Kenchington

Rounding up into the wind to drop anchor on the banks, headsails clawed down so she will lie head to wind, foresail and main still set and sheeted in hard, until the men have time to lower them properly? Looks technically correct to me! Trevor

Good to see you working on this! I finished my dory two weeks ago and am now progressing with the Norwegian pram. They are working for me as learning experiences, so I hope they will for you. A few points: First: Be careful when you take things out of the sequence in the instructions. That can be done but could get you into trouble at times. At least read through the booklet, cover to cover, so that you can figure out what steps, if made too early, might block others. Next: Yes, the stern cleat has to be wider at this stage. Later, both will be bevelled for the planks to lie against. The aft side of the transom will be narrowed, the forward side of the transom and aft side of the cleat will have the transom's existing width and the forward side of the cleat must be wider. You are on track so far! Third: You are OK with the position of stem and transom, relative to the bottom planks. (The instructions are not as clear as they might be. I put mine where you have and it worked out.) In truth, it may not matter that much as you will be sanding both areas to make a good fit for the garboards and it wouldn't be a big deal if you had to take off a little more of one or another piece. And lastly: If you haven't worked through the MSW build-logs for the dory kit, I would encourage you to study them all. I found a lot of wisdom there: Both the good ideas and the pitfalls to avoid. Best of luck with your build! Trevor

Thank you for the approval, Mark! My progress has slowed but not stopped. It's not only the gains that need attention but also the bottom-plank bevels, transom bevels and even the moulds -- all to be shaped so that the garboards fit nicely. I found that I could not so much as check what needs work while the garboards were straight, so last night I bevelled them, soaked them and set them to dry: They were looking nice by this morning, but I had a day in the city and have not yet proceeded further with them. I have been practicing at cutting gains too. It has gone much better than I expected, mostly because the grain of basswood is so agreeable. (Quite unlike the bloody-minded bit of sapele that I am trying to turn into a small table for my wife!) One example: As ever, it does pay to have the right tools: Yes, that's a standard cutting board with a one-inch grid marked. The chisel is great for making a first, careful cut, creating an edge for the blocking plane to run down. Then the plane develops the slope of the gain, while making it a straight slope. Those are Lee Valley miniatures. I suspect that they sell more as collectable novelties than for practical use, but they are ideal for this task. Now I have hope that I can justify the extravagance by using them on other models. My trip into the city yielded the dye needed for a leatherwork project that was always supposed to precede construction of the pram, so that must now take priority. My updates to this log will slow down but (hopefully) not stop. Trevor

That's a beautiful illustration, Alpayed! In my own defence, however, I'll just note that how gear was handled on a collier serving the regular trade down the coast from Newcastle to London and how it was handled on an ex-collier leaving the Cape for a long voyage into an unknown ocean were not necessarily one and the same. Given the prominence of Cook's voyages, I'd not be surprised if the officer's journals have been published. I wonder whether any of them happened to mention specific details? Trevor

Just one fish davit! One alone was awkward enough. Until a generation before the time you are representing, large ships had a long davit (as long as the ship's beam) that was stowed across the forecastle and lashed down. When in use, it was moved so that one end or the other projected far enough for its purpose. By the time of Endeavour, the much shorter davit that you have already modelled was preferred. In use, it was mounted on whichever did of the forecastle it was needed. Unfortunately, the near-contemporary seamanship manuals, like Darcy Lever's and Brady's, go on at length about how the davit was rigged for fishing an anchor, then go silent on what was done with it afterwards. Maybe somebody can come up with specific evidence. (Sometimes details can emerge from the oddest sources, such as an aside mention in a court-martial record. I've never gone looking that deeply for anything to do with fish davits.) All I can offer is surmise: The davit was big, awkward and heavy. Stowing it somewhere near where it was used but out of the way would be the first choice, though there were plenty of men and plenty of tackle, if it was necessary to hoist the beastly thing. If you can find somewhere on the forecastle where the davit might be lashed down, without obstructing other gear or the men's access to wherever they had to go, then that would be a likely spot. Another possibility would be the fore chains, between the ship's side and the deadeyes of the foremast shrouds. Or perhaps on the boat skids across the waist, if your ship had those. Making things serve two (or more) purposes has value in a small, crowded ship. I'm not sure what second purpose a davit might serve, other than as a place for men to sit when having yarn during a dog-watch, but maybe someone can be more imaginative. Trevor

