Hello everyone. This is my first build log and it is for the Donald McKay designed extreme clipper Flying FIsh. The ship has been described well in other logs, but the summary is here: (wikipedia and http://www.bruzelius.info/Nautica/News/BDA/BDA(1851-11-04).html)
Built: 1851, East Boston Shipyard
Length Overall: 220 ft
Length between perpendiculars: 210 ft
Length at keel: 202 ft
Maximum beam: 40 ft
Tons (OM): 1566 tons
Originally owned by the firm of Sampson and Tappan of Boston. She was wrecked in Fuzhou in 1858, sold to a company in the Phillipines, and renamed El Bueno Suceso. She eventually sunk in the South China sea.
Flying Fish was "coppered" with Muntz metal rather than copper (similar to the Cutty Sark). You can't get Muntz metal tape, alas, but I may try to do something to make the plating more consistent with muntz.
I had not originally intended to do this ship. Having recently completed the US Brig Niagara, my plan was to make a scratch model of the RRS Discovery, but COVID-19 put the kibbosh on that for now, as the only plans available are at the Royal Museum Greenwich and they went back on lockdown while processing my order. I can't imagine going through the winter cooped up in the house without some kind of project. If and/or when the plans for Discovery arrive, I will likely have two projects going. But, I've decided that this is a feature, not a bug. While I'm in the doldrums of say ratline tying with one, I'll be in the doldrums of planking with the other. So, while it means that both projects will take longer, I'll be able to at least alternate some of the tasks. And, there will likely be a couple of months of work converting the builders plans into a usable POB design for the Discovery, so, who knows, depending on COVID vaccine timelines, it may be enough to make serious progress on this ship. That's what I've told myself anyway.
So, I believe tradition for the first post of a kit build log is a picture of the kit ready to go, so here are mine. Let the construction begin:
Sorry to hear that. Not ideal but better, I suppose, than the alternative.
