Mark Pearse
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thanks everyone A small update, but I've completed a few minor details that had being lying fallow & unresolved. The semi-circular heads for the headsail track fixings were sanded down for the port side tracks - which hadn't already been installed - but the starboard ones had been installed & couldn't be sanded in situ. I got them out after heating them to soften the glue. It possibly helps that I don't generally use much glue. Definitely looks better. I had been wondering for ages about the winches, & if I was going to make some, just how? I found some nice small solid brass knobs that I possibly could have reshaped by putting the thread into the drill - but it just seemed a better choice to buy some. I had looked high & low & found some nice simple ones from Float-a-Boat, appropriate to the 1960s. I cleaned them up a bit & coloured them to tone down the glare. I didn't want the visual highlight of bright brass to be a distraction from the yacht's overall lines. I was also keen to get a number of details sorted because this coming Sunday the model goes on show at the sailing club, the owners of the 24 footers are having a get together. A kind of launching but the interest will be high as the 24 footers are 1930s designs & this is the final word on the design being 4 feet longer & some 30 years later. Looks similar but the underwater lines are a refinement. One last thing, there has been a launching of a newly built 24 footer, in the Tweed River northern NSW, home built.
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15' Dinghy by Bedford - FINISHED - 1:1 scale
Mark Pearse replied to Bedford's topic in Non-ship/categorised builds
Hi Bedford, I had noticed in your Maine schooner build that you were taking on a 12":1' dinghy build....golly that happened fast. Mate that is absolutely beautiful, seriously envious. The finishing details are lovely & fittings well considered. Regarding wear & tear, I think some always adds to a boat - it's not possible to really use a boat & not cause some. She looks to have a good load carrying capacity & good stability....? Are you planning to do the sailing rig? you must be very happy, what waterways are you thinking of visiting soon? Mark -
many thanks for the support everyone I've completed the cockpit sole, which was done fairly simply. I admire the effort of the lapped duckboarding, but I just feel that something plainer would be more likely in this case. Fine details such as teak decks were quite rarely done here, as far as I can see most details were plain - not that it couldn't be done, more likely it was a matter of cost. So, I settled on fore & aft planks, not tapered either. I cut small rebates on one side of each plank to replicate a gap between planks & still allow the planks to be glued together as a sheet. The rebate is about 0.5mm wide by 1.25mm (half the plank thickness), but ended up a bit wider in some cases. The timber is some leftover Huon Pine from the planking stock. The plane of the grain in these pieces is parallel to the face of these planks, & if you look very carefully you can see on the plank edges how fine the grain of the timber is - on the edge of the nearest plank there seems to be around 6 or 7 growth rings in 2.5mm distance. The trees can live to 3,000 years & grow slowly. the back face was rubbed with Titebond glue Face up & glued. The aperture is for a painted timber block which will take a U bolt for the main sheet block. I gave it a light paint with diluted black water based paint to try & replicate unfinished used timber (which would have been Queensland White Beech). Possibly a bit dark, but happy with the result. I decided to have a go at the portholes as I haven't seen any that look quite right for this scale. The basic parts are some brass washers & thin walled brass tube. I sanded the face & edges of the washer flat & smooth, & then soldered a thin ring from the tube on. I think it looks ok, possibly some subtle drilled holes to replicate fixings might help.
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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
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Hi Vaddoc The beading has gone on very nicely. I wonder if it would work to stain the timber plug ends after the plugs are sanded - using something like a small brush & diluted water based paint in an orange-brown colour. It would help to tone down the colour contrast a bit.
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Congratulations Steven. An enjoyable investigative story to follow & a beautiful model as well. To our eyes they are a very dramatic craft.
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Hi Frank thanks for the detailed posts. Are those cleats for the mainsail halyards? Mark
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Back to timberwork, I'm trying to finish off the cockpit details. For some time I'd been wondering about the way the outside face of the cockpit seats met the side decks, in some way it looked incomplete so I made up some pieces of quad timber beading about 2x2mm, or maybe slightly under (between 20x20mm & 25x25mm scale). It does look right in some way now, & if the deck was canvas covered, which was probably still done in the 1960s, a bead would help tack down the edge of the canvas. I didn't bead everywhere, but I'll ask someone about it to check details. The bright brasswork is still unglued. I'm considering putting a quad beading strip right across the forward side of the front cockpit thwart, or perhaps a strip each side leaving out the companionway...see below the piece just sitting there. I'm still unsure about that one. Also I put a timber bead edge on the cockpit seating, it's a finishing detail & also separates the paint colours, For that I tried a thin cut strip of Queensland Maple but it proved too brittle to take the curves (using the cylindrical shaft of the butane torch, heated up). I had a nice piece of Queensland Myrtle veneer - I believe 0.65mm thick, so about 8mm scale thickness - & that was able to do the curves, especially after some wetting. And a nice overall stern view, trying to remove distortion from the lens by standing further away & zooming in. The lines show more accurately.
