Dr PR

Here are some things I found for belaying pin dimensions. Chapelle's American Fishing Schooners had this illustration: Mondfeld gives has a diagram of belaying pin proportions and gives a general description in Historic Ship Models: "Generally speaking, the lower diameter of a belaying pin was never less than the diameter of the rope which was to be belayed. As only one size of belaying pin was kept on board, its diameter was that of the thickest rope to be belayed." Starting with the largest rope diameter to be belayed, and using that as the lower diameter of the pin, you can calculate the overall pin length from these diagrams. For example, if the largest rope was 1 inch diameter and the pin was wooden from after 1800, the pin length would be 1 x 16 = 16 inches. Mondfeld also says the British used metal pins that tapered at both ends in the late 1700s. These were force fit into the holes in pin rails.

bdg2, Thanks for that link. There are not many minesweepers on display to the public. From the look of the photo they have a long way to go to restore the ship. Some minesweepers were converted for private yachts, and all of the minesweep gear was removed. Finding replacement MSO sweep gear, winches and such will not be easy!

More progress. I carved, filed and sanded the bow filler and it now looks respectable. The SIG Bond cement is much harder than the balsa when it dries. The glue seams are quite apparent. Actually, I think it must be harder than basswood, because when sanding the edges of the SIG plywood it seems the wood is removed first, leaving a bit of a high point at the glue seams. I kept working this until a batten lay flat against the balsa surface in any orientation I put it. The next project was the well for the magtail reel (the magnetic minesweep gear). The well sides will rise above the 1/16 inch (1.6 mm) plywood sub deck, and then be sanded down flush with the top of the sub deck. The 1/16 inch deck planking will lay over the top edges of the well sides (at the level of the black pencil line). The fore/aft length of the well opening should theoretically be 2.12 inches (53.8 mm) and it came out to 2.15 (54.6 mm). I can live with that. I had some metal clamps that were exactly 2 inches (50.8 mm) wide and square that I used to make the width of the well very precise to 2.0 inches. When I took this picture the SIG Bond glue hadn't dried yet. Then I installed the transom. The 1/16 inch (1.6 mm) thick transom piece is oversized all around. It was glued to the spacer pieces to get the correct angle at the stern. Later it will be faired to the curvature of the hull and deck. Then the hull should be ready for planking.

I have made a little progress over the last few days. The hull framing pieces have been glued together and the bulkheads have been faired. It looks about like the last picture of the assembled parts. I rubbed black pencil into the edges of the bulkheads and sanded with a long sanding block until only a thin line of black remained to get the proper angles on the edges. All but one of the bulkheads fit perfectly square to the center frame. Considering the parts were hand cut that was surprising. I think 15 of the 21 bulkheads lined up with a near perfect fit. However a few were a bit off center so I had to do a lot of sanding to bring the high points down, and in a few places I had to add wood strips to bring up low places. But I expected this since the parts weren't laser cut or NC machine routed. After a few days sanding and filing everything lines up nicely when I put battens lengthwise along the hull and deck. It is almost ready for planking. The next step was to add filler material between the forward bulkheads and stem to provide a faired surface for the planks to glue to. I used 1/8 x 1 inch (3.2 x 25.4 mm) balsa strips for the filler. The Internet and big box stores finally shut down our local hobby shop where I normally would have found a selection of thicker material better suited for this job. Now I have to take whatever I can find. I found this at the local Michaels "craft store." It has a very limited selection of balsa, mostly small square dowels, Here is the built up structure. Yes, I know it is ugly! But after it is faired it will have a more comely shape. Besides, it will be on the inside so who cares what it looks like? Inner beauty is for losers (unless you are building a plank on frame model with the interior exposed)! I think I have added enough material so it will fair smoothly, but I might have to add a bit more filler here and there. The stern also needed a bit of work. The final bulkhead is mounted vertically just before the transom. But the transom will be angled back a bit. To accomplish this I needed a few triangular spacers to set the correct angle. It was then that I noticed that the plan I made was drawn with the 1/16 inch (1.59 mm) transom piece attached to a 1/8 inch (3.2 mm) inner transom piece. Don't ask me why. I originally thought this inner transom would be made of 1/8 inch plywood. But when it came time to add the inner transom I realized a couple of 1/8 inch spacers would do the job, and would be a lot easier to make - I'll save the plywood for a time when it is needed. The actual transom piece will be glued to these spacers. It has been cut oversized and will be faired in line with the deck and hull sides. The transom will have 13 vertical guard beams that are 1/8 x 1/16 inch (3.2 x 1.6 mm) cross section, and a 1/8 x 1/8 inch (3.2 x 3.2 mm) boundary piece all around the sides and bottom of the transom. Across the top of the transom will be mounted several pieces of minesweeping gear. The boundary piece will be interesting because it is curved a lot. It might be possible to bend a 1/8 x 1/8 inch stick that much, but I am not sure. Instead I plan to extend the 1/16 inch thick planking 1/8 inch aft of the transom. Then I will glue several very thin 1/8 inch wide wooden strips around the inside curve of the planking to build it up to 1/8 inch thick. Then I will seal, sand, seal, sand ... until it looks like a single piece of wood when painted.

