capnharv2

My goodness Tim, that looks great!

Harvey

Henry,

Do you do the political re-enactment too?

"Well, Virginia got funding this month and we didn't, so we'll have to put off installing the cant frames 'til next month. At least we've got a lock on the copper for plating. . ."

Thanks,

Harvey

I bought it when it came out, and I couldn't put it down.

As Phil said, it was interesting to read about the wheeling and dealing behind getting these ships designed, built, launched and commisioned. I hate to say it, but it seems that there's not much difference betwen politics then and politics now.

Excellent book.

Thanks,

Harvey

Looks good Rich. You're doing what I did on my Connie's hammock netting. I tied them top and bottom at each hammock crane. It's tedious, but the results look great.

Thanks,

Harvey

Thank you for sharing with us Danny. I always find something new, useful and innovative when I visit you build log.

Harvey

Hi Rob,

I just stumbled onto this build log now. Like you, I "inherited" a Sergal Victory, not quite as far along as yours. Mine is still 10-15 years away-I've got the Connie, Elsie, Flying Cloud and Longboat to finish first. Plus, my wife wants me to do the Agamemnon next, so it will be a while.

Something I'm trying to figure out from your log-are you correcting the kit per AOTS and Caldercraft plans, or are you using the kit as a starting point and building everthing from scratch?

Regardless, you're doing a great job. It will be an inspiration when I start on mine.

Thanks,

Harvey

Johnroy,

Your best bet for additional copper plates is to cut them from a roll of copper tape. You should be able to get it from Michaels or some place like that. I got mine on-line at http://www.anythinginstainedglass.com/metals/foil.html 

You can find the width you need and cut it to the length you want. If you want to show nailhead details, you can get a pounce wheel from Micromark and emboss them.

Hope that helps.

Thanks,

Harvey

Rich,

There's an entire thread devoted to the subject

http://modelshipworld.com/index.php/topic/1310-making-rope-coils/?hl=+rope%20+coils

Funny, I tried a couple different methods on my Connie, and I ended up Flemishing them down like full size line. I guess I was lucky  . . .

Thanks,

Harvey

Thanks so much Ray! I like that so much that I may redo the fore and main stays on my Connie.

Harvey

Ray,

Your Burton Pendants look really good!

I have a couple of questions about your eye splices. Do you splice them as a normal eye splice or seize them and then serve over it?

Also, how do you do the serving of the eye? Serve, then splice or splice, then serve by hand (I haven't figured out how to use the serving machine inside the eye)?

One last question-how do you keep your served lines so straight? Mine often twist and turn and have kinks in them after I finish serving.

I wish I had room/time to do HMS Diana. You've done a superb job.

Thanks,

Harvey

My goodness Pete! That is excellent work-and a beautiful boat

Michael,

"To be clear I am talking about the model and not a full size boat. I have no knowledge of full size furlers."

Thanks so much for the clarification. Often, discussions like this cross over from model to real thing and back. And I, for one, become easily confused which one we're talking about.

Harvey

Hans,

Aren't there 2 headsail furlers on some boats to do just that (raise one, then drop the other)?

Thanks,

Harvey

My preferred tool for shaping planks is a small hand plane. I get too many bumps and gouges in the plank edge if I use anything else.

This one is about $7.00 on Amazon

Hope that helps.

Thanks,

Harvey

Are you asking about how roller reefing works on a big boat, or on a model? Here's a link that shows some of what's done

http://sailing.about.com/od/learntosail/ss/rollerfurlingjib.htm

and here:

http://www.myboatsgear.com/roller-furling-systems

On a smaller boat like ours, the jib is tied to the drum on the end of the boatsprit and a swivel hoisted on the jib halyard. To open, pull on the jib sheet and ease the furling line (they wrap the opposite direction on the drum and sail, so pulling on one line will cause the other to come out)

On larger boats (and somebody correct me if I'm wrong), there's a metal track from the drum to the masthead swivel. This track has a groove in it (similar to the groove on the mainmast). The jib is hoisted with a halyard, and the jib luff is slid into the groove. Once it's up, and the sheets attached, pulling on the furling line (and easing the jib sheets) will wrap the jib around the metal track. Pulling on the jib sheet (and easing the furling line) will unwrap the sail.

