Landlubber Mike

So I guess my question now is, if I decide to stick with the Caldercraft instructions, should I go ahead and remove the furled sail from the main yard? I think I'm too far into the model right now to figure out how to rig it correctly with the spreader yard. Chapelle's book has the sail plan for the Brig Swift from 1778, which is very similar to the Badger, and the plan does not show a main course. So, I think only adding furled sails to the main topgallant and main topsail yards would be consistent with other similar vessels of that time period. Thanks very much in advance for any guidance or opinions. I guess I'm getting what I deserved by going down the sail route

Hi everyone, I've been adding furled sails to the yards of my Caldercraft Brig Badger, and am a bit confused on what to do with the main yard. The instructions say that the main yard is rigged as a crossjack, and later say that because it is rigged as a crossjack, there are no buntlines, cluelines, sheets or tacks rigged to it. This got me confused as to how the main course would be bent to the yard if the yard didn't have this rigging and the associated blocks. Tonight my copy of the Swan Class Volume 4 book arrived in the mail, and when flipping through it, I saw that the author mentions how one of the yards (I believe on the mizzen mast) is rigged as a crossjack and therefore carried no sails. So a light went on in my dim head that maybe that's why the Badger's main yard lacks all that rigging and blocks. If this is the case, I wish this light went on a couple of days ago before I spent hours furling the sail to the main yard I went back to my copy of Chapelle's "Search for Speed Under Sail" which discusses the Badger (or at least a number of ships during that period that were called the Badger), and has both a sail plan for a ship along with a picture of a model with both furled and full sails. The sail plan looks to be the one that Caldercraft used in creating the kit. Both the sail plan (below) and the model show four yards attached to the main mast, the fourth being referred to on the sail plan as the "main yard or spreader yard." Chapelle goes on to say: "The rig of the Badger [as shown in the sail plan] was that of a brigantine, to which an improvised main course had been added. The main-topsail was sheeted to a spread yard, on a horse, as in a contemporary cutter's square topsail. The course was laced to a crossjack of almost the same length as the spread yard. This yard was hoisted into the gored foot of the main-topsail, secured to the mast only with the yard's halyards. It is possible that no braces were fitted to this yard, as it could be controlled by those of the spread yard. The rig allowed the course and topsail to be lowered to the deck without interfering with the spanker." By this description, I'm assuming that the main mast yards from top to bottom were the main topgallant, main topsail, main course, and spreader yard?

Making very slow progress on the furled sails, but just about done with the square sails. I decided that I should pre-rig the spars with as much rigging as possible as things might be a little difficult once the furled sail spars are attached to the masts. So, I've been pre-rigging them with the parrel lines, slings, truss pendants, etc. The Caldercraft instructions are great, but all I can say is thank goodness I have the Lennarth Petersson book In a way it's been good to go down the sail route as I've had to learn what the different lines are intended to accomplish. I think I figured out which block needs to be attached to the sail clews - the clew block (who knew ). The diagram shows the clew lines starting attached to the yard, running down about 20mm to a block (the clew block I think), and then back up to a block on the yard before the line heads down the mast to get belayed. So, hopefully I'm correct that with the furled sails, I should just go ahead and attach the clew block to the clews, and run the rigging as per the diagram. The Badger's main course is rigged as a crossjack - so, no cluelines or buntlines, sheets or tacks. If that's the case, does anyone know how the main course was rigged at the clews? I've also been trying to think about how to approach the spanker and jib(s). The spanker should be fairly straightforward, aside from figuring out how to cut the sail to reduce bulk yet be true to the brail lines. The jibs are a bit more difficult in that I will need to add halyards and jib stays, along with some extra rigging. I also am trying to figure out from the Chappelle plans whether the two fore sails shown are two jibs, or one jib and a staysail (not sure it will matter all that much in the end).

Looking great John! Thanks for sharing your trip with us too - looked like a real blast.

