capnharv2

Mark, Would you post a picture of your cutters? I kind of understand, but a couple photos would help. Thanks, Harvey

Keith, Standing rigging is black because it's coated in tar as a preservative. It's normally adjusted very little (in day to day operations of the ship). Running rigging, on the other hand, was moving with every change of sail movement (up, down, reef, tacking, etc). So it needed to be flexible. Have you heard the phrase "Worm and parcel with the lay, seize and serve the other way"? Worming (running small line in the lay of the line) and parcelling (covering the wormed standing rigging with tarred cloth-I believe canvas) were added to help preserve the standing rigging. Serving (wrapping small line tightly around the standing rigging) was also done for chafe protection. With our use of synthetic line and sailcloth, we often forget that these same items wore out a lot on older vessels. Hemp rigging, even with all that treatment, did rot. Sails (either flax or cotton or whatever else was used) also rotted, and the rigging and sails were constantly being repaired and maintained. That's why most ship that travelled any distance had a rigger and a sailmaker (and a carpenter to fix broken and rotted wood). I couldn't even fathom a guess what the top hamper weighed. But you're correct that wet rigging was a lot heavier than dry rigging (ans still is). Gil, thanks again for showing us your fine work. I hope we (PSSM) will have a chance to see your Victory in person when finished. Harvey

Keith, Everything was fine for me till I got to organic chemistry. Harvey

Here's a picture of wood strips interspersed with rope ratlines

Hi Sarah, Good start on the ratlines! Remember not to get them too tight. I find, on your spacing template, that tracing the shrouds will help you from pulling them together too much (I believe Brian Toss calls that "Siameseing"). Another thing to consider (I believe they started doing it around the time of the HL) is to make every fourth ratline from wood. That will help maintain shroud spacing and reduce the monotony of all those clove hitches. I'll check around. I know the schooner Wawona had every 4th ratline made of wood. If I can find a picture I'll post it here. Thanks, Harvey

Try all of the above. If the ring bolt (or any deck fitting for that matter) is going to take loads other than shear (parallel to the deck loads), it's probably thru bolted with large washers and backing blocks. If the load is high, they will probably secure it thru a deck beam or sheer clamp. If it's lightly loaded it can be held in place with wood screws. Some production boat manufacturers will get by as cheap as they can-you can see this with small deck cleats screwed into the deck-with little concern for the load it will have to take. Anyway, that's what I've seen. YMMV. Hope the helps. Thanks, Harvey I had another thought. When I first started building ship models, I thought nothing of gluing anything and everything to the deck (bulwarks, etc). It wasn't till I tried using these parts (like a belaying pin rack) that they came loose under load. That's when I realized that we need to provide some positive attachment of our fitting to our models, similar to the real thing.

Brian, Normally, that hole is covered to keep a following sea from coming up into the ship. I believe they were leather. And yes, most modelers don't show that, although I believe some of the scratchbuild logs have them. I'll check. Thanks, Harvey

Jeff, That's why Bob went to plastic instead of wood-to get away from the grain effects. But the parts are so small and fragile that even styrene had its issues. Jay's solution is much simpler, cleaner and less labor intensive. Thanks, Harvey

That's a great method Jay! It's much cleaner than anything I could cut, sand or scrape. In some ways, I wish I hadn't seen this. Re-doing the scroll work was one of the reasons I didn't want to rebuild my head rails for the 5th time . Now I have one less excuse to avoid it Thanks again, Harvey

Looks great Geoff. I was tempted to make and install the stuns'l booms to help stabilize the support fittings (the aft one gets really banged up), but I wasn't sure they would be in the way of rigging. I see that they are. Thanks for posting the photos! Harvey

Tom, First off, I apologize for not responding sooner. I hope I'm not too late. . . I just checked-I believe I used a #70 bit. I found that the small drill bit sets and a pin vise are slow and not always accurate enough (for me). I drilled these in a Dremel drill press with a 1/8" shank #70 bit. And yes, it goes thru the rim and hub, but only the spoke side of the hub. Otherwise, I'd have 20 holes in the hub and no hub left (literally). Regarding the spoke alignment being out of plane, I did draw a circle in plane for the holes. When I drilled the holes though, I didn't put pilot holes in and the drilled holes themselves are out of plane. Something to remember next time. Thanks for your questions. I'll try to be more responsive next time. Harvey

Bob, I have that strip cutter too. It works fairly well if all you cut is soft thin balsa Thanks, Harvey

So, let's see. The canoe is 1:12, the HL is 1:144. Does that mean that the HL is 1:12 scale for the people in the canoe? Harvey

What is this? Pink Elephants on parade?

