mikiek

It makes perfect sense. You're right on track. I figured it might have been me that wasn't getting it. Nice drawing too.

It is nice. Sometimes though, I feel like I'm preaching to them. Trying to save them from every little headache that we went thru. She's a great build. Have you decided what you will do with her once you are finished?

Planking deficiencies? We're going for ZERO defects right Tom? No stealers?

I believe the Trajta Project is winding down. Sail is up and cleated. I have yet to do something with the excess rope like coils or something like that. I'm just waiting to see if I will have to undo the sail for some reason. I was planning on cutting the ropes so the ends just hit the deck, gluing the ends to the deck and then make separate coils and glue them on top. Of course I need to be pretty sure I'm done trimming the sail. The lateen setup was a little strange this build. The sail is pretty big and getting (and keeping) it in the right position took a few tries. I'm not showing photos of that until it's finished. I did finish the last big task - turning some oars. I have this great lathe with all the bells & whistles but don't have a clue how to use it. Sad but true. I did manage to get a few oars made. Pix below. They also show the completed kit supplied stand. Interestingly, I believe it was Zoran's Trajta log that mentions the covers on the foredeck are not openings to the hold below. Instead they're little holes that someone can get into and stand (or sit?) so that their upper body is lower to the deck. This allows for rowing as I guess ones arms & shoulders are just slightly above the rail and the oars can be worked against the tholes. Hope I got that right. So I'm in that mode of going back over plans and thru the manual to make sure I've got everything. I could wrap that up tomorrow.

Nice work on the braces. Yeah, that could have been done way back but where's the challenge in that? Don't know if you've laced them up yet but IMO the braces are the finishing touch to the whole rigging job. Those lines zig zagging from yard to yard just make it more ship like. If you can, use the brace lines to do just that. Get them pretty snug. I've found after my build has been sitting on display for a while that a few of the yards have moved a little - up or down, left or right. I wish I had done them a little tighter. I think a little stretching of those ropes might have helped too. You're headed for home dude.

Hey Ron - I was asking about the stringer because something looks off in the pix. It could be the angle, but it looks like you could use another strake in front of the stringer - on top of the strakes already there. The stringer looks like it is recessed behind the face of the planking. Does it need to be covered? Maybe you're on your way to doing that and I'm not following your plan? I see you're about to get to a spot where I got suckered in. I wanted that hand rail on top of the bulwark, and I wanted it NOW. Resist the urge if you can. That poor thing will get the dookie beat out of it with all the work you're going to be doing. That's not an easy piece to replace. With all that said, DO cut out the rail pieces and lay them on top of the bulwark. They will give you a good indication of how your bulwark construction went. If there are any corrections needed, you can get to them now while you have good access.

Definitely no deck until your hull is done. Being able to grab the boat by those inside frames to turn it upside down is priceless.

I think you know where I stand. Look at it this way all the functions of the capstan (anchor, raising spars, hoisting goods) are now wench driven. I doubt if the capstan is even used except for show. One of the captains of the new ship said a lot of the new design was done because a typical crew is much smaller now. If I recall it was in the neighborhood of 30-40 vs. 140 on the real one. 30-40 men was 1 watch. Things were done to facilitate the small crew. Masts are shorter, current safety requirements, etc. But really now, captains skylight maybe but personally I doubt it. Companionway nope. Problem there is if you remove it what do you put in its stead? They had to get up & down somehow. All that just more sources for splinters. On the flip side, all your work came out really nice. Your woodworking skills shined. Would be a pity to toss them. Didn't help at all did I?

Ron - the second part of that Tamiya recommendation is after the tape is applied and burnished, paint some clear paint over the edge of the tape. Let it work into any slight openings between tape & wood. You're trying to fill minor gaps with the clear rather than having your red work its way in. THIS IS CRITICAL! Isn't it funny how a build takes life when some color is added? What are you going to do with the stringer on top of the bulwark?

