JacquesCousteau

BE ADVISED: It will be several posts until I get to the actual build. Very sorry about that, but I want to be thorough about documenting all the research that’s going into this. Introduction Hi all, I had a lot of fun with the Model Shipways Lowell Grand Banks Dory kit, as well as scratch-building the Trajinera. I’m looking forward to my next kit, the Model Shipways Muscongus Bay Lobster Smack, which will undoubtedly teach me a lot about planking and rigging. But, it’s still in the mail. Given how much I enjoyed the trajinera, I thought I would try my hand with another scratch build of a classic Mexican vessel—this time something a bit more complicated, but still relatively simple in construction. Originally, following a visit to the port of Veracruz, I tried to find plans for a Veracruz coastal fishing boat, but I had no luck and decided that the vessels I could find in photos—small sloops and schooners—were a bit too complicated at my current skill level to try to scratch build, especially without plans. Instead, after randomly coming across some interesting photos, I’ve chosen something with a hull that is similar in some respects to the dory, and something with extremely simple rigging, but something that will still stretch my skills: a Canoa de Rancho from Lake Chapala in the late-nineteenth to the mid-twentieth century, used for fishing and cabotage on Mexico’s largest lake. Before I go further, here are a few representative photos of the type of boat in question that hopefully give some visual sense of why I was first struck by them. Source: https://mediateca.inah.gob.mx/islandora_74/islandora/object/fotografia%3A139790 Source: http://ri.uacj.mx/vufind/Record/96906 Source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/nullboy/6386212027/in/album-72157628104176801/ Source: https://mediateca.inah.gob.mx/islandora_74/islandora/object/fotografia%3A139791 Source: https://mediateca.inah.gob.mx/islandora_74/islandora/object/fotografia%3A141742 As you can see, these are very distinctive vessels, with a wide variety in sizes united by similar hull forms (upturned sharp bow, generally boxy stern, a cabin of sorts) and a similar sail plan (a single mast with an odd sort of cross between a square, a lug, and a settee rig—I’ll be discussing the rigging’s peculiarities in a future post). Before getting too far into things, I should note: despite my best efforts, I have not found any hull plans. These vessels would not have been built according to plans, but rather based on the builder’s long experience and traditions (although I have found some evidence of traditions changing—tradition can be quite flexible!). Moreover, they fell out of use by the mid-twentieth century and apparently no examples survive, although some smaller fishing boats with similar hull construction do survive. Unless it turns out that Howard Chapelle took a vacation to Lake Chapala and recorded the canoa's lines or something--in which case I'd love to hear about it!--my build is therefore speculative, based as well as I can on photographic evidence, of which there is thankfully quite a bit. Fortunately I am building a model of a generic rather than a specific vessel, and as can be seen above, there was a great deal of variation in practice between vessels, so I think I should be able to make a decent representation of a generic vessel. (That said, I should really try making something that has plans for my next scratch-build!) I should also note that figuring out how to build these and how they were used required substantial research, given the limited sources available about them, so it’s going to take a few posts before I get into the actual build. So, here I’ll be talking a bit about sources and then the broader context and history of these vessels. In future posts, I’ll be discussing what I can tell of hull design and construction and the rigging/sail plan—all of which have some oddities compared to usual practice. But first, a note about the name, types of vessels on Lake Chapala, and the specific type of vessel I’m modeling. What’s In A Name? The Chapala Canoa (de Rancho) While some image captions label these vessels with generic words meaning “boat” or “sailboat” (lancha, embarcación, velero, etc.), most sources just call them “canoas.” Canoa is usually translated as “canoe,” but in Mexico, the word is often used as a generic term for a wide variety of small vessels. The trajineras of the central basin, for instance, are also termed canoas, despite being flat-bottomed barges. Given this variety, I have chosen to leave the word “canoa” untranslated, as “canoe” wouldn’t be quite accurate. On Lake Chapala, small dugouts seem to have been called either canoas or cayucos (according to information from the National Institute of Anthropology and History: https://lugares.inah.gob.mx/es/museos-inah/museo/museo-piezas/10858-10858-canoa-la-brisa.html?lugar_id=480 ) while larger vessels of a wide variety of sizes were often simply called canoas. José María Angulo Sepulveda generally calls them “sailing canoas” (canoas veleras). However, in his novel La canoa perdida (more about which below), Ramón Rubín distinguishes between the simple canoa, which he says is technically a type of chalupa (yet another word for a small vessel), and the canoa de rancho, which he says is technically a lanchón (a curious word: lancha means small boat, the -ón suffix means large, so a lanchón is a big small boat). Although both the canoa and the canoa de rancho share a number of construction and design characteristics, the canoa was smaller, used mostly for fishing, and could be propelled by sail, oar, and pole, while the canoa de rancho was larger—Angulo Sepulveda says up to 20 meters long and 30 tons displacement—used more often for cabotage rather than fishing, propelled only by sail or pole, and was distinguished by having a “rancho,” the term used for the thatched or wooden cabin structure at the stern. The rancho was used to protect passengers and cargo from the elements. Other sources confirm that the cabin was in fact called a rancho, and it’s a very distinctive part, so I have decided to follow Rubín’s terminology in order to title my build log. Below we can see, first, several smaller fishing canoas, and second, a large (~60 foot long) canoa de rancho. The similarities are evident, as are some differences in proportions. Notably, the fishing canoas survived much longer than the canoas de rancho did, so there are more color photos of them than of their larger cousins. Small fishing canoas. Source: https://www.museocjv.com/chapalapostaless.html Large canoa de rancho from a postcard. Source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/nullboy/6386211855/in/album-72157628104176801/ I should note, though, that other evidence suggests that Rubín was wrong to draw such a sharp distinction between the fishing-oriented, row-able canoa and the cargo-hauling, non-row-able canoa de rancho. As I’ll discuss more later, it seems that small canoas de rancho (maybe around the 27-35 foot long range) were actually row-able and used for fishing as well. In fact, the photo at the beginning with the man standing at the bow, nearly silhouetted against the lake, very clearly shows a small canoa de rancho with thole pins for rowing. These mixed-use vessels may have been the exception, but I have chosen to model one of them. I am very interested in trying to model a thatched rancho (and if I mess up on the thatching, I can always just make it a simpler wooden one), but I am also interested in modeling some of the fishing gear, which requires modeling a vessel that both had a rancho and was used for fishing. This excludes the larger and smaller vessels. I did not want to model all the cargo they would haul—making dozens of scale watermelons or sacks or crates did not seem like my idea of a good time! I considered building it at 1:24 scale to be consistent with the dory, but this would require