The Emma Berry was a Noank smack, built for fishing in Long Island Sound. These types of work boats have a lot of similarities, but they have distinct features for the area the were designed for-and that area was not always a very large area. If you look at the Emma Berry vs. The Estella A (a Friendship Sloop also at Mystic) vs. the Hudson River Sloop Clearwater, they all have similar features, but are different for the waters they were designed for. Hope that doesn't muddy the waters too much Harvey

Looks Excellent Jay! It's nice when it all starts to come together, Harvey

Dee Dee, It's looking really good! Regarding Ranger, I understand that the Muscongus Bay Lobster Smacks went thru some evolution until they finally morphed into the Friendship Sloop. I believe that Ranger was one of the earlier versions, and the Chapelle model was a later version. Unstayed masts are not unusual on boats of this era and size. They're designed to bend and spill wind when overpowered. It's alarming, at first, to watch the mast bend 5 feet or so at the top. After a while you begin to understand the the unstayed bendy mast is a safety valve when in gusty conditions. I find it a little sad that, as opposed to Friendship Sloops, Muscongus Bay Lobster Smacks are poorly documented (in general). I don't know if the Penobscot Maritime Museum has a much information, but it's certainly a boat that deserves more visibility. Thanks, Harvey

You know Bob, I really like the rebuild of your bow. I like it enough that I may just have to tear into mine again (this would be the 4th time) and clean it up. Thanks for building such a good looking model! Harvey

Ian, I think a thread on how you improve your small lathe would be really helpful. One problem I have with most of the U3 "improvement" books is that many of the accessories and improvements either require a larger lathe/mill, or a precision with hand tools (hacksaws and files) that I may never achieve. But then, that's one reason why I enjoy working with wood more than working with metal. Thanks, Harvey

Sailcat, Your build (or rebuild) of this kit is astounding. I love all the detail and life you're putting into her! Harvey

Thanks Geoff. There is a lot of detail. Every time I think I'm getting everything covered, I realize that I missed something. Jay and Jeff, I don't know if I have an old kit or not (old being relative ). The heads seem large and out of scale. With the tight spacing of the pins on the fife rails, I worried that I would have trouble rigging lines to them) We have belaying pins on our boat to cleat halyards, and the ones in the kit, relative to our real belaying pins, are definitely too large. I would have lived with the ones in the kit, but I found, in my stacks of spare parts, some brass belaying pins that are just about perfect. But I only had a dozen. I saw ME and Bluejacket both had them. I ordered from ME because they were less expensive (150 for 7.00 at ME vs. a dozen at Bluejacket for 3.50). If they aren't what I want, I'll try Bluejacket. I'm tempted to make my own belaying pins, based on an article in last fall's NRJ. But it's a little too challenging for me right now (maybe in the future). I'll post some pictures of my search for the Holy Grail of mass produced belaying pins when I finally get what I'm looking for. Floyd, I would like to post a tutorial on block making. I needed to get this one done so we could sail again, but I plan to replace all the blocks in the next couple of years. Note that most of my blocks are made blocks, not mortised, with an internal bronze strop. There are a few locations on the boat where I could go with at rope stropped block, but they require more frequent maintenance. For those curious about the block I've been working on, here's a picture of it: It goes on tomorrow. Thanks, Harvey

It's been a few weeks since my last update (a few weeks more than I thought. . .). Emergent work on the real boat (new halyard block) Anyway, I've been working on the belaying pin racks. I got the last of them in tonight (except for the ones above the bowsprit). Still waiting on belaying pins (on backorder ) Forward Pin rails and carronades. I put the coils on for these carronades tonight: View looking forward. She's getting there. Thanks, Harvey

I'm impressed! Harvey

Fantastic work Garward! Thanks for posting the pictures. Harvey

Thanks for the enlightenment Carl. There's always things like that that blur the line. For example, I've sailed on boats that have fixed backstays (standing rigging) and running backstays (tightened and loosened on each tack). They act like running rigging, but I guess they're standing since they help hold the mast up.