dunnock

Back in Post#91 I said that I couldn't find information on the size of anchor bouys. Yesterday @En-Dan sent me a message with the following drawing, which I thought would be interesting and useful to others so with his permission, I have copied it below. The drawing is presumably from a Dutch publication but unattributed and from a later period than Speedy but hopefully still relevant. The bouys that I made are 16.4 long by 9mm diameter so pretty good for length against Chris's 60mm anchors but a little wide in the girth. Next time I would use 6mm diameter dowel as the starting point for the same anchors. David

Thanks Ron. Yes it is good to see it completed - there were times when I wondered... Thanks Dan, Glad the log will be of some help. Just take the rigging a step at a time and I'm sure you'll be pleased with the result. David

Thank you Bob

Thanks Chris and Thuky David

Thanks everyone and thanks Uwe for your very kind words. It will all be worth it in the end. Would love to see some photos of your finished model. David

A few shots of Speedy sans ensign but otherwise complete. I did find a mistake in the topmast yard braces which needed correction. There maybe more that I haven't seen but hopefully not. Thanks again to everyone whose followed, liked or commented. David

Anchors – The first job is to attached the anchor bouys. I used 0.35mm rope. A knot is tied in the rope and a seizing put on either side around the shank. A third seizing is added at the end of the shank nearest the crown. The rope is wound round the crown and the anchor bouy seized on the other end. The excess rope is coiled and two siezings added to hold the coils in place. The bowers are attached to the cable by a clinch. The cable is taken through the ring from the front, wrapped around itself and secured with three seizings. I decided to show one bower catted and with the stopper in place and the other fully tied in the chains. The other two anchors, spare anchor and sheet anchor, I think they are called, are tied up in the chains. Finally I’ve added the ensign halliard using a 3mm double block at the peak and a single in the stern. This will now have to wait for a slot in my flag painter’s schedule to add the ensign. Other than that everything is there. It only remains to tidy up the horses and lines by wetting them out with very dilute matt varnish and small weights. The build has taken almost a year, a little longer than I expected – but I wasn’t in any hurry. I planked the upper bulwarks and stern in boxwood rather than using the patterns provided and I also planked the deck in boxwood and modified a few bits and pieces along the way. I'll post a few more photos when it's all 'ship-shape' In the meantime, thanks to everyone who has been following and for all the comments, help and encouragement - it has really been appreciated. David

Thanks everyone for the likes and kind comments - much appreciated. Bowlines – This is the first model to which I’ve added bowlines and with all the other lines present it is quite a challenge. On reflection, I wish that I had added them to Diana I used 0.2mm line. Each bowline begins by being tied to the yard with a timberhitch. The foremast bowlines lead down through the blocks on the jib or bowsprit, through the saddle and to the bowsprit step. The main mast bowlines again start from a timberhitch on the yard. The topgallant lines feed through holes in the fore topmast trestle trees, the topmast through the outer blocks on the foremast top and the main course through the blocks at the base of the foremast. All lines are tied off at the forward bitts. To be honest I struggled to get them into their proper place so some lines just run to where I could reach. Maybe, I should have checked how all the ropes ran down to the bitts before starting the rigging, I would also have just trimmed the lines and left off all the hanks and coils until the end. Well that completes the rigging which was by turns challenging and frustrating and the most complicated that I have tackled so far. There’s a lot of rope in a such a confined space. I’m glad that I'm not adding sails and their associated ropes. It's hard to see all the smaller ropes but I'll take some better shots when she's finished. David

Thanks Ron

Many thanks Maurice that's very kind and encouraging of you to say so. I've been closely following your build of Harpy. There are some great tips and ideas which I would like to try when I start work on it after Speedy David

Braces – I am running out of 0.25mm rope from RoS, so I have used 0.35 for the topmast, topgallant and spritsail yard braces. Although oversized with reference to Steel, I think that they look fine. The main issue with the braces was again finding space for the topmast yard braces on the bitts. I count that there are 23 ropes tied off to the forward bitts and 13 at the main bitts. How the crew could find the correct rope in time before incurring the wrath of the officers is a miracle. There was also the difficulty of adding a pair of blocks to the fore topmast head at this late stage to take the main topmast braces. Like Derek, @DelF I resolved the issue by using a single long strop for the two 3mm blocks needed. I have left some slack in the braces which will need some small weights and dilute matt varnish to give the catenation that I’m looking for. The spritsail braces are threaded through the inner sheave of the double blocks under the foretop. I was struggling until I used a fine broach to align fore and aft blocks and then I could slip the end of the stiffened rope through easily I’ve reached the home straight as far as rigging goes with just the bowlines to complete. David

