in 2015, right after her rebuild:

 

And here are a couple I took in 2017 during my last visit to Kathryn:

 

Also, I took a quick look through the book "Working Skipjacks of Deal Island" - all of the skipjacks shown in the hundreds of photos are operating under power from the yawl boats, so they all had furled sails (or no sails in one instance) and none showed the arrangement you're referring to.

 

So, I'll be leaving things the way they are.

 

Thanks.

 

 

 

[Mark Pearse]

Hi Ron

 

I don't follow why the luff pulls back away from the mast when it's being lowered - could you explain again for me please