Thick paint should work, building it up in layers. Epoxy "paint" might be good because it hardens and can be filed, sanded and polished. I like working with solder because you can carve it with a hobby knife, scrape and file it to shape, and polish it with a wire brush. But whatever you do I am sure it will come out excellent!

Nice model!

If you photo etch brass you can then add solder to build it up to a rounded shape.

Lucien, These mast tackles and Burtoning tackles are used to lift and move heavy objects on deck, and to move things over the side. Here is a drawing showing how they typically are rigged. First is a heavy runner pendant that loops around the mast top and hangs down 1/3 to 1/2 the mast length. It has a single runner block on the end. On larger ships the pendant loops around the topmast head. On smaller vessels without a topmast head the pendant loops around the lower mast head. On vessels with an odd number of shrouds the pendants are often just the ends of one of the shrouds after taking it around the mast head. The pendant may also be a separate line that loops around the mast head and descends on both sides, ending in a single runner block. A line fastens around the double block of a luff tackle and the fall runs through the runner block on the pendant and then down to an eye bolt on the channel. Typically the fall will have a hook on the end that secures to the eye bolt. The lower single block of the luff tackle has a long leader with a hook on the end. The hook attaches to another eye bolt on the channel. The fixed end of the luff tackle line fastens to the single block, runs up through the double block, back down and through the single block, up to the double block again, and the fall comes down and belays somewhere on deck. It may belay to a belaying pin in a pin rail, to a cleat on the bulwark, or just tie around the leader. Note: Lines 9 and 11 in the drawing you posted are not mast tackles. Line 9 is a "running" backstay that can be tightened and loosened as needed. It appears to be rigged like the mast tackle except the pendant extends almost to the deck. Line 11 is a tye tackle for the topsail yard. The tye is used to raise and lower the topsail yard. Here is an illustration showing how the mast (Burton) tackles and yard tackles are used to move heavy objects. In this case both for and main Burton tackles are linked with a span to bring the pendant bocks close together over the object. For longer objects, such as the ship's boats, the length of the span is the distance between lifting points on the object (boat). The Burton tackles lift the object near the ship's center line. The yard tackle hangs from the end of the yard. It is used to move the object inboard or outboard. Using a combination of Burton and yard tackles objects can be moved around anywhere on deck. The Burton or mast tackles ae not part of the rigging used to control the yards and sails. They hang loose and are secured to the eye bolts in the channels when not in use. The falls and leaders are usually both hooked to the eye bolts and are not tied to them permanently. This allows the greatest flexibility for using these general purpose tackles.

That is cruel!

Wefalck, I have been doing the same with my MSI build. I am assembling bulkheads to the center frame - not plank on frame - but I realized after I had cut out the bulkheads that I had missed an opportunity. For planking the hull I amusing a technique where I mark the plank edges on the bulkheads. At midships between the deck and keel there will be 25 planks and the garboard strake. I will taper the planks to be 1/25 the distance along the edge of each bulkhead. For this I am using tick strips and a planking fan. There are 21 bulkheads, and I will need to mark at least every other one. This would have been MUCH easier if I had just calculated the plank widths in my CAD program and printed lines on the bulkhead templates!!!!! I'll know next time! Perhaps you can do this on your frame templates.

