gak1965

Jib rigging: The list: mizzen yards: 5 Jib halyards: 4 lifts: 10 Jib downhauls: 4 sheets: 10 Staysail halyards: 2 clews: 8 Staysail downhauls: 2 Spencer yards: 2 Braces: 30 topping lifts: 2 Stun'sl booms on hull: 2 vangs: 4 Stun'sl booms on yards: 12 Spanker boom: 1 Davits: 4 Spanker gaff: 1 Boat tackle: 4 throat halyard: 2 Decals: 3 peak halyards: 1 Gilded balls on mast trucks: 3 topping lifts: 2 outhaul sheets: 2 vangs: 2 ensign halyard: 1 By the way, if anyone knows how to embed a more proper two column view - I'd love to know - otherwise I'll just copy/paste this sorta messy version. Will probably do one of the staysails next, followed by the spencers while working on the mizzen yards. As always, thanks for looking in! Regards, George K

FYI. The Admiral and I were planning a weekend in western New York in mid-August that was going to include a day-sail on the US Brig Niagara in honor of having built the Model Shipways kit a few years ago. However, we got a notice today that they were going to be refunding our money because the rest of the sailing season has been cancelled. The announcement is here: https://www.media.pa.gov/pages/phmc-details.aspx?newsid=438. It appears that there was damage to one of the (restored|replica) ship's propellers and they won't be day sailing until they are replaced and maintenance is done on the ship's engines. I called, and they said that the ship will likely be in Erie until sometime in September, and that you can still tour it as part of museum admission, or go on the Lettie G. Howard, a a two masted gaff schooner built in 1893 (space available) that's on loan from the South Street Seaport musuem. Regards, George

Given the location, I would say that speed was of the essence. I imagine few would tarry while the ship was taking bow spray or in the rain....

Thanks @Rick310 and @Jared. We are going to have a bunch of finished Flying Fish on the site relatively soon I expect. Well, the main mast is done (minus the braces) - more anon. Nothing major to describe, but here is a couple of photos: Interestingly, it appears I may have spoken too soon about the chain. I've been building mostly from the plans, and was looking at the instructions the other day, and it appears that I (a) misread the plans to think that all the halyards are chain, and (b) shouldn't have over-interpreted for the fore and mizzen off the drawing of the main. At a minimum, the fore and main skysail halyards should have been rope. Since I made the fore skysail halyard from chain, I decided to make the main match. For the mizzen I will follow the instructions and make the royal and topgallant halyards from rope, although I have enough chain. They are the lightest of the yards, so it makes sense. I probably should have either RTFM first, or ignored it completely, allowing for bliss in ignorance. One more error that I will be aware of and no one else will be. With all that said, I think that I can actually put a list of what remains to be done that won't make me depressed; a list I can mark things off as we go. At this point, I believe I have: mizzen yards: 5 lifts: 10 sheets: 10 clews: 8 Spencer yards: 2 topping lifts: 2 vangs: 4 Spanker boom: 1 Spanker gaff: 1 throat halyard: 2 peak halyards: 1 topping lifts: 2 outhaul sheets: 2 vangs: 2 ensign halyard: 1 Staysail halyards: 6 Staysail downhauls: 6 Braces: 30 Stun'sl booms on hull: 2 Stun'sl booms on yards: 12 Davits: 4 Boat tackle:4 Decals: 3 Gilded balls on mast trucks: 3 Not a zero list, but there is light at the end of the tunnel. I didn't mention the other two ship's boats. I may model the ship with them on a task away. If I do include them, I'm probably going to make a cover so that I don't have to detail the interiors of what are a rather meh Brittania casting. Finally, just a couple of fun photos from a work day I did over the weekend at the Thomas Point Shoal Lighthouse (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Point_Shoal_Light) in the Chesapeake Bay. The light was built in 1875, and is a wooden structure on top of an iron screwpile. As with any wooden and iron structure exposed to salt water and time, it requires more or less constant maintenance, so that's what we were doing - mostly painting on Saturday, but also replacing a window, and some hardware. I can't imagine what it was like to actually live there - it's only accessible by boat (we came in the Chesapeake Bay deadrise shown in the photo). The light has about the same amount of space as my younger daughter's not particularly wonderful Boston apartment and you couldn't go down the street if you go annoyed at the other people there. Even the lightships must have been better - they certainly had more spaces. Anyway, some photos. The light from the boat as we approached: The boat we came in on "Audacious" Ice was a a constant danger for these screw pile lights, so rip rap and an iron ice breaker. Chesapeake Bay bridges in the background. The bay from one of the doors: And the restored parlor. One of the other rooms is set up for a different historical period - 1986 - when the light was fully automated and the last Coast Guard crew left. This is worrisome, as there should not be 'historical displays' from when I was an adult. As always, thanks for looking in and the likes. Regards, George K.

