qwerty2008

once upon an idea...........there was a concept to build three boats,  all with a holiday theme.   they were part of an experiment,  to replicate hulls,  using kit parts panels.   in my opinion,  it was a success....the M&M fun ship being a completed build,  the trawler 'Syborn' well on it's way towards being the second ship to be completed.  the 'Syborn' is unique to me, because it was an added experiment in making the hull longer by adding in copies of key ribs, stretching the hull.  these two were created using the hull from the Billing's Mary Ann.......or even the Cux 87.
 
when I assembled the hull for the Boulogne Etaples,  I saw possibilities yet again.....and the three hulls were created from the parts panels from this kit.   I originally had three themes for the subject of Christmas,  but as time went on,  one of the themes fell through.  I was left with a hull without a theme
 
in building these boats.......I at least want them to be somewhat logical {although the M&M boat was more of an 'admiral's whim' }.   when I was making these hulls.......I had thoughts about the Andrea Gail.  I looked her up in the Billings catalog.....the bones were there...it could be done.   I kept her on the back burner.....I have projects started already...enough to keep me busy for a while.   maybe later.
 
months past...............
 
it was during my two month hiatus,  that the idea surfaced again.  I had downloaded the instructions for the R/C version of the A.G. and thought I would look at them.  I also found that there was also a static kit out there as well....smaller scale,  but just as detailed.  I thought about the Gundalow,  and how a simple article I read,  stopped me in my tracks.  perhaps that is the same problem here......can't say for sure......but you know it's pretty chronic,  if the admiral starts to take notice
 
if you've been following the Holiday Harbor build,  you've seen the modifications that needed to be done,  to create the basic hull.   I found an interesting article:
 
Perfect Storm, The - THE ANDREA GAIL
 
seeing the movie about the Andrea Gail during the time frame made me want to attempt this,   all the more.   I wish i had saved a copy of the search records.......they never found Capt. Tyne or his crew.
 
....and so......to where I am now.   the hull and the pilot house has been created.   the hull needs to have the external rails done,  and soon the paint.  I'm using the Billing's plans as sort of a practicum,  so......if you see something that may not be exactly correct,  it's just me keeping the copyright monster at bay {but it will be in the ballpark though}.  here is the hull and where I am now
 

 
I only had a chance to sand down the roof line of the pilot house so far....more needs to be done.
 

 
the ice maker looked too deep to me.......I took about 1/4 of an inch from it,  so that it would sit under the cut - a - way on the starboard side.
 

 

 
lastly.......here is the boat that they used in the movie......you can see on the bow where they had changed the name.
 

Steve, Omega, thanks for your great comments here is a link to an overall shot at the Port Carling boat show where I first saw a picture of Skipjack.
The Port Carling boat site includes a lot of pictures of the classic wooden boats, Skipjack is near the bottom half of the pictures and this Gem near the bottom of the page.
 
It would be fun to visit the show and see some of these boats in person, but i am lucky enough that Roger is being very helpful in sending me pictures and taking measurements of various details for me.
 
This is Skipjack's engine that I also propose to make.
 

 
And an overall of Skipjack in her boatshed.
 

 
Michael

Thanks for looking in Ed, sometimes I wonder how I get anything done because of the clutter. My wife does yoga ,I do my stretching stepping around over and between stuff which amounts to the same thing.
 
Today I made a few changes to the way the cross beam are attached to the frame. I thought it better to make it less cluttered by fixing the beams with some 5x40 allan head cap screws rather than the big wooden clamps. The frame will be easy enough to add new locations for further beams down the road on the next boat to use this frame. the present locations are spaced 4 feet apart (6inches). By bolting them it avoids any possible slippage, and helps to increase the overall rigidity.
 

 

 

 
The new station molds are made from 1/16th inch white plastic that is sold for the sunshine ceilings. It will be easier to tie the ribbands to the thinner sheet. here you can see the first mold with the holes marked before they were drilled for the eight ribbands. the drawing is attached with double sided tape.
here is the mold drawing #1
 

 
bulkhead 1.pdf
 
Now to work on the rest, the plastic cuts very nicely with the jewelers saw and require very little clean up.
 

