Lecrenb

Thank you very much Steve. Thanks for following along, enjoy your summer too! Regards, Bruce

Thank you Bill... nice to see another St. Roch build underway! Regards, Bruce

Thank you very much! I will be checking in from time to time when I get a bit more done! Regards, Bruce

Thank you Keith! This will be our family's 18th annual fishing trip to Tobin Lake... I hope to make some more progress in between bouts of relaxation! Regards, Bruce

St. Roch is now mounted on her display base... I still have a list of about a dozen items to make and install before the hull is complete, things from the ship's boats to the decals. Much can be done off the model and completing these items will be my goal for the rest of the summer. That's one of the things about scratch building... you have to think ahead and make up your instructions as you go along, and hope Part A fits into Assembly B before Widget X gets in the way (as it inevitably will)! I have also made some decisions as to St. Roch's display. Apart from some old Revell kits I made about 50 years ago, this is my first model sailing ship. I have decided to show her sails furled, so as to include all the running rigging while not impeding the view of the deck. New skills to learn, and I have picked up David Antscherl's Appendix on sail-making for some light bedtime reading! St. Roch has a very simple rig which I hope even a tyro such as myself can handle! I have also decided not to weather the ship, or clutter up the decks with odds and ends, as the ship is displayed today. This is a model, and my focus is to display the ship herself. Anyone who has followed this build log will have seen the warts on my hull and paint; but St. Roch is (or was) a working schooner that saw hard service, so to that end I am leaving the divots and scratches, as these were, and are today, present on the hull. Despite that she was well maintained by her crew of R.C.M.P. Constables, who took a great deal of pride in their ship, so I am leaving the hull free of rust and detritus. Keen eyes will note on the two previous pictures the zinc anodes, installed on the forged steel rudder reinforcements. Also the various inlets, discharges, and exhausts have been drilled through the hull and lined with pieces of brass rod. So now I am going fishing, then in June I'll be getting my other knee replaced, and making a pilgrimage to France in August (my Grandfather was with the 38th Bn at Vimy Ridge, and my wife Dale's father came ashore at Juno Beach), so I will be away for most of the summer but I will check in from time to time! Thanks for following along; I would appreciate hearing from others how you arrived at your decisions as to how to display your models... Regards, Bruce

Moving right along, the stern area of St. Roch is now complete! I fabricated the rudder brake from styrene channel, shop made turnbuckle and shackles, nut and bolt details, and basswood... Taking up the turnbuckle presses the shoe against the quadrant, useful if the linkage breaks... The quadrant is limited to 40 degrees, I made the stops from basswood. The whole rudder area is protected by a wooden platform cover, which I made using offcuts from my hull build. The pictures show it being test fitted to the ship, and installed after painting... Finally, here is the same area on St. Roch today, photographed by myself during a visit about 5 years ago... Entering the home stretch as far as finishing the hull goes! Thanks for looking in, and as always comments and critiques are welcome!

I completed the steering linkages today... I mounted the quadrant to the rudder post and fed the chains from the quadrant around the chain pulleys. Turnbuckles connect the chains to the steering cables, I used cast brass bodies from San Juan Details and made the ends from #22 copper wire. Shackles connect everything together. I made mine from fine solder with Grandt Line nut and bolt details. This layout follows sketches made by Captain Larsen in 1930 that routed the linkages along the waterways and eliminated the original block and tackle tensioning arrangement. Coming soon are the rudder stops and quadrant brake to finish this off. Enjoy!

Very interesting description of the rigging!

Got the rudder installed this evening... Here they are ready to be fitted to the ship, with the bearing half and the quadrant. St. Roch carried a spare rudder on deck, the service rudder could be lifted onto the deck through the rudder well using tackle rigged to the main boom. This was usually done to prevent damage from the pack ice or when the ship was frozen in for the winter. The rudder is made from Ironbark (Australian gum) which does not float, hence the safety chain. These next pictures show the rudder in place, and the bearing clamped while the glue sets. The piece of solder is preventing the chain from falling through the well while its' retaining strap is glued in place on the deck. Here is the deck view with everything set in place, and a view down through the rudder well... Tomorrow I will shackle the steering chains to the quadrant and get that fixed in place along with the chain pulleys. Then I will complete the linkages. After some final paint touch ups on the hull she'll be ready for her display base.

Got some more work done on the quadrant this evening... the first two picturres are parts of the original ship's plans from 1928. They show the rudder bearing and quadrant, the two parts I am working on now. One picture also shows the rudder stops and brake, which I will make once the linkages are done. Here is the quadrant test fitted to the rudder head. The upper chain channel is starting to take shape! Thanks for looking in! Bruce

Thanks Druxey, on both counts! Good to be back at it...

Thanks Keith!

Greetings everyone, and for those who sent good thoughts for my new knee, thank you very much! The Cori-Robotic surgery was very successful, the full replacement took only 90 minutes and I had a spinal anesthetic, not a general. 4 hours later the feeling came back and they got me up on my pins and taking my first steps! I was in overnight to make sure everything was ok, then I walked out using only the cane! After a week I ditched the cane and was back walking the dog, about 1000 steps per day. The improvement is ongoing, and my second knee is scheduled for June 4! I have been able to negotiate the basement stairs for about a week now so I have been back at the St. Roch, working mainly on the steering linkages. The first two pictures are the alleyways either side of the deckhouse... I added the steps up to the doors and the covers for the steering chains. There are shackles under the covers connecting the chain from the steering wheel gypsy to the steel cables running aft. I used .015 diameter black thread to simulate 3/4" wire rope. I scratch built the four cable pulleys from styrene. Next I followed the original ship's plans to make the rudder bearing, which is bolted to the hull just forward of the rudder well. The bearing halves clamp the rudder post. The two steering cables are just set out of the way using the aft cleats. I have started making the rudder quadrant, as seen in the last picture. Again, I followed the ship's plans to make an accurate shape. The quadrant is designed for chains. On the prototype there are 'Z' channels following the arc of the quadrant, the chains sit in the channels and are shackled to the holes visible on the quadrant. I tried bending styrene channel but this was unsuccessful, so I'm making the channels from individual strips. There are chain pulleys guiding them out to the sides of the ship, where turnbuckles will connect them to the cables. I should be able to have the linkages complete shortly. I think at that point I will permanently mount the ship onto its' display base. Thanks for looking in!

Thank you Rick, much appreciated!

Thanks Alan! Yes, it is supposed to be a smaller incision and more precise placement of the prosthetic... they do expect me to be up and moving as soon as I'm fully awake!