Hi ZyXuz, I'm wondering about a thick black wale also - i think it would look nice, but I like the look of the wale broken up as in the Corel model. I don't know what to say on the planking. These models take a long time to complete, and you'll be looking at it each build session. If the planking bothers you that much now, then maybe the best thing to do is to remove it and try again? A lot of work has gone in already, but maybe that will spare you a lot of aggravation and disappointment down the road if you're not happy with it now? Then again, the beakhead bow on the Unicorn has those headrails, rigging, etc. that might end up covering up a lot of that area too? Good luck whatever you decide!

Very nice Ian! Fantastic work! I'm afraid I haven't done much research on the riding bitts, so can't really help you there. I can try to look this weekend if I have time.

Hi ZyXuz, I like the color choices you are thinking about. I've been thinking about colors for mine in preparation for figuring out what specialty woods I will need to order as I'm planning on using little to no paint on my build. Rather than go with the blues and reds in your picture, I think I'm going to make more use of black in those areas, as well as the galleries and at the stern, and for the spars and mast tops. I will probably end up using boxwood for the accents around the black, as boxwood against black really pops out. I'm thinking of something similar to the Pegasus, which was the general scheme used in the Unicorn model in the second link: http://www.cornwallmodelboats.co.uk/acatalog/victory-models-hms-pegasus.html http://www.shipsofscale.com/gallery/jshorter/hmsunicorn/index.html I'm probably going to leave the hull in natural wood, without "white stuff" or anything. I'm generally not a fan of white paint, as it looks pretty garish to me against the beauty of natural wood (at least that's what bothers me about my Badger build). Even using "Dull White" admiralty paints, I thought the paint was too starkly white. Painting and color choices is always a deeply personal decision, so I am hesitant to give my opinion. I generally subscribe to the school of thought that fewer colors (like 3-4) of greater contrast would look better on a build than using lots of different colors. If it were me, the blue looks great but I think I would skip the red stripe in your second version, as it just becomes too busy looking for me. Of course, you can probably paint much better than I can, and will be able to pull it off where I'm fairly certain that I would not be able to. Just my personal preferences, and informed in large part by my terrible skills at painting. Good luck whatever you decide!

Thanks very much Peter, this is very helpful. I have the Pegasus kit also, which I will start probably after the Corel Unicorn. Personally, my view is that these are sailing ships, and if sails can be done well, they should be added to the model. Full sized sails seem quite tricky, which is why I started first with furled sails. Some people use silkspan as well for full sails, so I might experiment with that on future builds. I've seen the technique of "pulling a thread" for the seams, which seems to work pretty well. All that being said, I think if you could pull it off, the Pegasus would look fantastic with sails. Hope you enjoy your trip abroad!

Very nice and careful work Ian. Looks perfect - like you intended to cut out the waist all along Much better look to the model, and not to mention, from my limited research, much more realistic for a ship of this type during this period. Well done!

Hi Peter, thanks very much for your kind words. I thought about adding bolt ropes, but after furling the sail tight against the yard, I don't think the bolt rope would at all be noticeable (the pictures don't show the yard head on, so it might look like the bolt rope should be noticeable). Perhaps I made a mistake in furling and furled them too tightly against the yard? I've been considering the seams as well. I didn't want to go with sewn seams as I think the seams would be out of scale. I'm worried that if I tried penciling in seams that I would run into the same problem, or that they would be too light to be noticeable (or too dark and ruin the look of the sail). I might have to experiment a bit to see if I can pull off the effect. Have you tried it? I saw your Granado photos on your Pegasus log - wow, fantastic build all around (your Pegasus is great too)! I really like the furled sails on your model, which give the exact look I'm hoping to achieve on my Badger. Could I trouble you with a couple of questions? I'm just about done with the square sails, and am trying to plan ahead for the spanker and jib. 1. For the spanker, how much did you reduce the sail, and if you reduced it, what was the end shape like? I would think that the head and luff of the sail would be full length, and rather than cutting the sail out as a triangle with the third side from the end of the gaff to the beginning of the boom, you would reduce the sail in such a way that you would end up with a four sided sail, with the new bottom "corner" of the sail sorta following the brail line from the old bottom corner? 2. On the spanker, did you add blocks to the gaff at each brail line? Most furled spankers I've seen don't have that detail. 3. On the jib sail, does the bottom block of the halyard at the head of the sail travel down with the jib as it is furled? Put another way, is the bottom block attached to the head of the sail such that as the jib is furled, the line/distance between that block and the other block of the halyard is increased? 4. Did you install clews on your square sails? If so, did you add tackles for the running rigging? I'm trying to figure out what the tackle looks like and where the lines go from it. Thanks very much in advance, and thanks again for the kind words.