a model around 15 inches long, which would be a little large given my space limits, so I decided to go for 1:32 scale, at which the model will be around 12 inches or a little less. Sources As mentioned above, photos are the most useful sources I have. Lake Chapala and its surrounding towns became an important tourist destination in the late 1800s. Postcards with photos of these vessels were apparently popular, given how many survive, and a number of photographers took large numbers of photographs of the lake’s vessels. These photos are available online via a number of sources. Many are available through the digital Mediateca of the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH). Unfortunately, many of the Mediateca photos are rather grainy and low-res (at least in their digitized versions). Other photos are available from the website México en Fotos, often in higher-resolution versions (although the latter are heavily watermarked). Other sources include the online postcard collections of the Universidad Autónoma de Ciudad Juárez, the virtual Museo Claudia Jiménez Vizcarra, a flickr album of postcards from the lake, and a number of videos about local history uploaded to youtube. I will make sure to clearly source all of the photos that I show, and I should note that in many cases, I am showing relatively low-res screenshots that are zoomed in on specific parts of the photo. Written sources are rather more limited. La navegación de antaño en el Lago de Chapala, written by local chronicler José María Angulo Sepulveda (originally published in 1987, reprinted in 2004) is the most detailed and focused work. It includes a number of details on lake vessels and their history on the lake and appears to mostly be based on interviews with locals. Unfortunately, the book is currently out of print, and I was unable to find it for purchase online or after visiting a lot of used bookstores. Through my institutional library, I was able to get a scan of a 20-page section that I believed would be useful based on the tiny samples available on google books, but nothing more. The section includes useful information on the construction of the canoas, as well as a couple hand-drawn depictions of them, one with all the parts labeled which is quite helpful even if it’s not quite what one would need to make a scale model. Other secondary sources include a number of academic works about the fishing industry on Lake Chapala and the lake’s environmental history, which are useful for understanding fishing techniques and the social-environmental history of the lake and its sailors. However, they have few if any details on the vessels themselves. Published primary sources are more variable. Unsurprisingly, my search in major newspapers (which, prior to the Revolution, are readily available in digital form) turned up almost nothing—small fishing communities attracted little journalistic attention except in the case of notable accidents. Travel writing was somewhat more useful. As noted, Lake Chapala became a popular tourist destination, and a useful introduction to many of the lake’s prominent visitors can be found (in English) at the site: https://lakechapalaartists.com/ The lake’s distinctive canoas attracted a degree of attention. However, few discussed them in much detail. Thomas Philip Terry’s popular foreign guidebook Terry’s Mexico: Handbook for Travelers (Revised Second Edition, 1911) contains a surprising amount of detail on fishing in the lake, but mentions the canoas (which he calls “fishing-smacks”) in passing only as a picturesque backdrop: “Each tiny port has its stretch of white beach in lieu of a harbor and a main street; and each its fleet of time- and water-stained fishing-smacks, resting placidly on the sand” (157-158). William Carson English’s Mexico: The Wonderland of the South (Revised Edition, 1914) similarly emphasizes the picturesque aspects of the vessels, which he inaccurately calls “small fishing schooners” (352). In contrast, Eduardo A. Gibbon, a Mexican journalist, poet, and diplomat, discussed the lake and its canoas in some detail in his book Guadalajara (La Florencia Mexicana): vagancias y recuerdos (1893). Especially useful are his writings on the storm-shortened voyage he took on a decent-sized (he said it was 10 tons) canoa de rancho. Gibbon waxed rhapsodic about the lake’s great natural beauty and its proud history, evidently promoting it as a matter of natural pride. However, after riding aboard both a canoa and a modern steamboat, he ultimately seemed fine with committing the canoas to the past, writing that, “if the lancha-canoas with their lateen sails represented the past, and imperfect and dangerous navigation, the steamer, marvel of our century, represented the present with all its potent vitality and its conquests of progress” (352). I’ll be continuing to search through travel writings about Chapala to see if I can find much about the vessels in question. Perhaps the most useful work for understanding these vessels and their context (outside of Angulo Sepulveda’s book) is actually a novel, Ramón Rubín Rivas’s La canoa perdida: una novela mestiza (1951; my version is the 1996 reprint by the Fondo de Cultura Económica). Rubín (1912-1999) is an interesting figure. Many of his novels deal with indigenista themes (that is, they’re explicitly or implicitly about the question of the role of indigenous people and culture in the modern nation), but he also was himself an experienced sailor, apparently having worked aboard merchant ships for some time, and several of his works deal with life at sea. This experience makes his discussion of the canoa particularly convincing, although he also is a bit disparaging of how Chapala sailors took up maritime terminology in what he views as an extremely haphazard fashion. La canoa perdida follows the story of a poor fisherman, the ironically-named Ramiro Fortuna, who eventually attains a particularly nice canoa that is quickly stolen, sending him on a journey around the lake in search of his vessel (I mean, there’s more to it than that). The book is out of print, but I was eventually (through luck on Facebook marketplace) able to get a copy. I haven’t finished it yet, but the early chapters are extremely detailed on the lives and livelihoods of poor fishermen—Rubín clearly had a strong interest in social realism and his characters’ economic grounding (after all, he was a Marxist). His introduction also strikes a very elegiac tone about the fast-disappearing canoas de rancho, writing of “the high Phoenecian sails of their great lanchones or canoas de rancho” (12). La canoa perdida’s strong environmental themes critiqued Lake Chapala’s over-exploitation and desiccation, and made Rubín political enemies. It’s an interesting work, and I’ll continue to post useful details from it as I come across them. Finally, the Guadalajara Regional Museum (Museo Regional de Guadalajara) and the Anthropology and History Museum of Ocotlán (Museo de Antropología e Historia de Ocotlán) both have large models of canoas de rancho, seen below, that were built in the 1980s. Interestingly, they were built by one of the people Angulo Sepulveda interviewed for his own drawings of the canoa de rancho. A few images are available of them online. They’re useful for a few details, but they don’t seem to be quite to scale and have some details that seem either inaccurate, as I haven’t seen them in any photo of actual vessels, or atypical, as I’ve only seen them in a small portion of the vessels photographed. The museums also don’t seem to have necessarily rigged them correctly—in the image below of the Guadalajara model, the halyard seems to have been tied to the anchor chain. Source: https://lugares.inah.gob.mx/es/museos-inah/museo/museo-piezas/10858-10858-canoa-la-brisa.html?lugar_id=480 Anyway, this post is already huge, so I’m going to end it here. Next: a bit about Lake Chapala and the history of the canoa de rancho.

