cdrusn89
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Jib is up! But it doesn't look as good as I had hoped. First mistake I think is that I should have ironed it one more time just before I threaded it on the stay. The other mistake I think is I should have put the jib on a new wire and re-rigged the stay with the jib threaded on - that would make handling the jib, which is bound to put wrinkles and potentially other damage at a minimum. That and two of the eyelets came out of the fabric while I was threading the hank on the stay. Reconsidering my next move, possibly cutting the stay to get the jib down, ironing, replacing the eyelets that pulled out and then replacing the stay with the jib already threaded on. Also thinking maybe redoing the hanks using brass wire instead of the annealed steel. In spite of wearing exam gloves while handling the hanks I think the sail got dirtier from the annealed wire which is not the cleanest stuff to deal with. Making hanks is pretty easy now that I have "the system" down.
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As for the other sails, they are finished except for the seam marking (H hardness charcoal artist's pencil) and the eyelets. Speaking of eyelets, the cheapy Chinese eyelet installation hardware lasted through doing the jib eyelets but had to be repaired four times. The little pin that holds the eyelet keeps sticking inside the mandrel and without the pin returning (there is a spring in the mandrel that in theory would force the pin back out after the eyelet has been seated) you can't do another eyelet. It seems the metal on the head of the mandrel gets distorted and the pin hangs up. At the end I resorted to taking a file to the pin (which also gets distorted) to try and remove any burrs but still had to take it apart after every two or three eyelets. I have a new set coming today that hopefully (given what I know now) will last me through the flying jib and main but am considering ordering another just to be on the safe side. Here are the two sails patiently waiting for attention. There is also a spare piece of sail cloth that is big enough to become the jib if something happens that makes me have to redo it. I decided to take one sail all the way through the process in case there are some lessons to be learned that can be applied to the others (like ordering additional eyelet hardware). I also busied myself during football on Monday making rope coils. Here they are dry and ready for removal from the double sided tape that holds the coil while the 50/50 glue/water dries. The other things in the picture are used to weigh down some of the coils while they dry to keep them from becoming "dished".
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Making Jib Hanks The instructions and material provided would use simple brass split rings (the ones with no overlap - just the two ends butted together) for the jibs hanks (and on the main as well). My experience with these is that I can never get the gap closed up again as well as it was when I started and thus keeping the split ring on the stay would likely be a continuing challenge. As I get three on one of the previous ones slips off, when I put that one back another slips off, etc. etc. So I decided to make my own. I use 24 ga (.020: diameter) steel annealed wire (I think what I have came from Bluejackets) and the Micro Mark wire "bender" (see picture) on the middle (3/16") barrel. I make a ring until the ends cross, then reverse the "bender" and complete the ring with the wire overlapping itself. I trim the end cutting at an angle close to the ring and end up with a 3/16" split ring with the ends overlapping about 25% of the circumference. This makes it more difficult to get onto the sail but much less likely to slip off the stay. I apologize in advance for the pictures not being in the correct order (unless by some miracle they are).
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So where are we now? I have the jib completed - all the eyelets are there just manufacturing jib hanks to get it on the boat. So, at first I hung the jib from the halyard, made a few hanks and started to install them on the sail and stay. That didn't work out so well as getting the hanks (at least the ones I designed-more on this later) onto the sail proved to be more difficult than I expected. So I took the jib down and am putting the hanks, as I make them, on the sail. When I have them all done THEN I will hang the sail on the halyard and try and get the hanks on the stay, which should be much easier than getting them on the sail - at least I hope so. Here are pictures of the first attempt and where I am now, about 25% done with the hanks.
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Julie - no problem; I have read your build log (and Kieth's) from end to end and picked up some good tips that helped me get this far. Good luck getting to the finish line.