https://www.bluejacketinc.com/shop/model-ships/kits-model-ships/sailing-vessels-and-work-boats/schooner-wyoming-k1113/ Wyoming at 1:96. 56" LOA....

Are you planning on scaling down the rigging? By which I mean that a lot of the lines that are on the ship currently (those braces for example) are way too thick for the scale. I ask b/c if you are talking about adding a lot of additional lines you are going to have to use much smaller lines (which will contrast oddly with the existing braces if you reuse) or use similar sized lines, and drilling the fairleads will reduce the tops to swiss cheese. My thought would be to replace what rigging is there (I think you mentioned replacing the braces), but that's your opt obviously. Regards, George

A brief update. Work on the main mast proceeds apace. I've permanently mounted the course, top, and topgallant yards, along with their lifts, halyards, and the top and topgallant clews, and 3 of the four sheets chain sheets. The trucks are now in place as well, so the task of anchoring the lines continues. Here are a couple of photos showing the ship in its current configuration: A couple of observations thus far, for anyone also doing the Fish. Trucks: It took me forever to find an efficient way to attach the trucks. I finally landed on using a cutting wheel on my dremel to make a notch in the truck, CA glue it into place, and then tie it to the shroud with some thread, using a dot of glue to secure the knot. Seems to work, although it took until I only had the 8 mizzen trucks left. The hardest part is holding the tiny deadeye tight enough so that it didn't fly away, but not so tight it split into 2 or 3 pieces. Chain: Model Shipways gives you 25 feet of chain, and it is not nearly enough. As it was, I bought some larger chain for the anchors, bobstays, etc., and I still don't have nearly enough. When (hopefully this week), I mount the royal and sky yards, I won't be adding the halyards right away because I only have enough chain left to make the remaining topgallant sheet and that is it. I bought another 10 feet from Model Shipways which I hope will be enough. The reality is that you need like 8-10 feet for the sheets, and maybe 6 or 7 feet for the halyards per mast, plus some for the bowsprit, and that is assuming that you manage to not have any wastage. I mean, maybe someone doing things perfectly could get it done with 25 feet, but I don't see how. Jackstay eyebolts: Along with the chain, I bought my second extra order of jackstay eyebolts. Between the jackstays on 15 yards, plus the Spencer jackstay on the fore and main, plus using them to make the iron work on the yards, and anchor points for various and sundry blocks, etc., etc., etc., you go through these things like they are going out of style. Anyway, not trying to be too harsh on the kit. I've said before, in general Model Shipways makes a good kit with a few exceptions (e.g. certain Britannia fittings) but you are likely to need additional materials by the time you are done. As always, thanks for looking in and the likes. Regards, George

That looks much better. Having the tension from the fore stays makes a huge difference in terms of keeping everything shipshape. You have a ways to go but this is real progress! George

+1. Entertained my kids while they were teenagers as well as interest their parents. The Calvert Marine museum at Solomons on the other side of the bay is smaller, but also nice. Both have relocated screwpile lighthouses, Hooper Strait at St. Michaels, and Drum Point at Solomons. When I was a kid the Drum Point light had been abandoned, and sometime before it was moved in 1975 a bunch of my friends and I went up the ladder and had a look around. It was in terrible shape, and on the way down I wound up slicing my foot open on the rusty old sharp ladder. Small wonder I was always getting tetanus shots... George