Darren, Many people get hung up on their first build and give up. It takes a few builds under your belt to get to where you are confident you can build anything. Looks like you are well on your way to becoming an excellent ship modeler!

George, Thanks. I guess I should have known I would get seasick. When I was a kid we would start out every other weekend for my grandparents home. It was a two hour drive over crooked and hilly gravel roads, and there was one part that always made me nauseous. But by the time I was in high school it didn't bother me. We had a small boat for fishing and water skiing and that never bothered me no matter how rough the waters. So I didn't expect to get seasick in the Navy. Thinking back I remembered that I had been conditioned to puke earlier on in my life. My dad always had the radio on in the car when we made trips. When we left the city the only stations (AM) that we could get were country music stations. Not country-western, but old timey country music. Grand Ole Opry stuff. So we got in the car, listened to country music and when we got into the hills I puked. By the time I was in middle school I was programmed to throw up when I heard country music! I still had an aversion to country - and country-western - music when I met the Admiral. She was a country girl and always listened to country-western stations and CDs. I had to grin and bear it, and today I can listen to it without getting nauseous. But I wouldn't press my luck by listening to country-western on a moving boat!

If the wind is blowing even moderately strong the rain and spay would soak the bottom of such a tarp and everything under it! In fact, it could serve to channel the winds so it was wetter under the tarp than on open deck. In port awnings are raised to provide shade from the sun. They might serve as shelter from light rain only if it was not windy.

