Gabek

1987 - 2012

With a lack of skill with wooden models I knew I would have some difficulties with my first ship.  What I hadn't expected was that the kit itself would provide so many of my headaches:  unclear instructions and having to fabricate so many parts from scratch. 

Some interesting consequences of taking years to complete the Swift:

1. my knowledge of ship construction increased with each book I bought and website I found.  In some ways this became a bit of a curse because I kept second-guessing every step of the build - which did not help speed things up.  
2. On the bright side, my disposable income increased over the years so I could afford more and better tools. 

Because I don’t have a lot of pictures of the early stages of the Swift I’m not going to log all my work.  Here's just a rundown of some the headaches, mistakes and modifications I made during this time:

August 1989:  Planking and Bulwarks

The first layer of hull planking was finished but I can't say that the hull looked very good. I now understand the reason for tapering the edges of planks!  On the deck I had used black felt pen on the edges of the limewood strips to simulate caulk and I followed a very beautiful, regular pattern of staggering the butt joints.  I now realize that I was thinking more like I was building a deck in my yard rather than a deck on a boat.  A shipwright would want to have the longest possible planks with the fewest joints.  I discovered a layout (can’t remember the book…I’ll have to find it again) that made so much more sense and is much more accurate than the beautiful but inaccurate planking I had done on the Swift  

I was already noticing an asymmetry in hull.  I wasn't too concerned because I knew I was going to use filler before the second planking.   Little did I know how this would haunt me…20 years later!

It was now time to install the bulwarks.  Unfortunately, these die-cut plywood pieces, when dry-fitted, splayed outward drastically and did not follow the upward curve of the hull at all.  I tried shaping the lower edges to fit the deck line better but it was a losing cause.  I realized that I was going to have to fabricate new bulwark pieces. 

December 1989:  New bulwarks

Using the shape of the old bulwarks as a guide, I made patterns with card stock and traced them onto 1/16" plywood.  (I never knew such stuff existed!  Now I keep a little supply of this and 1/32" on hand.)  Much better lines now, but they didn’t meet well at the bow.  I ended up cutting off the bow section of these new bulwarks and making, yet again, new pieces.  After gluing I spent many hours working the edges of the bulwarks to get the shape I wanted. 

July 1993:  Planking the bulwarks; Deck Cabins; Tapering masts and spars

I found it odd that the outside of the bulwarks were going to be planked over, but the inside was to be the left plain plywood.  I decided to plank the insides to make it look a little more realistic.  As per the instructions, I planked the outer bulwarks and transom with limewood. 

[you can see the planking on the interior of the bulwarks and the deck planking pattern I followed]

In December 1993 my first son was born and in 1996 my second son came along.  The next entry in my log was…

July 1998:  Installing the keel and stem 

I bought a few books in the 5 intervening years and became an armchair modeller.  Based on several readings I departed from the instructions and chose to install the keel and stem before the second planking was done.  After they were affixed, I carefully cut a rabbet into these pieces for the next layer of planks to fit into.  I was much happier that I had done this.  This whole process took two days…the only two days I would work on the model in 1998 and I wouldn’t take the model out of the box until…

April 2003: Second planking on hull

From April 2003 to October 2012, between running kids to soccer, baseball, music, scouts, etc., back surgery and completing my M.Ed, I managed to squeeze in about 7 hours of work on planking the Swift.  I had started at the deck line and was working downward and I felt that I was doing a good job on tapering the planks at the bow.  And, I was very happy to hide the ends of the planks in the rabbet I had cut into the stem.  However, it became evident that I was going to have to install joggles.   I was also having a heck of a time getting the planks to sit flat on the hull, particularly at the bend in the bilge, even with screw clamps. 

So we’ve reached 2012. 

My boys are big, I have a pretty nice little workshop and I don’t have to pack away the model each time I stop.  I have actually started the Harvey and a vintage ship in the bottle kit I got on Ebay.  My ship modelling library has become fairly impressive and I started scratch-building a miniature of the Beagle.  I also got an iPad and it became really easy to document my work in photos and make quick little notes.  It sits beside me as I work – playing music and giving me quick access to the internet if I want to look something up.  I still kept up the written log in my little book, though.  The rest of this log should be in smaller chunks.

And…my wife still puts up with me!

The Preface

It has taken me a while to build up the courage to start this log...but after a few months of reading these forums I now realize just how accepting and supportive the people are here.  Also, discovering that I'm not the only person who has an "accidentally long-term project" has made me less embarrassed to tell my story! 

But first, please bear with me as I explain how it all started...

1974.

I was in grade 7 and I had just found out that a teacher in my school built wooden ship models.  How cool!  But I nearly died when I priced out kits in a local hobby store.  For years I would drop in and just dream of the day I could afford to buy one.   This started a minor obsession - I began reading Alexander Kent novels and I became an amateur historian of Napoleanic-era ships, particularly the Royal Navy.  Dreaming, ever dreaming. 

1986.  

University was finished and I was starting a career.  Still a bit broke with rent and car payments – still dreaming of getting a kit.  My girlfriend (now my wife), knowing just how much ships have been on my mind all these years, gives me Artesania Latina's "Swift" as a Christmas gift.  (And that was probably the moment I knew she was the right one!)  Boxing week was spent buying tools and supplies.  

That same Christmas I happened to get a little journal from someone else and I decided to use it as a log for this build.  So, in the box with all the parts this little book has sat and I have faithfully (more or less) kept track of every step in this project.  The first entry...

"Thursday, January 1, 1987.  Cut false keel & bulkheads.  Shaped the frames.  2 hours."

Let's just say that over the next 25 years I spread the work out pretty thinly, with a few big gaps around the birth of our two sons and switching careers.  Between 1987 and 2012 I logged 156 hours and I had a hull with partially finished second planking.  Sitting in the box were completed cabins and tapered masts and spars.  In that time I also built a pretty good collection of books and tools.

A quarter century in and the Swift looked something like this:

In the next log I'll go over some of the highlights up to this point in the build.