Laxet

Here are the course yards with foot ropes & lift & brace blocks.

I'm taking a break from shrouds & finishing the yards. I started with the jackstays. Here are some pictures of them. I finished the stirrups today & will add the foot ropes tomorrow. Pictures to follow then.

Thanks guys for the tips & encouragement. HOWEVER...

I just can't stand looking at them anymore. They will be worse when tightened, SO...

I'm going to cut them out & rebuild all new shrouds. I might be able to salvage a couple, but I've got a good idea where I'm heading this time. I know the turf & I think I can avoid the obstacles. They may not be perfect, but they'll be a damned sight better than these. All I can say is I'm glad I started on these which are relatively easy to make. I sure don't want to re-do the main shrouds.

Here I go, doing things twice again. Boy, that gets old.

Here are some pictures of the main mast & the fore mast. See what I mean?

Oh, and I'm gettin' me some beeswax.

Man, what a bad couple of days. I spent several hours yesterday installing the shroud lanyards on the deadeyes. I didn't even finish. They are not even close to being even, & half of them are twisted. These are the things I need to learn how to do. Also, the shrouds are so stiff that when I pull the lanyards tight, I still have crooked shrouds & they don't lay naturally at the tops. The ones I served all the way are the worst. It may look accurate, but I'm not sure the tradeoff is even.

Today I got to looking at them & realized the lanyards were way too fuzzy (no I don't have any beeswax). So I decided to redo them with new thread (the stuff I used was probably 40 years old). I swear I couldn't get the runs right to save my soul. I must have re-rigged that thing 5 or 6 times. After finishing the first one, I realized that I had rigged all of them with the upper deadeyes upside down. Again, I couldn't get a single shroud rigged right the first time. I can't tell you how many times I had to undo them. I finally finished the main mast. Here is a picture of it. I have not tightened the lanyards yet.

The nightmare continues tomorrow. Aaarrrggg!

I was sitting here thinking how glad I was that there were only two masts on this boat. But then I got to thinking, "Why didn't they make one masted ships with a brig type rig?" That would be an easy one to rig. It would look kind of cool.

Thanks Patrick. So far they're looking pretty good. It takes as much as an hour to get the foremost shroud right, though. What a pain.

Thanks for the compliments, Marc. The next part scares me though. It separates the men from the boys. I can attach deadeyes all day long, but getting the shrouds equal lengths takes some skill. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

Setting the shrouds will probably be the most difficult thing I have done on this build. The shrouds that are served are VERY difficult to seize. The line does not slide along the length. Instead it falls & catches between each wrap of the serving. If you pull the seizing too tight, it goes in between the serving wraps. If you don't pull it tight enough, it cannot be placed easily. It moves & twists when you try to wrap it.  Here is my first seized deadeye. This took close to an hour, & it's just a topmast shroud. The main shrouds will be even worse.

The plans call for a double block called a sister block by Lever in the topmast foremost shrouds. Here you can see how Lever shows it & how I made mine. This is kind of cool. I enjoyed this.

Here is another shot of the top.

Here's another gotcha I missed. Be sure to cut the spanker mast above the top. I cut mine even, but there are some blocks that need to hang around this mast. I ended up gluing a short piece in place to make up for it. You can see it in these pictures.

Thanks Michael. I'm afraid to go on because I don't know if I can live up to all of the praise being heaped upon.

I lived near the Queen Mary most of my life & I never got to one of those shows. Now that I'm in Texas, I wish I had. I agree with you about the looks of Niagara. I had been waiting for just the right boat to build & when I saw her I knew right away. That was 16 years ago, & I'm still building her.

John,

Good decision to go on. I was in the same place when I started my build log. I decided to just post, warts & all. It is part of the sharing process I wanted to do. I'm doing my log with the viewpoint of a beginner, highlighting the problems, question & solutions as seen by new eyes. It is that fresh approach that helps us beginners. And it shows how you improve over time.