Thanks for that, Palmerit! I'll likely put steel to basswood planks this evening and I'll need that bit of reassurance. Trevor

My understanding is that fish davits, of the era you are portraying, were stowed away when not actually in use for raising an anchor up to its stowage position. Have a good look at contemporary sources before showing your ship with no anchors on the bows. I don't doubt that there almost always some on deck but there may also have been some on the bows (unless they were on the bottom of some anchorage). If they were brought inboard when out in mid-ocean, then one would expect the sails to be set if the anchors are on deck. Not that you would be wrong to show the ship that way but it would look a bit odd to someone expecting to see the anchors outboard, if the anchors were in and all sails furled.

Glad to assist where I can!

I don't think there is any one right answer, Bill. Any ship has a lot of small, movable gear that is usually stowed away and so not shown in a model. The fish davit is one of the few big things that got moved away when not in immediate use. One answer would be to put it in its stowed position. You could show it in use but that would move your model towards being a diorama, rather than a formalized display of the ship. Or you could have it rigged but not in use. Your choice. To me, "weighing anchor" is the whole process of getting an anchor up off the seabed. There are a number of possible end-points of that process: 1: It's not often seen in models or paintings but lightly manned merchant vessels might hold an anchor on its cable, just under the hawsehole or at the forefoot, with the stock and ring awash -- at some height where it won't be banging the hull. That saves the effort of going further, while keeping the anchor ready for immediate use. Good for times when shifting berths within a protected anchorage or if creeping along the edge of a sandbank. 2: Next up is to hook the cat block into the anchor's ring and lift it to hang vertically below the cathead. In the image you just posted, you have the cattackle rigged for that, though the anchor has been moved into the third option. 3: Third choice is to bring the fish tackle into use. IIRC its hook goes around the shank of the anchor but slides as the shank comes horizontal, until the hook ends up caught under one of the flukes. (Later anchors could have a "gravity band" at their centre of gravity. A fish block hooked there would lift without the sliding.) I have never heard of an anchor being left suspended by cat and fish tackles but perhaps it happened sometimes. More often, once the shank was horizontal and the anchor up sufficiently, a lashing was passed and the fish davit and tackle cleared away. That would leave the anchor much as you have it. In the era you are modelling, ships would carry their bower anchors "on the bows" like that, at least when "in soundings" (over a bottom of less than 100 fathoms depth) or at risk of running onto some steep-sided island somewhere. 4: Later, there was a preference for getting the flukes and shank up on deck, where they could lie flat, while the stock remained outboard (and vertical). That way, the anchors were not banging around as the ship was tossed around in waves. 5: Some anchors were brought aboard and stowed entirely on deck. That was especially the smaller ones (stream and kedge) but, in earlier times, also the outsized sheet anchor -- too heavy to trouble with except in dire emergency. Stowing that aboard meant disassembling the stock, until iron anchors with folding stocks became accepted in the larger sizes. By the 19th century, ships bound on long voyages could bring their bower anchors aboard also, once clear of any risk of running onto beach, sandbank, reef or rock. 6: Then there had been a time when anchors and cables were unreliable and a ship might carry a half-dozen of each. To keep weight low down, some of the spare anchors might be lain on the ballast in the hold. You get to choose among those on artistic grounds, with nobody to criticize your choice. All are historically valid, at least for some ships and some times. If you want to get more specific, you could go in search of a log or journal of Endeavour's voyage and see what was done at some point in time. Trevor

It seems that I have inspired someone. Not sure whether you or your better half! I do enjoy large-scale models of small, open boats. Every piece of wood in the prototype's structure can be (maybe: has to be) represented in the model, so the builder gets to experience the structure of the boat and not just its shape. That can be done with small-scale models of large ships but it is very, very demanding -- way outside my skill level.