Very nice work Ian. You're a brave man

It was JoAnn's Fabrics, which I believe is a chain (it's a sewing/fabric store). Most of the fabrics didn't have names, but I recall the tag saying something about muslin. I would just tell them you're looking for the lightest weight cotton fabric that they have. Handkerchief material would work very well I imagine.

I've seen the digital calipers in a variety of sizes, from 4", 6", 8" and up. Obviously price goes up considerably as you go bigger. I was wondering if a 4" model would work, or is it better to go to the 6" or 8" model? Thanks!

Gorgeous work Wes. The upgraded wood looks fantastic. I think I'm going to go that route on my next build(s).

Very nice crisp work Jason - thanks for sharing your update. Installing the bowspirit really makes the ship start to come alive.

Kester, thanks very much for the information. I really appreciate it.

Best stove I have ever seen - congratulations, it looks fantastic. Good luck on the waist. You're a brave man to perform that kind of surgery at this stage, but I think in the end it will all be well worth it.

Hi Kester, really nice work on your Sherbourne. Very clean and crisp details, and thank you for taking the time to post your construction methods. I love how your furled spanker sail came out. I'm adding furled sails to my Badger build, and I think I have the square sails in pretty good shape. Like your sail, I have been cutting my sails back to probably 1/3 of the bulk of what the full sail was. I've been trying to think ahead and figure out how the reduced spanker pattern would look. When cutting it back by half, what did your pattern look like? Given the way the brails work, was the pattern more triangular in shape? Do you happen to have any pictures of the sails before installing? Thanks very much, and happy birthday!

First, the clews are created and attached. I made them using 0.25mm natural thread from kit. I ended up making them a tad longer and ran them into the sail and up along the outside edge a bit farther than necessary to ensure that the clews were visible when the dog-ears were folded down. They were attached with fabric glue. Next step was to bend the sail to the yard. I didn't take pictures while this was in process, so hopefully the following description makes sense. I used 0.25mm thread here as well. First step was to mark on the front of the sail the points where the thread would be run through the sail - I marked points 5mm apart. Second, I used a running knot to attach the line on one end of the yard. Third step was to run the line from the front into the rear of the sail, then as you loop it over the yard, run it underneath the prior line and repeat til the end. It got a bit tricky with the yard horses and blocks, but after a while you get the hang of it. Once the sail was fully attached, go back and tighten the lines by pulling the vertical line towards the other end of the yard, and down along the top of the rear of the sail. Next step was the first fold. From the front of the sail, the bottom half was folded up so that the bottom line between the two dog ears was at the top of the sail. Next step was to fold the bottom corners up and in, to help add more volume to the middle of the yard, and reduce the volume at the ends. Next step was to furl the sail and attach the gaskets. From my research, when furling the sails, the sails were "gathered up" such that the sail was folded into an accordion type of pattern with the final fold up and against the top of the yard. That was a bit hard to do at this scale, so I ended up just folding and rolling the sail up from the front until it was tight against the yard. Took a few tries, which helped I think to get the cloth more relaxed to get a tighter furl. Then the gaskets were installed. I started with one in the middle, and then added three to each side roughly evenly spaced out. These were fairly easy to do using a running knot, and then using tweezers to help tighten the furl as the gasket was tightened (sometimes with the help of some fabric glue to help keep the material furled). After a few final adjustments, the knots were sealed with diluted PVA, and then the extra lines cut off. Finally, using fabric glue, the dog ears for the clews were bent downward and glued into position. There you have it - the no sew method of furling sails. I spent an inordinate amount of time researching and thinking about how to do these, so hopefully these look relatively authentic. I know that opinions differ on whether sails should be attached or not, but I think furled sails add a nice touch and are a good compromise given the scale issues with adding full sails - plus, these are sailing ships after all I think there were lines running from the clews downward which helped to keep them in their downward orientation (and probably keep the furl tight). I haven't figured out where those lines go, so if anyone has the answer, I would love to hear it The topsails and courses will be a bit trickier, given that they have blocks for the bunt lines, and yard horses. I'm thinking that I will pre-rig the bunt lines by gluing a portion of the line into the sail to be furled, which will eventually be run through the blocks. The instructions have the line started at the block by knotting one end of the line before it is run through the blocks - I think, however, that the line is technically started at the buntlines in the sail which are run through the blocks on the yard. Haven't fully figured that out yet, so again, would love to hear from anyone with answers on how that works. I also have to do a little more research on the spanker and jibs - the spanker should be relatively straightforward, but how to reduce the sail to remove bulk while maintaining the brail lines will be tricky. The jibs are are complicated, in that there are hanks, jib stays and travelers that need to be attached. All part of the fun I suppose Thanks for looking in!