Caution: This is a nauseating tale! The Cape was a very small ship - too small to be out on the ocean, in my opinion. Shortly after I reported aboard I discovered I was prone to sea sickness - motion induced nausea. This is caused by conflicting reports to the brain from your eyes and the inner ear balance organ. If one reports you are moving and the other says you aren't - as can happen when you are in an enclosed box bobbing on the sea - you become nauseous. On calm days there was no problem and I enjoyed being at sea. But if the sea was rough and the weather nasty I was nauseous all the time. On one occasion we left Long Beach in a line of minesweepers headed out for an exercise in the Santa Barbara channel off the coast of California. As the day progressed the wind picked up and the ocean became very choppy. My watch station was on the bridge, and it pitched and rolled pretty actively. I was nauseous the whole time and hung out by the rail on the downwind side. If I had to puke I would wait until the ship rolled that direction. Once while I was contemplating such a move my supply petty officer came up and asked how I was doing. He was peeling an orange and the smell of it immediately cured my nausea! I asked if we had any more, and he pulled another one from his pocket. I told him that from then on when we got underway I wanted an extra crate of oranges on board. Hey, I was Supply Officer and if I wanted oranges we would get oranges! Unfortunately oranges only cured mild nausea. Later than evening we ran into a full blown gale, with waves high enough to come crashing down on the bridge. It was an open bridge, but we did have a frame with windows across the front and a canvas awning above. Still, when green water washed onto the bridge we had ankle to knee deep water sloshing across the deck. My shoes and pants were soaked, I was really nauseous, and by the time my watch was over I was exhausted from hanging on. It was like a very wet hours long roller coaster ride. After I was relieved I went below and crashed in my bunk. I managed to catch short stretches of sleep, but was suddenly awaked, only to realize the ship was dead quiet - the engines had stopped. I slipped on my shoes and stumbled toward the engine room. As I passed through the mess deck the starboard weather deck door was open, and I saw a large gray wooden wall pass very close down our side. When the engines stopped we lost all power and went totally dark. The ship following us in the storm lost sight of us and almost ran us down from astern. When I reached the engine room I found that the duty watch had forgotten to fill the day tank at the beginning of the watch and we ran out of gas. Both the propulsion engines and the generators ran from the same day tank, so everything shut down in short order. The engine crew used a manual pump to transfer fuel from the main fuel tanks to the day tank, and in about 15 minutes we were underway again. When I got back to my bunk I was exhausted and nauseous. Through the night I would occasionally flop out of the bunk onto the deck and crawl to the head. There I embraced the porcelain throne and called for Ralph O'Rourke. I was too weak to walk, and eventually was pukeing up liver bile. It is bright yellow and tastes horrible. I was unable to stand my next watch. But by morning we reached the shelter of the lee side of Santa Rosa Island and dropped the hook. There it was relatively calm and I got some sleep. When I woke I was able to eat something and hold it down. So why am I telling you this? Two things came out of that experience. First, I became conditioned like Pavlov's dogs. Pavlov rang a bell before feeding his dogs. After a while he discovered that if he rang the bell, even when there was no food in sight, the dogs began to salivate. This is known as a conditioned reflex. For me, when the last line went over the side and the ship sounded three toots on the whistle to signal "underway" I immediately became nauseous - even in calm waters in port. Three toots and I wanted to puke. It took me years to get over this. I don't know, maybe I might still have this conditioned reflex! The second result was that a note that I became chronically seasick went into my medical record. When I later reported to the Oklahoma City the Commanding Officer asked me about it. I told him I did become nauseous but I could still stand watches and do my duties. He was especially interested because I was replacing an Ensign K. who became incapacitated because of seasickness. It was so bad he wanted a medical discharge from the Navy. But instead of a discharge he was transferred to the Yokosuka Naval Hospital where every day they strapped him in a chair and rotated and tumbled him until he puked. They wanted to be sure he wasn't faking it. So Ensign K. was tortured for several weeks until they finally sent him back to CIVLAND. And just to be sure about me, when we were next at sea the CO had the Officer of the Deck I was assigned to (as Junior Officer of the Deck) smoke particularly nasty cigars and blow the smoke in my direction. All just to see if he could make me puke. I didn't, and the CO was satisfied. But I did toss my cookies once in the 27 months I was on the cruiser. It wasn't in the typhoons when we alternately walked on the decks and bulkheads and hung on for dear life - I was too busy to become nauseated. It was one night on relatively calm seas with a long steady roll, when I was on watch in the Combat Information Center deep in the bowels of the ship. I didn't even realize I was nauseous until I was returning to my bunk. The ship rode up on a swell as I was climbing a ladder and suddenly dropped just as I reached the top step, leaving me hanging in the air. I came down without my supper. I tell this tale to describe for you a little mentioned part of the experience of life on a small ship. And now you know why I am not interested in going to sea again!

Brian, Are you suggesting placing 15 separate blocks "at the base between each of your bulkheads?" I can't see how that would make it any easier. Or are you thinking of fitting one long strip the full length from bulkhead 1 to bulkhead 15 and then shaping it in place? I thought about this. The thicker piece would be difficult to twist to conform to the changing angles. It would require shaping the piece to fit the angles between the keel and bulkheads at the rabbet at each bulkhead. No two angles are exactly the same, but I think I probably could do this. This shaping would be on the interior so it wouldn't have to be "pretty." I was thinking of using a 1/4 x 1/4 inch (6.35 x 6.35 mm) basswood strip for this. But I do not think it would be possible to form the visible two sides by sanding with the strip in place. It would have to fit against the keel, and I cannot sand right up to this joint without damaging the surface of the keel extension piece. The garboard piece must also be the same thickness at the outboard edge as the 1/16 inch (0.039 mm) planks and parallel to the plank edge. That outboard edge actually has two surfaces at slightly different angles and this "corner" would be extremely difficult to shape in place. See the single piece garboard strake in the right hand side of the drawing. Note: I can simplify the shape to just four sides by trimming the Keel Extension piece but it would have to be done very carefully to avoid having a messy joint showing. The virtue of first using a 1/16 inch thick basswood strip for the inner garboard strake (left side of the drawing) is that it automatically has the right thickness at the left and right edges, and it will fit easily into the rabbet with a bit of sanding. It will twist to conform to the bulkhead shapes from almost horizontal midships to vertical at the skeg. I have already tried this and a plank bends easily with just finger pressure. Then I would trim another plank (outer garboard strake) to the desired thicknesses and angles and glue it onto the first plank. This second piece would be thin and would also twist easily to conform to the shape. It is basically the same thing you would do for a double planked hull, but only one strake. Whatever I try to shape these outer pieces I suspect I will have to repeat it several times to get it right.

