Timmo

Good work Reg. That's a busy looking gundeck of very tidy weapons.

This is really quite incredible quality.

Lovely work Reg.

Ours seem to be fairly salty seadogs. Here's one in the canoe.

It's been a while but Enterprise sits with her masts finished but stored and her framing and building stocks safely hidden away. Here's the reason... my new boat is taking shape- a 14ft ilur class sailing dinghy. Hoping to have her launched around the end of the year and then back to the Enterprise next year at some stage once I need something to build again. Also, after spending all the family treasure and garage space on this one I'll need to reduce scale of size and money again.

Nice work. That's a beautiful chequered floor. In the 8 months since I put my scratch build down for another project someone's turned up offering a kit!

I can't recall what I did at this point, probably 1x4 trimmed down(?), but that scrap piece you did looks like a good flush fit so my suggestion would be go with what works. The build is looking good.

I’m continually impressed whenever I check in on you build Reg. That’s money well spent in your expert hands and you are also answering questions I’ve been wondering about like the fruitwood gel. Eagerly awaiting more.

That’s lovely work Jason

Nice work. The beech looks nice and crisp next to the pear.

Thanks Jerry. That's really helpful. I'm not the first to want to make an Enterprize go then! Ah well. That's a really nice rendition he's got there and very stable in the water. My Harrier still bobs and heels a lot more than I'd like but I can't really ballast her any further as she's a little lower in the water than accurate. By my maths on his comments about frame width his Enterprize might be close in size to mine. Interesting he seems to do well with what appears to be all masts rotating together rather than an independant foremast. He gets some massive rotation angle so that's likely the secret there. Anyways... The sideways servo mounting you mention could be worth me revisiting when I get back to it as I hear what you say about the reduced slack. Harrier's braces work surprisingly well as horizontals with some rudimentary line guides, enough tension on the lines and equal rotation off and onto the drum through even distances to each side of the yard. Plenty to think about there. I suspect I won't catch up to you before Macedonian is on the water and under her own power.

At the risk of looking like I’m easily distracted, Enterprise has been laid up on the stocks while I devote my time to a new project that’s been on the Wishlist for years. it’ll be a 14.5 ft ply sailing dinghy - an Ilur from French designer François Vivier. Hopefully it’ll look something like this: (pic: c Harlan) my build will be here if anyone’s interested. http://forum.woodenboat.com/showthread.php?267473-An-Ilur-in-NZ I’m looking forward to returning to Enterprise down the track and have picked up some kauri timber for the Ilur that I’ve thought about maybe saving for the planking on Enterprise. We’ll see. I’ll still be checking out MSW in the meantime. good luck all.

Work has moved to the hull. The frames have been drawn up and cut out. These are still solid at present but will have the middle cut out to leave a hollow frame. This will contain the cambered gun deck line. On Harrier I did the same but ended up replacing them with stronger timber deck beams, especially around the hatches. I might do the same here but having the floor leave on ply is helpful for showing the level. the deck is shown marked in red above. It’s about 5mm below the actual level to account for the 3mm false deck and then planking on top of that. Here are the frames stacked up. Fitting in the RC gear has been a big consideration of the build. there is more internal space than harrier but the added complexity of a quarterdeck and also gun deck that needs to be pierced to make it accessible. While spreading the servos out is possible it would also mean more hatches for access with the difficulty of getting through two decks. Some wooden servo blanks were made This is also gives an idea of what controls Enterprise will have. All are drum style sail winches with the exception of the spanker, which is a simple arm, as per Harrier. That worked well so I’m not going to change it up now. There will be a single large access hatch the size of the centre of the gun deck from just fore of the mainmast to just short of the main bitts. this means fewer holes in the hull and less waterproofing trouble. Most of the control lines travel up the main and foremast so are within easy reach. The exceptions are the lines for the spanker and rudder, which will run through pre installed guide eyelets or pulleys below deck and be accessible at a stretch with tools. Harrier’s rudder has surprisingly needed no maintenance to date so I’m hoping for the same with Enterprise, but at worst the removal of one rear servo should allow plenty of room to get an arm in. The stem and keel have been has been cut. A bearding line was continued up the stem for planks to slot into. Also joint lines were scribed in. This is largely one piece of timber, with just a 10mm extension epoxied on. It’s very strong and will get more so once planking and other parts tie it together. Recent work has involved cutting and test fitting the stern timbers for the gallery etc. that’s where things really get complex.

go on then, another one... The ominous torpedo ballast keel is visible when in the pool, unlike local lakes etc. I'm interested to see whether Enterprise's greater hull capacity and bouyancy will allow a bit more internal ballast and something that will be less yacht-like underneath her.

