Chuck

The project has actually begun.... It will be built much like the Medway longboat kit and Queen Anne Barge kits.. More to follow but this is the keel. All finished up in Boxwood. As I mentioned this will proceed very slowly. I actually have over a year to complete it. Dry fit after removing char. Basically just on the outside of the keel and inside of the notched pieces. These parts are precision laser cut so no need to sand or remove the char from the scarf joints. On the stem, there is a sheave for hauling in various lines like the anchor cable. So a slot was filed into it which was centered. I followed the plans for its depth and shape. Then a laser cut sheave was added which is actually a working sheave. Slide it into the slot and stick a length of wire or in my case some 20lb black fishing line. Thats it for now... I hope you will follow with interest. Chuck

Many of you know that I am building the POF Speedwell currently. I also have several other projects underway but none of those are ready for a build log yet. These extra projects will not be updated very often and I plan on taking my time with them. This particular project is a commission of sorts. It will be made entirely of Boxwood because its a tiny open boat even at this scale. There are few models of these graceful common fishing boats out there. Thats a shame. But one I have seen and admired was made by Spencer Delrin. I have seen it many times and always said that I would build one. Now comes my chance. No two Block Island Cowhorns were alike. These were not built to a plan at all. They were made over and over again locally and each time they were slightly different. There are plans available which were made by who else but Howard Chapelle. These are the plans I am using. I have been researching them for months now. I have chosen to name this the Sophia Rose which was an actual cowhorn on block Island that was lost at sea in 1853. All hands were lost in a gail and the crew died trying to swim back to shore. There is an account of this in the Rhode Island Gazette Obituary from that time period...it was the local paper. It was owned by Barker Burnell and his brother Jonathan. My daughter's name is Sophia so I figured why not, although I wont tell her that the two brothers drowned and were lost at sea. This will actually become a limited edition all boxwood kit which will be raffled off at a future Joint Clubs conference. I will make just 10 of these boxwood kits. Five for the Conference, and 3 for MSW members.....and 2 I will keep. Although I may also release it later in Yellow cedar. The all-boxwood versions will only be made into 10 kits fully rigged. A replica which is actually very accurate.... Chapelle's Plans Spencer's Model...really beautiful...also at 3/8" scale. And some old photos as these Cowhorn double enders were used right up until the 1900's There were dozens on the Island every season (anywhere from 50 - 70) fishing. A common site from the 1820's through their prime in the 1850's and 60's.

Excellent work JJ....and I am so happy you are moving forward with this. I have been following his progress on this and it is shaping up to be a wonderful project. Let me know how I can help as always. Chuck

Thank you for the kind words.

Planking continues. I have been busy carefully cutting the planks so they fit around the sweep ports and gun ports. Its really important to go slow. The last thing I want to have happen is me cutting all of these opening perfectly after about 30 minutes only to screw up on the last one. That would mean tossing in the scrap bin and starting over. Here a look at one of the longer planks that need to be made. I am just using a sharp #11 blade and a small file to neaten up my openings. I have managed to get the starboard side done up to a 3/32" strake. This is actually the first layer of fancy molding that will be added much later. I will pause here on the starboard side and not go any higher for the moment. Above this molding the outboard planking is covered with a frieze or painted. There will not be any treenails visible above this point. So this is the optimal time to pause and add treenails to all the planking I have done so far. This is optimal now for two reasons. - First, I can still see where the hull framing is above and below this planked area. This will make it super easy to run some tape down the hull to define exactly where the treenails should go. I will post an update on that soon. - In addition, the second layer of wales has not been added yet. On the Speedwell, there is an upper and lower wale strake. These stand proud of a planking strake between them and it will be so much easier to treenail that strake without worrying I would damage the edges of the wales above it and below it. I also want to point out that for the quarter badge window, a laser etched square is on the framing piece. You must trim each plank around this so you can insert the laser cut window later. Here is a picture of that opening with the laser cut window inserted. There will be acetate placed in the opening first and then this window. Then the quarter bade will be added over this making for a very neat and tidy presentation. This will be done later and these are only temporarily positioned. I will complete the planking to this point on the port side next and begin treenailing the hull.

Thank you for saying…Enjoy the project.

Excellent start...enjoy the project!!! Its so good to see another get started.

Beautiful work. Well worth the time and effort. Its such a fine model.