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sorry that wasn't clear; yes, photos of your lovely boat Maria sailing in her new home waters.
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Hi Vaddoc good start with the mast, & another inventive technique that you've thought up yourself - I enjoy seeing how you tackle things. If I can give some gentle advice at this point - to keep taking it slowly on the mast, it's surprisingly easy to lose track of where you need to remove wood & do it in the wrong spot. It might be worth considering marking vertical axes in pencil to give you 4 reference lines.
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that's good; most yachts that I'm familiar with aren't large, & they have a hatch with a clear width of about 700-750mm; for your vessel there's obviously a lot more people but if the hatch is 'one person at a time' then a yacht hatch width might be comparable. At least maybe that's a good minimum - unless there's some other limitation to width.
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Hi Steven on the hatch, it sounds like the lower sole to deck height is less than the rowers' height, so at the bottom of the ladder it might be a good idea to allow enough room for a person to be able to stand & have their head through. If the ladder angle is 30-40º from vertical for the 1.5m or so of height, & the horizontal length of the hatch opening would need maybe another 300mm beyond the foot of the ladder...without doing a drawing I'd guess at 1-1.2m long. Hope this helps. edit: Just saw the 'fittings the oars' comment...if that wasn't required to be done very often, perhaps a removable panel to extend the aperture beyond what would be required for people. Mark
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that's looking fantastic, a really striking looking vessel indeed for the head height down below, what height of person are you assuming?
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Hi John it's a lovely model, it's wonderful how each stage of a build has it's own pleasures. Wishes for your good health. Mark
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Some details on the rigging done recently. The throat halyard & gaff jaws: Peak halyard setup, gaff bridle & the sliding thing. For this size of boat a 1:1 peak halyard is fine. The running backstays here are temporarily done as thread (Guttermans top stitch), but I think I'll make the main part in wire with the tackles in rope. gaff bridle is swaged: Plus some pad eyes that will be mounted on the quarters, they would take blocks for the spinnaker brace & sheets, still a bit of cleaning up to do. The tails below the pads are to increase the glued strength.
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Hi Michael, the result on the vents is very good, & I've learned something new from this. On the companionway top colour: I feel that having a different colour to the top (from the sides colour) lowers the apparent height of the overall structure, which in most cases looks better on a boat as it elongates the overall lines. I also feel that a paler colour makes it look a bit wider than with a darker colour, so again I feel that it looks better. Mark
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I made the traveller rail, starting with the small parts because they needed to be on the bar when it was fabricated due to the bends. Below is the sliding piece that the main sheet connects to - tube with wire bent & soldered. As a form for bending I held a thinner piece of wire next to the tube to wrap the wire around both to get the shape. Below are the flanges that sit on the deck - 1/4" rod drilled down the centre & cut off. The thin rod was made to fit the hole tightly by some end tapping, to help in cleaning them up. All the small pieces plus a sketch: The bending jig for the bar: The small pieces were soldered on, & then the rod bent: Then feet soldered on & the piece has been dry fitted. Not glued until I'm sure the deck doesn't need painting again. I put a gentle curve into the top bar, it looks nice & it seems that I didn't quite get enough clearance to the tiller - a bit of tiller reshaping helped also. I find that things tend to look better on boats if there are gently curves & slight angles, even if you think it should be square.
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thanks all, having the spars made I wasn't really confident that they looked right, I had difficulty seeing if the sizes looked about right or not, so I made some paper sails. It was a lot of fun & it also confirmed that the sail & spar sizes are quite good. To my eye the sails look just slightly conservative in area, but I would prefer that than if they looked a little oversized - this boats look chunky but I believe it would be lightly built & lightly ballasted. The headsail is intended to be a #2 & is still a little too large, probably move the clew forwards by 15 or 20mm & up about 10mm. I'm starting to think whether it's better for the sails to be set to appear as if they have wind, or just hang..... I'll post some photos of the rigging details shortly, Mark
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Hi Michael, I hope this signifies your plans to restart this model. I'm not so keen on the port side belaying because with water & load it might lock up. I don't mind the starboard one because, despite the mess, it will release easily. Mark
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Hi Dick, there might need to be some extra strengthening, but I think you are underestimating the strength of the planks & the way they would transfer loads from forwards to the whole hull. Mark
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Hi Steven getting ever more interesting... Do you know if the spurs were designed to break away at all?
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thanks, & on consideration Michael I have to agree with you that visually the heads are too bulbous to get away with. For this model there's a number of things that are simplified technically but I'll have a look at this one & see what I can do. I bought some packs of brass miniature rivets & I like them so much they are appearing all over the place. Mark
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