drobinson02199

And the finished product, hanging straight and true. Regards,. David

The two lower yards on each mast are mounted using a metal hinge and pin assembly. The picture of that from the plans is below. The components are shown in the next three pictures (assuming that the pics come out in order -- if the website reverses them, the plans are first and then it goes from there). On the foremast, I had some real problems getting the "C" shaped fitting attached to the yard bracket. I didn't think a pin would help much and wasn't up for metal drilling, so I used CA glue. The issue there is that when you get the assembly up to the mast, if the horizontal alignment of the "C" fitting and the bracket isn't really good off (which is near impossible to do off the mast), you can get a situation where you can't get the yard to align horizontally -- which happened to me. It's also a very fragile assembly -- the CA doesn't hold well. My fix on the foremast was to lash the "C" fitting and the yard bracket together using black thread, and then fix it all with a drop of glue. I did that with the yard on the mast using the yard lift to help stabilize things while I lashed. For the next yards on the main mast, I have done the lashing before mounting, and you can see that in the final picture. Now once I mount the yard, I can position it horizontally and then add a drop of glue around the lashing (being careful not to get any on the hinge). Regards, David

All of the standing rigging is now done (see below), and I have about 1 1/3 masts worth of ratlines left to do. I can now start working on the mainmast yards. Regards, David

I now have the foremast yards up, which took a while because as noted above I wanted to stabilize the foremast with all of the stays before hanging the top three yards, which are only supported by the yard lifts, and I wanted to get their positioning right. So lots of standing rigging and ratlines. And I needed to do most of the main mast stays since it is partly stabilized by stays to the foremast. The pictures below show the foremast yards, and you may see a bit of blue tape on the lower two where they meet the mast. They are mounted using a hinge assembly that has a lot of rotational play in it, so without the tape they would slant all the way over and partly turn. That of course will be fixed with the running rigging. I'll now finish the main mast ratlines and then build the main mast yards and mount them, and then on to the mizzen. I'll have to do the mizzen stays before mounting the main mast yards -- again because some of those stays run to the main mast and will move it just slightly. Regards, David

Google says it's "Nannie the witch" Regards, David

Finished the bowsprit standing rigging (see pics below). The chains are a nice touch, and they are more than decorative -- they do provide a counter force to the upward pull on the bowsprit from the foremast stays. I found that Mantua didn't supply enough chain to do the job as specified on the plans. Fortunately, I had some leftover chain and used that for three of the top fittings -- the brass in my leftover chains is a nice contrast with the Mantua black chain used elsewhere. This is my first Mantua kit, and it's about the third place in this kit where I've been short on something. I've concluded that while Amati provides more than you need, Mantua provides "not enough". I'm counting and conserving things to make sure I don't run out. [Just noticed an unclipped rigging pigtail in these pics -- ] Regards, David

I'm doing this ship differently than the other two rigged ships I've built. On those, I mounted all the yards on all the masts before doing any of the standing rigging. On this one, in addition to the shrouds on the foremast, I've decided to do the foremast stays as well, and then complete mounting the yards. I'm concerned that if I don't tension the foremast now, I'll have problems in two areas: (i) The remaining yards, which have only the yard lifts for vertical support, might move a bit up or down as the mast is tensioned by the stays, and (ii) I don't want any "wrinkles" in the ratlines due to slight shifting of the shrouds. So finish foremast stays and bowsprit stays, then hang the remaining foremast yards, and then do the foremast ratlines. Then move on to the main in the same way. We'll see how that works. Pictures of progress to date on the foremast are below. Regards, David

Foremast shrouds now rigged. Regards, David

I've built the lowest yard on the foremast -- pictures attached. The brass swivel fitting gives about a 90 degree swing to this yard, which I think could spell trouble while I'm building, so my next move will be to put up the foremast shrouds to give some side support to the yard. The upper shrouds are already rigged so they will support the next yard up, and then the ones above have wooden fittings which will be stiffer. I was originally reluctant to fix the masts too soon as I thought I might want to remove them to mount these lower yards with brass swivels, but now that I've done it it's actually easier with them fitted on the ship. The swivel assembly on the yard is difficult and a bit fragile -- took a couple of tries to get it right. Regards, David

Peter: Thanks for your comments. In previous boats, I have left the natural wood wherever possible because I too like that look. My Revenge, for example, is all natural vs. white hull, and looks wonderful. On this ship, however, the second planking strips are not very good, and there was a lot of chipping that I had to fill with wood filler. I have never figured out how to use wood filler on a natural surface, so at the end I was glad to cover this one up. Thanks, David

Chris: Nothing so fancy. I taper the masts using a rotary drum sander (Dremel size), first square and then octagonal, and then finish with sandpaper. The mast top you see is actually a small spare deadeye I had, with wood filler in the holes. Mantua didn't supply anything in the kit. Have you finished your riverboat yet? Haven't seen any posts. Regards, David

I decided to rig the upper shrouds before mounting the masts, because the deadeyes are very small and it's easier to manipulate the mast while working them. See pictures. One with flash to make the lines show up (but too many shadows), and one without. I'll do the ratlines once the masts are mounted. Thanks, David

Charles: Well, the square holes in the planking could serve as scuppers, since there are no cannons. Regards, David

Charles: The issue you raise is one I gave some thought to. Thinking ahead, once those ribs are removed, you have some long stretches of planking with no rib support above the deck. So it's important to glue the sides of the planks to each other across that whole length, at least, so they support each other and remain flush. I went ahead and glued the planks to the ribs, because you want the ribs to shape the run of the planking both horizontally and vertically and keep the planks flush, and I've never been a fan of pins as I find they don't hold. Used CA medium glue. Then, when you are ready to remove the ribs, take a pair of long nose pliers and fix them to a rib lengthwise from the top down to the deck, and wiggle gently side to side to detach the rib from the planks. Then twist the pliers to remove the rib. That will leave a stub at the deck which you can sand or grind down. The sanding doesn't have to be too pretty because that whole area is covered over by a molding later on. Now that I have typed the above, I belatedly realize that I planked the deck AFTER removing the ribs, as stated in the manual, so that I could plank over the rib stumps and not mar the planking grinding them down flush with a Dremel drum. But again, as long as you are careful to grind them down in parallel with the planks and not extend too far out toward the center of the ship, the molding will cover any marring of the deck. What you can do is punch out that molding and see how far it extends from the planking toward the center, and that will tell you where to be careful and where you can grind away. Hope this helps. Regards, David

Masts and bowsprit are now up. Pictures below. Some of the holes in the brass fittings need to be drilled out -- important to do that before mounting them. Now on to the yards -- there are 19 of them on this thing. Regards, David