Ian_Grant

27 minutes ago, Kusawa2000 said:

Ian: My sister and I have a cottage at one of the two bays at the Perth end of the lake.. my mom and dad bought it in the late 1960s and have it ever since. While I havent bought my plane ticket I will probably be in Ottawa from July 4th to around the 19th..the first week I will be at the bluesfest but after that I will probably up at the cottage.. I will let you kids know when I have my dates.... i think that would be a blast! 

 

MIKE 

The two bays .... five minutes by canoe from our place. Look forward to it!

On 2/22/2024 at 10:47 PM, WestPort said:

Welcome Malcolm.   I didn't realize there were others so close by that are also interested in this hobby.  I live just outside Westport on Upper Rideau Lake.  

Westport, we have a cottage on Pike Lake near Stanleyville and I often cycle a loop along #10 to Westport then back through Newboro to cross at Narrows Lock and hence back to Stanleyville. The three of us should get together this summer for 

Cheers,

Ian

On 2/22/2024 at 7:50 PM, Kusawa2000 said:

Malcolm: I am originally from Ottawa and still have a family cottage at Pike Lake... just near Stanleyville.. miss that country alot. Enjoy the view out your window for me and welcome to MSW!

 

Mike Draper

Mike, I can't believe this; first you help us get plans for "SS Klondike" from the Parks Canada office in the same Whitehorse building where you work, now you tell us you still have a cottage on Pike Lake. Our cottage is also on Pike near Stanleyville! We go in past the playground and cemetery and keep to the left at every intersection to reach our cottage which is just opposite the largest of the group of three islands, on which people used to camp. Our kids called it "Beaver Island" because there was an active beaver lodge on it when we bought the place, only to watch all the big old birch trees on the island be chewed down one by one. What a small world.

Absolutely; they towed the boats into battle to reduce flying splinters on board, though they'd be towed astern (check that shot of my print "England Expects" that you included in one of your earlier posts). I've also read that they cast off the boats when battle gets engaged to get them off their tail, but maybe that's a myth. You know how there always seem to be ships' boats rescuing men in the foreground of so many period sea battle paintings? Maybe just artistic composition.

You could always rework the sea if you moved the 2nd boat aft.

On 2/20/2024 at 11:21 AM, Malcolm Brown said:

I have been aboard Victory in Portsmouth Harbour on three occasions. The first was in 1983 when my wife and I were on our honeymoon.

I'm sure it was always her dream to see this ship, Malcolm. HaHa. Welcome to MSW; I am your newest follower.

Seeing the photo with the foremast head in place reminds me to recommend:

By all means glue the mast heads on, but leave off the cleats on the side faces on fore and main (for the jeer block lashings) and any rigging blocks for now. Reason being is that it is far easier to loop (the served) shroud pairs around a suitably sized drill or dowel for seizing then slip them over the masthead and down, rather than trying to seize each in turn around the masthead. Once the shrouds are in place the mast cap and topmast (and the jeer block cleats) can be added.

Excellent!  If I ever build her it will be for RC. Wondering if I could have two servos act as the engines, pulling the paddle wheel at 90 degree offsets .... 😜

Bill,

At anchor with the sails set? Your story could be that the anchor is fouled on the bottom and they are trying to sail it out of the ground (like in the Hornblower story "The Happy Return").

Thank you all! Much appreciated. I very much enjoy the comments, suggestions, and bantering asides during this build. It will be nice to add the finishing touches to the model and finally reclaim my workshop from this long drawn out project. I have some new kitchen drawers to make.

Cheers, 

Ian

Here is a short video of the galley in the RC boat club indoor pool session. You can see my hastily-thrown-together transport dolly at the corner of the pool.

Embarrassingly, I forgot to put the main deck on at launch hence the return to "shore". No rudders installed as yet hence the pivoting to turn. After a pivot she seems to keep veering in that direction for a while when rowing "straight". Nothing the rudders won't cure.

Also note the 6V square lantern battery sticking up a little out of the stern deck. It's too tall to fit under the rear hatch. Still haven't bought the fancy 5-cell NiMH which will fit into the hull. Was planning to put it aft which is quite empty, but the only thing it connects to is my arduino daughter board in the bow. Here I used lamp cord running through the bilge for the connection. I'm not sure what current the giant sweep servos draw when rowing but I plan to insert n ammeter to find out, and to measure the 6V at the battery and at the bow to see if there's a substantial voltage drop. Lamp cord is a pretty big wire. If the drop is substantial the NiMH battery would be best in the bow, if I can fit it in this already crowded location (two sweep servos, Arduino, RC Rcvr, 12V battery). Or use something even bigger than lamp cord.

It does look a little odd with the clear sweep of the empty deck. Will be doing something about that shortly.

What an unbelievably clean build; no sign of dinged edges or glue marks or sanding marks or the slightest paint flaw!  Truly amazing work!

3 hours ago, Keith Black said:

Ian, am I wrong in thinking you haven't discussed these plans with your better half? 

No, you're not wrong. 😏 Fortunately she's pretty chill when it comes to home improvements. 👍

11 hours ago, rookie said:

Colours look great!

you may have to store it in the garage or start doing push-ups

Yeah.....storage.  I was looking at our laundry room sink recently because it's very slow to drain. I squatted down to remove the trap to clean it out only to find that some clown glued together the entire trap assembly. I'll need to cut the ABS and install a new one...which got me thinking I should replace the sink too since it's disgustingly discoloured...which got me thinking I should re-think the whole sink-countertop layout - which got me thinking I should add some wall cabinets for storage to free up the counter and some shelves - which got me thinking I could move my two 43" RC boats onto a now cleared shelf...which got me thinking I could store the galley where those two boats now sit beside each other (i.e. on a very wide shelf) with oars on and all.