 
Here is the fine bow on the real boat
 

 
Additional thanks to all who have added the like option, it is very motivating.
 
Michael
 

Thank you for the likes.
 
Earlier today I worked on preparing some of the materials for the building. first I made the decision to use Cedar for the planking, because I don't have any Yellow Cyprus, the piece of Western Red had some very tight grain and the board was big enough to give me 38 boards 32 inches long by 3/4 x 3/64 inches.
 

 

 
I also cut some of the Castello Boxwood 28 inches long and then cut some 3/4 x 1/4 and some 3/4 x 3/32 inches this will be used for the keel and keel plate, I will use the bandsaw to cut the shorter taller pieces for the stem and stern. I really liked the way the Castello cut on both the bandsaw and the tablesaw. I ended up changing the tablesaw blade from a carbide tipped one to the hollow ground steel finishing blade
 

 
The Castello is straight off the tablesaw, the Cedar has been sanded because I used the thin carbide ripping blade.
 

 
Now I need to cut some ribbands, I am leaning towards some tight grained Fir 5/32 x 3/32 32 inches long, I will need to check my stock.
 
Michael

Good evening Mark, my thoughts are to add at least 8 or 10 ribands to each side evenly spaced. My understanding is that the ribs on the full size are 3/4 by 1/2 inch. In rereading Roger's notes there is a plate on top of the keel that is 4 inches by 3/4 inches and tapers toward the bow and stern. this plate forms the upper side of the bearding line for the planking and gives a greater area to attach the garboard strake.
 
I am going to make the keel, keel plate, stem and sternpost out of the Castello Boxwood. I need to make the ribands strong enough to not deform when I set in the frames. something that has crossed my mind is to use some thread to hold the frames (ribs) to the ribbands while they set. The fir test frames were pretty flexible, however I am also going to test the Castello for the frames as well, they will be 3/32 x 1/16th full size on the model.
 
I am planning on following the curve at the extreme ends of the bow and stern this will prevent twisting them too much it is hard to tell a great deal from this picture
 

 
Evidently the ceiling boards which significantly strengthened the hull, they are 1 1/2 by 3/4 bead and cove.
 
have to go guests just arrived
 
Michael

We've all heard of sail training ships, well here's mine.
It's a bit back the front in so much as it isn't a tall ship but it was cheap, didn't require much setting up and I would imagine it will be a lot easier to learn to sail on than the schooner.
 
Oh, and if it gets lost at sea, not so distressing !
 

 

 
It will also teach me about ballast and keel depth etc.

The lasr part as far the ship goes is the sails.  I just trace them the best I can and compare them to the ship and trim them.  Once thier ready I glue them in place.  The main sail I just glue to the gaff so I can wrap it around the ship when going in/  I make sure to keep the wind direction in mind so all the sail look uniform.  Doesn't make sense to have the sails leaning i multiple directions.
 

 

 
I actually had to finish this ship fast to include it in a show for the Rocky Mountain Shipwrights.  I didn't include all the running rigging this time.  
 
For the sea I put just a little bit of clay in the bottle and flatten it out.  I held it over a hot burner for a few seconds to make melt the bottom.  This just makes sure the clay sticks to the bottle.  I give it a few minutes to dry and then it's ready to go.
 
I cut the ship off with a dremel and carefully fold the mast back being sure the main sail curls around the ship and doesn't crinkle.  Once in the bristles pop the mast back up.  I put a little white glue on a tooth pick and get it between the ship and the sea to glue it down.  I then use a small piece of wire to glue the forward stays down.    
 

 

Thanks Mark a Michael.  
 
Parbick I use a cutting wheel on a dremel at a low setting to cut the ship off.  It's fast even on low setting and it's nice and precise.  
 
Once the standing rigging is in place I work on the running rigging.  I don't go crazy on this but I like to add the rigging on the boom and gaff.  For the boom I tie an over hand knot around the boom and glue it on either side of the ship like I did with the back stays.  I'm not sure you can see it in this photo but here is is.  
 