I had this posting all ready to go some hours back, then my internet link went down. Fortunately, MSW has remembered my draft, so I can finish up my original digression, then catch up on other messages: The pram kit instructions call for a gain at each end of each plank. I now understand that a "gain" (in at least American nautical English) means a rabbet in the end of a lapstrake plank. I have modified a drawing found for me by Google into something clearer than the kit instruction's photo: 1 is the inboard face of a starboard strake where it nears the stem. 2 is the end of the plank, to be embedded in the stem rabbet. 3 is the end of the bevel on the outer, upper corner of the strake, shaped to receive the next strake -- though, as Chapelle made clear in his "Boatbuilding", that bevel would have had to transition into a rabbet this close to the stem. 4 is the lower edge of the strake. The gain is the sloping rabbet cut into the nearest corner of the plank. (A scribed line corresponding to the upper edge of the next strake below is just visible, extending from the end of the cut. Except for the shape of the bevel at 3, so far so good. I understand the shape of a lapstrake gain. With Chapelle's aid, I can even get my head around its normal purpose: This is my crude drafting of the junction between two lapstrake strakes, seen in section, as they should be (maybe could be?) on a typical round-bilged boat with a straight stem -- lower strake in brown, upper in tan. The left-hand diagram shows the junction somewhere amidships. In transverse section, the boat is curved there and that curve appears as an angle between the strakes. The upper, outer corner of the lower strake is bevelled, so that the strake above can sit flat and firm. So far, so good. That's the way that the pram model is built, amidships. With a straight stem, however, the boat's transverse section must transition into something near to a vertical line, as the planking approaches the stem. Continuing to bevel further and further (not shown) would reduce the planks to paper-thickness. Going the other way and mounting the upper strake on the outboard face of the lower one (middle diagram) works if you are putting clapboard onto the side of a barn but, used at the bow of a boat, it leaves a wide hole (blue) for the water to pour in. So the solution is to trim the last 6 inches or a foot of the lower, inner edge of each strake into the form of a gain, while transitioning the bevel on the upper, outer edge of the strake below into a mirror image. Then the two fit together, where they reach the stem, as a form of lap joint, while presenting smooth outer and inner faces (which fit neatly into the stem rabbet). The hood ends of the planks are nailed to the stem, so the removal of wood does not involve an unacceptable loss of strength. Nice, if not always well explained in print. Our pram, however, does not have a stem but rather a bow transom, which changes things because the angles between the strakes are carried to the transoms -- to the stern transom in most lapstrake boats, to both transoms in the case of a pram. In the case of our pram, the angles are almost constant from bow to stern. But if the structural arrangement was maintained throughout (top left) we would get a water gap again. There seem to be three ways around that. #1: With a lot of work, we could joggle the edge of the transom, so that one corner of each strake sits down in its own recess. On our pram, the junction between bottom plank and keel plank is handled that way, but I have not tried to illustrate it here. #2: We could develop the bevel until it fines away, at the transom, into a knife-edge (top right). Then the next strake could sit on both the transom and the strake below without trouble. #3: We could cut off the edge of the lower strake, perpendicular to the bevel, cut a gain in the upper strake and match them up. That's the version that the kit instructions call for. (And they call for the gain to be cut in 3/64 stock!) What the instructions do not say is that it is necessary to match each gain to the shape of the strake below. They do say to cut away no more than 1/3 the thickness of the wood but that gives no account to how much of the thickness of the other strake remains after its bevelling. I would welcome any advice or comment but I suspect that each gain needs to be individually shaped to fit with the strake below. And that's doubly interesting because the kit planks are so narrow that some transom bevels will need to be adjusted. So we have the shape of the bevelled lower strake, the shape of the upper strake's gain and the shape of the transom, all of them rather fluid, yet needing to be matched into one unit with no gaps. Interesting challenge! Separate from all of that, previous build logs have suggested practicing cutting gains on scrap. I'm going to start with scrap a lot thicker than 3/64 and see how I progress. But I just might end up sanding the transoms down until the lower-strake bevels form knife-edges. Your thoughts and comments would be much appreciated! Trevor