I mentioned earlier that the center/keel piece is only 1/8 inch (3.175 mm) thick and it should be 3/16 inch (4.76 mm) thick - at least at the keel. To widen it to the desired thickness I cut some keel extension pieces out of 1/32 inch (0.79 mm) three ply plywood. The thin plywood cut easily with kitchen scissors, and was finish shaped with sandpaper and files. These pieces were glued onto both sides of the keel with SIG Bond adhesive and clamped tight with all the clamps I could find. After all the keel extension pieces were in place I added a 3/16 x 1/16 (4.6 x 1.6 mm) basswood strip keel foot to the bottom of the keel. With these pieces added the frame is ready to hold the bulkheads in place so I can start planning the planking. This leads to the next problem - the garboard strake puzzle. It will fit from where the bow starts to curve upward back to the beginning of the skeg ahead of the propeller and rudder. But in the ship's blueprints the strake is anything but just another plank. In this drawing (above) the red objects are cross sections of the garboard strake at each bulkhead position on the model. For reference the frame scale for the ship is shown. The green parts are the keel extensions and the keel foot. The blue rectangles are the first ordinary 3/16 x 1/16 (4.6 x 1.6 mm) basswood hull planks. The extra thickness of the garboard strake is more like the thick wales on older wooden sailing ships. The irregular four-sided shape varies from frame to frame. Tricky! Right now I think I may just cut a variable width 1/16 inch (1.6 mm) thick basswood strip to fit into the rabbet to serve as the inner part of the garboard strake. Then the rest of the planking can proceed. Meanwhile I will fashion a second piece with the odd four-sided cross-sections to be glued on top of the inner garboard strake plank.

Pak75, The discussion about rings or ring bolts on the sides and tops of gun carriages is a lengthy one. Different navies did things differently, so there are a lot of answers. Often gun carriages had two rings on each side, or in the case of the French at some period, rings on the top rear part of the carriage. I suspect which of the two rings were used depended upon the firing angle. Guns weren't always fired perpendicular to the ship's side or the centerline. They could be angled to fire a bit forward or aft of abeam. In some cases the tackle appears to have been unhooked from one ring and hooked to the other to get a better angle or to keep the two blocks from coming together (two blocked) before the desired angle was achieved. I have seen drawings depicting both arrangements. My guess is that the gun crews did whatever was expedient at the time regardless of what the books showed. Another point to remember - often the inhaul tackles (attached to the rear of the carriage and used to haul the gun inboard) are shown rigged. This might be the case while the guns are being fired, but I doubt it. The recoiling carriage would run over the tackle. This tackle would be needed only if the gun misfired, or if it wasn't fired after being run out. And it would be used to haul in the guns if they were stowed run out (in battery) and plugged. If your model has the guns in the stowed position the inhaul wouldn't be rigged. It would be a tripping hazard. The tackle would be stowed in a dry place out of the way. The gun tackle was attached to the carriage and pulled tight before the gun was fired. The rope was faked down so that it would run free without tangling. When the gun recoiled it pulled the tackle rope through the blocks, and the friction acted as a brake to slow the gun before it reached the end of the breech rope. And Henry was just wondering if you have a true name, or if your mother actually named you Pak75?

Nice planking job!

