Lecrenb

Making foremast rigging continues... While waiting for the paint to dry on the jib sail sheet blocks I completed the bottle screws for the foremast shrouds, and the foremast back stays which are now ready to go onto the model after a bit of line trimming. The insulators on the back stays, and that will be on the rest of the standing rigging, are dark brown single sheave plastic blocks. These were donated by someone who gifted a bunch of goodies to another model club, and they look exactly like porcelain wire line insulators! A while ago I appealed for a very small propeller for St. Roch's motorboat... a member of another model club stepped up and offered to 3D print one for me! Also, since scaling is easy with 3D printing, he cranked out a larger one that I can use as St. Roch's ship's prop, which saved me the time and trouble of making a brass prop like I did for HMCS Chicoutimi!! These parts recently arrived despite Canada Post's best efforts, and the small prop and plastic blocks can be used as-is... the larger prop got some final sanding to shape the blades. Both received a coat of brass paint, then a dry-brushing of semi-gloss black. Going over the paint with a drop of thinner on the brush smoothed out the colours. I am hoping to get a bronze look... if successful then they are also ready to be mounted onto the model. All these parts are shown in the picture... I must say how much I appreciate all the positive feedback I have received so far during my build of St. Roch, and also the fellow modelers who have stepped up with offers of 3D printing and donating parts I couldn't make or find... Thank you so much for improving my model! Bruce

Furling the jib onto the model is now complete! The jib stay went on without an issue, I passed the cable strands through the jib stay to create the eye at the mast, leaving enough slack line to pull the stay taught. Of course the jib was already attached to the stay, so once the glue had set up I only needed to belay the halliard and downhaul, shown in the first picture... Observers who have been following along may very well ask why is the halliard shackled to the clew instead of the head of the jib, and where are the sheets? One of my contacts on the Board of the Vancouver Maritime Museum is also a sailor who lived on board his ship "North Star of Herschel Island", the last of the fully rigged fur trading sailing ships, and a contemporary of St. Roch. He has been a valuable source of details about period rigging. St. Roch was a poor sailor and rarely used her sails, especially to move through the channels in the pack ice. Her jib needed to be triced up in order not to lay across the machinery on her fo'c's'le. I do have one picture showing the jib furled with the halliard at the head and the sheets on the clew, but the sheets do get in the way of the fo'c's'le deck access, and all other pictures show the sail furled without the sheets. He and I agreed, based on the photographic evidence, that the halliard was removed from the head of the jib and shackled to the clew in order to furl it out of the way. This next picture shows St Roch in 1928 with the sail furled in this manner, all other later photos show the jib hauled further up the stay as I have modelled it, but this is the clearest picture of the rig. This method does allow the sail to be set quickly if needed, and the next picture shows the downhaul, which is shackled to the head of the jib, as I have belayed it to a ring on the bulwark. The rigging plan shows the downhaul, but not where it belays. If it was taken to the foremast like the rest of the rigging it would foul the windlass and other fixtures on the fo'c's'le. Since the downhaul was rarely used and only under tension when pulling down the jib, my consultant and I agreed that coiling it onto a bulwark ring would be correct, keeping the line handy while out of the way. So what of the sheets? I showed a previous picture where today they are coiled on top of the companionway roof, but this is obviously incorrect for St. Roch during her working life, and if they were shackled to the jib's furled clew they would be in the way of the fo'c's'le deck... More discussions with the Museum, and the answer we came up with shall be revealed shortly! Stay tuned, Bruce

Thanks Alan!

