KeithAug

She is exceptionally beautiful Rob, a true work of art.

A lovely little boat Nils and your productivity puts most of us to shame.

Beautiful little boat Eberhard. I was surprised how well your late fixes worked, it looks perfect.

Eberhard, I think you are being a little bit hard on yourself, The overall effect is looking very good. It will be interesting to see how easily it comes off the frames.

Excellent work Dan. I still don’t know how you manage to interpret those photos.

The anchor looks great Brian. Over here we would call the rope attached to the crown a "tripping line".

Valeriy, wonderful guns - no one will miss the detail.

All looking very good, I do hope the covid recovery is progressing well.

Thank you Brian, Druxey, Tom, Steve, Pat and Michael. This week Germania reached her full height with the completion of the main topsail. Having measured the space between the main mast and the gaff I adjusted the drawing of the topsail. The sail edge lengths needed to be reduced by up to half an inch to get a good fit. The topsail yard and jack yard were offered up against the sketch to check for fit. The foot rule gives and indication of size. The topsail sail material was then placed over the drawing and the shape, seams and reinforcing details were traced on in pencil. The sails cloth was then removed and the sail was cut out. Rip stop tape was then used to represent the reinforcing and the edges were wired and taped. The topsail yard was then laced on. Followed by the jack yard. The topsail yard halyard was then attached and threaded through the shave in the main top mast. Then the sail was hoisted using the halyard. It was rather satisfying to see the sail being hoisted. It must be quite a task on the real thing. I then rigged the downhaul. I couldn't resist a shot from below looking up at the sail.

Nils, thanks for the detailed sail making explanation ( including tips from the admiralty ). I love the refuelling shot, and it is good to see that the skipper isn’t smoking.

The copper clamping wire at the top of the frames seems to be working very well. I await the core removal with anticipation, good luck.

Michael - they have a very thin covering of what I presume to be leather. I couldn't reproduce it without it looking much too bulky so I left it out. I should add that the covering doesn't look up to the job of protecting the boom, it seems to be much too thin. On Altair the boom was plated where the wire wrapped around it, which seem to me to be a much better engineering solution.

Was that because of the great story line or was it more related to Samantha's hull lines?😆

Thank you all for your continuing interest and kind words. I did a bit of a work assessment this week and decided that i should comfortably get this project completed by Christmas, at least that is the target. I am still working on the mainsail. I made the boom fixing for the tipping lift on a template - to get both sides identical. I then released I had missed off the forward hoop for the topping lift attachment point. A bit annoying as it was more difficult to install with the boom mounted. The strap was made form thin brass sheet and then then bent into a ring. Before rigging the topping lift I needed to temporarily secure the boom in position with a length of string. With this done I attached the "triangular" wire and rigged the topping lift. The topping lifts are fed throughout 2 blocks that attach just below the cross tree. The next job was to attach the reefing lines. The leach reefing line attaches at the boom, then goes up to the reefing cringle before descending back to a pulley on the boom. From here it is led forward to the mast. At the mast it feeds through a bobbin before being tied off to a belaying pin. The next photo shows the reefing line passing through the bobbin. I turned the bobbins from black plastic and added the attachment lashings. The bobbins were then lashed to eyes on the mast. I didn't have any photos of the luff reefing line so I had to improvise. I rigged the line both sides, through bobbins and on to the cleats on the forward end of the boom. With this done I then moved to rigging the boom sheet. The sheet runs between the two largest winches on the boat taking a wondering path through numerous deck and boom mounted blocks, all very complicated. I have only roughly tensioned the sheet in the above photos. Iwill need to do final adjustments when i rig the boat on a port tack. And finally an overall shot. I now need to do a bit of measuring up for the topsail.

It is really annoying when you discover something that looks wrong and have to get it fixed "immediately". I think it is the perfectionistic gene taking control. A common problem among MSW builders I observe.

Nice looking louver and I do like the large scale.

Glad to see you back and to admire your work.

A very telling comment Dan. It caused me to review the deck house much more closely and marvel at the detail.

Yep - Brasswork - I rue the day that computers decided they were cleverer than humans.

As always the internal detail is enchanting.

Beautiful little coach Michael, glad to see you are in fine form.

I do admire your dedication, I'm sure I would have taken the short cut of turning it from solid. Beautiful rope and rigging work.

Some very crisp paintwork. All looking very nice.

Wonderful Valeriy. What sort of paint do you use on your painted brainwork?

Nils, Druxey, Chris, Keith, Michael, Dan, Eberhard, Brian, Richard, Pat, Tom, Valeriy, Andy. Thank you all for your generous comments they are much appreciated.