bruce d

I see what you mean. It clearly goes either side of the sail yet the port side line seems to have no termination point. It can't be secured to the gaff boom because we can see that the lowest edge of the sail is behind the boom. ? Well, my comment doesn't get you closer to an answer but I will follow along to see what happens.

Those sails look fantastic. I appreciate this advice, doing experiments to find the 'right stuff' is not my favorite use of time.

Ah, good, that is what I thought.

Here is a more contemporary scene: ... in the NMM collection, "British and American Gunboats in Action on Lake Borgne, 14 December 1814" Date made: Early to mid 19th century by Hornbrook, Thomas Lyde This painting shows how I imagine a schooner the size of Pickle would have rigged boarding nets (I suppose technically anti-boarding nets), but I have nothing to verify that. The nets illustrated are bulky and, if the ship faced a threat of boarding, would have been useless if not available quickly. Would it make sense for a modest craft like Pickle to stow them below decks? I don't want to speculate, so will keep an open mind. Perhaps the answer is in Gilkerson's books.

This is the way Dodd portrayed Pickle under the guidance of Lapenotiere, her captain: The naked woman rescued from the water at Trafalgar by Pickle's boats was from the burning French Achille. Her name was Jeanette: close enough? Bruce

Eyewitness account of a midshipman in Euralus (later retired as Rear Admiral) Hercule Robinson. Also, although I do not have access at the moment, there is a mention in Pickle's logs of 'nets' without further details. Pickle was active as a fighting ship as well as a messenger. She was involved in blockade duties and her boats were part of cutting out operations and raids, plus she had close encounters with gunboats and other small craft. I am open minded but am having trouble visualising the sailplan of Pickle supporting the nets shown in your illustration. I had imagined nets along the sides ready to foul the efforts of hostile small boats, but perhaps you are right. I suppose the basic question is if the nets were stored on deck what might this have looked like. I do not intend to model Pickle with her nets out.

These books are news to me, many thanks. I have looked for reviews and citations and they seem to be the go-to source for the subject. I have put them on that 'wish list' I keep in the drawer with my lottery tickets. In the meantime, I am hoping for a bit of guidance to finalise the deck layout of the plans I am drawing. I don't want to speculate too much but if the nets were stored on the deck it would not be a surprise.

Morning Mark, Thanks, but it seems not. What started me down this path is finding that HMS Pickle had her boarding nets up at Trafalgar. I wasn't expecting that. Regards, Bruce

Mods: please move if this is not the right forum. I wonder if someone has some answers about boarding rigging, Nelson era. All info welcome but my interest is focussed on one of HM schooners. 1 - Was boarding netting stowed on deck? If so, what did it look like? 2 - Were there standard sizes and materials? Concerning 1 above, in my case there were only four of the potential 14 guns mounted so there would have been more room for storage around the deck, if such a thing was permissable. Thanks, Bruce

I have a 'Henry' vac set up as a dust collector. The noise factor was originally bothersome but that changed when I finally got around to making a proper spot for it under a bench. It was absurdely simple: I sat it on a piece of styrene foam and it became quiet! Presumably the hard plastic wheels resting on the wooden shelf had been the source of the racket. Now it stays running for long periods and I can listen to the radio. BTW, I made an impromptu hose adapter by cutting the bottom off of an empty plastic pill bottle. The bottle's lid-end fits the sander and the Proxxon saw, the other fat end fits the Henry hose.

My brain hurts. I have now, thanks to the help received from Ab, Rene' and Terry, imported the background image I wanted into the Delftship workpiece and adjusted it to the correct size. This absolutely basic step is now complete and I can plug away to get a good result. The learning process also illuminated a number of the features within the software and I can see how some of the other stages will be more straightforward now. Delftship is no doubt a marvellous tool for modellers with the patience to learn the techniques peculiar to this software and I can only hope that one day there will be a 'DELFTSHIP LITE' version without the sophistication of the professional ship-designers requirements. It sounds odd but I believe the complications I encountered could be eliminated if the advanced features were stripped away. It would be of more use to modellers with only the basic tools to produce detailed drawings, not the 'real' shipbuilders' calculations and options. I would pay for a version tailored to that narrow specification. Also, a tutorial for a 'draw only' edition could be much more focussed and I believe could make the product commercially viable. Perhaps I am a dinosaur and more nimble minds would have danced through the steps that defeated me, but we shall see what happens now that I am up and running (well, not running but moving along anyway). Many thanks to all concerned, especially Terry who stepped in to shine further light on the subject. Regards, Bruce

Update: the tutorial from Ab and a very detailed off-board lesson from Terry are being digested. I hope to have a four hour slot to sit down at the computer and do both exercises properly later today.

Welcome and good luck with the rebuilding project. The big thing is that everyone (and the critters) made it. Maryland has so much history, and I'm a bit partial to the working boats I saw in the bay, especially the crabbers. Perhaps you have visited the museum at The Solomans? It is a great source of inspiration. We look forward to seeing what you build next.

Chris, how can I resist the challenge? Will have a rummage tomorrow.

Glad to help. Thought I would identify myself since the original may be digital dust now. Did you get what you needed or would you like the link again? Bruce

Just to come back to the original question, Unimats were made in Austria up to and including the Unimat 3. The Unimat 4 was made in the far east as have all others with the Unimat name since.

That makes a lot of sense. The crew would be keeping their eyes on the prize and would not want any fiddling around at the crucial moment.

Very nice model (including the rat).

Ab, thank you and please pass on my gratitude to Rene' (again). It will be tomorrow before I can sit down to the task, and whatever happens I will report. Regards, Bruce

I will wait for the cavalry. Many thanks. By the way, I have spoken with other people using DELFTSHIP and we do not all have the same models in the database. I originally had none, then I reloaded the software and now have 257. Another person has eight models in his database even after reloading. I am not complaining, after all I have 257 designs to choose from, but it seems odd. Bruce

Translations are always going to have glitches. In the '70s a very expensive piece of electronics arrived from afar wrapped in plastic. The plastic had printed warnings in different languages and the English said: Do not store children in this bag. It's all p[art of the fun. Bruce

Hello Matle, She was an Isles-class trawler, and there were 197 of them used by the RN and commonwelth navies.

Then I remembered another resource - German-English Dictionary of Technical, Scientific and General Terms - A.Webel, first published 1930, and bingo: Heckbalken = transom Block = pulley block So it seems to be a near-miss in the translations but it doesn't look like a critical instruction.

According to my copy of Schiffahrts-Worterbuch 'heck' is stern and the closest entry to your puzzle is 'heck balken' = 'horn timber'. BTW, 'block' = 'block' ? HTH Bruce

I agree, and no doubt when it is shown to me it will be obvious. There are quite a few online tutorials but so far none I have found explain this probably absurdly simple step. Hopefully the cavalry is on the way.