Salty Sea Dog

Aw geez Mark! I'm gonna blush. Thanks though. Here let me hand you one of these instead!

Very cool Matti!

Before someone else cracks open a dinosaur and uses this word, may I add that your ship is exquisite!!

Hi Augie! The nicely varnished wood was one of the things that really attracted me to traditional Dutch boats. Seeing a harbor full of similar Danish boats must have been a treat. Keith - Those T/As were pretty hot in the day. Fast and cornered nicely! Thanks Matti. I've flipped the boat over so I can finish up the interior details now. The end is in sight. Woo hoo!

13) Finishing the Finish: Now that the centerboard slot was cut, the hull's finish could be finalized. I had done one last sanding and French polish session just before making the slot. After the slot was completed, the last padding sessions were done using alcohol only. This clears the finish and adds more gloss. The trick at this stage is using a pad that is barely damp - too wet with alcohol and you would just be wiping the shellac off. It is also important not to rub in one spot to long for the same reason. To get the perfect barely damp alcohol pad, place the alcohol pad in your pad jar on top of your regular shellac pads and drizzle a little alcohol on top. Seal the jar up and let it sit for about 30 minutes. The alcohol seeps through the top pad but the trapped fumes keep it damp. This is how it looked after the alcohol rub downs. After several days, the finish was rubbed out with a fine swirl removing polish. This really brought the gloss up. I will do one more rubbing out in a few more days. Here's how it looked in daylight after the first polish rub. The honeysuckle smells really good! Here's the polish I used. It's Meguiar's Mirror Glaze #9 which you can get at some auto parts stores or at automotive paint supply shops. You can also use something like Novus plastic polish and get similar results. Any of these pics can be enlarged by clicking on them. Best wishes,

Thanks for the encouragement Matti! It gives me a needed boost while I'm venturing into this new territory of rigging. Hi Ferit. I found that glue here at the Michael's store. I think they have changed the packaging, but it appears to be the same glue. Does your actual tube of glue look like this? By the way, nice crow's nest with the bent wood! You have serious skills!!

You couldn't be talking about Sjors, he is goodness himself!

Thanks Robbyn!

OK, I'm a goofball! I have never done modeling with threads before, but I'm grinning like an idiot. I know you more seasoned ship builders can do this stuff in your sleep but it's new to me and a challenge with my baseball mitt hands. I got in a little time with the boat last night and finished coiling the larger line tub and made an eye on one end. I've wrapped a whipping around the eye and made a practice becket knot to the eye. The smaller tub's line will tie with a becket knot to the eye of the big one. The bosun inspecting the knots. Question: Is there a better way to end whippings than just cutting off the excess and gluing the end down?

I was blown away by that too! That was Scoot's New Bedford Whaleboat. He had a log on MSW1. There's a pic in post #66 in the "Latest Full Profile Photograph" thread in the "General section. Very nice Scoot! http://modelshipworld.com/index.php?/topic/1589-latest-full-profile-photograph-of-your-build/page-5

Just read your build log. Your boat is looking great! Yellow would look good with black or the dark blue too. Sweet tool cart!

Hi Keith! Really glad you're back! I feel like I'm doing a lot of little things but not getting much done. It's still a blast to work on though. This one won't have a working centerboard. The centerboard case was constructed on top of the floor boards in this kit and the pivot would need to be lower than that because of the thickness of the keel. I guess if it was just a drop-in centerboard instead of a pivoting one...nah - I'm getting too fired up about the Golden Hind to back track now!

Your painting skills on both the figures and the boat are amazing. Beautiful work!

Hi Crackers! You are very welcome and thank you for the kind words. BTW, I'm sure most of you already know this, but you can click on any of the pictures to blow them up for even more detail.

Hi wefalck! Thank you for giving me permission to use your pics! Your picures of the front and rear do a great job of showing how narrow the planks taper down to. I'm guessing that some of them are only about 2" ( around 5cm) wide or less at the ends. That will be fun! Best wishes

Hi Simon! Patience and determination will really help. Having fun is the main thing!

Your very welcome Stevinne. Glad you liked it. There had been a build log on MSW1 that got me hooked on this yacht!

As far as I know, Billings is the only manufacturer of a wooden kit of this yacht. A current kIt is available in Europe but not the USA. Older Sperwer kits do turn up on eBay in the USA though.

Ina Groot's pictures continued. The color shots are of painted murals along the sides of the cabin at the ceiling (there are 3 per side and they overlap) and a couple more in the interior.

Ina Groot's Pictures continued:

Ina Groot's pictures continued:

The following pictures are courtesy of Ina Groot, the librarian at the Zuiderzee Museum. She asks that if you wish to use these photos in publications, you ask the museum for permission in advance. Ina was so generous with her time and provided a massive amount of detail shots that will be invaluable for anyone building this boat. I had asked her for a few interior shots of the cabin, but the interior had been stripped in the past. I told Ina I would be building a model of this boat and these are the pics she sent me. Thanks Ina!! The photos will be spread across the following posts with 10 photos per post.

Part 2 of wefalck's pictures: Thanks wefalck!

I've always been attracted to old Dutch ships and yachts. They have a sense of style all their own. At first I thought the yachts were a bit odd and looked like sandals with masts. Then they grew on me and now I think they're cool because,...well they look sort of like sandals with masts. Maybe it would be more appropriate to say they resemble wooden shoes with masts! The boeier is a type of coastal shallow draft boat that originated in the 1500s. The first yachts are said to have been boeiers. The Sperwer (Dutch for Sparrow Hawk) was built in 1885-1886 by Eltje Holtrop van der Zee of Friesland who was considered the best at building boeiers in his day. The Sperwer was built for A.E. Jurjens of Amsterdam. Apparently the Sperwer was a hot rod in its day and in 1892, won the New York Society Cup in a race in Sneekermeer located in the Friesland region of the Netherlands. You can see quite a few historic pictures, the plans and modern photos of this boat by doing a Bing image search for “boeier de sperwer” (Google didn't pull up as many). http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=boeier+de+sperwer&qs=n&form=QBIR&pq=boeier+de+sperwer&sc=1-17&sp=-1&sk= The James Bond connection to this boat begins when it was purchased in England by Merlin Minshall in 1931. Merlin set out to sail across Europe to the Black Sea following a route of rivers and canals. During this trip he spied on the growing Nazi activities and reported back to England. He was joined during his voyage by a beautiful German girl who turned out to be a counter-spy that tried to kill him. After this, Merlin began working for Special Branch of British Naval Intelligence reporting to Ian Fleming who later wrote the James Bond books. Merlin's designation number was 007 and he carried a Walther PPK. Merlin was an accomplished marksman, judo and karate expert and an accomplished race car driver. He wrote an autobiography entitled “Guilt-Edged”. Here's some links to an article and a radio interview with Merlin. http://www.persakwurmfeld.com/press/westlawnmasthead24_dec12.pdf http://www.cbc.ca/archives/categories/arts-entertainment/film/the-birth-of-bond/the-real-james-bond-1.html The De Sperwer now resides at the Zuider Zee Museum in Enkhuizen in the Netherlands. http://www.zuiderzeemuseum.nl/?language=en The following are color photos of the De Sperwer and are courtesy of this site's wefalck who has a great website of his own. His site contains a lot more info on other Dutch boats as well. http://www.maritima-et-mechanika.org/ Part 1 of wefalck's De Sperwer pictures:

Wow! That roll of masking tape really adds a nice perspective to how small the boat is. Nice work!