If you want to change from, say, a jib to a gennaker), you leave the jib unfurled, pull in out of its track at the foot (but above the furling drum), take you jib sheets off, unshackle the halyard, and re-attach the halyard to the Gennaker. Attach the sheets and hoist away. Now you have a larger headsail that you can still furl, or replace it with a different headsail.

I understand that one of the advantages of this system (as opposed to the one we use) is that you always have a well shaped headsail luff, which really improves windward performance (probably better than a hanked on jib). Our jib is essentially set flying, so our luff really bends to leeward and hurts windward performance. But the boat design is from 1890, so it's not going to be a fast boat regardless of what we do.

And if everybody understood all this, or I'm wrong in my explanation, I apologize for wasting everyody's time.

Thanks,

Harvey

Michael,

Thanks for those videos. The thing I dislike about RC sailboats is the "scale" effect. Most of the RC boats that I've seen don't look right to me under sail. The boat looks great, but the waves and water look out of scale. These models don't seem to suffer nearly as much.

And before anybody thinks I'm disparaging RC boats, I have the utmost admiration and respect for RC boaters and the incredible work they do. I used to have an RC sailboat, and I occasionally go to the Steel, Chapman & Hutchinson site and drool over their HMS Surprise. I'm only saying that RC boats, at this time in my life, aren't my cup of tea. Maybe they will be next year.

Thanks,

Harvey

Toni,

Your work is truly inspiring.

Thanks,

Harvey

Thanks Hans.

I admire these boats (and their crew) from a distance. I'll stick with my old gaffer (Friendship Sloop).

But for grins, I Googled Mini Transat 650 so I have an idea what you've been sailing.

Looks fast to me!

Thanks again,

Harvey

Hans,

Thank you for your explanation, although I have to admit, it will take me some time to comprehend it all. I hope you don't mind if I throw out a few questions and assumptions to get on the correct track.

I'm used to thinking of chines as a (kind of) stability point at a certain angle of heel. In the case of an El Toro dinghy (which I used to sail) and a Star (which I haven't sailed much), the heeling angle when the boat is on its chine is a more stable point than most heeling angles. Is that correct?

I also remember that increased heeling angles (on displacement racing hulls) provides a longer waterline, which increases hull speed (which is why I thought racing sailboats of the 20's and 30's had such long overhangs). But waterline length on a planing hull doesn't help (IIRC), because you want to minimize wetted area.

I looked up some of the measurements of the Open 70's. I see the beam is 5.7m. If I understand correctly, is the basic hull design much wider than this, but surfaces are created to cut the beam to 5.7m, thus creating the chine?

Please note that I'm not an NA or Marine Engineer, but I've been fascinated with sailing hull design for a long time. Generally, I know just enough to be dangerous

Thanks,

Harvey

Pete,

Looks good!

One thing I'm surprised by is the hard chine on the hull. I had always thought the hull was completely round.

I'm curious what the hard chine does. Additional stability (along with daggerboard) when heeled?

I'm also curious what the optimum heel angle is for speed when sailing close hauled. Perhaps the chine adds to WL length at optimum heel angle.

Thanks!

Harvey

Pete,

I just stumbled on this build. It will be a lot of fun to watch (and build)!

I'm sitting here, thinking about making a boat like this RC, and wondering what a functioning canting keel would do on the model. Unfortunately, I don't know how the canting keel and planing hull scale down on the model, but it would be pretty cool to get the RC model on plane!

Both the VOR and Vendee Globe are way beyond my meager sailing abilities, but they're fascinating, regardless. If you're interested, a good book on the Vendee Globe is Godforsaken Sea by Derek Lundy, describing the 1996 Vendee Globe race. I enjoyed it a lot.

Have fun! We will!

Thanks,

Harvey

Hopefully, more work now means you can retire earlier to work on ship models (and anything else you want to do).

It worked for me!

Take care.

Thanks,

Harvey

Excellent Nenad! You should be proud (and relieved).

Harvey

Nenad,

First off, congrats on your children's graduations! I suspect that's a big relief to have them start their careers.

Second, I've never played AoE. I used to have Age of Sail on our old computer, and that was a lot of fun. Nowdays, I just fly and crash airplanes (MS-FSX).

BTW, plating is monotonous, but you're making good progress and it looks good!

Thanks,

Harvey

Rich,

Take a look at some of the MS Constitution build logs for ideas for rigging guns. Also, Chuck Passaro makes some awfully nice blocks. . .

Hope that helps,

Thanks,

Harvey