Gains and Things: A digression here, while I figure out next steps and maybe ask for some advice. With the garboards and all higher strakes, the pram kit's instructions call for a "gain" to be shaped in the inboard side of the lower edge of each end of each plank. Admittedly, explaining a lapstrake "gain" in a few words and one picture is challenging but I was lost -- and I know others have been before me. Part of my trouble was that I learnt lapstrake (or I should say "clinker") construction in the UK, where the terminology seems to be different, so I had never heard of a "gain". (Oddly, Chapelle didn't mention them in his "Boatbuilding", only noting that the bevel of the lower strake has to transform into a rabbet as it approaches stem or stern.) I learnt the theory in the UK, I should say, as I have never built a clinker boat at full size and never want to try. (I have rowed and sailed various of them, for a time even owned and maintained one, but that's not the same as building.) And that long-ago learning drives me to digress from my digression ... I've seen lots of accounts of clinker/clencher/lapstrake boat construction but the only one that could teach me how it is done was Eric McKee's wonderful little "Clenched Lap or Clinker", published by the National Maritime Museum (the UK one), more years ago than I care to count. Druxey drew MSW's attention to that booklet near ten years ago but nobody seems to have followed up. Long out of print, it can still be picked up on eBay or through AbeBooks. The centrefold of McKee's booklet was printed on card stock and showed everything needed to build a 1:15 (or maybe 3/4"-to-the-foot) half-model of a 10ft workboat (with a very clever arrangement for setting the moulds in position). I could have sworn that I built that model as a teenager but, from the publication date, I see that I must have been on vacation from my undergrad university at the time. The little thing has been kicked around on bookshelves ever since, battered, bruised and ignored, but it is still with me: Filthy inside, breaking up, with oars that are an utter embarrassment -- but I see that I fitted it with a grating for whoever sat in the stern sheets, along with a scoop bailer and a painter on its own eyebolt. (I had quite forgotten those touches.) And, before anyone disparages the state that I allow models to fall into, that little half-boat has circumnavigated our watery world. Went around in shipping containers, along with much household furniture, but it went by sea, which is more than I have done. Aside from drawing attention to McKee's booklet, my reason for posting (other than as an excuse for showing off!) is to suggest that a 1:12 full-hull wooden version of that same boat would be an excellent next-step after the Model Shipway's dory and pram. With 9 strakes each side and rabbets at keel and stem, it would add another level of skills. Maybe that's a hint to one of the kit manufacturers? Or do I have to scratch-build from McKee's strake drawings?

A fish davit is used when fishing an anchor and has nothing to do with the ship's boats. In the era you are modelling, it did not pivot anywhere but it was kept stowed away until needed, when it was placed as you have shown. To explain a bit further: When weighing anchor, the capstan's pull on the cable brings the anchor's ring to the hawse hole. Then the cat block (lower block on the tackle at the cathead) is hook to the anchor's ring and the anchor lifted clear of the water, until suspended beneath the cathead. However, to secure the anchor for sea, it is necessary to lift its flukes until the shank is horizontal -- the step known as "fishing" the anchor. That lift is by the fish tackle, which leads to the foremast head (maybe fore topmast head: I haven't checked). There would be much trouble if such a huge strain came onto a rope that was dragged across the rail of the ship, so the fish tackle needs to be pushed outboard a bit and passed over a sheave. And that is the function of the fish davit. Trevor

Thank you, sir!

