Dkrmd1

The Spray is finished!
 

Some mistakes and things I’ll do differently next time  it each boat is a leaning experience. Looking forward to my next build - Lobster Boat from Blue Jacket!

Making sails on a Singer sewing machine. I made a mistake on the jib, folding the seam towards me instead of away from me like the main and the mizzen sails. Lessons learned for next model. 

Because I placed the main mast just the tiniest bit too far forward, the rest of my deck is very crowded. Can’t imagine Joshua Slocum’s deck was this crowded but maybe it was. 

Given my lack of experience and clumsy fingers, these tiny blocks posed my biggest challenge of the build. May be my least favorite part of the build until I develop some skill at making these. 

Haha, sorry for the confusion Nic, this is my first time posting a build. Yes, it took longer than a couple of days!
I started the model in January and finished about 6 weeks later. I couldn’t post pictures as I built as this was my first wooden boat model and I was pretty focused on the model. However, given the combination of the great Blue Jacket model (which clearly has a lot of thought put into it’s design as a model), the incredibly helpful photos and commentary on this site, and the pandemic social distancing, the model moved along at a brisk pace, keeping my interest level high.

Fashioned the stern and the bow, relying heavily on the great pictures shared by previous modelers. I had a question on the stern configuration, called BlueJacket and someone there emailed me pictures of the stern of their model in the showroom. Thanks!!

Here’s how I bent the yoke for the gaff. Fashioned the yoke and then steamed it, slowly bent it, and then left it overnight to dry. Worked okay for me. 

Constructing and installing the steering mechanism. This is much smaller than I thought. There’s no way I could do this without the posts of other modelers here on this site to show exactly how they addressed the various issues!

Fashioning the bow and stern 

Making the fore and aft cabins. That’s a lot of bend to make the cabin sides. 

Installing the deck and stanchions. Not sure if it would have been better to have installed the stanchions before installing the deck. 

Faring the hull. 

Mistake I made by raking the main mast back just a little bit (instead of more vertical as shown in the plans) will end up crowding the deck later. 

Progress would be much slower without CA glue. 

Planking the opposite side. Again, thanks for the tips from other modelers about this approach to keep the bending forces in balance as I continue to plank the hull. 

Thanks to some great tips I learned on this site from other posted builds of the Spray, I was able to use the modified paper clips to hold the first plank in place. 

Making my first jig to begin to steam and bend planks. 

First ever wooden ship model build. Starting with an intermediate level build (hope this is not a mistake) knowing I have the great folks at Bluejacket to help me out of any jam.