 
Here's a better picture of another one I did.  You can see all of the running rigging I include.  
 

I resolved my issue with the driver sheet and the main brace being too close under the deck by routing the driver sheet along the edge of the inside of the hull.  I set the tubes for the mains'l sheets.  I think all that's left are the fore yard and fore tops'l yard brace fairleads.

Before the sub-deck goes down, I need to put in the permanent guides for the rudder cable, which starts with pulling out the temps.  I also mounted 3 cleats on the servo arm; 2 for the rudder cable that will allow easy adjustment, and the third for the line that will move the wheel when the arm moves.  The three cleats are glued and cinch-nailed to the aircraft-ply arm.
 


This was painted a nice red and remounted to the disk that attaches to the rudder servo.  
 


Moving forward, I installed the eyes in the boomkins.  I wrapped the place where the iron band goes with some copper tape and drilled two holes at 90° to each other.  I made an eye in two brass rods with my round-nose pliers, inserted these into the holes and made an eye in the other end on the boomkin.  A bit of CA helps keep it from turning, though it was a very snug fit.  This was repeated for the other side, and the boomkins then got a coat of paint.
 
 
 

 
I was going to install the eyes in the hull for the boomkin guys, but after looking at every image and plan I have, I don't see any.  Well, in one photo I think a see a wisp of what might be a boomkin guy,  In all my images up to the 40's I can't see them.  In pics from the 40's on - there aren't any guys at all!
 
The model of her in the ship's visitor center doesn't have any guys, nor does the actual ship. 
 
Potter's 1:96 scale drawings and a copy of a magazine article on building a model based on Potter's plans - don't even have boomkins forward!
 
McArdle's book on building her as the frigate, shows the aft boomkins 5 or 6 times, but has no forward boomkins at all - while the real ship he based his model on did have them (with no guys).
 
I can deduce the best positions for the three guys, but it would be nice to know where the really were.
 
You kit guys never have to worry about such things do you 

I was in the mood to do some planing over the weekend, and made the gaff and boom for the driver/spanker.
  These were made from some nice clear pine left over from a sea chest I made for someone.
 
The hardware and other details were based on the usual examination of every image I can find, and the Text-Book of Seamanship by Luce.
   
 
The blocks and guides for the steering cable were permanently epoxied in place, as were some oak blocks forward to give the chain-plate fasteners something to grip down-the-road.

 
All this wood will get a coat of epoxy when I start laying the sub-deck, which, if the weather holds, should start this week, provided I don't wind up doing something for some one else.

I did find some more fish davit references, not that it matters anymore 
 
They are from Nares Seamanship 1868

 

 
It would make for an interesting vignette

For the mast and spars I used paint brush bristles.  To make the mast slightly thicker then the spars I glued four or five together.  
 

 
One of my rules in building small ships is make it big and cut it small.  
 

 
This is where I started comparing it to the bottle to make sure the mast would not be to tall.  I plan on having to sections to the mast but continually checking it always helps.  There's nothing worse then getting a ship in a bottle and having the mast be to tall to fit.  
 

Thanks Omega.  It did turn out better and easier with punching the holes after the fact.  
 
Thanks Mario.  
 
A lot of progress made.  I coated the bulwarks with nail polish and drilled the holes out.  They did bend a little I think a couple more coats would have been better.  They weren't hard to bend back with some tweezers though.  The cannons are 30 gauge wire I got from a hobby store.  It was already painted black.        
 

 
I did the mast next but I actually suggest doing the bow first.  I used bamboo for this.  In the past I've used a needle painted black.  I pulled a bambooskewer through a draw plate until I got it to a very small size.  In this case I sanded it even smaller to get to the size I needed.  I glued on a long piece and cut it smaller after it dried.  
 

Six feet seems awfully big for a buoy
I have attached a picture showing the HMS Victory's anchor buoy which appears to be around 2 to 3 feet tall.

More experimental photography trying to get all of my little piece of prairie in focus. Can you find the Oglala scout?
 