Thanks Tim. I appreciate all of that & of course you are right. So I'll just keep trudging along.

Speaking of trudging along, here are the topmast shrouds, one each of the forward pair & the after pair. I've decided not to serve the bottoms, mainly because Lever doesn't show it done that way & I can't find a clear picture of these shrouds that tell me one way or another. I should have cut my teeth on this set. They are easier & fewer. I'm getting a better hang of using the serving machine now & I am very glad to have it. It is making life much easier.

I've spent the last week or so attaching blocks to the mast tops & crosstrees. What an ordeal that is. I wish there was a checklist that said put this size block at this location. It is a real chore figuring out where they all go. And I forgot to take pictures. Tomorrow.

Thanks, Patrick. I've decided to keep them. I hope it's the right decision. I figured all the measurements out finally & got pretty good at building them. I even got halfway good at using the serving machine. If anybody is interested, I will post a revised drawing of the shroud serving measurements.

I did find out that the foremost shroud on each mast is served all the way to prevent chafing from a sail.

Here is a picture of a couple of the deadeyes for the topmast platform. This is using .025" wire for the strop. I wanted to use .020", but I was afraid it might not be strong enough to handle the load of the futtock shrouds.

Here are some (crappy) pictures of the finished shrouds. I think I'm putting too much work into things. I spent a lot of time doing things to these shrouds that are not even visible. I will have to think about that as I go along. How much detail is enough?

Serving the shrouds is a time consuming process. I have made so many mistakes so far, from cutting the foremast shrouds short, to not getting the serving centered on the shroud, to not making the serving s consistent lengths. It will be interesting to see how it all turns out. And this presupposes that the shrouds are not too thick. I may end up doing it all again.

Here is a trick I came up with when figuring out how to mark the start/stop points for the servings. I tied a small piece of contrasting thread to the spots. It worked rather well. You can see it in the pictures below.

Thanks Brian. That is some good looking stuff. I will consider it as I go along.

Who is Chuck?

As long as I'm at it, how about a lesson? According to Lever, the first shroud will be served from the middle all the way to the end on one side, & a quarter of the way on the other half. If there are an odd number of shrouds (as in our case) the fore shroud is cut short & made into a Burton Pendant. Presumably it is served up to this point. The other shrouds are served to only a quarter way down on each side. I don't know why the foremost shrouds are treated differently. Anybody? The other shrouds are also served at the deadeye end to just above where the shroud is lashed to itself above the deadeye. I have made rough measurements for these shrouds & the pictures show them. It neglects to show 3" of serving at the ends.

Working on the shrouds, the print calls for .035" line, but that supplied with the kit is either .040" or .028". I've served a couple of lines using the .040", but it seems to me to be just a bit overscale. Yet the .028" is so much under, I don't think it will do, either. Here is a picture of the boat with them hanging off of the masts. does anybody have an opinion as to how they look, whether they look too big or not?

I broke out my new serving machine today. I have been playing with it recently & not quite satisfied with the operation. It was kind of balky & not smooth. First thing I did was remove the motor. I found the rest of the gears were fairly smooth so I concluded the problem was in the motor connection to the gears. I played with just the motor detached & when it worked, it was smooth. I found that the plug between the motor & power supply did not make good contact. The contacts have a split tip inside the connector (see second picture). I put a screwdriver in between & spread them a bit. The connection was a lot better & it stopped being so balky.

I tried serving a shroud. It still stops if I pull too hard & I have to twist the gear fairly often to get it to start again, but I think some tweaking will fix it. If not, it will be a long job serving lines.

Speaking of shrouds, the reason I'm doing them now is because I've done all I can do on the bowsprit until the stays are attached (the manropes even attach to stays) which means I need a mast in place. The book says not to do the stays until the shrouds are in place, so that's where I am now.

Hi Patrick,

I also saw that tidbit about the manropes not being there back then, but I would have to add footropes & stuff, so I'm inclined to do the manropes.