KeithAug

Yes thank you.

As always very impressive work Eberhard. The oars are particularly realistic but I’m not sure how you manage to keep them so straight and smooth given the assembly method?

Brian, sorry to hear about your marital problems. You give them the best years of your life and they just toss you out with the trash. Chin up mate, maybe someone better will turn up.😀

My workshop has been sat at about 6c for a month or so. The other day I went in and it seemed somewhat warmer so I looked at the thermometer - 9c! Today it's back to 6c. I can only stand it for about an hour and half so not much is getting done. Work gloves and two jumpers help. I recall a 1940s war film where an occupant of a POW camp burns his model boat to keep his hut warm, I sometimes consider it Good to see you made it back to the workshop Hakan.

Phil, I probably didn't explain it well enough. When rigged the fishermans sail is hoisted between the two stays and the downwind stay is loosened to allow the sail to take the correct shape. With the fisherman set only one back stay is bracing the fore top mast at any one time. Because I have not installed the fisherman I have tightened both back stays. When tightened the load path is from the top of the fore top mast to the top of the main mast. The majority of the load is then transmitted to the deck via the main mast back stays. The blocks tightening the twin fore top mast back stays are split on to port and starboard beams. Thank you Druxey and Brian for commenting.

Im getting annoyed with myself that i am not finishing off this build, but thanks to everyone for sticking with me. I suppose that I was having and aversion to fixing mistakes but this weekend I managed to overcome my prevarication and fixed the problem. As I previously said the upper fore mast back stay had been rigged as a fixed stay. During a discussion on the complexity of tacking the fisherman it became obvious that I should have fitted a pair of running back stays with only the windward stay taking the load. Although I hadn't fitted a fisherman the change was made necessary by the nagging voice in my head. The change necessitated the production of 5 more twin blocks (one of which I managed to misplace). I found the 5th after a half hour hunt!!!!!!!!!! The fixed stay was removed and replaced by a pair of back stays wrapped around the upper fore mast, The pair were led to the twin block mounted high on the main mast. I had to remove a couple of deck hard points to mount the blocks - luckily they were glued in with CA and came free neatly with the application of a soldering iron. See hole next to the uppermost hand wheel. I managed to knock the hand wheel off (its smaller than it looks) and spent a good hour getting it back on - idiot!!! Rigging the blocks was the easy bit - but just twice ad difficult as it would have been had it got it right in the first place. It now feels fixed but most people won't notice. I also made some progress on the flags but dinner is ready so that will have to wait until next time.

Frightening. Maybe they need to consider fitting sails😀

Brain, looks interesting in a blunt sort of a way. I'm signing up .😀

Thanks Bruce.

Good to see your sense of humour hasn't deserted you. The fact that they are contemplating letting you home tomorrow seems to be a good sign. Keep taking the morphine. Best wishes for a speedy recovery.

Yes Andy. The hull surface at the point of contact is curved in 2 axes and of course I also had to allow for the tolerance between the fore and aft vertical supports and the tolerance on the abeam width. The 4mm of adjustment that the eccentric rings gave me was very necessary.

Brian, Your 2 weeks shore leave is over. How are you doing?

i assume she doesn't follow your log. She may however start in the future!😀

Hakan - Belated best wishes re the surgery. It's now Tuesday evening and hopefully it will all be over and you will be on the mend. I hope the nurses are pretty and that you are chasing them round the ward by midday tomorrow.

Ras - I quite often use a mixture of solder and CA on components. I start with soldering but when I think structures are too complicated or small to protect from the heat of further soldering I revert to CA. Take care not to heat up brass which has been joined using CA. The heating will break the bond. Great job on the gun.

Eberhard - yes you are right - but the option of lowering the table might have ended in divorce and that is very expensive option at my time of life. Druxey - it doesn't look that bad in the flesh, I was clearly focusing on it in the photos which I think emphasised it. Brian - I'm not sure. I tried looking up compatibility but couldn't find rubber against poly. Fingers crossed. Eberhard, Druey, Rick, Keith, Tom, Steve, Brian, Mark - thank you all for your comments.

Mark - Thank you for you kind comments. A pig stick (occasionally pigstick[1] or pig-stick[2]) is a staff that carries a flag or pennant, usually the burgee of the boat owner's yacht club or private signal, above a mast of a sailboat.[3] The pig stick is connected to a halyard so that when raised to the top of the mast, it extends above the mast, allowing the flag to be seen flying above the boat's sails.

Thank you Bruce.

Bruce - where please?

Hmmm! good idea.

Keith - Interesting technique for the rat lines - must remember. I'm impressed - my head is rarely in the game for long periods these days!!!!!

Very impressive detail at this scale. Good job!

The deck structures somehow jar with the sleekness of the overall ship design. The designer must have gone into utilitarian mode when he drew them.😀

Interesting looking little craft. It will be interesting to see how it turns out.

Tom - as you rotate them they move closer to the hull - hence they clamp against the hull. If they were concentric they wouldn't do this. In effect they are acting like a cam.