 
 

 
Dave

"Can you find the Oglala scout?"  Beautifully done but with that tall grass will your scout be able to see the Oglala?
 
Bob

I nearly forgot the reality-check!!!
 
Does it realy fits
 
in the place
 
where I want
 
to put it laterly???
 

 
 

Hello again, 
 
I.
As the sideview only gives us the position of the deck's superstructure, an auxilliary source may give us the rigt deepon deck... the 14 years older 31 3/95 cutter may be a good reference to look at. Also a sceptic view to the bigger sisters of this class type's trio may be usefull. So I added them, too.
 
What do you think about this?
 
 
II.
I wasn't in the workshop this night - I still was thinking, drinking and constructing my RC's backbone. So I got some solutions and some more problems figured out: So I highlighted these areas with yellow circles for you.
 
The mast's area will be easily supportet against cracking by adding softwood and drill the mast's hole inside. But the staircases area is still a problem and the reduced bulkhead destabilised this part of the construction additivly. 
 
Have you any solutions for this, too?
 
Thanks a lot,
Chris

A substantial update:
I completed the decorations of the right side of the stern.
I am not completely satisfied, since I needed to combine the decorations of the original drawings with the "leafs type" decorations of the transom.
But I am rather sure that the original drawing contain only a draft representation of the decorations, since the main purpose was to draw the ship hull and not its less important components.
Now the task will be to make the left side hydentical to the right side...
And this will be made when I will be...ready, since it is a rather boring duty.
I have completed the stern deck, too.
Now all the wounds of the decks have been cured!!
The planking division of the stern deck has not yet be made.
Oh, I added the staffs on the dead-eyes channels, too.
In the meanwhile I am studying how to proceed for the running and standing rigging, since I have still some obscure point to be clarified.
Nothing has yet still completely fixed on this project, since always new informations and evaluations contribute to change something.
 

Ok boys and girls, tech talk time !
 
I have had more severe radio issues in that when I was setting up the winch servo for raising/lowering the stays'ls and I plugged it in to the receiver the whole on board system went berserk! 
 
The motors were going forward and reverse, the servos were going crazy ( the tops'l lazy jack master line broke again ) and the receiver was beeping and flashing. I asked the guys who have been following this build and know radio control what they thought and thank you all for your replies.
 
Cap n Bob mentioned voltage among other things which got me thinking and from googling speed controllers I started to form a hypothesis.
 
The power for the radio comes from a 7.2volt 2400mah battery pack via the electronic speed controller which controls the voltage to 6V for the radio. The problem is that the speed controller or ESC is designed for cars which may have two servos to run as well as the ESC so the output from the ESC to the radio just isn't putting enough power into the radio especially when I am running high torque digital servos which require constant power. The result is the same as any electrical circuit where you have too much load on the circuit, you end up with excessive voltage drop and nothing working properly.
 
The cure, which I am yet to invest in is to add 6Volt battery packs to the servos, you can get "Y" leads which are normally used to run two servos on one channel but you can run one side to a servo and the other to a 6V battery pack. The power will feed into the receiver as well as the feed from the ESC thus boosting the power available to the servos. You can add a batt pack to one or all of the servo leads but I don't think I will need to add many.
 
Feedback from Cap n Bobs old rc sailing club, although not saying this in so many words because they are not used to powering via an ESC, seems to confirm this hypothesis.
 
For now I will disconnect all servos except the one I am setting up at the time.
 
I realise that most of us who make rc sail boats won't fit auxilliary motors an therefore won't have the issues that arise from powering the system via an ESC but I thought it worth posting for posterity.
 
Bob, you might wish to forward this on to your Indy buddies for their future reference along with my thanks.

Bedford,
 
All help was selfish.  You have a beautiful boat and I want to see it sail.
 
Bob

Small updates ......

All fixed

 
Now, what was I doing before this distracted me?

Made the blocks for the topmast shrouds. And you can see the main stay. Also a view of the progress so far.

Sorry to hear about the break but glad to see you were able to fix it without needing to make new ones.
 
 
 
 
Lextin.