Paul Le Wol

Bob, thank you so much!

Thank you Bob, you are very kind.

Thanks very much Fred. The bowsprit was a challenging part of this model.

Thank you Vladimir, I appreciate your words very much.

Hi Everyone, hope you are all well. Thank you very much for dropping by and for the Likes. A bunch of little things were cleaned up this week. The stove pipe was made with 5mm aluminum tubing. A 4mm dowel was pushed into it and glued with CA. A pin was inserted into each end of the dowel for pinning to the deck and for attaching the T-piece at the top of the pipe. Stocks were made for the cast anchors. The anchor section in Chapelle’s American Fishing Schooners shows an anchor from a large schooner so I used some of those details when attaching the stock to the shank. The dreaded ( for me ) rope coils were next. Cotton thread was used to tie the top of the coil through the loop and the free ends at the bottom of the coil Drill bits were used to weigh them down while they had diluted PVA brushed on them. Three coats were applied over the course of a day They still need a bit of shaping. Then the stack was glued to the deck. Belaying points were finished up and the firkin was lashed down Foot ropes were added to the bowsprit. The gaskets are still being coated with PVA to convince them to hang a little nicer. Now it’s time to start on the port side. Take care and hope to see you soon.

A lot of your books come with plans and/ or CDs. I’m assuming that they would not be eligible to be produced as e-books.

Bob, congratulations on finishing your Pinta. You did a beautiful job.

Hi Everyone, hope you are all well. Thank you for your Likes. They are very appreciated. I’ve been working on booms, gaffs, deck furnishings and rigging. So a bit of everything. I have been watching an excellent YouTube video made by Outlandish Marine called “ The Schooner Prophet: Camden to Rockland “. It has shots of many interesting details so I’m taking cues from some of them. First up is the binnacle. Next came the pumps. Once they were mounted the booms were finished being rigged as much as possible and then mounted. The main boom’s clapper is pinned to the end of the boom with #22 wire. A piece of insulation is between the clapper and the boom let’s the boom flex a bit if needed Then the fore boom was mounted and rigged. The supplied water barrels were too big for where they were to be mounted so a new one was made. This is what I was going for. There was a lot of scrap left over from the mast hoops. Nine of the plywood disks were glued together and covered with 1/16” strips of AYC. The back corners of the strips were relieved to let them fit together more closely. The hoops are made with art tape. Gave it a test fit on deck. Not sure if there’ll be one made for starboard. The gaffs where mounted in the same manner as the booms. Getting close to completion. Just have anchors, stove pipe and a bit of rigging to finish. Hope to see you next time.

Phil, congratulations on finishing this wonderful ship. I like those sails A LOT!

Hi Everyone, Happy New Year to all of you. Thank you very much for the Likes and comments. The fore boom and the main boom have been made. I substituted the supplied dowels with AYC square strips. The fore boom was made with 3/16 x 3/16 strip. First turned into an octagon then rounded and tapered. A new bracket was made ( from brass ) to attach to the pin in the gooseneck because I didn’t trust the supplied one to not disintegrate like the supplied pin did. Next the main boom was made using 1/4” x 1/4” AYC. The supplied jaws were glued and pinned with 22 gauge copper wire. As much rigging as possible will be done before it is mounted. The deadeyes were made using rings cut from 1/4” brass tube. The rings are sanded down on 320 grit paper using a push block that has 150 grit paper taped to it Dividers were used to start the shaping process and then switched out with round nose plies and needle nose pliers to complete the shaping. The whole thing was dropped into the blackener. Not sure how they managed to do it but no matter which way the deadeyes are oriented, the holes are skewed. The plans call for the strops to be bolted to the chainplates but I went for this simplified version. I was just glad to get them all mounted to the boat. The binnacle has just been started so I want to get that mounted before the booms are attached. Hope to see you next time

Hi Dave, I’m using a mini block plane and sandpaper. The area of the dowel that I want to remove stock from is darkened with a pencil lead so that you can see where you have planed. Starting at the top of the mast work your way down adding a few more inches each time you finish planing. Once you get to the part of the mast that doesn’t need tapering, go back to the top and start the process over again. I used 120 grit paper every once in a while between planing. If there’s a bit of a wow in the dowel more material can be removed from one side than the other. Took about an hour to do this one so it is kind of time consuming.

Hi Wookie, a while ago Chuck started a thread called “Take the “ 2 build log challenge” !!! Any Takers”. ( You’ll have to search for it ) It is worth a read just so that you can see that members are indeed trying to resolve the issue you and many others are facing. In the meantime just go to other build logs of subjects that interest you and leave comments there. Make sure to add a link to your build log in your signature so that they can have a look at your work. Good luck with your build. It’s looking good.