Well done! I think it looks great without the rigging, it really brings attention to the lines of the hull and all the fittings.

Thanks, I'm glad to hear people find the log helpful! I think this is a great kit not just because of the quality of the parts and instructions, but also because it leaves a lot of room for personalization.

Things have been busy, so I worked slowly this week, but the build is finished! Mark.bukovich's Chesapeake Flattie build had some great directions for making nice rope loops that hang off a cleat, so I followed his example. Mine ended up being a bit clunky, but they work, and in any case this isn't a naval vessel I'm modeling. I'm just glad the rope is up off the thwart. I used a bit of glue to help shape the line. Also, I clearly need to get some locking tweezers or hemostats for rigging, as it was very tricky to hold the bights with normal tweezers while looping the rope. Also, as seen above, I did something a little unusual with the line hanging off the snotter. The simplest thing to do would be to just trim it nearly to the knot, but I figured you might want to have a bit of extra length in the line in case you needed to retie it on the fly or something. I also didn't want to just have a lot of line dangling. So, I tied a bowline with the excess, high up enough that it shouldn't snag anything. I tried some different arrangements with the fishing equipment. Here, for instance, a thwart is removed and the lobster trap is in the middle. Ultimately, I think the lobster trap looks best in the stern, especially because I want the funnel facing starboard so it's visible (and, with the rope and buoy, it's hard to fit it that way at the bow), but it might get in the way of sailing and steering there. I decided to leave it that way for now, but nothing in the boat is glued down so I can move things around if I change my mind. I also added a loop in the sheet following the same method as for the lobster trap line. With that, the rigging was complete. I've also been working on a scratchbuilt stand, as I would like to save all the thick basswood that I can (it's not readily available here, as far as I can tell). I'll have to pack things up for moving, so to reduce the risk of breakage I want something that can be disassembled. I also wanted something that looks nice with angled upright pieces. I probably way over-engineered this, but it's fun. With the sheet looped and the new stand built, the dory was finished! I don't think it turned out half bad. Overall, I had a great time building this. I really learned a lot about boat building and scale techniques, both from the instructions and also from the helpful folks on this forum. Thank you all for your advice and encouragement! I'm still waiting for my next kit, the Model Shipways Muscongus Bay Lobster Smack, to arrive. (Between that kit and the lobster trap, I'm making a lot of lobster fishing things for a guy with a shellfish allergy!) In the meantime, I may start on another scratch-built Mexican vessel.... we'll see.

Nice job with the repairs, the hull looks great!

Good to know, thanks!

Wow, nice job, congratulations on finishing up with a great-looking model! I'm thinking of planking the deck whenever my own kit arrives. I remember that you mentioned earlier that you weren't sure if the uppermost strake would be wide enough for the thickness of the deck planks. It seems like it all worked out in the end?

Sorry for posting on an old topic, but thanks for showing so clearly how to do this! I found your instructions really helpful for my own rigging. (Also great job on the build!)

Thanks, I'm having a great time modding things. The dory is nearly done! Given my difficulties with finding good sail material, I decided that I can live with the too-thick sail for now, and it wouldn't be all that difficult to change it out if I want to in the future. I attached the new cleats to the mast after a little shaping. This time I was happy with how they turned out. I got some new thread that's closer in color to manila rope. As practice, I tried a cleat hitch from memory (as can be seen, I messed up). In any case, I think this thread will work better for the running rigging. Next I marked where the sail will be lashed to the mast with pencil. Punching the holes in the thick, heavily glued sail material was difficult. I ended up putting a needle in my pin vise and using it as a punch with scrap balsa beneath, which worked. Even still, it was hard getting the needle and thread through the sail to lash it to the mast. But it was doable. This time the cleat hitches were done correctly! The fact that the sail is thick enough to stand perfectly upright without the sprit definitely shows that it's too thick... oh well, I'll learn for the future. The sprit was a little tricky to tie off. I used a rolling hitch on the mast, which turned out ok. There was very little space to tie off the line around the sprit, though, that I just did a simple knot. Finally I tied the sheet at the clew. A few drops of glue rubbed into the line, and at the bolt rope loop around the end of the sprit, served to make sure everything would stay together. The boat is nearly done now, I just have to figure out what to do with the dangling rope ends and rearrange the fishing gear into a configuration that makes more sense with the sail. Some of the excess rope, like around the snotter, can simply be trimmed a bit close to the knot. Any suggestions for what to do with the excess below the cleats, or for the sheet? It seems like a few too many lines for each to be a neat rope coil. (And, of course, I need to actually make a base. Given my difficulties finding thicker basswood, I want to keep the big basswood sheet for other purposes, but I need to figure out something else for the base then.)