Step 7 completed After giving the glue plenty of time to set, bands came off. The tiny bit of infill went into the bow -- in the end, a linear fillet over the knee, rather than a triangle (easier to shape and less obvious in the finished model: [There: Managed to get the image-size control to work!) Sanded the bottom planks near the stern: And then turned back to the keel plank. I slipped it under the rubber bands on the moulds, held down one end to its transom, centred that, then traced along the edges of the plank, marking the bottom boards, so that I had mark for where to apply glue (and a guide to placing the keel plank -- though that is mostly done by aligning centre marks at the transoms). Then the elastic bands had to come off. At that point, the bottom boards wanted to move around on the moulds and needed clamps to make them behave. In this pram, as with most lapstrake boats, the strength and stiffness of the hull is almost entirely in the plank-to-plank connection -- glue, in the case of the model. Makes me a bit nervous but this one went straightforwardly. The instructions say to glue from the bow transom half way to the forward mould, then do the rest as a second operation. I did it in three bites instead, with 5 minutes setting time between them, each time working the tip of the glue brush into the narrow gaps where the joint was already glued. Cleaned up the limited amount of excess glue while it was still wet, took care to avoid gluing planks to moulds ... and that was about it. I used clothes-pegs for most of the clamping, with something more aggressive where the keel plank had to be held to the transom knees (or spaced was limiting), while the ends were tight to the transoms: After giving the glue ample time to set, clamping and bands came off. Then it was time to trim the excess length of the planks, with saw, snips and sanding sticks. At last, after all the preparation time, I have the beginnings of a boat! All of the effort to keep the two ends tight has paid off too: Next up: Garboards

Begin Step 7: Assembling bottom of boat With the two bottom planks nicely curved, I could get a better look at how they fit on the transoms, which has led to a change of plan. Last night, I intended that the two of them would meet at the centreline of the bow transom, with a triangular fillet inserted between and abaft. This morning, being able to hold them curved over the moulds while examining them through a magnifying glass, I discovered that the planks are way too narrow to span the bevelled flat on the transom. I don't fancy trying to adjust the other bevels, then fit the next strakes, adjust again etc. etc. So I have fitted the bottom planks to match the bevels, leaving a gap between. Instead of a fillet hidden between and behind, I will insert a stealer (to borrow a term from plank-on-frame planking) to fill the gap. That wouldn't work in full-size, nail-fastened lapstrake construction but, in the model, all that will be visible will be the butt end of an extra plank, between the bow transom and the keel plank. The space to be filled won't be properly visible until the rubber bands come off, but you can see the size of it: Again with the benefit of curved planks to facilitate checking, the junction between bottom planks and stern transom revealed its own problems. Again, the bottom planks are far too narrow. For anyone following this log before building their own pram: Make the two saw cuts in the transom further from the centreline than the laser bevelling marks suggest! Too late for that in my case and I don't fancy placing little spacers alongside where I made the cuts. But at least the stern transom is large enough to give scope for adjusting the other bevels, so that is what I will do. Also, despite carefully matching the bevel marks where the bottom planks must go, the step up to the bevel for the keel plank was still not high enough -- which would leave the gap between transom (plus knee) and keel plank that others have found. Again: If you are following this log before building your own pram: Make the two saw cuts in the transom deeper than the laser bevelling marks suggest, then bevel down to the greater depth! But be warned, the extra depth needed is probably no more than a tenth of a millimetre. My solution, at this stage, will be to sand the bottom planks, from the toe of the stern transom knee to the transom itself, until their outboard face is flush with the bevel that awaits the keel plank. Not an advisable option in a boat that has to face wind and waves but fully viable in a model. With that much decided, it was time for glue. It is, however, important to let the planks take up their natural curves, as those define the longitudinal shape of the hull (while the moulds and transoms set the transverse shape). I put a rubber band around the forward mould (with clips to stop it jumping off), slid the two bottom planks under, then moved them forward and back until they only had a little overhang beyond the bow transom, checked that they were sat nicely in the angle provided for them on the mould ... and glued them to the transom with outer edges aligned to the edge of the bevel. Three minutes finger pressure, then put bands on. Left the glue to set while I made a coffee, then slipped a band over the after mould. I lifted each side of that, while settling the plank into place, so that the wood could take up its own curve, then clamped everything nice and tight. Gluing to the stern transom only added one complication: I had marked the position of my balsa block when it held the knee in what I thought was the right place but that proved a wasted effort. The trouble is that downward pressure on the transom, while the glue sets, causes a bend, which changes the length between mould and transom. It was necessary to first bring the planks down to the transom with the latter in its proper position, hence with as little down force as possible, then move the balsa block until it pushed the knee up ... and then adjust the block's position until the toe of the knee is exactly flush with the outboard faces of the bottom planks (which can be seen well enough in side view). While dry-fitting, I had found that rubber bands around the stern transom tended to force the bottom planks up over the saw-cut steps. Solution was to put pressure on the glue using a piece of scrap and hence a downward, not wanted, force. The net result, as the glue sets, looks like:

