Roger Pellett

Re: Your concern regarding the transom
 
Why not paint it, say a semi gloss dark blue (just the transom, not the whole boat!). This would provide a nice contrast with your diagonally planked wooden hull and would provide a great background for lettering. Gold lettering would look good and would be appropriate. Fill it first with a filler that hardens, even Bondo. This will give you another chance to get some sharp well defined edges between transom and hull.
 
Just an idea.
 
Roger

A little more progress today I did modify the procedure a little now I am using a drop of water in a saucer to wash off the sanding pad. A couple of new pads with some added thickness glued to the T section using styrene strip which was then rounded on one edge. 
 

 

 
I have started to sand down the area under the lip of the main deck using this new pad.
 

 
I am also using a new small jewelers saw cutting V block with a couple of 8x32 thumb screw to hold the parts it is set up to also cut into the end of dowels up to 3/8 diameter. The picture shows one of the new pads being shaped with the jewelers saw. The thumb screws are really helpful for this sort of task.
 
The screws are threaded up through the wood and locked up to the wood, this allows for the thumb screws to be loosened and tightened without the screws falling out the bottom or having to hold them while making adjustments.
 
 
 
Again thanks for all those who have been following and pressing the like button
 
Michael

Maury,
 
Yes and no. The vertical forces thansferred to the vessel's structure by the gear's weight are primarily resisted by the ball race but as this race is not rigid it would be expected to deflect and some of this load would have been transferred to the keelson.
 
The gear's effect on the center of gravity of the vessel's hull would be at the vertical height of a plane passing through its vertical centerline.
 
Are you sure that this gear was a one piece casting? It could have been built up from cast segments bolted together, cast iron segments bolted to a wooden spoked wheel, or it could have been entirely wooden like those seen in water mills.
 
Roger

Re: Your concern regarding the transom
 
Why not paint it, say a semi gloss dark blue (just the transom, not the whole boat!). This would provide a nice contrast with your diagonally planked wooden hull and would provide a great background for lettering. Gold lettering would look good and would be appropriate. Fill it first with a filler that hardens, even Bondo. This will give you another chance to get some sharp well defined edges between transom and hull.
 
Just an idea.
 
Roger

Rob,
 
Have you looked into a model of the whaling brig Kate Corey? This model was based on information developed by Eric Ronnberg. Eric is an excellent model builder and researcher of New England fishing and whaling vessels. I have not built this kit and cannot voucher for its quality but as far as research and plans are concerned what Eric does is more than first class.
 
Roger

Rob,
 
Have you looked into a model of the whaling brig Kate Corey? This model was based on information developed by Eric Ronnberg. Eric is an excellent model builder and researcher of New England fishing and whaling vessels. I have not built this kit and cannot voucher for its quality but as far as research and plans are concerned what Eric does is more than first class.
 
Roger

Re: Your concern regarding the transom
 
Why not paint it, say a semi gloss dark blue (just the transom, not the whole boat!). This would provide a nice contrast with your diagonally planked wooden hull and would provide a great background for lettering. Gold lettering would look good and would be appropriate. Fill it first with a filler that hardens, even Bondo. This will give you another chance to get some sharp well defined edges between transom and hull.
 
Just an idea.
 
Roger

Most of the finished raised deck cockpit parts have been installed. I'm happy with the shellac finish on the timber, about 8 coats well sanded, the final one with steel wool; & finally a thin coat of clear polyurethane finish was wiped on with a cloth to give satin finish, slightly glossy.
 
The deck in the cockpit area has been painted with the final colour, a matt cream colour. The edge of the seating footwell will be trimmed in timber, where the colour changes from cream to white.
 
The side rectangular panels are removable in the design, hence their beaded edging. The storm boards are simple, true to the intention that the boat was used mainly for the harbour & some short coastal trips. I've left the top part over-height to be trimmed down later. The 2 main deck hatches are started, I'll stain the timber a colour to replicate teak. The hatch details will be simple, a lot of boats here of that time had fairly poor hatches - I suppose that if it doesn't get too cold then it doesn't matter so much if it leaks air.
 
The capping pieces are not glued on yet, I may wait until after the topsides are repainted first, to be decided.
 

 

 

 

 
 
thanks

Thanks for the advise Roger, will be removing the sonar dome shortly and re-attach once the fibreglass is put on.
I suspect the same logic applies to the flat stern piece vs the hull ? Am considering covering the stern first, and then proceed with the rest of the hull thereafter - again because of the corners.
 
E

Hatch Covers
 
Not much progress on the model itself lately. I've been building and finishing the display board and running it out to a plastic company who made the display case for me. I needed the display board done this early because right after I paint the hull I'll mount it on the board so I don't have to handle it anymore.
 
The kit provides 2 laser cut pieces to form each hatch coaming and cover, the covers are etched to show the individual hatch covers - you can find them as tables in the cocktail lounge of every cheesy seafood place with a name like “The Rusty Scupper.”
 