Enjoy the time away Elijah. Sometimes I wish I could do the same. The ship-o-holic in me keeps cracking the whip and telling me "Back to work you loafer"

Maybe this pic will help. To clarify the procedure - think what is happening. As you slide the GB forward, the bottom leading corner will be what hits the point in the rabbet that forces it upwards. What should be done at that point is nip off the corner at about a 90 degree angle and do the slide exercise again. The GB should slide a little further forward before it starts upwards. Nip off a little more and try again. What you are trying to do is get the bottom edge of the GB to fit into the rabbet while keeping the GB upper edge level. You can see how mine ended up. Thinking back I believe the GB was the only strake that I put some nails in, at least while fitting it all together. If you can get the GB nailed into position with no glue the easy test is to lay the next strake on the GB. If it sits flush then life is good. If you see a gap up at the bow then it is likely the GB has started bending upwards. In that case you would want slide the GB backwards a bit and try again. Don't feel bad if you go thru that exercise many times. I think I also went thru 3-4 sticks as well. That is probably the most difficult step in planking. It is for modelers and it was for shipwrights. But it is worth doing right - almost like the "foundation" of your ship. Literally everything else rides on that one strake. I also found these crude drawings I made for someone. This kinda shows how the angle of the rabbet groove changes from bow to stern. Probably no help for this build, but something to remember for the next.(Uploading is failing-will try again later)

Tom - time spent on the garboard is a good investnment. Yours is looking good. Nice and snug in the rabbet. I don't understand your need for a stealer. As Darrell said the bottom of the GB at the bow end will be rounded somewhat. The exact shape to be determined by the fit between the rabbet and GB. Shaping that correctly should give you a smooth upper edge for the next strake. You shouldn't need any correction there. If you do, something is not right. Try like the dickens to use a complete stick for the GB. That was one of the few boards that shipwrights would search the woods to find something long enough to use a single board for the whole strake. If you have to go with planks, make the split at an "easy spot", where everything is laying perfectly. Your question regarding the GB raised above the 3 left frames. That would most likely be the rabbet not allowing the GB stick to go where it needs to. In a perfect world the strake would lay flat on the frames mid-ship but remember that GB has quite a few twists in it. That spot on the hull is one of those places. At this point you may consider pressing the edge down onto the frame and gluing with some CA. It's not much of a gap really. One thing I can recommend (because I didn't do it) is constantly observing your planking from the bow and stern. You want uniformity on each side, but also side to side. When you are looking at the bow or stern head on, the strakes should be symetrical. This can be easy to overlook until it's too late - and then you might need a stealer to get back on track. The mock gundeck can be very helpful in determining how to rig the guns. Don't forget to add eyebolts in the bulwark for the tackles to hook into. I found that adding a split ring into each eyebolt made the hookup a lot easier, both on the bulwark and carriage eyebolts. Personally I think it looked better as well. Trying to put 3mm hooks into the eyebolt ring can be brutal. The split ring is much easier. You can also play around with rope sizes if you want. IMHO the rope sizes on the plans for the tackles was too small. I spent a lot of time (literally weeks) neurotically going thru various combinations of rope and blocks. Try what the plan calls for first. If you like that, great. But don't be afraid to try something different. There is a school that says all rope sizes should be proportional to the scale of the build - meaning you can calculate any rope diameter and there is one and only one size for any rope on the boat. That just didn't work for me on the tackles. I felt they looked like they were held with a thread rather than rope. They needed some beef. As you said, you are not quite ready for guns yet but it is an incredibly repetitive, time consuming task so best to start early, when you can do a few when you feel like it. That said, it is always more efficient to use an assembly line approach. Drill all holes for eyebolts. Add all split rings to eyebolts. Glue all eyebolts into holes. Etc. This was helpful for making the tackles - I believe there was over 100 of them. After the first few you will begin to see a pattern that you can follow, and you can crank them out more efficiently. Practice on your mockup. Speaking of eyebolts, don't forget to color them BEFORE you glue them into the bulwark. I'm preaching again as usual....have fun

I'm sorry Zoran - I do not see enough detail for the rope on the yard. All I see is what appears to be 2 wraps around the yard (inset D), which in and of itself is not not enough to hold up the yard. No problem, I can wing it with the best of them. For those of you that have ever worked with tell-tales, nettles, little strings hanging off the sail, you know how difficult it can be to get them lined up uniformly. Same issue here. My solution looked kind of funny so I thought I would share. Crazy looking but it worked great. Add a clip and then paint lacquer on the string to stiffen it up. Same drill on the other side. If you gently shake the sail the clips make a nice percussive sound.