Glad you're enjoying following along! The research never stops, I just figured out something interesting about mounting the jib, which I hope to share shortly! Regards, Bruce

Moving right along, the first photo shows the pinrails at the base of the foremast with the rigging tied off... Next I added the rings to the jib, completing that sail... After which I reeved the jib stay and added the bottle screw and block at the foot of the sail... The chain at the end of the bottle screw attaches to an eye on the stem of the ship, while the jib stay ends in an eye near the top of the foremast. The block is for the downhaul line. Note the iron cringle at the clew, this is for the pair of jib sheets. The next picture is the jib clew on St. Roch. That line is not a sheet, it just spreads the sail for public viewing. The actual sheets are the rope coils on top of the companionway roof, if they were rigged they would interfere with public access to the fo'c's'le deck. This last picture is the jib furled on the bench... I think it looks pretty much like the bundles I see in photos. and it should hang realistically once the stay is fitted to the ship (fingers crossed). I shackled the downhaul line to the head of the sail. Most photos show the jib triced up to the foremast by the clew, and that is how I will mount mine to the model. That comes up next (I hope)! Regards, Bruce

Thanks Phil! Yes, I am happy to reach this milestone but with St. Roch it means 'rinse and repeat' because I have to repeat everything on the mainmast now!

Well, it finally happened... the boom lift got rigged and the mast got set into the hull permanently... I checked the side to side positioning against the line of the stem and the center of the wheelhouse, and in the next picture I am checking the 3 degree rake angle after confirming the ship is set properly onto her base... After the glue has cured overnight I will add the pin rails to the bottom of the mast and finish up the running rigging. I'm in the process now of making bottle screws for the standing rigging, furling the jib, and making my shroud template. Lots of fun! Regards, Bruce

Thanks Phil... I agree and think the yarn version might be better in smaller scales. Later I'll rig up the lift and think good thoughts about mounting the mast permanently. Bruce

Thank you Steve!

No, the bottlescrew is what it is. Where the clothespin is, is where the first insulator will be installed...

Thanks Alan, I'll do a little bit of trimming... and decide tomorrow whether or not to keep them or try for round 4!

While waiting for paint to dry and to take a break from fussing with baggywrinkles... I made and installed the mast head light. It is a modified New Cap Maquettes product, I added the chimney (it is a kerosene lamp), the base, and the mounting brackets. The two unrigged blocks are for the foresail boom lift and the jib halliard... I also started making stays off the ship. These are fswr, simulated with black Amati rigging line of a scale 2" diameter per the plans. I made a template along the bottom of my silkspan frame, scaling dimensions from the rigging plan and indirectly from photos. Pins anchor each of the components so each stay will be identical. Each stay starts with the bottle screw, and runs to the first electrical insulator, this is what I have so far in the picture. Each item of standing rigging is broken with two insulators, and will be fitted with an eye at the top. The lower eyes are presumable served, but covered with a leather wrap, which I will simulate with more silkspan scraps. I will make a pair of each item then install them onto the ship... I do appreciate the check-ins and comments! Bruce

Thanks Alan and Steve. After considering your comments, and more fussing with the yarn, I returned to the chenille, this time wrapping it around a small diameter plastic rod (in case I couldn't get the baggywrinkle off the rod I at least had a hole for the lift)! Anyway, they did come off so I added dabs of black paint to hide the wires, some dark brown dry brushing since these were made from old hemp, and I trimmed them a bit around the edges. I slid them onto the lift to see what they look like, scale dimensions are about 36 x 12". I think some more trimming might be warranted, but I'm wondering what y'all think of them now?? Regards, Bruce

Baggywrinkle round 2... this is wrapped yarn. An improvement over the chenille but still not where I want to go with these. This is now a scale 9" diameter, which looks right, but still looks like the wrapped yarn it is... I think I will try wrapping the yarn around a mandrel like a drill bit rather than the line, so I have more control over the wrap. It means I have to take the block off the end of the line, but I think that will be worth it. Then I will try and make some fuzz on them... Manana...

Yeah, thanks for that lead... they look good but he used real pipe cleaners, not the chenille sticks, which was all I could find. I did find some yarn at the dollar store for $1.50 for a lifetime supply, so I'll try a couple of ways to put that on... hopefully it will look like a normal cat tail! Regards, Bruce