I have finished the initial shaping of the bulkheads and fitted them to the center frame/keel piece. None of the pieces are glued in place yet. There is still some adjustments to make - a couple of the bulkheads are sitting a bit too high so I will have to use a file to trim everything to fit. There is quite a gap between the bottom of the bulkheads and the bottom of the keel piece. This is because the garboard strake will be fitted in this area, and it is a very complex shape (to be described in another post) instead of just a simple plank. The 1:48 scale keel piece is 1/8 inch (3.175 mm) wide, which is 6 inches (152 mm) at 1:1 scale. But the actual keel was 9 inches (229 mm) wide, or 3/16 inch (4.76 mm) at 1:48. I will cut two additional pieces (port and starboard) from 1/32 inch (0.79 mm) three ply plywood (SIG Manufacturing) to fit on each side of the keel and bring it to the correct width. The top edges of these pieces will be the rabbet the garboard strake rests against. The final keel piece will be a keel foot 3/16 x 1/16 inch (4.76 x 1.59 mm) basswood strip to be glued to the bottom of the plywood center frame/keel. After all of this is done the keel assembly at the bow will have to be shaped to a "V" cross section. This will actually be a bit complex because the ship had metal plating around the bow and a cast bow chock at the main deck level. But that is some distance ahead. At the stern will be an aluminum or Plexiglass extension of the keel that forms the frame for the propeller shaft and rudder, quite similar to what Keith Aug made for his Cangarda model. But it won't be as fancy as his work because I don't have the machine shop tools. So I will carve it by hand with drills and files. I won't be using brass because the 1/4 inch (6.35 mm) thick piece I would need costs about US$100.00 from McMaster-Carr! Aluminum is cheaper (and easier to carve) and I probably have a suitable scrap of aluminum or a piece of Plexiglass that will work in my scrap box. Note: I removed the glued on paper templates from the center piece with a wide flat end blade. Most of it peeled off fairly cleanly. But some resisted scraping so I sanded that off. Most of the remaining Elmer's Glue Stick glue scraped off cleanly and the rest came off with sanding.

Mustafa, Isn't it interesting how we get started on seemingly endless processes, like making all those angled spar deck beams, tying endless knots for ratlines or rigging all the lines to cannons, and when it is finished we are so happy when it is finally done! It's like beating your head against the wall, because it is so nice when it stops!

A disc sander is really useful for creating chamfered edges like the tops of bitts and knight heads, catheads and such. After the angle is set you can make the same cuts on multiple pieces. And it is useful for cutting the same angles on many pieces. You can do this my hand with files or sanding blocks but getting the exact same angles is difficult. A belt sander is very useful for shaping pieces, trimming to a mark, etc. I recently bought a cheap belt and disc sander at Harbor Freight. Here is a review. https://modelshipworld.com/topic/37369-harbor-freight-combination-belt-and-5-disc-sander/?do=findComment&comment=1070074