I ended up modifying the Chapelle sail plan substantially, although the mast and spar dimensions are similar (slightly shorter as it's a smaller vessel, though) and I'll be following that example for rigging the snotter. I'm modeling a slightly shorter vessel than in the Chapelle plans, and one that isn't a dedicated sailer--the sheet is just held by hand instead of run through a block at the stern. So I shortened the foot to make a more manageable sail. I also raised the tack and foot a bit higher so the sail wouldn't interfere with any fishing equipment in the boat (althoughto be honest the sail on the peapod I showed earlier looks pretty low). Finally, I lengthened the head a bit so that, with the other modifications, it wouldn't be too small of a sail. I tried a few templates cut from scrap paper, eventually finding one I liked. I followed the Norwegian Pram instructions to make the sail. I made a few mistakes with my first attempt. First, I should have waited to draw the sail template onto the fabric until after I added the watered-down glue, as I read in build logs that the pencil lines become impossible to erase after gluing. Second, my sail material was a bit larger than the non-stick flat backing I had (a spare flooring tile), so I ended up doing a poor job taping it. It seemed fine at first, but after leaving it to dry I found that the material had bubbled. The material was still useful for cutting reinforcing strips and corners, but I thought it wouldn't work for the sail. For my second attempt, I cut a smaller piece of the material so it could be better taped down. It turned out much better, although it still had some very slight bubbling later (after I added another coat of glue with the reinforcement strips). I added reinforcing strips around the edges. I also decided to draw on the seams and stitches with a pencil, especially because the fabric is a bit too thick and the reinforcements don't show through the other side very well unless it's held up to light. I was pretty happy with how the sail looked. Meanwhile, I had been working on figuring out the rigging. Some articles online about sprit rigs suggested that you could just tie things down around the thwart, but that a cleat was easier to handle and better organized. Tying off around the thwart sounded like something that would make unshipping the mast harder--after all, I'm trying to model something that would be taken down and set up quickly when the opportunity arose--and also like something that would look messy. Ultimately, I decided to go with two cleats, on the fore and aft sides of the mast. This would keep things orderly and allow the mast to be easily unshipped, as a unit, or for the sail to be let down if desired. I made the cleats from scrap basswood. I then made the spar from some scrap basswood. As with the mast, I found it a little hard to smoothly sand it round, and there were a few minor gouges during sanding. Ideally I think I would like to use a harder wood for masts and spars. I drilled a hole for the snotter and carefully trimmed the end for where the bolt rope loops around the sprit at the peak. Next, the bolt rope. I wasn't fully happy with how my rope dyeing was turning out, so I decided to leave it as-is. In any case, I'm not planning on weathering the sail, so I don't want it to look out of place. I read a post, I think by ccoyle, somewhere on the forum saying that, if you're careful, you can attach the bolt rope right on the edge of the fabric. I actually had an extremely easy time doing so, which is a clear sign that my sail cloth is much too thick--the bolt rope is actually a bit thinner than the sail at the corners where there are multiple layers of reinforcements. In my defense, I couldn't find anything more suitable despite going to three fabric stores. Seemingly everything available is polyester. The bolt rope, and sail more generally, turned out well, but I'm considering whether I should try a few more fabric stores to see if I can find thin cotton fabric. On one hand, it would be more accurate. On the other hand, it would be more work, both finding the fabric and making a whole new sail from it. In any case, I feel like I've learned a lot about sail making from this. Finally, I also decided that I didn't much like the look of the cleats, as it was too obvious that they were the same material as the mast. I made new ones from a coffee stir stick. The wood was a bit brittle so it took a few tries, but they turned out better by the end. New ones at top, old ones at bottom. Next to attach the cleats (again) and make a decision about the sail before I lash it to the mast.

Looks great, it's cool to see it all coming together!

Thanks for the build log, it looks great! Having attempted to scratch-build a model of a Missouri River sternwheeler for a school presentation in middle school--it did not turn out very well--it's really fascinating to see the process of how someone who actually knows what they're doing and has woodworking skills goes about building one of these.

Wow, thanks so much for these! Clearly I need to get Chapelle's book. Very interesting on the mast step, it looks like there's a hole on both the first and second thwarts (presumably you wouldn't use the jib if it was stepped in the first thwart). I'll need to study the plans more, but my thought at the moment is that I can draw on the plans for inspiration but modify them a bit. Although I might try my hand at another dory in the future, it seems like a nice, relatively simple build to learn about scratch building from plans (instead of the "eyeball everything and hope for the best" method I used for the trajinera, with mixed results). Given that the dory I'm building isn't a dedicated sailer, lacking a centerboard or rudder, and the mast/sail is meant to be easily unshipped, I think I'll leave off the jib for now, and I might shrink the sail a bit, especially at the foot, to get something that would be more easily manageable with the sheet just held in hand. It's interesting that Chapelle also shows the snotter simply tied off around the mast, so I think I'll go with that instead of attaching it to a cleat as in the Bluejacket dory. The spar dimensions are also really helpful. Thanks again for the plans I really appreciate you taking the time to scan them, and I'm definitely making use of then even if I go with a slightly different sail plan!

Thanks, that's incredibly helpful! Clearly I should have checked Chapelle before diving in, haha. With the mast step already glued in place under the second rather than the first thwart, I think I'll have to live with my mistake there. But hopefully I can avoid any further errors. If you're willing to scan and post the plans, I would really appreciate it! Looking forward to seeing your peapod build!