Thank you, gentlemen! Still hoping that the pram will work out well in the end.

My best guess is that the explanation lies in Chapelle having an enormous field to explore and only one lifetime in which to do it. He worked fast, covered a lot of ground but in process made mistakes, which fall to us of later generations to correct. No criticism there: Where would we be today if he had spent his time perfecting "American Sailing Ships" at the cost of never publishing his other works at all? I suspect (1) that only the one Lynx / Musquidobit had her lines taken off, (2) that that job was done in Portsmouth (England), where they seem to have had a dock set up for the purpose, (3) that the original draught is still in the Admiralty collection in London (probably now in Greenwich), (4) that a copy of that draught (either a photo reproduction of some kind or else Chapelle's re-drafting) is in the Smithsonian, and (5) that when he re-drew the plans at smaller scale for his books, he was not as careful as he might have been. If so, anyone building a model (or a full-size replica!) has the option of raking the masts as seems right, given what is known of other, similar vessels, or paying for a copy of the original draught. Trevor

Dories could be any colour you want, though far and away the most common is on overall coat of some variant of "dory buff", with a streak of contrasting colour along the rail -- most often a green for some reason. Or are you looking for specific paint brands and colour designations?

If you had somebody with time to spare in London who could search the archival material, you might find correspondence showing whether the draught was made before any alterations or perhaps showed proposed changes. Logbooks might mention a need to change the rake. Come to that, inspection of the original draft would help distinguish Chapelle's reconstructions from what was recorded at the time. However, any or all of that would be a substantial research effort. As to British versus American perceptions: There are significant differences in environmental conditions. The northeast Atlantic, being on the downwind side, has frequent, heavy swells, which we don't. But there was also a difference in the task to be fulfilled. A privateer could lie in wait, then make a short cruise when conditions were right. Great risks could be run, in seeking great rewards, while evading deadly encounters with naval patrols. Naval schooners, in contrast, often had cruise off the privateer's bases, riding out whatever weather might come, with little reward for risking a knock-down in a squall. Then again, what a Baltimore captain could do, in the type of schooner her had been raised to sail, may just have been beyond the skills of officers trained under square rig. The later "sharpshooters", of the Gloucester mackerel and halibut fisheries, were also capable of very fine sailing -- but disaster was never far away and they needed a very experienced hand on the helm. The sad story of the first Pride of Baltimore shows all too clearly what could happen. Trevor

