Landlubber Mike

It's been a few weeks but I've been busy in the shipyard. I managed to get the fore topmast staysail and jib attached and furled. Before I get too far, let me mention the resources that were of immense help in figuring out what to do: 1. Lennarth Petersson - Rigging Period Ship Models - pictures say a thousand words, and this book really simplifies the mysteries of rigging. Helpful to see the pictures of how the rigging for these sails works, but I would say that it shows rigging for larger ships so, for example, the haliards would be more simple than the block and tackle arrangements shown in this book. Still, very highly recommended. 2. The Fully Framed Model (TFFM) Vol. 4 - This Swan series book is an incredible resource for anyone that wants great detail into rigging period ships. Antscherl compiles a lot of research into this book, with excellent pictures, to help one go step by step. 3. Lees - The Masting and Rigging of English Ships of War - Good detailed historical account and narrative description of these sails and their rigging. 4. Harland - Seamanship in the Age of Sail - Excellent descriptions of the actual mechanics of bending, raising, furling, etc. sails. Very helpful discussion of what went into furling sails, particularly how the sails were gathered and then a "skin" was draped over the entire bundle. The remaining 2/3rds of the book goes into fantastic details on how the sails operated in various conditions, etc. Here are the pictures of where I am now, and I'll set up the next couple of posts to talk about the construction of both sails. Needless to say, for what ultimately looks like rolled up wet tissues, these things took a while to figure out how to construct and to install. But, I very much like the end result, which to me anyway looks better than a ship bare of sails. The staysail needs a bit more positioning, which I will do once the sheet whips are installed.

Congratulations! That's really great news Kids are wonderful, but I found that when the second was added (in my case, having twins the second time around), I had almost no free time for a few months. Enjoy your time with your baby - the Blandford will be there when you're ready

Thanks! By the way Ken, your AVS is incredible. Very nice crisp work!

Hi folks, I've been working on laying the running rigging lines on my Badger, and have come to the point where I need to start finalizing the lines that belay to the knightheads and timberheads. Is there any particular way in which lines were belayed to these items? I've looked at my reference books and various build logs here, and it seems like there is a variety of ways to approach them (though most times it is very hard to see from the photos exactly how the builder approached them). One approach I've been thinking about is to treat these lines similarly to belaying lines to pins, where the line is run around the timberhead or knighthead about two to three times, and then a separately prepared rope coil is added over the timberhead/knighthead. The end result would be something similar to what my friend Aldo prepared on his Badger as can be seen here: http://modelshipworld.com/index.php?/gallery/image/2424-msw101medium/ http://modelshipworld.com/index.php?/gallery/image/2423-msw100medium/ Other models I've seen appear to show the line wrapped around the timberhead and knighthead a few times, and then cut without any additional rope coil added. I would think in some cases, the crew would have wanted an extra length of line to work with, hence the added rope coil. Any advice would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!

Looks great ZyXuz, paint job came out very well. I'm sure you're glad to get that step behind you

Wow, that's very impressive Mark! Now that you're retired (congratulations by the way), you'll have even more time to admire your handiwork

Looking great Kester. It's quite a busy little vessel, isn't it?

Hi Andy, my deepest condolences. Take care.

Hi Frank, let me echo what others have said - hope you're doing ok and that things are fine now. Best wishes to you my friend.

Those tops look fantastic Jason. Really nice job!

Hi Ian, thanks very much for the kind words. Hopefully they end up looking ok in situ There are times when I think to myself that I could have been done with this build a long time ago. I've probably easily spent over 50 hours in the aggregate studying how rigging works, how to create sails, how to best furl them, etc. It's all been worth it though, as I now have a better appreciation and understanding of the operation of these ships, where I might not have gotten that had I just followed the directions and attached line A between points B and C. Now I can see why people really get into improving their kit or moving totally to a scratch build.

Thanks very much Peter - these pictures are very helpful. Your furled sails came out very nice indeed The spanker in particular looks perfect. I see you included the clew, which I think most furled spankers fail to include - nice job! I spent a few hours yesterday evening studying and preparing how I will go about furling the jib and the fore topmast staysail. From my reading of I think Lees, it looks like smaller ships had a less complicated halyard set-up at the peak cringle. Rather than running a block at the peak cringle (where the line is first attached to the stay and then runs through the block and then reeved through the chocks on the mast), it sounds like smaller ships had a more simplified structure where no blocks are attached to the peak cringle - instead, the line is attached to the cringle directly, then it runs up to the chock. Since the Badger is a brig, not sure if that qualifies it as a "small ship" for purposes of going with the single halyard. I might just rig it as a double, as it doesn't add much extra work. I also learned from Lees that the fore topmast staystail had a netting over the bowspirit so when furled it didn't sit directly on the bowspirit. Add another thing to the list I suppose

No problem at all - sorry for the bad links, I fixed them in my post *** Sorry again - for some reason, I needed to use the full editor to fix the links. They should be fixed now.***

Hi again Zyxuz, Since I've been thinking about color schemes too, I took a look through my Gardiner book which uses pictures of models at the RMG, and have been picking out some color schemes that I think can work well with the Unicorn. Since you're thinking about this too, I thought I would pass them along - hope they are helpful. 1. Sloop c. 1710: http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/66358.html 2. Sloop c. 1710 (very similar to Corel's scheme for Unicorn): http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/66359.html 3. Gualaloupe (very similar to Unicorn): http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/66470.html 4. Thames (white painted under thick black wale): http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/66457.html 5. Lowestoft (gorgeous ship with white under black wale): http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/66300.html 6. Mermaid: http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/66279.html 7. Minerva (uses blue and red accents like you were thinking): http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/66278.html 8. Diana (also uses blue and red accents): http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/66533.html Just for fun, this Samarang is incredible - one of my favorite models in the Gardiner book: http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/66666.html