(This was originally going to be part of the above post, but it was already pretty long). At this point, I think I'm done with the furnishings. But, I've been working on a larger addition to the build: a mast and sail. I was especially inspired by the many fantastic build logs of the Bluejacket dory kit, which does include a sail. Although this dory won't have a rudder (or a centerboard) and isn't a dedicated sailer, simple spritsails were nonetheless common on dories, designed to be easily unshipped and used only if the wind was favorable. I plan to make mine so it can also be unshipped, which is not only an interesting possibility for displaying the model but also will make transporting it much easier. The first step was preparing the mast step assembly. I noticed that the Bluejacket kit looks to be framed following the Shelburne dory style, with each frame made of three pieces held together with metal braces at the joints, while this kit, representing a Lowell dory, uses frames build of two pieces of wood. This means that each frame is rather thicker across the bottom than on the Bluejacket dory, which is relevant for the mast as the mast needs to be stepped through the number two thwart and down to a mast step on the bottom. The thwart in the kit sits centered on the frame, making it impossible to fit a mast as the frame is right under it. So, the first step for me was to make a new thwart from scrap wood, with the frame slots further back so that the thwart sits further forward. I also added a piece across the center on the bottom to reinforce the area where the mast step will be drilled, as I saw this on a photo of a dory in a museum (below). The mast step hole will have to be cut toward the front of the thwart to fit around the frame, but it will work. The photo below compares the kit's thwart (below) with my scratch-built one (above), prior to drilling the mast step hole. Next, the mast step itself, which I made of scrap wood. Lacking any files, I decided the best way to make a square hole (measured for a 1/16th inch square piece) would be to cut the step in half, cut out half the step, then glue it back together. As can be seen, I first accidentally cut the wrong side, but I decided againat replacing the part. Instead, I filled it in with scrap wood and sawdust with glue. After sanding and painting, the mistake was invisible, as seen later. After the glue was dry on the step, but before gluing anything to the dory, I drilled a pilot hole in the thwart and did a test fitting with the leftover 3/64th-inch thole pin material, just to check that nothing was horribly out of alignment. It still wasn't time to attach the step, though--first I wanted to make the mast itself, so I could make sure to fit the mast step properly. I made the mast out of the scrap wood from around the display board. Following the suggestions given in the Model Shipways Norwegian Pram instructions (which are available for download on the model shipways site) I cut the 1/8th-square piece into an octagonal cross-section, making sure to always cut with the grain, and then carefully sanded it circular and tapered a bit at the ends by running it through a sheet of sandpaper that I held curved in my palm. I could do a better job getting it perfect in the future, but for a first attempt I'm happy with it. I also noticed that the basswood seems a little soft for making masts, and had to fill a divot that somehow got sanded into it with a mix of glue and sawdust, which seemed to work. I then drilled a hole at the top for tge rigging and added a bit of 1/16th-square wood at the bottom to slot into the mast step (I used the pin vise to drill a hole in the bottom to better hold the piece). Finally, I drilled out the hole in the thwart for the mast. I did a test fitting, marked the location for the mast step, then glued it to the bottom after scraping a bit the paint that was where it would be. Then I painted the step. I'm happy with how the mast fits! As for the sail, I had no luck finding a really thin cotton fabric despite visiting multiple shops, but in one shop's scrap pile I did find a large number of pieces that are a good size for the sail (and extra in case I mess up). They're slightly thicker than I would like, but for now it will work, especially considering they were about 50 cents. I haven't started making the sail yet, but will be drawing on the Norwegian Pram instructions as well as the "Scale Sails For Your Model" pdf. At this point, while I still haven't made the sprit or sail, there's something I'd like to ask for help to clarify. The Bluejacket kit depicts a spritsail rigged with a snotter and with lines tied off at cleats. This seems like the classic way to rig a spritsail. But, a different method seems to be used in the examples I've found online. The dory at the Mariner's Museum, seen below, seems to have the sprit basically just tied to the mast (which might technically be a snotter, just an extremely short one). The sprit-rigged lobstering peapod below also seems (it's a bit blurry) to be similar. No cleats in sight. (Image links: https://iscc.marinersmuseum.org/watercraft/grand-banks-dory/ And https://maineboats.com/online/boat-features/evolution-maine-lobsterboat ) So, how should I go about rigging this? Part of me wants to just base it on the Bluejacket model and include cleats etc, which would look nice and be good for building experience. But part of me thinks I should follow the photos and go for accuracy. If I do the latter, though, there are two things I'm unsure of. 1) How does the loop of the snotter that goes around the mast stay in position and not slide around, especially given the taper of the mast? (I mean, I could glue it, but that seems like cheating). Reading online about spritsails on smsll boats, it seems like a sliding snotter could be used to adjust the sail, but that still doesn't tell me anything about how it would stay in position when you didn't want it to slide. 2) No hoist--I think that's the term for the line used to haul up the sail, but I might be wrong, different articles seemed to use different terms with one calling it a halyard--is visible. Where would it be tied off without a visible cleat? If you have any suggestions, please let me know, I'd really appreciate any help. I've tried looking in David Steel's 1794 book "The Elements and Practice of Rigging and Seamanship," but while it's useful on the sails themselves it's not very clear on the questions I have. In any case, I'm learning a lot from this build, and really enjoying it!

Thanks, glad to hear it! Looking forward to your lobster smack build log, as I recently ordered that kit for myself. I'm also curious about some of the Mini Mamoli kits of Mediterranean fishing vessels, although from your experience it sounds like they may have some issues with the instructions.

Nicely done, congratulations on the build. It looks great, and despite not building this particular model, I've learned a lot from the build log!

Thanks, I'm really enjoying making the fittings! The University of Maine's Lobster Institute lists a gaff hook among the tools used in lobstering, especially for hooking the line connected to the buoy. Sounds good to me! I decided to make the shaft out of a toothpick, and the hook from a paperclip. I started by cutting off the tip of the toothpick and using the pin vise to drill a hole, about 1/8th to 1/4th of an inch deep, to secure the paperclip hook. I've found that, given the limited pressure you can exert on a pin vise, it's best to start with a small pilot hole and work your way up. Despite the small diameter of the hole I drilled, I still needed to use three drill bits to cut it! (This might in part be because I bought a very cheap pin vise and many drill bits are not very sharp at the tip, although for all I know that's normal for tiny drill bits). The photo below shows the toothpick, end-on, propped up by the pin vise. I don't have a wire cutter, so I used some pliers to twist the paperclip back and forth at a certain point until it broke, making the hook. I rubbed the broken end on some sandpaper in hopes that that would wear down any jagged bits. Then I was able to fit the hook into the shaft. Thinking back to when I used to tie fishing flies, I used black thread as a serving on a makeshift jig. The serving was a bit messy but it worked. I realized then that I should have painted the shaft before serving. Thankfully, I was able to carefully paint it without painting the serving. I didn't want it to be the same color as the trap, so I gave it a few coats of a thin ochre wash, followed by a light black wash to bring out the texture of the wood. I also painted the buoy. I thought a thin white coat over a black wash would look good, but it ended up a little stark and grey. I mixed a tiny bit of ochre into the white to make more of a cream color, which I used to paint the buoy. I added a dark red stripe, then a very light black wash for texture. The photo below shows how the buoy and gaff hook turned out after painting--note that I left the end of the hook unpainted, as it will be cut off. Also note that, after finding in a test that the paint doesn't adhere very well to the paperclip, I decided to leave the hook as natural metal. Maybe in the future I'll experiment with aging effects on metal, but for now I can live with the hook being a bit shiny. I finished the gaff hook by cutting off the end, painting the cut end black, and adding serving again as a sort of handle. I also glued in a loop of string to the end of the buoy to finish that part, as well. About the rope/string: I wasn't crazy about how the beckets had turned out, so after some experimentation I found that the string looks better and more consistent if it's first lightly soaked in the cream-colored wash, then, after that dries, quickly dipped in a black wash. The photo below compares the original, right, with it after the cream wash but before the black wash, left. It's a subtle difference, but it takes some of the sheen off the string. The effect with the black wash can be seen above with the buoy, or later. I think adding the black wash makes sense for lines that would spend a lot of time in the water, like the lobster trap line, but I like the cleaner look of the cream wash for something like rigging. Hmmmm, shame there's no rigging on this dory... more about that later. Finally, I wanted to make a rope loop for the line connecting the lobster trap to the buoy. I decided against a line bucket for now, but thought a rough loop (instead of a tight coil) sitting on the thwart wouldn't look bad. I made a jig using plastic brush protectprs and used watered-down glue to make the loop. My first attempt, pictured below, tried to make it look like the line had been simply looped around someone's arm from elbow to hand. But, it not only didn't turn out looking right--it was too tall--but also the glue was too watery, failing to hold its shape. Thankfully, the watery glue also meant the line could still be shaped. I simplified the jig to make more of a circular loop and gave that a try. Ultimately, I'm reasonably happy with how it turned out, although I think it could be shaped to better fit, and hang more naturally, at the stern thwart. The line is by now soaked in enough glue that it's hard to shape it more. The gaff hook looks decent in the dory as well, albeit a little shiny, and I'm not totally sure where they would put it. All fittings are currently not glued in place, so if you want to suggest a more accurate way to place things, I'm all ears!