Thanks Bob, I like this method because it’s not noisy, not very dusty, kind of relaxing. 🙂

Happy Boxing Day Everyone, hope you all had a Merry Christmas. As usual I didn’t do what I said I was going to do. Ended up working on both masts. The kit comes with 3/8” basswood dowels. Started by making a tenon to fit into the deck opening. Used the tapering method where you blacken with pencil the area that you want to remove material from ( so that you know where you have planed) and then plane that area. Starting with a few inches at the top, blacken and plane. Each time you blacken, add a few more inches down the mast. When you get down to where the tapering stops, start back at the top and repeat the whole process again until you have the amount of tapering you need. Eventually you will work your way back up to the top as the lower mast has enough taper and you end up at this point. I ran 120 grit sandpaper up and down a few times between planing if needed and finished with 320 grit paper. Probably 90% of the material was removed by the plane so very little saw dust. Then gave the masts a test fit. Both masts have the same number of cleats laid out the same way. Located the fore most cleat and marked the mast. Ran a piece of tape from that mark, around the mast and back to the mark. Removed the tape and stuck it to a ruler. In this case the tape was 30mm long and needed to be divided into six sections so it worked out pretty good. Stuck the tape back on the mast and laid out the holes for the rest of the cleats. The mast coats and the main boom rest were all made the same way. Two pieces of 3/64” plywood were glued together. 3/8 holes were drilled in the plywood and the rest was all sawing , cutting and sanding. The throat halliard lead blocks were made by sandwiching a 1/32” strip of wood between two 1/16” strips. ‘The cheek block was made using a Technell 3mm x 1mm brass sheave from The Crafty Sailor and 1/16” brass strip. The main mast gets a test fit. The fore mast has a gooseneck mounted for the fore boom. It was attached with CA. Brass nails are used to simulate the bolts holding the two parts together. The kit supplied pin that sits in the gooseneck disintegrated when I tried to clean off the flash so a new one was made with 1/16” brass tube. The top of the tube was squashed, shaped and drilled. A ring made with #24 copper wire was glued just under the flattened part to keep the pin in place. The fore mast gets a test fit. Finished stepping the masts. Have a great New Years and I hope to see you in 2023.

Bob, congratulations on finishing your Nonsuch 30. Beautiful work!

Michael, I hope that you forge ahead with this project. She is very pretty. I can’t offer you any knowledge but I would like to follow along.

Ron, the way you submerged the rudder chain is just one example of the incredible amount of detail here. Your final photos will be amazing.

Ian, congratulations on the completion of your Hayling Hoy. Such a beautiful accomplishment!

Hey Everyone, hope you are all well. Thank you for the great comments and Likes. I decided to get going on the metal work for the rigging. There are four turnbuckles attached to the bowsprit. From what I’ve read turnbuckles we’re used when using wire rope and lanyards were used when using rope. The plans say to use black rope for the inner bobstay and the bowsprit shrouds that are attached to three of the turnbuckles. I thought about looking for some light grey rope to maybe simulate wire but I have dark brown and will go with that. These are the kit supplied frames for the turnbuckles. I tried drilling the holes for the screws but it didn’t go well. Changed over to 1/16” brass tube. The shackles have gone through a few revisions. Started with 22ga copper wire then changed to 24ga to try and get them slimmed down a bit. Low temp soldering paste was applied to the whole assembly and when hit with the flame from a micro torch most of the shackle was tinned This version of turnbuckle was glued together with CA. There was just as much drama with the bobstay brackets attached to the stem. They started out being soldered but then I ended up gluing the brass nails into the brass tube. When I look at the photos they look like they could be smaller but when I go over and look at the boat they look okay. The wire sticking out of the lower bobstay bracket is for attaching the chain. Surprisingly the kit supplied cat heads fit really well. Made a jig to hold the bowsprit bitts while gluing. This is when I decided to do something about the slots that were cut into the hawse timbers. They were not shaped very nicely. They were filled in and hawse holes were made instead. Fortunately this is a pinky and there’s lots of leeway 😀. A hole was drilled under the hawse hole for the eye bolt for the foot ropes but it looked like it would interfere so a bracket was made to be able to utilize the hole while moving the attachment point aft. The bowsprit was attached and then the windlass. The anchor chaffing bars on the cap rails are made from 1/32” AYC that was sanded as thin as possible and then painted with Tamiya Dark Iron. The tiller was cut from a sheet of 1/8” Cherry. The detent (?) plate attached to the side is a piece of laser board. Next will be completing the deck furniture. Still need a binnacle, pumps, stove pipe and maybe a barrel. Hope to see you soon.

Such beautiful work Ian.

Hi Bob, my parents and in-laws have long passed but I still think of them every day. Those memories are the gift you will receive every day. See you when you get back

Rest In Peace Bob, you were and still are an inspiration to all. Your work lives on.

Hi Paul, I use an iPad and it works well for me. It has a pretty good camera so you can take a picture, edit it and upload it from the same device. I still don’t get the part about apple being intuitive, but then I don’t seem to understand android either. 😀

Jonathan, congratulations on finishing your Lady Eleanor. She is beautiful!

Thank you very much No Idea and bobandlucy. There’s a little bit of wonk in her but nothing too serious 😀