To take it to the RC club meeting at the indoor pool today, I attached a piece of plywood and some braces to my two wheeled hand dolly. With the ram removed, the two aluminum dowels at the bow plug into two holes in a wood block attached to the ply, and the keel rests between the two braces. Add a strap at the stern, at the top of the dolly, and it wheels easily around. 🙃🤙👍 Though at 24" wide across the oar tips one must be careful in doorways.

On 2/20/2024 at 12:09 PM, BETAQDAVE said:

One begs to ask the question Ian, just how heavy is this beast going to get when its fully loaded?  Looks like you might need to get pumped up at the gym first to launch and recover it. 💪🏋️‍♂️

It's true. Back when I guesstimated the weight of hull/mechanisms/battery/electronics I was way over, so the bilge volume is needlessly high. Trials in our pool in September yielded a weight of 22-23 lbs to set it to waterline, which is about 50% lead-shot ballast.

It's a real issue trying to get it up the basement stairs and through doorways with oars sticking out both sides, and its 53" LOA.

I will need a dolly or a wagon to take it to water.

6 minutes ago, Glen McGuire said:

Wonderful paint job, Ian!  Looking forward to the video!!

I'll have to read up on how to video with this camera. No manual was included; do they expect us to carry around 8.5"x11" printouts wherever we go?

A pet peeve of mine.

Great trip but back to reality. Bonaire is for scuba/snorkeling on its 1st class reef; there isn't a lot else to do there. There may be a night club in Kralendijk but we're too old and tired for that stuff. Lots of tasty seafood dinners. I'm very pleased with my underwater camera (Olympus TG-6) except that it doesn't have much zoom power.

For example here are a few shots I took:

Anyway, back to our regular programming.

Wednesday afternoon I will be rowing the galley in a local pool which will be its debut to the RC boat club members. I've been slowly painting it but must stop now to let the paint cure. I haven't painted anything that will be in the water; after Wednesday I have another month to finish painting and to clearcoat it for protection before the last winter indoor pool session. I will spend tomorrow improving the oar mechanisms (according to findings of the September trial in our pool) then reinstalling to make all ready.

Below the red and above the main wale will be "natural", the same colour as the inner bulwark panels to represent unpainted wood.

Below w/l will be not-quite-black including the quadrilaterals at the bow. The black will extend up the stem and stern posts and also be on the cap rails.

The decorative bits between the colours will be yellow.

Some stem decorations will be gold.

I still need to add the shield motifs in the outer bulwark panels.

Still need to make rudders, scorpion artillery, fantail decorations, deck ventilation hatches, two fake access ladders to belowdecks, mast and yard, artemon and yard, aft flagstaff with eagle atop, and of course a crew.

Oh and I still need to shorten the upper oars by 1/2" as discussed previously.

Will try to make a video at the pool. Planning to take my bathing suit, just in case. 😐

14 hours ago, BANYAN said:

And note the warm clothing in the MIDDLE of SUMMER - yikes.  It has been one of those seasons down this a-way.

 

BTW, nice carving Steven.

 

cheers

 

Pat

Too-cool summer down there, too-warm winter up here. Outdoor skating and skiing haven't been memorable.

19 hours ago, Bill97 said:

Ian I was thinking that was the case.  Just not sure. On the flip side a number of our politicians from time to time push for some kind of coverage similar to Canada’s. Go figure. 

This article happened to come out today. Our GP is herself nearing retirement just as we enter our elder years. 😒

Have your politicians read this .....

https://nationalpost.com/health/canada-family-doctor-shortage

Michael, as you know I have this in my stash and know how tiny it is. Otherwise I might assume from the above pics that it is a 1/100 scale model. Looks fantastic!

I noticed that the actual molds have fewer decorations at the bow than the box art; will you be casting more to add?

Grass is always greener across the fence. Our drugs are cheaper though.

1 hour ago, Bill97 said:

 Belated happy birthday my friend. I would say welcome to Medicare but I don’t know if Canada has something similar, or even needs it. Yes you still have plenty of time with the fingers and eyesight. I turn 72 this summer and am still plugging a way. 😊

Thank you Bill. It was a nice birthday as we were in Bonaire last week with lots of very nice seafood places. Had barracuda for the first time - it is delicious!

Canada has "lifelong" publicly-funded i.e. socialist medical coverage although for years now they have been overwhelmed by aging population and wait times for common surgeries are very long; getting an MRI or even a referral appointment to a specialist can take months and months or even over a year. People go the States or even overseas now to bypass the wait at their own expense. Yet the gov't broadly refuses to allow "private" medical clinics; did you know your American system is held up as the "bogeyman" in Canada, a system Canada just cannot and must not emulate? Even if we cannot get the services as it is.

On the plus side I now qualify for the "senior discount" at stores. 😊

Yes, but I have the galley and Preussen to finish first, and I'm also itching do to an RC square rigger at least ship-rigged but maybe even a four-poster barque like Neville Wade does. This despite just turning 65 last week....do I have the time before fingers and eyesight fail?

I've been bitten by the RC bug again after decades away.

If I ever build my SR the waterline will touch the wale if I keep the whole hull "dry" on a stand, but this oddly-shaped hull begs for a sea display like you plan Bill in which case I agree with Henry and Mark.

Wow those windows are gorgeous!

Bill, I think your waterline's too low. Just IMHO.

Fantastic display again, Glen!  Each build more amazing than the last .... you've inspired me to definitely do an on-water presentation for my next static build.