I built up 3 of them for the 3 hatches that I will leave closed/covered.
 

 
For the 2 hatches that will be (hopefully) either full or partially open I had to scratch the coamings. After several attempts I got 2 that are square and the right dimensions. I’ll add details like hatch beams, etc, later on.
 


 
Next up will be the final sub assemblies and then it will be time to paint the hull.

Roger, Thanks.  I agree with your comments about the size of the main mast and intend to beef it up.  The main mast was not even used to support the main boom and sail.  The boat has a "Spencer mast" aft the main for that purpose.  Your insights are greatly appreciated and are being incorporated into my build. I think taper proportions would still apply.  Other elements of the drawings raise questions about the accuracy of the boat either as built or as planned.  An example is the diameter of the main capstan gear as shown in the profile sketch is larger than the internal breadth of the boat.  The bowsprit in the sketch seems grossly over-sized and that spar has no function in regard to the anchor hoisting...in fact, it was taken in when the great cat was in use.  This is turning out to be a more interesting project than I envisioned and I'm grateful for all the support and input I'm getting along the way.
Maury

The line in question is called a vang. It's purpose is to prevent the gaff from sagging to leeward causing the sail to twist, an inefficient shape. Vangs were rigged in pairs. The windward one would be set up to control the gaff and the leeward one slacked off. When the sail was not set, by setting up both vangs the gaff could be left "standing," not lowered. The sail could be then brailed up to the gaff and mast.
 
Yes, you need to rig two gangs, port and starboard.
 
Roger Pellett

Maury,
 
I would like you to encourage to not use spar tables but to model the spars as shown on the drawings. There are two reasons for this:
 
First, the drawings are documentary evidence of the way this craft was intended to be built. They were carefully drawn, if not by Grice himself, than by a skilled marine draftsman who knew what he was doing. There is no reason that the rig and spar dimensions are any less accurate than other features shown on the drawings that you have incorporated into the model such as the gear arrangement or the hull lines.
 
Second, it is logical that the mast would be heavier than one shown in spar tables for a sloop of this size. Spars on an ordinary sailing vessel would be sized to support the sails. Thie mast on this vessel served as a derrick lifting very heavy loads like the anchor shown on the drawing. This would place a large bending moment on the spar. While the array of backstays was intended to counterbalance this, I believe that the mast would have been beefed up to resist these bending moments as well.
 
Roger

Maury,
 
I would like you to encourage to not use spar tables but to model the spars as shown on the drawings. There are two reasons for this:
 
First, the drawings are documentary evidence of the way this craft was intended to be built. They were carefully drawn, if not by Grice himself, than by a skilled marine draftsman who knew what he was doing. There is no reason that the rig and spar dimensions are any less accurate than other features shown on the drawings that you have incorporated into the model such as the gear arrangement or the hull lines.
 
Second, it is logical that the mast would be heavier than one shown in spar tables for a sloop of this size. Spars on an ordinary sailing vessel would be sized to support the sails. Thie mast on this vessel served as a derrick lifting very heavy loads like the anchor shown on the drawing. This would place a large bending moment on the spar. While the array of backstays was intended to counterbalance this, I believe that the mast would have been beefed up to resist these bending moments as well.
 
Roger

Maury,
 
I would like you to encourage to not use spar tables but to model the spars as shown on the drawings. There are two reasons for this:
 
First, the drawings are documentary evidence of the way this craft was intended to be built. They were carefully drawn, if not by Grice himself, than by a skilled marine draftsman who knew what he was doing. There is no reason that the rig and spar dimensions are any less accurate than other features shown on the drawings that you have incorporated into the model such as the gear arrangement or the hull lines.
 
Second, it is logical that the mast would be heavier than one shown in spar tables for a sloop of this size. Spars on an ordinary sailing vessel would be sized to support the sails. Thie mast on this vessel served as a derrick lifting very heavy loads like the anchor shown on the drawing. This would place a large bending moment on the spar. While the array of backstays was intended to counterbalance this, I believe that the mast would have been beefed up to resist these bending moments as well.
 
Roger

Charlie,
 
If you have not already done so, before deciding on a color scheme for these models I would obtain a copy of Eric Ronnberg's excellent article on period correct paints from the Nautical Research Guild. It is from Volume 36, issue 4 downloadable from their web site.
 
Roger

Maury, Yes, I agree that other then showing the basic gear train the Grice drawing does not provide the necessary details. In that case, I generally try to find out what the state of the art was at the period in question.
 
In this case, I believe that the technology was not available in the US to machine involute pattern gear teeth in a large iron wheel like this. On the other hand examples exist in England of large wooden gear trains in water mills. For example see www.whitemill.org. There is another example of an iron gear wheel with wooden teeth. The teeth were shaped from a hard wood like apple and were inserted into cavities cast in the iron wheel. This approach was favored as the teeth were the "weak link" that would fail first and could be easily replaced.
 