Yea there will be a second layer for the wales. I just prefer to build that way. But it would be easy enough to make them thicker from the start. But it does look a bit odd at this stage. Adding them in a second layer has some distinct advantages. I will also be treenailing before I add that second layer of wales. Thank you all for the kind words. Chuck

Continuation with planking above the wales. I am trying to complete the five 7/32" wide strakes above the wales. I had two of them completed, but before I move further up towards the shear, I needed to add the sweep port lids and fixed block shells on the outboard side. This is just like on the Winnie and all other projects I build. These must be added so we can plank around them neatly. Use the template to find there locations. Below you can see how the plank directly below the sweep ports needed to be cut around each and every port. I basically followed the template. This does take some time to do but if you just go slow it will all turn out fine. I made sure I had a very sharp blade as I was cutting the plank around the sweep ports and gunports. One wrong move or if impatient and you can remove too much from the plank and you will have to start over. Thank goodness there are only six gunports but there are plenty of sweep ports to carefully cut around. I have one more 7/32" strake to go which will need to be cut around the tops of the sweep orts next. You may notice that I am also leaving a 1/64 to 1/32" rabbet around the bottom and sides of each gun port. Even though this sloop didnt have gun port lids, they may have used bucklers during heavy seas and bad weather. Its just a guess but it seemed like the way to go. You could omit this and simply cut to the edge of your port openings if you like. Its hard to tell on the contemporary model if they have this rabbet.

The hooks are the total length…including the eye. blocks are in development. I am not sure about 2mm. I can make them but they are so small it is a product with a very limited audience. The larger sizes will be made first.

I actually already had to make more.

Well OK ....I made a few and they are now in stock....I will make more when I get a moment but there are about a dozen available right now.

I agree with you Greg about PE hooks. They are not nearly thick enough and look kit-like. The plastic hooks look better and seem pretty strong. I had a file around for a while but never tried it on this new material. I just laser cut some and they are pretty good actually. They are of course not as strong as metal etched hooks like PE. But these are plenty strong, even the smaller ones. I would never apply so much tension when I rig that they would fail. But I worry about some others. I have seen how much tension some folks apply to the rigging and it is just not a good idea...tight as drum... I tension just barely enough to prevent sagging and then try to even introduce a gentle sag because its more realistic. But thats just me. I could absolutely make these if there is interest. If I remember correctly I placed forty 3mm hooks, Forty 4mm hooks and ten 5mm hooks all on one sheet. You would get 90 hooks in a package for $11.00. I could cut these tomorrow and have them in stock. Let me know if you guys are interested. Pictured is a 5/32" single block rigged with a 4mm hook as test.

I am not sure if it is strong enough at the thicknesses needed. But I can always run some tests. I can also give some to folks who are rigging at the moment so they can test for me. they will be perfect for stuff like rigging guns…I am not sure about if they are under tension from rigging though.

Yes you need the Medium size....will be making those today. Literally cutting them right now. My measurements have the ports at at 3/16" x 5/32" however at 1/4" scale. It wont matter though. Just wipe them down first. If you want them really black very lightly sand the horse shoe part of the hinge with very fine sandpaper...like 400 grit. That gives them a nice finish based on my testing. But not the hinge pin because thats raised and you dont want to sand that away. These are the actual medium hinges below right out of the laser. Tough to photograph as they are black. These have a smidge of weathering powder on them before I removed them from the sheet. Chuck

Call me crazy but I think they look fantastic. But thats just me. I would love to find and use wood that color for my blocks. The darker ends look really good to my eye as well. You dont want them to look plastic and they look very authentic now. Try test stropping one or two blocks with tan rope of the appropriate size and they will look just fantastic.

Wonderful news Tom. Glad to hear that. Stay safe!!!