With the nettles finished and the yard fasteners well under way I am looking at the sail plans to hang the yard on the mast. I'm not able to figure out a couple of places - @MarisStella.hr. I hope my questions in the photo make sense.

What is that?

I keep forgetting this is not a warship. Fish blood maybe?

Got it Zoran. One thing I noticed is the sail plans and photos in the manual only show the starboard side of the boat. That shows the rope end hanging down on the starboard side of the sail. From your reply, I should assume that the other end of the rope is hanging down equally on the port side?

@MarisStella.hr or @donrobinson Hey guys I'm having a tough time with the drawing in the plans for the fastening of the sail to the yard. Both the knot at the end and the ones in the middle. I could use some assistance.

Graham - thanks for following along. Yes, the sails seem better although I don't have a lot of experience with sails in general. The material is thicker and just seems better. The stitching is excellent. Mitbok - staining or just "dirtying up" would be my first instinct. However, I've already seen that dye doesn't take consistently and I'm not sure I want to have to deal with that. I am thinking it may be best left alone. If I did anything it might be taking it outside and rubbing some dirt on it. But most likely I will go as is. Did you get your sails yet?

Reef nettles are done. Per the picture from Zoran, I added the reef patches. Logically, it seemed like these should be there. I did make the mistake of trying to cut the first few diamond shaped - I thought they would fit in the diagonal seem better. NOT. Shoulda' been squares rotated 45 degrees. I tried to switch, with varying success. For some reason I just couldn't cut good squares. Also per the pix, I stitched the nettles down right at the patch. They were seized near the end and the last little bit was twisted open - the strands making a crows foot. Now we can tie that sail up to the yard of needed. Speaking of yard, that's next. I've usually used Elmer's or even CA for gluing sail material. This time I used fabric glue. Makes sense I guess. We'll have to see how it holds up. It seems pretty tough. I glued the patches with it and it was rather difficult trying to push a needle thru the patch. I was also hoping to trim up the diamond patches in place, but the patch edges didn't want to lift up. I believe this build is getting close to finished. The sail & yard, another couple pieces of running rig, and the oars are what's left.

I really like the multi colored areas of wood. I don't remember if you told us your plans for coloring the hull. Paint? Stain? All the above?

Stylus, or would it be stylii in your photo? Good idea.

Awh man! The prototype nettle is about 1/4" shorter than the one in the plans. Tempting to leave as is. However looking at a few more pics, there is a reinforcing patch that would have been sewn to the sail. A hole is punched thru the patch and the rope is fed thru. I guess if I'm going to do this right I need to look into making some sort of patch. So I need to remove the prototype after all.

A good start Ron. I like the yellow. Don't get too wrapped up with the perfect paint job right now. I promise you, you will most likely have to go thru the whole exercise again later - at least once more. Your hull will get scratched and dinged during the rest of your build. Be careful on your "touchups". It's easy to get into a vicious cycle. Touch up the yellow to cover the black. Dang, got some yellow on the black. Touch up the black to cover the yellow. Dang, got some black on the yellow................. I had 3 thoughts on the bleeding. When you apply the clear, slather over the wood and the tape. Brush strokes work up to and over the tape. Literally try to force it up under the tape. Better the clear than your color. Then when you paint the brush strokes should start at the tape edge and flow away from the tape. Secondly, you might try a roll of Tamiya tape. A lot of modelers (including me) use it. It comes in several widths, if you're getting a trial roll go for the narrowest. I think it's about 1/8". Lastly, when you brush the clear up under the tape it will take a LOT longer for it to dry so have patience and give it the time it needs. When you burnished, what did you use? Nice to see some color on her, isn't it?

Good point Zoran - and that also tells me that nettles serve a completely different purpose than the tell-tales I keep referring to. It sounds like the nettles are used to trim the sail. Tell-tales are used to tell when the sail is trimmed properly and the wind is flowing over the sail surface correctly. Thanks for the heads up. I will re-size the nettles per the plans. I will also search for some photos of the sail being trimmed with the nettles. That might be a cool way to display Trajta. That does make me wonder about the ropes that tie the sail to the yard. The plans show some extra rope that hangs down. Is this used to furl the sail?