Thanks very much everyone. I ended up doing an amalgam of things from other furled sail resources that I found. Here is a pictorial of how I proceeded. I wanted to find a way to furl the sails without needing to do any sewing - given that the sails are tightly furled, I think you can drop off a lot of the lines (hems, reef, etc.) which was why I went the furled route. Hopefully this looks convincing. Also, please excuse the pictures against my hobby cutting mat, which has seen better days The cloth I used was the thinnest weight cotton (muslin I think) that I could find at JoAnn's Fabrics. Frank (riverboat) was very kind to send me a sample of the cloth he used on his Supply, which I was able to find at my local store. After washing and ironing, it was soft and thin enough to use. Thanks very much Frank! Others use tissue paper and silkspan which are thinner, but likely need to be painted afterwards. I wanted to avoid using paints, and thought that the fabric I found had a nice natural color that worked for my build. The first item was to draft the sail plan for each of the sails. Much of this was guesswork from using the plans with distance between the yards. The Caldercraft plans have the topmast and topgallant yards in the lowered position (note, however, that the lower yards are always fixed), so to I had to draw the plans with the yards in the raised position to create the plan for the full sail. These were sketched out on paper. Next step was to reduce the size of the sails to avoid them looking too bulky. Tightly furled sails should be about the size of the yard, so resources I've seen said to reduce the sail by 1/3 to 1/2 or more. As you'll see, I ended up reducing the sail to probably only 1/3 of the full sail volume. The shape may seem a bit odd, but it's intended to reduce the sail volume as you get closer to the ends of the yards, as well as include the clews which are the dog ears on the bottom. The sails will be folded twice to not only get the dog ears to the top of the sail, but also to pull more volume of the sail to the middle of the yard. The pattern is folded a bit as I practiced how those two folds would work. Next up was to cut out the sail using the pattern. Hems are usually added to the edge of the sail to avoid issues with the cloth fraying, as well as to give a stronger area on which to sew the various lines (so the thread doesn't pull through and rip the thin cloth, especially where the sewed holes are close to the edge). I found a way to avoid all that - anti-fray adhesive It worked very well in not only preventing fraying as the cloth was cut, but it also stiffened up the fabric a tad bit to make cutting the cloth in straight lines very simple and strong enough to sew close to the edge without needing a hem. I also used Aleene's fabric glue in various steps to glue the cloth - it is thicker and much tackier than diluted PVA, which made for much quicker gluing times without needing pins or clamps to keep the glued portions together - a few seconds of holding them together did the trick. Both adhesives glued clear, without any sheen, and without stiffening the cloth much at all. It's probably worth trying them out on whatever cloth you use as a test to make sure you get similar results. Next post will show how the sails are bent to the yard and furled.

Hi everyone, I started working on furled sails on my Badger build and posted a mini summary on my Badger build log. At the suggestion of a couple of friends, I thought it might be helpful to repost my technique here on this forum, instead of it possibly being buried in my build log. Here are the pictures of the topgallant yards, which still can use a bit of tweezer work before being set with diluted PVA. I think there's some room for improvement, but overall I was pleased with how the furled sails are coming out. I'd love to hear of other techniques or possible suggestions for enhancements. Thanks!