In this case I agree with Allan 100%. Its not hard to sand in a taper or design a taper into your kit. The only reason why builders are unaware of this detail is because few if any have kit designers have bothered to include it or explain it in their instructions for the last 50 years. Maybe they didnt know either. It literally takes ten minutes to taper a stem. Its important for this reason below. The larger issue which hasnt been mentioned (to my surprise) is this. That in most models with a figurehead of a human, if there is no taper to the stem then the figurehead must be designed too wide. This makes the figure appear squat and fat rather than correctly proportioned. In some cases ridiculously so. A tapered stem allows for a properly proportioned figure that doesnt look like a cartoon. If a kit was designed with a poor figurehead that looks out of proportion then no amount of tapering after the fact will make it look decent. I see this all the time with the kits from Asia. So adding the taper after the fact would not help and may even make the poor design decision worse. It takes about ten minutes to properly taper a stem. On my projects if you dont do this, the properly proportioned figurehead wont fit. had I not tapered the stem on the winnie, the figure would look like a fat squat cartoon character. Same with the Speedwell. Or the legs would be so thin they would look awful. Contemporary examples. This has nothing to do with not caring about these fine details. It has everything to do with making a figurehead look proper. Especially when its a human figurehead. For this last image on Speedwell the stem is 3/8” thick and tapers to around 5/32”. A rather large taper. Thats just the way it was done back then. The figurehead would look ridiculous if the stem wasnt tapered and I designed it to fit that 3/8” wide gap between the legs. It would look like he was riding a horse at best. With a huge torso to span that width to match. And no amount of tapering after the fact would ever make it look good. chuck

Its just a small square of 1/8" thick cedar with all the ports and planking and even treenails laser etched into it. It was the quick and dirty cheat of making a mock up. LOL....I do love that scene in Back to the future though. Made me laugh Greg.

AND.... Sweep Port Hinges will be available soon. In fact the largest of them will be in stock tomorrow. I am making 3 sizes. The first will be the largest size which will be used on Speedwell. The sweep port lid hinges will fit 1/4" to 9/32" sweep port lids. They are made from the same material but very thin. They have etched details such as raised bolts and hinge pin details. I hope you can see the details in this photo. Also The next sizes will fit 3/16" sized sweep port lids and then a smaller size for 1/8" to 5/32" sweep port lids. Sold 24 per package. Just give them a quick wipe with a damp cloth to remove any dust from the laser etching process which will leave nice blackened hinges ready to use straight out of the package. You may even want to add weathering powder before you remove them from the sheet. Also note the image below shows the wider 1/16" gun port lid hinges. Excuse the crude mock up to show the products. Chuck

Now Available as 1/16 wide hinge straps.....Syren gun port hinge mini kits. They are laser cut from a special high density plastic. Some prefer a wider strap. Also great for the Winnie. Those can easily be shaped differently too, being extra wide. There are 36 hinges per package. They can be made shorter if needed as well. 1. What a hinge looks like straight off the sheet. 2. Round off the bottom with fine sandpaper. Drill a small hole for the split ring if needed. Use a #76 drill bit for a 28 gauge wire ring. 3. What the gport hinge pin looks like straight off the sheet. 4. Sand the actual pin slightly thinner and to a point. This will be inserted and glued into the hull above the port. Also insert and glue a length of 28 gauge black wire into the laser cut hole and cut off the excess as shown. Use CA glue as it is plastic. 5. Join the hinge strap and hinge pin by slipping the wire pin into the hole of the strap. This makes a working hinge. Once glued onto the port lid, you can sand the straps even thinner. Just gently sand the face of the port with fine sandpaper and taper the hinge straps even thinner if you like. Apply weathering powder if you like that look. Make some split rings (not shown) and add them on the hinges as is typical.

Thank you very much folks....Hopefully I can find time to get some planking done outboard this week. But first I must add the sweep port lids and fixed blocks. So that is next up on the list. But today sadly is a rope day....all day a rope day. Chuck

I added the keelson today. This is made up from 4 laser cut lengths. There are probably many ways to attack this. But I decided to assemble all 4 pieces first. There are scarph joints between each length. Then I sanded it clean of laser char. It may be hard to see below but I also drew a reference line down the center of the keelson. This is where the bolts will go. It was easier to mark the center of this 3/8" wide keelson now instead of when its on the model. I used a compass opened to 3/16" with a pencil on one side. I handy tool to have around. I test fit it on the model. The shape is so specific to each model after inboard that yes I had to tweak the bottom of the keelson and the bottom of the hull inboard to get a good fit in places. I used various riflers and sanding sticks to match the curve and shape of the keelson as closely as possible. Then the bolts were added. I used 30 pound black fishing line. One bolt goes every other frame. This is except for the scarph joints which get two bolts. Now the inboard side of the hull is completed for now. Its nice and clean. I can now return to planking the outboard side of the hull.

Looking great Mike!!!