Looks great! I saw the St. Roch years ago in Vancouver, so I'm looking forward to following the build.

Thanks for all the kind words! The trajinera, with all its chairs, table, and decorations, really built my confidence with scratch-building, and I wanted to apply that to the dory. So, I made a lobster trap. This does entail a choice to build this less as a dory used on the grand banks, where they were mostly targeting fish, but rather a dory used for inshore fishing. I based the design on photos from a number of other builds (shout-out to posts by users Keithbrad80, ThirdCoast, John Ruy, and Mr. Bluejacket), as well as on images and descriptions at these sites: https://www.fao.org/3/x2590e/x2590e07.htm https://scarboroughhistoricalsociety.org/2016/11/lobster-traps/ The trap is mostly constructed of slats of basswood, 1mm thick (more or less) that I stripped from a 1/16th inch thick board (so, they're 1/16th of an inch wide). I would have made them thinner, 1/32 inch, but I had a hard time stripping the wood very precisely with just my exacto knife and a straightedge. I consoled myself with the knowledge that lobster traps were often built by hand by fishermen, and usually looked a bit rough, and pressed on. I drew a template to follow for the outer pieces, and then added the slats across the bottom, using a piece of scrap wood as a spacer. For the curved frames, I soaked three slats in hot water and bent them around plastic bottle caps that were the correct size. I had some minor issues with the slats kinking rather than following smooth curve--perhaps the wood was a little thick for such a tight curve--but I was able to use hairpins to clamp those parts down into more of a curve. I was happy with how the curved frames and base turned out. Attaching the frames was tricky, as there was very little surface area to attach them and they had opened up slightly after taking them from the mold. First I tried to use super glue to add a bottom piece--essentially making a "D" shape with the frames--but this did not work at all. The glue ran everywhere, and the frame stuck only to my fingers! After peeling it off and scrubbing my hands for far too long, I decided on a different approach. I added a slat running across both ends of the frames. Once that assembly dried, I then was able to attach all three frames at once to the base. After attaching them, I noticed that the angle was a bit off. The top left part (in the photo below) didn't worry me as I was going to cut that part of the slat off anyway to make the entrance, but the bottom left and center frames were cut off and reglued, which resolved the problem. One of the frames at this point developed a slight kink again. I tried to pin it down a little by attaching a support slat and clamping, which helped a bit but not fully. Later, with the trap mostly complete, I simply sanded a bit off the slats at that point, which brought them into a smooth curve with the rest of the trap. Before attaching the funnels, I gave the whole assembly a light black wash to add some character. I wanted to do this now so that the trap interior wouldn't be unpainted. Making the funnels was very difficult! I used a thin tulle for the netting, dying it in the black wash so it was less white. Interestingly the surface tension is enough that the tulle just sits on top of the water untill you really force it in. I decided to do the interior funnel first, as it would be less visible if I messed up. My first plan to make the funnel was to attach straight strips of tulle inside the frame, which I would slit and glue into more of a conical shape. This did not work at all. Tulle is very hard to glue, for the simple reason that it's more holes than solid. When glued to itself, it prefers to stick to anything but itself, especially whatever is used (fingers, tweezers, etc) to push the tulle pieces together. With the first funnel a disaster, I cut it out and went back to the drawing board. In the meantime, I made the funnel entrance rings. I soaked sone brown thread in the black wash to make it darker, then wrapped it around a cylindrical plastic brush cover and soaked it in glue, trimming the edges once it dried. I decided the funnels themselves would have to be made as funnels before being attached to the frames, so I cut larger strips of tulle, rolled them into funnels, and glued. This was still extremely difficult, given the above-mentioned problem of gluing tule, but making it a single area to be glued instead of multiple was somewhat manageable (although this still left some of the "net" clogged with glue--at least it dried clear, and I picked out some with a needle). That said, the interior funnel was still much too wide. I decided to try two different methods of making the funnels. For the interior funnel, I figured the ring would be most visible on its exterior, so I placed the ring over the edge and slid it down to hold it into a better shape. I then glued the funnel to the frame, as seen. For the exterior funnel, which ended up much closer to the correct size, I figured the ring would be most visible looking in from the trap entrance, so I glued the ring to the funnel interior, as seen. I waited to attach the exterior funnel until later. Once the glue dried, I moved the interior funnel ring into the correct position and glued it, then cut off the excess tulle once it dried. As the funnel was too big, it looked very messy, but 1) it was still a net funnel! and 2) it was going to be mostly boxed in anyway. At this point, I also started making a buoy. I laminated two pieces of scrap 1/8th inch basswood and whittled and sanded for the body, and used my pin vice to make a joint to better attach the stick part (I have no clue what the correct terminology is). Growing up, my family had an old buoy as decoration, so I based my design on that one. Hence why the stick part (I'm sure there's a better word but this post is already long and I am tired) is cut off at an angle--the tip had broken off around a knot on our buoy. I also drilled out a hole for the rope, which almost split the tip. Then to the exterior funnel. I added a pre-painted slat at the correct height to make the entrance. I decided that gluing tulle was too much of a pain, so instead I wanted to sew it in place. Surely, I thought, this would be easier? I was mostly wrong. Sewing the tulle was a real pain in the neck. It had a real tendency to simply follow along with the thread instead of staying in place. After multiple failed tries, I ultimately had to glue down the four corners. This helped, but it was still difficult and every non-glued part pulled moved a lot, at least until it was halfway sewn on to the trap. The tulle moved so much that it partially ripped off from the ring, which had to be re-glued. The thread also had a tendency to stick to itself. Finally, though, I finished and tied it off. It was sloppy, but at least it worked. I noticed my spacing was a bit off on the left side, so I filled in the gap by tying a bit of string there. This helped a lot with reducing the irregularity, and isn't very noticeable. I also started attaching the pre-painted slats. After finishing off the slats--some of which had to be carefully placed between the loops of the line holding in the netting--I finally added three small "buttons" used to close off the trap lid on top. With that, the trap was finished! Overall, I'm happy with how it turned out, and I think it looks good in the dory, although I still need to finish the buoy and line. Would a lobster trap's line be more likely to be coiled in a line tub/bucket, or just left more loosely coiled on the thwart? A few thoughts on what I've learned: On pre-painting the slats with a black wash: after initially painting each slat separately after they were cut to size, a slow process, for the side slats I simply painted the entire strip before cutting to size, later adding a bit of wash at the ends. This ended up making the ends a bit too dark as the pigment in the wash was concentrated there, and I think it would look more consistent to paint the whole slat after cutting to size. I probably should have used a thread the same color as the tulle, but I don't think the black looks horribly put of place. In hindsight, I think it would have worked better to make the funnels mostly by sewing the tulle into shape, given how difficult it was to use the glue. The rings also probably should have been sewn instead of glued on. That said, tiny pieces of tulle are tricky enough to sew that this would still be frustrating. I wish I had gotten the frames more square to the base, but I think it looks good enough for something that a fisherman would have made himself. Next up: possibly a few more fishing tools, plus something else a bit larger.