Some of you have expressed interest in my "sea tales" while aboard the Cape. Remember - you asked for it! By now you should have some idea what it was like to serve in McHale's Navy. But I may have given the wrong impression. I said the ship was "bolted to the pier." But we did get underway about once each month. Sometimes it was just to go fishing, and other times were on minesweeping exercises. But on one occasion we went to San Diego to visit the shipyards for planned maintenance. The Navy had a Planned Maintenance System (PMS) that scheduled maintenance based upon statistical evaluations of system failures. The idea was to make repairs before they were actually needed. So one day we headed out from Long Beach to go to the shipyards in San Diego for planned maintenance. Why San Diego? I have no idea. The largest shipyard on the west coast was in Long Beach, a few hundred yards from where we were berthed. But we set out for the San Diego shipyard, approximately 120 nautical miles by sea. We plodded along at about 8 knots, for about 15 hours. We left Long Beach about 4 PM (1600 Navy time), making most of the voyage at night. The plan was to arrive at the channel entrance before 8 AM (0800) and proceed in to the shipyard in daylight. The entrance to the channel is marked by a series of buoys. You "pick up" the outer marker first, and take it down the port side. Then you follow the buoys into the channel, taking each down the port side. Out bound vessels do the same - the buoy on the port side - so you pass ships going the opposite direction on opposite sides of the channel. It sounds simple, but this time we were in a dense "pea soup" fog bank, with no visibility beyond the jack staff on the bow. Finding the first buoy was a challenge. It had a light, but that wasn't visible for very far in the fog. It had a fog horn so we could hear it when we got within a few miles, but it gave only the general direction. The buoy had a radar corner reflector on top, and that showed up on our surface search radar. If the sea is calm a reflector is easy to track. But if there are many swells each wave top appears as a "blip" on the radar, and the reflector is lost in the clutter. But if you pay close attention you can see the blip that remains fairly constant. Marking it on the radar PPI (Plan Position Indicator) screen with grease pencil lets you follow its relative course until you close on it. So we proceeded slowly into the channel. As we came close inshore the fog bank lifted and we had clear visibility into the channel between Point Loma and North Island. But the channel was anything but clear! There were hundreds of sailboats all across the channel, headed our way! According to the rules of the road, sailboats have the right-of-way over all motorized vessels, except ferries. They were swarming all around us, with some passing so close beneath our bow that we could only see the tops of the masts! As I have explained before, we had almost no maneuverability at slow channel speeds. But it would have done no good to try to avoid one of these boats, because if we turned we would just run into another! What was going on? Well it happens that morning Sharon Adams was coming home to San Diego, having sailed from Yokohama, Japan. She was the first woman to sail solo across the Pacific, and just about every boat in San Diego was headed out to greet her! It was July 25, 1969. We didn't have a clue to what was happening, but we did make it through the swarm of small boats. It was like walking through a swarm of gnats. No real problem, but annoying. The next challenge was the ferries connecting the city of San Diego to North Island across the bay. Two ferries crossed the harbor simultaneously, starting the same time from each side and crossing at the center of the channel. They had the right-of-way over us. But because of our lame engineering plant, there was no chance of us stopping if one crossed in front of us. And it would have looked very bad if a US Navy ship ran down a ferry! As we approached the crossing we throttled back and waited until the ferries started out from their landings. When they neared the center of the channel we "gunned it" and raced at the best speed we could make toward the point where they passed each other. They were approaching their berths when we crossed their route, and we proceeded to the shipyard without further incident. We spent several days in the shipyard while the yard people overhauled our engines and did other maintenance. The crew had liberty except for the duty crew on board. For several days I explored San Diego, taking in the sights, including Balboa Park. The zoo there is one of the best in the world. The San Diego Museum of Art is amazing! And since San Diego was one of the first hubs of aviation, the Aeronautical Museum is one of the best, with an original Ryan M-2 like the one Lindberg flew across the Atlantic (the Spirit of Saint Louis was built in San Diego). Then with our engines overhauled we started back to Long Beach. The trip out of the harbor was uneventful until we rounded Point Loma and headed north. We were chugging along when suddenly there arose a clatter from the engine room that was audible topside, even on the bridge. Our senior engineman happened to be topside taking in the air when he heard the noise. He pulled the emergency shutoff levers near the funnel that cut off air to the engines. While we drifted close to shore, with the currents carrying us south into the shipping channel, the engine crew started trying to find the problem. It turned out to be one of the four GMC 6-71 main propulsion engines. The people performing the maintenance in the shipyards had failed to tighten the locking nuts on the rocker arms on one engine. The vibration from running caused the adjustments to change, and eventually the intake and exhaust valves moved deep enough in the cylinders to hit the tops of the pistons. When that happened the heads of some of the valves broke off, and the loose valve heads started carving chunks out of our very expensive non-magnetic cylinder heads and pistons. In two of the cylinders they punched through the tops of the pistons, allowing the burning fuel-air mixture to blow into the crank case and burn the lubricating oil. So much for planned maintenance! We proceeded on under three engines and eventually got back to home port in Long Beach. It was anything but an uneventful and routine voyage! We repaired the engine ourselves in Long Beach with the help of a few cans of coffee and a canned ham or two. Oh - I finished gluing the center frame/keel pieces together and trimmed the piece so it is ready for fitting the bulkheads. I also cut out the O1 and O2 decks so I think all of the pieces are ready to start assembly. But first I think I will finish the sails for the Albatros and try to complete the rigging.