The famous marine engineer Benjamin Franklin Isherwood used a wooden gear train in the late 1860's (40 years later than your period) to increase revolutions of the main engines of the high speed cruiser USS Wampanoag. The gears supposedly wore 5/8in during the vessel's sea trial.
 
You are to be congratulated on building this model of a usual and unique craft. You are doing a great job.
 
Roger

Charlie,
 
If you have not already done so, before deciding on a color scheme for these models I would obtain a copy of Eric Ronnberg's excellent article on period correct paints from the Nautical Research Guild. It is from Volume 36, issue 4 downloadable from their web site.
 
Roger

The great thing about hobbies is that it is up to the individual to define it… Some people like building and do very little research, others research a lot and build much less. Others focus on other things, but everyone is part of the same hobby!
 
Basically "to each his own". I like to build or paint things. Of course I want them to be fairly accurate but, for me, the joy of constructing things with my hands is much more important than accuracy. I like to buy and build models and very rarely do much research, I just build Other hobbyists focus on other things. In my eyes, no one is more right or wrong, we just enjoy different parts of the same hobby.

Why not put your bench where you intend to do your detailed hand work under the window so at least part of the time you have natural light? I find that bench top power tools work quite well with light from overhead recesed overhead fluorescent fixtures. I second having a dedicated circuit breaker box in your shop and you can't have enough outlets. On the other hand, I run a 10in contractors saw to mill hardwoods satisfactorily on 110v.
 
Roger

I should have just posted this here.
 
Jim thanks for the compliment
 
 

 
The tool is made from stock wooden dowel 
1 x 3/4 x 3 1/2 long
2 x 3/4 x 2 1/2 long
1 x 1/2 x 8 long
2 x 1/2 x 2 1/2 long
2 x 3/8 x 2 long
6 off 8 x 32 x 3/4 long round head machine screws
1 off 8 x 32 x 1 long round head machine screws
7 off 8 x 32 brass thumb nuts
1 piece wood for base, mine is 8 x 4 1/2 x 3/4  oak
 
The top clamp arms do not have the second rotation but for most tasks this would not be an issue there is still lots of control, and on my one I ran out of brass thumb nuts so I had to use different nut on the base post, and the 8 x 32 round head screws are reversed on one side to show that it can be done without the brass thumb nuts.
 
basically the screws are threaded in from the bottom with the clearance hole on the top so that the brass thumb screw presses the top half of the dowel down.  without the thumb nuts the machine screw pulls down the wood.
 

 

 

 
 wood third hand tool.pdf   287.75KB   0 downloads
 
So I hope that this information is useful to those who want to make one for themselves The only machine tool I used was a drill press to drill all the holes, this could have been accomplished with a good hand drill
hand tools included a small back saw
a hack saw
a thin file
an 8 x 32 second tap
 
Michael

Just a teaser to show I have been working on my project. It's far from being done and there are a lot of temp pins holding things together. Once I have all the parts made than I will do the final assembly.

Well, as my approach to this kit evolves, it's becoming something quite different from what I initially intended, but also something quite interesting in its own right.
 
I've planked the starboard side following the "go with the flow" approach, allowing the kit-supplied planking to curve as it desires. It's obviously not accurate, but it was good practice for fitting planks, and I think it came out nicely overall other than the un-prototypicalness of it. Certainly the vast majority of viewers here will never know the difference; Mrs Cathead cooed when she saw the results. There are two noticeable errors: a couple planks which didn't quite seat properly near the bow, and a notch at the keel where I screwed up cutting out the notch for the display stand.
 



 
This was my first attempt at using stealers on any model, and I think it worked well at the stern. I had considering painting this side if the planking hadn't come out well, but after sanding and oiling it, I think I like it this way. I never intended a natural-wood model, but as that's what it's evolving to be, so be it.
 
The next step is to decide whether to finish the port side the same way for consistency, or to order a few sheets of wood to try my hand at spiling an accurate run of planks. This would look strange from head-on, but as it won't be displayed that way, it may not matter, and may even be a point of conversation to be able to display two different planking approaches at once.
 
I have time to think about it, as we're about to depart for vacation in Boston and Maine. I'm looking forward to visiting the Constitution, and hopefully dropping by BlueJacket in Searsport, ME. Thanks for reading.

Why not put your bench where you intend to do your detailed hand work under the window so at least part of the time you have natural light? I find that bench top power tools work quite well with light from overhead recesed overhead fluorescent fixtures. I second having a dedicated circuit breaker box in your shop and you can't have enough outlets. On the other hand, I run a 10in contractors saw to mill hardwoods satisfactorily on 110v.
 
Roger

Why not put your bench where you intend to do your detailed hand work under the window so at least part of the time you have natural light? I find that bench top power tools work quite well with light from overhead recesed overhead fluorescent fixtures. I second having a dedicated circuit breaker box in your shop and you can't have enough outlets. On the other hand, I run a 10in contractors saw to mill hardwoods satisfactorily on 110v.
 
Roger