Srodbro

Thanks for responding. So, it appears the consensus is the rigging was driven by where the vessels would be spending their time most. I can dig that, but it also seems to me that there might be a connection between the style of rigging and the particular need for whalers to provide a steady platform whilst butchering the whale. I’m thinking a large amount of fore-and-aft canvas abaft the beam would contribute to the ability of the ship to be sailing closer to the wind during that work. That thought would apply to the change to Morgan, but not to the change to Kate Cory. Perhaps the similarity in rigs is, after all, just coincidence.

I’m preparing to dive into builds of Kate Cory and Charles W Morgan. I have read that Kate Cory started life as a schooner, then was re-rigged with square sails on the formast, becoming a brig(antine). The Morgan started life as a three masted square rigged ship, then changed the Mizzen mast to fore-and-aft rigging, becoming a bark. Both whalers, then, having morphed into vessels with fore-and-aft rigged aftermost mast. My landlubber model shipbuilder question: Is this arrangement inherently advantageous for a whaler? Why?

I did a quick search but I cannot find how I can tell when my membership will expire. can you help me? Thanks.

A question about your planks: Is the shape of an individual plank the same from stem to midship and from midship to stern? Love your build. Trying to figure out this new emoji thing to give a “like”.

Just a tip I found useful : Several of those double blocks eventually have buntlines run thru them. I found it very useful to run a few temporary lengths of line thru those blocks now which can later be used to reeve the buntlines ... running them later, once your mast is mounted, the yard hung below, and shrouds and stays supporting the mast are in place, is a really tough access puzzle.

Ah-HA! Great thread, Jack!

One side appears vertical , and the opposite side at a slight angle: I wonder why. Would the angled side add stability while rowing and the vertical side allowed more foot room? Perhaps the angled side on the chest in front of a rower provided a better foot brace?

Are you planning to overlap the shields ( obscuring most of the colored strakes) or have them tangent to one another ( in which case the colored strakes will peak between them, as in the model in the pic above)?

Mike Bryan: I’m just curious ... perhaps I missed something. Given the plan you show, how do you go from that to drawings of the contours of the hull?

I vote for oarsmen seated on ribs. If the relationship between the oar-ports and the ribs is correct, then the oar is level ( or close to level) with the rower’s shoulders, giving him a much more powerful, more efficient stroke. Also, the head and shoulders are better protected from wind/weather/projectiles by the height of the gunnels. I anticipate that it’s more likely that he would also have something to firmly brace his feet against, than if seated on a chest on deck. All just IMHO.

Outstanding work on that planking. Getting it right at the bow and stern is really challenging. Very good looking.

Now things are getting funky. Lesson #3: Soldering is a tricky skill. Two brass discs were furnished in the kit to serve as the deck above the lower tower, and below the light room. Several brass pins with loops, and some brass wire ( about 28 ga), were furnished to create railings around the perimeter of the two decks. Here I have soldered the stanchions to the brass deck. Clearly, I am using a torch. But, I couldn’t figure out how to solder the railing to the stanchions. Also, I thought that In soldering these pieces together the heat would compromise the already soldered joints at the deck. Also, I thought the railing wire was far too whimpy, maybe scaling to only about 1” diameter, which I thought was too small. I decided to try something else that didn’t involve soldering. I’d wasted a brass disc, but fortunately found included in the kit a pair of wooden discs. I formed new stanchions out of 24 ga brass wire, and extended the portion under the deck to give a larger surface area to attach them to the wooden deck with CA. On the top side of the deck, I used spacers to help in clamping the railing to the stanchions. Figuring that a CA joint between the rail and stanchion wire wouldn’t hold up, I formed a ball joint from small wooden blocks to provide more glue surface. I figured I could file these down to look acceptable. Nah! I didn’t like that how that turned out, either. Maybe I’ll go back to soldering. Lesson #4: Soldering is REALLY tricky, requiring skills I don’t have ( yet). I thought the problem with soldering was being able to hold onto several pieces at once while also holding the solder and torch. This can’t require two people to do. So, I created a jig to hold the stanchions and rails ( I had discovered from photos that there are actually two rails at each level) in position while soldering. I had to determine the developed length of the deck perimeter and the spacing of the stanchions, then stapled the pieces to a board. I also used 18 ga copper wire, something I thought would be more robust. Shaped and cleaned up, it wasn’t too bad. But, the more robust copper wire looked just too thick, scaling to about 4” diameter, much too big. So, now that I thought I had a soldering technique, I’d try again with 20 ga brass wire. This really didn’t work as planned either ... I couldn’t figure out how to join the ends of the railings so I wrapped them in thread to simulate seizing. Also, I miscalculated the spacing of the stanchions on the upper deck, and ultimately had to cut another upper deck from pvc since I’d wasted the brass and wooden ones from the kit. But, the diameter of the stanchions and railings were finally right. But, I had had enough. This was going to have to do. Maybe a good coat of black paint would hide some of my sins. More to come.

I debated with myself about completing this build log and procrastinated long enough that I came to the conclusion that I owed it to those who follow and who have shown enough interest to comment that I need to complete a build log for this. I spend a lot of time looking at other’s logs, and am disappointed when they just die without finishing. I learn so much from others. So, there seems a bit of obligation outstanding on my part. So, on the theory that we learn from mistakes, and might also learn vicariously from the mistakes of others, I offer the following log of mistakes and disappointments ( but, take heart ... ultimately there is a happy ending). Lesson #1: Big Things (big challenges) Come in Small Packages. I was very pleased with my two previous builds (semi-scratch USBrig Lawrence, aka Modelexpo Niagara [another build the log of which I must complete] and Dusek Gokstad ship). I thought I could have a pleasant little diversion with the lighthouse kit. Keep in mind that this “kit” was assembled for me at my request by the good folks at BlueJacket models from spare bits and pieces they had of a defunct kit they used to offer. So, any short-comings cannot be assigned to the manufacturer ... all the mistakes and frustration were of my own doing. The kit consisted of a wooden dowel, tapered, for the lower tower, a short wooden dowel for the upper tower, a cast metal roof, and laser etched brass for the light enclosure and vestibule building, and a couple of brass disks for the upper and lower decks. There was also a bit of electronics to activate the light (ultimately not used as I couldn’t figure out how to power it, and my decisions during construction eliminated the means of installing this feature). Simple, eh? Stay tuned. Instarted with the lower tower dowel which was already tapered and sanded. I wanted to add a bit of texture to better represent the brickwork, so locked it into a drill, roughed the surface a bit with coarse sandpaper, and cut a few brick courses into it to better define the stripes. Lesson #2 - Painting stripes is not easy. The kit included some red tape to be used for stripes. But, the width of the tape would have resulted in either non-uniform red-white stripes, or the wrong number of stripes. Also, because of the taper to the tower, getting the tape to conform was messy. In order to paint the alternating red and white candy stripes fairly uniformly, I found I couldn’t just utilize the drill rig . it spins too fast and had a slight wobble. I had to repurpose a jig from another build to hold the tapered base on an axle to evenly spin the dowel while holding a saturated paint brush. More to come.

How did you hold the garboard plank in position when you glued it to the keelson?

Just a suggestion: I found the jig in this build log listed below very useful. Even using the jig, with the keel and frames quite plumb and square, aligning some of the planks from one frame to another was a challenge. Nice color choice. Gokstad Viking Ship by jack.aubrey - Dusek Ship Kits - 1:35 Scale