Well, finally making some progress on the main mast. First step, blocks, stirrups, foot ropes, flemish horses, and the clews and some of the lifts. And after careful review of the plans, adding a bunch of additional blocks and eyes on the main mast for braces. So, here are the lower three yards test fitted on the ship. Lines hanging everywhere, nothing permanently atached: Finally, the course yard attached, and with the live lifts attached, the ends secured to the tackle, and the ends of the tackle secured to the fife rail. I can add the top yard with lifts, but after that I need to attach the (not yet attached) trucks to the shrouds to act as fairleads. In an ideal universe I would have added the trucks before putting the course yard on, but I was so sick of doing work that didn't really change the appearance of the ship that I did this first (and will probably add the top yard as well), while I work on those frustrating things. As always, thanks for looking in! Regards, George

And looking at the diagrams in the link, the cross deck catapult is just aft of the forward elevator. What year is the Trumpeter kit meant to represent? The ship went into the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard in the summer of '43. Maybe it's late war.

Yorktown and Enterprise had cross deck catapults on the hanger deck. Basically sent an aircraft out the hanger doors. The photos in Warships after Washington seem to imply that they are flying through the hanger on the way out. Some photos here: https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/11821/the-crazy-aircraft-carrier-hangar-catapults-of-world-war-ii. They were apparently removed during the war, and not added past the first batches of Essexes

Makes sense. I've heard of people putting metal rods in the thicker sections of the masts.

Hi Vitus, Good to see you are making progress. It's quite possible it's just an artifact of the angles, but is the Royal mast bent aft compared to the rest of the mizzen mast (too much tension on the backstays, maybe)? Referring back to @Snug Harbor Johnny's comment above. I think it'll be easier to keep everything lined up if you do the fore and backstays as pairs as you go up the mast, which will help keeping the flexible masts where you want. Regards, GAK

Nice. Two things I learned for when you put the tops on. Drill any holes you need in the lower mast now, and maybe open the lubbers hole a bit more than is on the plans/laser cut pieces. As is, the lubbers hole is pretty crowded. George

I obviously went without the bands, but who really knows. Regardless @Jared, good luck however you choose to proceed. I've made some choices that I'm sure lots would disagree with, probably the biggest to paint the hull green after an apparent desire by McKay to paint her that color that he did not do. But, it's a variation that I liked and if I give it to someone that objects, it's fixable with a couple of hours of painting, so... Regards, George

Thanks Bruma, Rob, and Jared! Brief update. I've built the two iron blocks, attached them, and painted the main yards. Now to add all of the items that go on after the body of the yards are complete. They include (clockwise from 3:00 o'clock): stirrups (way too long at the moment, will be trimmed so that the foot ropes are about 1/2 inch (4 scale feet below the top of the yard), blocks for the buntlines (attach to the jackstay, so stopped with thread), double blocks for clew lines and some of the sheets ("iron" stropped), and single blocks for the working ends of the sheets and also the clew on the skysail. I think that will be enough. I'm not putting in the reefing tackle and the blocks for the live lifts on the main course are already mounted on the mast. Similarly, the halyards for the top 4 masts either use blocks already on the mast or a sheave, so nothing more to do there. Next are attaching the stirrups, foot ropes, and all the blocks that I've stropped, and installing the trucks that are used as fairleads. I'm going to also take a quick check to make sure that I don't need to mount some blocks for the braces (although it looks like they mostly attach to various stays and shrouds) and put the hardware for the topping lifts and outhauls on the Spencers. As always, thanks for looking in! George

Been there. It goes faster than you expect.