Hi Zyxuz, I'm fairly certain that copper plates were not in use for the Unicorn you are building. The Unicorn was launched in 1748, and from my Gardiner book on Frigates, it looks like coppering started in 1761 and was more commonplace in the late 1770s. Just wanted to throw that out there. If you want to paint it white below the water line, a good Unicorn can be seen on the thread I posted this summer that became a compendium of ideas about the Unicorn kit (there are other ships posted that could serve as other possible samples of color schemes that might work for you): http://modelshipworld.com/index.php?/topic/2444-quality-of-corel-kits/?p=66398 I'm thinking about going with a color scheme similar to the Pandora build here - with a thick black wale, more black on the ship, like on the rails, spars, and stern, and red for the bulwarks and some of the deck fittings (no coppering of course). http://modelshipworld.com/index.php?/topic/2444-quality-of-corel-kits/?p=66523 I'm not really a fan of how Corel has the area around the gunports without a thick wale. I think if you look at the plans for the Unicorn in the Chapman book, they seem to contemplate a thick wale. Click here, and then click the picture to zoom in and you can maybe see what I'm talking about: http://www.sjohistoriska.se/ImageVaultFiles/id_3085/cf_1803/55.JPG Let us know what you decide Aside from that, I think I'll explore adding small boats and lanterns to my build as another modification.

Nice work, and nice save on the planking Did you decide on the color scheme yet?

Looks great Robert. Not sure if you had this issue with your kit, but the carriages and trucks on my Badger were of very poor quality walnut that splintered just by looking at it - Caldercraft kits are great, but the walnut is a big disappointment. It's probably a bit tedious to scratch the components, but the results look to be well worth it!

Very nice job John - looking great!

One other issue that I need to work though - the Badger sail plan in the Chapelle book shows the main/spreader yard below the gaff, with the modified main course above it. See the sail plan below. The kit instructions, however, have the main yard where Chapelle has the modified main course, which I think is incorrect. The kit configuration seems to be consistent with other brigs that did not use a modified main course, such as the Swift sail plan which is also in Chapelle (p. 105). Decisions decisions. Right now I'm leaning towards leaving the main yard as per the kit instructions - I think moving it down will make it look out of balance relative to the fore yard. Of course, I'm open to suggestions as I'm just fumbling my way along.

Finally finished the furled yards for the square sails. They take quite a bit of work (literally hours per yard), but I think they will improve the overall look of the ship. I started with the topgallants, and worked my way down. I got to the main yard, and was like, wow, this came out pretty nice. Then I was tying myself in knots trying to figure out how the main course was supposed to be rigged. The instructions said it was rigged as a crossjack yard, and it didn't have all that many blocks attached. It wasn't until I looked back at Chapelle's "Search for Speed Under Sail" which has a section on the Badger that Caldercraft's kit appears to follow closely, and with some help and guidance from Jim Lad (thanks John!) at the link below that I realized that I made a mistake in attaching a furled sail to that yard. http://modelshipworld.com/index.php?/topic/4120-crossjack-yard-generally-did-not-carry-a-sail/ Essentially, the Badger's main yard was a spread yard to sheet the topsails on the main mast, and the Badger also carried an improvised main course that was fitted to a crossjack of almost the same length and secured to the main mast only by halyards. The kit instructions just have one "main yard," so I'm assuming that it accounted for the spreader yard. So, after hours of effort on the main yard, I was left with this nice souvenir All in all, my complaining aside, I think everything came out pretty well. Here are the final products: You'll see that I tried to pre-rig the lines attaching the yards to the masts and the buntlines. I figured it would be easier to do that before the sails were added. Since the buntlines come from the foot of the sail, I glued the line on the pre-furled sail and ran it through the appropriate block. They should be locked in pretty right after furling. Next up are the jibs and spanker. Not really looking forward to doing them - the jibs need jib stays and halyards, along with extra rigging for the inhaul and outhaul (I think). The spanker is tricky in figuring out how to cut the sail back to reduce bulk, yet leave enough in spots to be true to the brail lines. Also, per the zu Mondfeld book, there are a number of ways of attaching the spanker to the mast, so I need to pick one and figure out how to execute it.

Nice start John, looking forward to being a spectator as the build progresses. By the way, I'm very jealous that you live in Sydney - one of the most beautiful cities in the world

Thanks again John!

Hi John, thanks so much for that explanation. That makes a lot of sense. So, it sounds like I shouldn't show a furled course on the main yard whichever direction I go - either including the spreader yard or not including the spreader yard. If it's not too much to ask, how does the running rigging change if one goes with the spreader yard and the modified main yard like in the Chapelle plans? In the kit instructions, the main yard has blocks for the sheets, lifts and braces. With the spreader yard and modified main yard, from Chapelle it sounds like the blocks for the sheets are moved to the spreader yard (since the topsail is sheeted to the spreader yard, rather than the main yard). Does the spreader yard have lifts and braces? And does the modified main yard not include any blocks, except for those attached to the halyards? Thanks very much again in advance. Mike

Thanks very much John, this is very helpful information. I take it that the main yard would not hold a furled course then? So it looks like if I stick with the instructions, and keep the lower yard rigged as a crossjack with no furled sail, the sail plan would look similar to the Collier sail plan (and I found a picture of the Lady Washington with sails set that seems to have no main course): Just out of curiosity, if I went with the spreader yard and a modified main yard, how would these be rigged? It looks like the main yard would no longer hold the clews down on the main topsail, so I would think that those blocks would be on the spreader yard. And then the main yard would have to be modified to hold the main course? Probably all moot if I am showing my model with furled sails, but just curious. Thanks very much again John for your post and in advance for any answers you might have to these questions! 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