And back to the pram ... Step 7, preparation of bottom planks This should be easy: Pop two pieces out of their sheets, sand off char, a bit of bevelling and into boiling water. Would it were so! I have hinted in previous posts about one of the problems and it is this: These are the two planks as they came from their sheets, laid as they will be in the model. They have to meet at the bow transom, where the keel plank goes on top of them (top while the boat is being built upside down) but they are spread apart at each mould and the stern transom. Inevitably, there is a V-shaped gap just behind the point where they touch. Now, the instructions don't mention this and they suggest letting the planks overhang the bow transom, then trimming off later. The consequence, seen in several of the build logs on MSW, is that a gap appears between the two bottom planks (with the transom below and the keel plank above), as soon as they are trimmed for length. Not a huge problem if the plan is to use filler and then paint the model, but a major issue when planning to use a clear finish. Holes in bows of boats do not look promising. The obvious answer is make slight diagonal cuts, so that the two planks meet along the centreline of the transom. Trouble with that is that these planks are already very narrow for the space to be filled. Trimming away at them is dangerous. Still, I think it has to be done, though I will delay until I have them bent and can get an accurate, untroubled measurement of just where to apply a knife. The above image also shows why I have said that there will have to be a fillet on the bow transom knee. These planks sit on the foremost end of the knee and the keel plank sots on them, so the V-gap opens a space between knee and keel plank. In full-size construction, the knee would likely go in after and would be trimmed to fit. That's not viable at 1:12, so a little triangle of 3/64 basswood will be needed. That much I had figured out before starting. What I had not counted on can be see in the above image but better with the two planks reversed, outer sides together, as in: One or both bevel marks is/are badly misplaced. The instructions declare "There are laser etched lines 1" in from the outer edges" of these planks -- which would be difficult as they are less than a half-inch wide. Others have noted that the text tends to jump between quoting a dimension on the full-size prototype and one of the scale model, with insufficient notice of which is meant. This proved to be one such case but that couldn't be certain. Fortunately, the angle between the bottom planks and the garboards is consistent throughout the length of the boat, so I traced the profile of one of the moulds, got out an old protractor and checked. Both sides of the mould gave me 30° (with far better accuracy than I can bevel such thin lumber). Muddled my first attempt at trigonometry (perpendicular over base is tangent, not sine!) but finally concluded that producing a 30° bevel in 3/64 stock does indeed mean sanding back to 1:12 of 1 inch, or 2.1 mm. Maybe I should have had the courage of my convictions and scribed new bevel lines on both planks but I reasoned that I wasn't supposed to bring the bevel to a knife edge, so I dragged out my old drafting gear and added a line to the one plank so that it matched the other: After all that, bevelling was straightforward, followed by the usual routine of boiling water, filling a baking tray and waiting 5 minutes for the wood to get soft. Now the bottom planks are over the moulds, strapped down to the transoms and drying overnight: Next step, maybe tomorrow, will be gluing the three planks into place!

Thank you, Bill! It's my share of paradise, though it will be easier to enjoy when the ice breaks in the harbour and opens some liquid water ...

I'd say that it is normal (though doubtless not universal) for all multi-masted sailing craft to have different rakes for each mast. But it is also normal for the rake to increase from forward to aft: Foremast nearest to vertical, mizzen most raked, in a three-master. Yet there is no doubt that Chapelle's re-drawing of the Admiralty draught shows the foremast noticeably more raked than the main. Now that you have pointed it out, it is easy to see in his book. I wonder whether the rake of one or the other mast was altered after construction, when her rig may have proven a bit off balance. Trevor

My argument for Laphroaig has always been: If you're going to drink benzene, it might as well be strong benzene.

Meanwhile ... Step 5 (building board construction) finally completed. A proper wedge made all the difference, though I have still placed two push-pins to control skew: With that all inn place, I double-checked the centrelines on moulds and transoms. All good. Taking a great idea from someone else's build log (sorry: No notes on whose it was), I crudely shaped a block of balsa and put that under the stern transom knee to resist the pull of the rubber bands that will no doubt be holding the planks down while glue sets: The neat extra is that the curve in the knee allows the effective height of the support to be changed by just pushing the block closer to the transom or away from it. That also saves any need to carefully control the size of the block.