With not much else to do outside working from home hours, and even during a few of those hours in quiet times.... lots of sticks have been made. The mainyard at bottom is 630mm long and 13.5mm wide. It was getting a little tricky eaking out the limited floorboard timber stocks on somthing this size without nail holes and knots. On Harrier I used fibreglass rod for the t'gallant yards for durability but they don't seem to have needed it so these are all timber. Some of the smaller ones have been left slightly overscale, more for the fact that they'll need to take a brass pin through the centre down the track and Harrier has taught me that on large items like masts and yards, slightly larger scale for the sake of functionality is almost impossible to see once it's on the water. Sling and other cleats have been added. The jaws of the driver boom and gaff are fibreglassed ply as per the fighting tops with lead foil 'iron' bands. There's also the first of the ship's many sheaves in the end of the driver boom. This is a little turned brass item from RB Models of Poland. There's quite a few left over from Harrier. Here's Enterprise with her sticks... Given the extremities of the masts and the jib boom are fibreglass they needed to be painted to match the varnished timber of the masts. They were sprayed an off-white colour called 'lace' and some yellow ochre oil paints with a little flat white humbrol was mixed up and brushed on lengthways, allowing brushstrokes and a little of the undercoat showing through to roughly resemble a subtle wood grain. Here's the result with the fibreglass jib boom at top and the wooden bowsprit it's mounted on. It's a little brighter than the timber but I'm fairly happy with it. The undeside of the jib boom has a hole to take a small brass rod sitting up through the heel it rests on. As the stay will pull the tip upwards in the other direction physics should keep it in place on the ship and allow it to be unshipped and telescoped down for transport. Top gallant mast (fibreglass) and wooden topmast under the crosstrees... The masts have been varnished (satin) and the tops and other black parts painted. After using some satin black from a spray can which looked awful and blotchy I finally did the right thing and airbrushed them. The greater control gave a far tidier finish. There's a little shading in there on the fighting tops. The wolding and mast bands have been added to the main and foremasts. This was quite tricky, mainly due to the cane bands used. This was left over from the seats of my canoe and the first bands were stripped off after appearing overscale. Subsequent ones involve the cane split down to a smaller width, which is laborious but looks better. I'm glad I did the masts first as I consider them the unsexy part of the ship that I'd be inclined to rush and avoid adding detail to if I tackled them at the other end of the build. The rope is from a dark brown polyester upholstery thread by Gutermamn turned on my homemade ropewalk which was the very first thing built for Enterprise. If the rope didn't look right there wasn't much point proceeding so that's a hurdle that was worth clearing. I should have just enough rope left for the lighter gauge rope woldings on the mizzen which will be done before I can get out of lockdown. I've just got to add a couple of sheaves to the foremast masthead for the jib stays and they'll be largely finished but as I've run out of epoxy, that'll have to wait too. Here they are (top to bottom: fore, main, mizzen) with a smallish schnauzer, who happened to be passing, for scale... Once the mizzen is finished, it'll be on to drawing up and cutting out the plywood frames for the hull and getting the building board sorted. Three dimensions await! In the meantime, Harrier got a brief outing to test some ballasting and small sail alterations. She's in the landlocked sea that is our newly installed swimming pool. It was dropped in and made barely operational just before lockdown about 6 weeks ago and has been sitting in the otherwise destroyed backyard amid temporary fencing and mud, awaiting the return of the workers since. On the plus side it'll be so much easier trialling Enterprise now the admiralty has seen fit to install this bespoke testing tank so near the shipyard.