Moving on to the Main and fore course sheets and tacks. Steel says sheets are 3”, Tacks 4” and clews 2” ropes. I have used 0.45, 0.35 and 0.25 respectively as the nearest that I have available. All the 5 mm needed were stropped with a becket the lines prepared and threaded in one go. I tried to make a tack knot rather than use a toggle shown on the plan but couldn’t quite get the interlacing right but have ended up with a reasonable approximation that looks OK to me when rigged. The clew line is tied to the yard with a timber hitch and feeds through the block on the yard down to the already overcrowded bitts. The fore tacks lead through the blocks on the boomkins and are tied off at the knightheads at the bow and the sheets lead aft through the fixed blocks and tie of to the large cleats. The main clews were threaded in a similar way to the fore course. The tacks lead through the fixed blocks just behind the forward stools but there was no provision for the main sheets to tie off. The cleat is shown on the rigging plan but not shown on the drawings of the inner bulwarks nor could I see a slot provided for it in the inner bulwark patterns. However, it was a simple matter to modify a cleat and pin and glue in place just forward of the aftmost 6 pounder. I am now faced with more lines trailing around the ship that need tidying before completing the rigging with the braces and bowlines. Thanks to everyone for the like and for continuing to follow my build. David

Lees has saved me from the tricing lines. He says that they were usually removed once the tackles were in place – that’s good enough for me. Before access is made even more difficult, I fix the ship’s boat in place. Although I had marked up the cheek blocks on the plans, I had forgotten to add them so had to make them now. I used some 2x2 boxwood reduced to 1.5mm and cut two notches to represent the sheaves. They were painted black before being glued to the topmast heads. The jib and flying jib stays and outhaulers are added, using 0.25mm rope. I think I have attached them to the travellers the opposite way round but I have trimmed them off and now am short of rope to replace them. I hope that no one will notice. Thanks for the comments and likes David

I have made enough hanks and coils to clear the decks sufficiently to carry on rigging. While doing so I found some of the lines were not running as freely as they should so changed them. I found that 18 (boom topping lift) and 44 (main top gallant clew) occupied the same pin so I moved the topping lift to the bitts, which seemed to be a more natural line. I have also moved the shifting back stay which was belayed to the pin rail. I was always unclear where the fall should tie off since the plan didn’t show any clear belay point. I have now tied it off to the lower deadeye which releases the pin for the top gallant sheets. After all this realigning, I decided to have a break from rigging and turned to the anchors. The stocks required some filing of the notch to accommodate the anchor shaft. There should be a gap between the two halves of the stock to allow for expansion and contraction of the anchor. I also tapered the ends of the stock and rounded them off. The 3D-printed anchors are cleaned before painting with Iron Black from Admiralty Paints. I have used 0.7mm brass rod for the rings, blackened in the usual way, rather than the PE etched parts. For the puddening I used 0.35mm rope. I tried wrapping straight rod and bending into a ring afterwards as suggested by (I think) @Thukydides but I made a mess of the wrappings when I tried to make the ring. I think maybe I should have used much longer pieces of rod to leave more room for bending pliers. I resorted to my previous method of fitting the rings then wrapping them afterwards. I decided not to add servings to each ring because it is hardly noticeable when the anchors are mounted and they have tended to look oversized. The rings are easier to do without the stocks in place which can now be added. I use heat-shrink tubing rather than black card for the bands. I have made two anchor bouys. I couldn’t find exact measurements for the bouys so starting with 8mm dowel, I made them 15mm long. They are roughly shaped using a scalpel and then sanded to final shape. I covered them with strapping painted dark brown to represent the tarred cloth wrappings. The ropes are 0.35mm. I start by cutting two lengths and serve the centre section and form it into an eye to give four ‘legs’ or slings. The sling assembly is glued to one end of the bouy with pva. The hoop is also made from 0.35m with a mock splice. Each sling is wrapped around the hoop and tied in place with a three wraps of thread. The process is repeated for the other end of the bouy. One finished and one shell - the shell has the remains of tape which I had to redo. The two finished bouys Anchors and bouys are put away until needed as one of the final parts of the build. And now it’s back to rigging. Thanks for looking in and and the encouraging likes David

I began to add sheets and clew lines starting with the fore topgallant. Threading through the myriad of lines now going down the masts is challenging as is balancing port and starboard to get the tacks to be at equal heights. When it came to tying off the lines at the belay pins, I realised that the spaghetti of lines waiting to be finished off couldn’t be ignored any longer so I’ve started to tidy them up. Making hanks for the belay pins is straightforward (although when getting in close I snagged the topgallant stay with my Optivisor) but what to do with all those ropes coming down to the bitts? For the moment, I’ve decided to make coils for some and to hank others. David