Hey guys, thanks very much for the kind words. It's very humbling, especially coming from great modelers such as yourselves. Jason, that's a good idea. If I can get some time, I'll try and post a separate thread there. Hopefully it's just a matter of cutting and pasting, as I have had issues with uploading pictures sometimes. Bill, your Badger is coming along great. You should try the furled sails again. You see people mentioning cutting the sail back by 1/3 to 1/2, but as you can see, I think I probably ended up removing about 2/3 of the total sail volume for the furled sail - and even then, it probably could have been cut back further. Looking forward to seeing your build progress. It's too bad about the crash - there were probably close to a half a dozen Badger builds on the MSW 1.0 site, in various states of completion. If you have any questions, I'm happy to help out to the extent I can.

Wow, very nice work! Congratulations!

Really nice work ZyXuz, you're moving along quickly I'm hoping to start mine at the end of the year, so logs like yours and Ian's are a big inspiration.

First, the clews are created and attached. I made them using 0.25mm natural thread from kit. I ended up making them a tad longer and ran them into the sail and up along the outside edge a bit farther than necessary to ensure that the clews were visible when the dog-ears were folded down. They were attached with fabric glue. Next step was to bend the sail to the yard. I didn't take pictures while this was in process, so hopefully the following description makes sense. I used 0.25mm thread here as well. First step was to mark on the front of the sail the points where the thread would be run through the sail - I marked points 5mm apart. Second, I used a running knot to attach the line on one end of the yard. Third step was to run the line from the front into the rear of the sail, then as you loop it over the yard, run it underneath the prior line and repeat til the end. It got a bit tricky with the yard horses and blocks, but after a while you get the hang of it. Once the sail was fully attached, go back and tighten the lines by pulling the vertical line towards the other end of the yard, and down along the top of the rear of the sail. Next step was the first fold. From the front of the sail, the bottom half was folded up so that the bottom line between the two dog ears was at the top of the sail. Next step was to fold the bottom corners up and in, to help add more volume to the middle of the yard, and reduce the volume at the ends. Next step was to furl the sail and attach the gaskets. From my research, when furling the sails, the sails were "gathered up" such that the sail was folded into an accordion type of pattern with the final fold up and against the top of the yard. That was a bit hard to do at this scale, so I ended up just folding and rolling the sail up from the front until it was tight against the yard. Took a few tries, which helped I think to get the cloth more relaxed to get a tighter furl. Then the gaskets were installed. I started with one in the middle, and then added three to each side roughly evenly spaced out. These were fairly easy to do using a running knot, and then using tweezers to help tighten the furl as the gasket was tightened (sometimes with the help of some fabric glue to help keep the material furled). After a few final adjustments, the knots were sealed with diluted PVA, and then the extra lines cut off. Finally, using fabric glue, the dog ears for the clews were bent downward and glued into position. There you have it - the no sew method of furling sails. I spent an inordinate amount of time researching and thinking about how to do these, so hopefully these look relatively authentic. I know that opinions differ on whether sails should be attached or not, but I think furled sails add a nice touch and are a good compromise given the scale issues with adding full sails - plus, these are sailing ships after all I think there were lines running from the clews downward which helped to keep them in their downward orientation (and probably keep the furl tight). I haven't figured out where those lines go, so if anyone has the answer, I would love to hear it The topsails and courses will be a bit trickier, given that they have blocks for the bunt lines, and yard horses. I'm thinking that I will pre-rig the bunt lines by gluing a portion of the line into the sail to be furled, which will eventually be run through the blocks. The instructions have the line started at the block by knotting one end of the line before it is run through the blocks - I think, however, that the line is technically started at the buntlines in the sail which are run through the blocks on the yard. Haven't fully figured that out yet, so again, would love to hear from anyone with answers on how that works. I also have to do a little more research on the spanker and jibs - the spanker should be relatively straightforward, but how to reduce the sail to remove bulk while maintaining the brail lines will be tricky. The jibs are are complicated, in that there are hanks, jib stays and travelers that need to be attached. All part of the fun I suppose Thanks for looking in!