I looked at several places on line and found the typical posts by people who are clueless. The recommendations are to use acetone, rubbing alcohol, some brand detergent (cleans everything, cures cancer and removes unwanted hair!), cooking oil, mineral spirits, denatured ethanol and soapy water. Since it is for use by children I suspect it will wash off with water. It seems to wash off my hands easily with water. The Elmer's web site isn't much better that the other sites, but it does say to try scraping it off after it dries. The problem with trying to wash it off is that I don't want to delaminate the plywood or to have the glue soak in deeper. These surfaces will be painted (1960s ocean gray) so I suspect I will end up sanding the surfaces to remove glue. Maybe I will just cut two new pieces.

I cut the sub deck and deckhouse parts from two sheets of SIG three ply 1/16 inch (1.6 mm) plywood. The sheets were 24 x 12 inches (610 x 305 mm), but the hull is 27 inches (686 mm) long, so I had to cut the sub deck in two pieces. I cut the hull center frame/keel in four pieces, two each starboard and port. I want the center frame to be 1/8 inch (3.2 mm) thick, and I couldn't find a sheet of 1/8 inch plywood that long. So I decided to cut it from 1/6 inch plywood and glue the pieces together with SIG Bond cement. The joins on the port and starboard sides are at two different places so there is 1/16 inch ply on one side at each join. After it is all glued together I will glue 1/2 inch (12.7 mm) strips along the joins to make 1/8 inch and 6 ply at each join. In the photo the port bow piece is already glued in place, but the starboard stern piece has not been attached - it will be the last. The pieces are all rough cut except along the keel and where the parts come together. I will finish shaping the parts to the lines after the glue has set. Then I will open the slots for the bulkheads. That will take a lot of individual fitting because the glued sheets will not be quite as thin as the 1/8 inch plywood. As the glue is setting up I checked to ensure than the keel piece is straight. It appears to be, but if there is any curvature it will be slight and easily corrected when the planking is started. Also, I will need to remove the glued-on paper from the main deck deckhouse sides. I should have printed the paper templates backwards so they would be on the insides of the parts, but I didn't think of it until after I had already glued them onto the plywood. All the other parts can be used with the paper on the inside where it won't be visible. Anyone have any suggestions for removing Elmer's Glue Stick from wood?

I used the saw yesterday to cut some 1/16 inch (1.6 mm) 3 ply plywood. I succeeded in making the cuts I wanted, but not without problems. I expected cutting thinner material might have some problems - all the ads for these scroll saws say they will cut 1/8 inch (3.2 mm) to 1 1/2 inch (38 mm) or more wood. Why not thinner materials? The thinner material flexes more and tends to raise more with the motion of the saw blade. This made it necessary to hold it down more firmly that was necessary with the thicker plywood. And when the blade did raise the plywood the "foot" on the saw that is supposed to hold the material down and prevent if from rising with the blade turned out to be nearly worthless. It is attached to the rod that sets the height of the foot with a single screw, and it doesn't fasten tight enough. When the blade pulled the plywood up the foot just rotated around the screw. I tightened it as much as I could without stripping the screw head, but the foot still rotated. I just raised the foot out of the way and held the work piece down with my fingers. The whole arrangement is poorly designed! Another problem came up. The plastic insert into the table (see arrow) is a bit too thin, and sits a bit recessed into the table. I measure the top of the plastic to be about 0.011 inch (0.27 mm) below the top of the table. Time and again as I tried to feed the wood into the blade an edge of the work piece caught on the edge of the metal and stopped the cut. I had to raise the wood off the table to continue to feed it into the blade! THIS IS A MAJOR DESIGN FLAW! I guess this is an example of why Harbor Freight has the reputation it has. I can fix this, but a more respected brand scroll saw likely won't have this problem. I used the 15 tooth per inch blade to cut the thinner material. At first I set the speed to the slowest setting (550 strokes per minute) and that caused the thin plywood to bounce and grab the blade. Then I set the speed at the highest setting (1650 strokes per minute) and it cut much better. There was not as much bounce or hanging on the blade. It looks like the recommendation to use the highest speed for wood was good advice. We are supposed to use the lowest speed for metals, but thin soft metals will probably flex more than the thin plywood!