Looks great! And thank you for the build log, this will be very helpful whenever my own lobster smack arrives!

Sorry for the long break between posts, I was traveling and finishing the trajinera. I've made good progress recently on the dory, though. The thwarts required a good bit of shaping to fit, including beveling the side edges and part of the slot (which would have been easier to cut with a small chisel instead of the no. 11 exacto blade I used), as can be seen in the photo. (I numbered the thwarts on the bottom to keep track of them.) It took a little while and a lot of test fittings, but they came out even in the end. As will be seen in later photos, I then added a sealer-varnish, as I did with the oars, which ever-so-slightly darkened the thwarts. Experiments with using washes for weathering elsewhere proved encouraging, so I ended up applying a very thin black wash to the hull in order to lightly weather it. I didn't want a severe weathering, but just a little suggestion of a bit of grime, as might accumulate after a short voyage or two. My error with the previous attempt at a wash (discussed above) was using too big a brush, which slopped on a ton of wash at once. This time, I used my smallest brush and had a lot more success. It's hard to see in photos, but I do think it adds a bit of character. I also applied a wash to the bailer, but I didn't like the way it turned out--it was very patchy. I ended up later painting a thin white wash over it, and I think it came out looking appropriately aged--while the dory might be relatively freshly painted, perhaps the fisherman cut costs with a used bailer. Next, the beckets. As nearly every build log mentions, the included rope is much too thick. I didn't want to shell out for international shipping with purpose-made modeling rope, so I hunted around a bit in fabric shops. None of the threads I found actually stated the width, so I eyeballed it and ended up with something perhaps a bit too thin. But, it will be useful for other lines on the boat, so I don't think it's a terrible issue. Plus, the beckets are pretty simple, so it will be easy to replace with thicker thread if it really bothers me in the future. The thread I got was white, so I dyed it a bit in the leftover black wash, which turned out ok. Following the kit instructions to attach the beckets worked perfectly, except that I used full-strength rather than watered-down glue, following suggestions in other build logs. I also tried a real stopper knot on the ends, but it was a little small, so I added a simple knot to make sure it wouldn't slip through. The knots were glued, too. Overall I'm happy with how the beckets turned out. Next, the thole pins. The squared-off wooden piece you cut them from is very thin and I found it hard to sand it fully round. Instead, I took off the edges a bit--necessary for it to effectively roll for the cutting method--and then only rounded a bit at a time, just enough for one or two thole pins, then cutting them and sanding the next bit. This worked well, and the cutting method given in the instructions worked perfectly. The instructions say that the thole pins are to be vertical. This doesn't follow any of the photos I've seen of actual dories, which have thole pins that follow the flare of the hull and which actually pass entirely through the cap rail and gunwales, as in this image from the International Small Craft Center: Accurately modeling this would require drilling through the gunwales at the correct angle and making longer thole pins. The drilling seems like something that could very easily go wrong, and I'm not sure if there's enough material for longer thole pins, so I decided to just angle the pins out as they would look on a real dory. I think the "vertical" should be taken to mean that the thole pins are vertical when viewed from the side, not completely vertical from all angles. At this point, the dory is complete by the instructions, except for making the stand. That said, I'm not marking this build log as "finished" yet, as there are a couple extra furnishings I'm working on that I'll be continuing to post about. Overall, though, I want to say that this has been a fantastic kit that I've really enjoyed. The pieces are well-cut, the instructions are very clear, and the kit has clearly been designed and made with care. I highly recommend it to anyone interested in starting up ship modeling (or anyone with experience who wants a simple, fun build). Anything I do to mess it up in the future stems from going off-kit to do my own additions.

Thanks for your kind words, and also for editing the title and pointing me toward how to do it myself. I was concerned at the start that this would be too simple a build for anyone to be interested in seeing it, but I'm glad that people found it interesting. Also, a note I forgot to include above: after I got everything assembled, I decided that the awning posts are a little longer than they should be. In the future when I'm scratch-building, I suppose I should actually use a drawing program to measure and scale things, rather than my current low-tech method of holding a ruler up to the computer screen!