Vitus, this seems really odd to me. Again, working off American ships, but this has been true of other ships I've built. If you look at the lines that go from the mast to the deadeyes you get (fore to aft) lower mast shrouds - start near the top of the lower mast (between the top and the mast cap), go through the lubbers hole, anchor on the deadeyes Top mast back stays - start near the top of the topmast (between the crosstrees and the mast cap), anchor on the deadeyes. Topgallant back stays - start just above where the topgallant lifts anchor on the mast, anchor on the deadeyes. Royal back stays - start just above where the royal lifts anchor on the mast, anchor on the deadeyes. Sky backstays (where relevant) start just above where the sky lifts anchor on the mast, anchor on the deadeyes. On the Flying Fish that is (mizzen per side) 4 shrouds, 2 topmast backstays, 1 topgallant, 1 royal, 1 skysail backstay. Looking at the instructions (and your photo) it looks like you have (per side) two backstays on the lower (that run up to the top), one attached to the topgallant but just above the course mast cap, and then 1 each where I would expect for the topgallant and royal. Am I seeing that right? That just doesn't make sense to me. I defer to the Cutty Sark experts out there ( @Bruma or others), but the she have backstays on the lower mast? And the stay that is running to the lower mast cap - that seems in the wrong place to me. Physics says you want it at the end so that you have the longest possible lever arm. Where it is, you aren't getting much assistance that isn't already in the shrouds. Not casting aspersions on your work @VitusBering, you are doing great and relying on the directions but it reads wrong to me. Regards, George

Concur with Bruma here, the backstays should be outboard of the spreaders. I will also say that the backstays at the top seem odd to me as well. I've looked mostly at American clippers, but in 'G' it seems to me that you should have two pairs of backstays per side wrapped around the course mast, definitely not on the iron connecting the course and top masts

Ah yes. The Saturn V from Estes was (at least back in the 70's) a single stage cluster design using 3 C engines that I think was also set up for a single D engine later. As a boy I made some of the multistage variants. They flew so high I lost a couple of them when they flew out of the range of realistic recovery. Never did the clusters as it felt like the odds of actually igniting all 3 engines at the same time seemed low, since I'd think that the first thing that would happen is that once the first engine lit off it would promptly pull the ignitors out of the other engines (they were all wired together).

Unless a I've forgotten my physics (possible) plenty of specific impulse, not enough thrust....

Thanks Rob. No footropes or stirrups either. I finished the eyebolts and wood parrels yesterday, maybe I can make the iron blocks and paint tonight and get the regular blocks and footropes this week. We'll see I'm sure you are aware of this, but one thing I realized installing all the eyebolts is that I have to remember to move one set on each of the mizzen yards to the forward side of the mast. These are the bolts that make up part of the band where the yardarm begins, and they are used to attach the brace pendants. On the fore and main, the braves run aft, on the mizzen forward. On the Niagara I just tied them onto the yardarm, but there are irons, hence eyebolts, hence I need to orient them correctly. Regards George

Neighbor had the steep driveway. A couple of 2 by 4s, some lag bolts, a piece of rope, a bit of scrap plywood, and the wheels from a broken wagon were turned into a "go cart". Fortunately we lived in a cul de sac, so as we flew out of the driveway there weren't a lot of '70s cars with their crap brakes to run us over. That's the thing that was really different for my kids; vs me; even in the suburbs there is just so much more traffic and the drivers are always in such a hurry. That and there just wasn't the same number of kids their age to help provide safety in numbers. I think it was because I grew up in a new neighborhood, where everyone was a family with young kids, whereas we've always bought older homes, and the neighborhood was a mix of empty nesters to people without children and everything in between. There were 18 kids on my block growing up in the mid 60s through the early '80s, all but one in a 6 year birth year range; there were 10 on the block with my kids covering a 17 year range. Not the same. The heck of it is that we always misunderstand the risks, don't we? When the DC sniper hit in 2002, our kids were 2 and 4. After a day or two they were crawling up the walls and we figured we had to do something, so we took them to this playground in our neighborhood behind the Silver Spring YMCA on the logic that this was not well known, required you to take an obscure route on a bunch of residential streets, and we couldn't be afraid of everything. The chance of the snipers being in there was astronomically small. Well, it worked for the kids for the two weeks or so it took to catch them. I almost had a heart attack afterwards though, because they had been using the YMCAs in Silver Spring and Bethesda as bases, those guys had been within 100 meters of the playground multiple times. At the end of the day it was fine, it was the correct decision on statistics, but you really never know do you. George

Gosh, a Big Wheel, although ours were from the '70s and the one in the photo has the "safer" hand break designed to intentionally create a spin. Between the three of us, we wore a long hole in the contact patch of the front wheel (like maybe 3 inches long) and still rode it. My guess is we'd be arrested if we had let our kids play with them. Lord knows my collection of scars implies I did childhood right by your impeccable definition 😀 George