Finished! After a lot of thought, I decided to name the trajinera after my wife's grandmother, who unexpectedly passed away a little over a year ago. Painting the name went ok. I was so happy that the first attempt wasn't a disaster that I only later noticed that the letters would look better if they were a little thicker, which wasn't hard to touch up (first attempt below, thicker letters in photo pf complete build). Ultimately I wasn't crazy about the black letters on a white background. If I had more time, I would probably try to do white letters on a blue background, and paint more of a curved line tracing along the top and bottom of the lettering. Also the lettering would look better if it were blockier, like the upper nameplate. Oh well, for next time! Also, the flower motif both fills in some blank space, and works as a reference to how earlier generations of canal boats in Mexico City were associated with transporting flowers for sale in the city's markets. Attaching the nameplate to the awning/posts was more complex than I anticipated. As can be seen below, the nameplates are actually collapsible, connected permanently with a rope to the middle support beam of the awning, which serves as a pivot point, and held upright with tied ropes around the posts at the bottom of each end of the arch. Untying these allows the nameplate to fold back over the awning. I decided that it would not be possible to make the model's nameplate collapsible, as it would be hard if not impossible to tie and untie such small knots. But I did want to represent these parts, even if inexactly. I tied bits of thread around the nameplate grid at the three points, then tied the bottom two off around the posts. So far, so good, although I cut one of these slightly too short and it was very frustrating to tie. For the center, replicating actual practice would require tying off the thread around the middle awning support beam, which was not possible as it was glued down. Maybe something I can do next time, but not this build--it would require planning ahead and adding in the rope prior to attaching the beam to the awning. Instead, looking for something that would represent this rather than accurately model it, I tied a big ugly knot, as can be seen on the middle thread below. All knots were secured with a bit of glue. I then raised the nameplate up to the correct height and stuck the big knot on the bottom of the beam. Not accurate, I'm aware, but it's pretty hard to see in any case. I used a few dabs of super glue to hold the nameplate in place. I then rubbed glue into the thread and held it in place downwards to try to get a natural hang before cutting it to size, although, as can be seen, this was not fully successful. Finally, I made a simple stand of basswood. Lacking sufficient time to paint it, I penciled in some details on the interior where they are only visible by taking off the model--maybe it can be painted later on the outside or something. This was then sealed. I also made the pole that they use to push the boat through the canals. When not in use, they're often propped at the stern against the projecting beams at the aft end of the awning. With that, the model was finished! (I'm not sure how to edit the title to reflect this). I'll probably make an album or something with more photos later. Notes from reflecting on this build: - Balsa wood: not even once. - Painting parts separately before construction, when possible, is the way to go. - When rigging, make sure to leave a lot of extra line to tie things off. - When making a lot of furnishings with repeated parts, it's more efficient to make all the pieces first to equal measurements before constructing the parts. - Plan ahead! Lack of doing so is why I was not able to properly attach the middle rope for the nameplate. - Relatedly, there are a lot of small details that got ignored in this build, like the wicker seats mentioned above, or the docking rope at the bow (I considered giving it a try, but lacking even pliers, I couldn't make a convincing docking ring or find something similar to purchase, and decided not to include it, as I didn't want to just glue the rope to the deck). In the future, I'd like to include more details. I also wish I had made some beer bottles to place on the table! - I wish I had done more to weather this model--as the photos show, a lot of trajineras are rather banged up, which makes sense given how many tourists there are and how crowded the canals are--but I still don't feel like I really know how to do convincing weathering. - I'm still not fully happy with the final hull dimensions, but as noted above, I didn't realize the issue with the hull being too narrow until I built the chairs. In the future, when scratch-building something for which the dimensions are a bit uncertain, it may be helpful to draw not just the hull, but a furnishing or something at scale, to try to get a sense of whether or not the dimensions are correct. Overall, though, this was a really fun build and a good experience. I'm pleased with how it turned out (although I would adjust the dimensions a bit in the future), and I had a great time designing and building everything. My wife's family is very happy with the model and have put it above the TV; her aunt is talking about getting a glass or clear plastic case to protect it from dust. Now for me to finish the dory, wait for the lobster smack to arrive, and perhaps make something small and simple (without a bunch of chairs!) in the meantime.

Thanks, glad to hear people are enjoying the posts! As for diving, I actually never have. I'm not much of a swimmer, sad to say. Using a diving bell sounds amazing, though. Thanks, I had no idea they did river tours in San Antonio! Sounds like a very relaxing way to pass an afternoon. Same concept as the trajinera rides, maybe a different hull design though. I'm getting close to finishing the build. Which is good, as I really don't want to try to repack everything to bring back to Mexico City to give as a gift later. A lot of trajineras use metal brackets to support the awning poles. I made mine out of card paper, scored at the angles, like the hull support brackets I mentioned in an earlier post. I wanted them to stand out slightly from the hull, so I painted them black and then did a single thin coat of red over them. I was pleased with how they turned out. And here they are attached to the posts: The "awning," made of sheet metal on the real thing, was painted green on the outside and grey inside. I used card to make the curved metal supports at the front and back of it, and used wood for the lengthwise supports, which slightly protrude at the aft edge. (The very edges at the sides were left unpainted so they would attach to the frame better). Before attaching the awning, I had to glue the seats and table in. I drew reference marks on paper to make sure the chairs would be more or less evenly spaced. With the deck furniture and awning attached, it looked pretty good, I thought! (Of course, a sharp eye will note that one chair leans a bit forward out of line with the rest. I decided against fixing it, as sanding the back legs down would result in a shorter chair. Oh well, it's not like the chairs on the real thing are nailed down or anything.) The last thing is really just to attach the decorative nameplate (not sure if that's the right term?) to the fore end of the awning, which will have to wait until tomorrow. I've been hard at work on the decorations, starting with the central V for Veracruz, the lower curved name plate, and the heart I decided to place in the V (my wife's family, who will receive this as a gift, have been incredibly welcoming to me). I've been having a much more fun time painting these than painting the chairs, even if my lines are a little wavy sometimes. Next up, the sugarcane motif that will flank the V. (My wife's hometown is in a sugar-growing region). First I drew out what I wanted, then roughly matched it in wood. While the rest of the decorations have used 1/16th inch basswood, I wanted something easier to work with for the curves, so I brought some thinner basswood scraps leftover from the dory build. (The lower nameplate, I should note, is still not glued on--waiting to get the name written first in case I completely screw it up and need a substantial repaint). Exciting (your reaction may vary) action shot! My wife wanted a shot if me using tweezers to test fit the cane pieces, so here it is! Finally, I painted them light green. All that's left at the moment is to paint on the name, attach the remaining decorations to the grating, and attach it to the awning/posts.