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Having read some of the reviews of the eyelet "tools" and having had to take the anvil apart once already after only 4-5 test eyelets I ordered another set (they are less than $15 on Amazon) and a 2mm set as well since at least one person said the setting tools for the 2mm works better than the 1.5m tool on the 1.5mm eyelets. They all should be here tomorrow. In the mean time I have the reinforcements on the main and am waiting for the stiffened line for the bolt rope on the main and flying jib to harden so the "seamstress" (aka girl friend) and sew them into the seams.
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Working the Flying Jib, then on to the Main sail. Lesson learned from the Jib. Use gloves (cheapy nitrile exam gloves) when working with the fabric. Especially with the white sails - every bit of dirt around seems to find its way to my figures and then to the sail. I cut the Flying Jib per the pattern that I validated for correct size on the model using a cutting board, ruler and cutting wheel from the quilt czar (aka girlfriend). I also cut two strips 3/8" wide to make the reinforcements from. The blue file folder I used to help see when I had the sail and the reinforcement lined up. I put a line of 50/50 glue water on the sail applied and aligned to strip and then put a line of 50/50 on the reinforcement strip. I smoothed things out trying to make sure there all air bubbles were removed. The eyelet "kit" has also arrived and it looks like this is going to work. The kit includes a punch to cut the hole and an anvil and tool to crush the sides down. Here is my first try on my test strip. These will good in the seamed edge of all three sails - I counted 31 on the main, 28 on the jib and 35 on the flying jib. Good thing I got 125 eyelets in antique brass. I am not sure I can get the eyelets close enough to the sail edge to use the split rings provided in the kit plus I do not relish having to open and the successfully close 60+ split rings. I will see about making some jib hanks from annealed steel or maybe brass wire.
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Working the jib as the first sail. Sort of a "test case". When I added the reinforcement strips at the leach, foot and one in the middle, i used the 50/50 glue water mix again with the sail on a piece of parchment paper to keep from gluing it to the table. That worked "okay" but there were a couple of places on the leech where the reinforcement strip did not stick (or I didn't get it in down exactly correctly. Anyway when the sail dried I noticed "watermarks" around the reinforcements. After the bolt rope was sewn into the sail I coated the entire sail with 50/50 glue/water to try and remove the watermark. The jib is hanging up to dry while I work on the flying jib. Here are pictures of the jib hanging to dry and the bolt rope seam.
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Here is the redone main sail template laid on the fabric still in the frame. I got lucky. I made the frames based on the erroneous dimensions taken from the enlarged sail plan but I added enough "fudge" that the required dimensions fit, just. I decided to use metal wire (Beadalon silver) for the main halyard with .018 Syren tan "grafted" on the end to go around the winch I added on the mast. Hopefully my "graft" is strong enough to hold, but there should not be a great deal of tension as the mail sail is attached to the mast at 31 eyebolts. I ordered 1.5mm eyelets and (hopefully) the tool to set them from Amazon - due here tomorrow in theory. The sewing machine will make eyelets also so we will see what looks best and takes the least effort. A 1.5mm (.06") hole would be about 2" at scale which seems large but is the smallest eyelet I could find and about as small as the sewing machine will do so..... I planned on putting eyelets in the mainsail opposite the eyebolts on the mast and then using "small stuff" between the eyelet and eyebolt. I have yet to figure out how to get that done amongst the back stays but it can't be worse that the running rigging on Niagara and I survived that. Similarly for the jibs, eyebolts in the sail and split rings to serve as jib "hanks". I am considering making my own jib hanks out on annealed steel wire but I have not tried that at this scale before and even when I did they just sat at the base of the fore stay, no sails on that model. And here is a shot of Endeavour with as much of the background clutter removed as I could accomplish quickly.
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While messing around with the sail templates I also fitted the three frames I made with cloth and 50/50 white glue (Elmer's Glue-All) and water to both sides (letting the first side dry before coating the other side) of the three sail frames. I also did a small section as a "test pattern". I had to set the frames on the floor to dry as I was afraid if they were not flat they might dry with funny ripples in them. Had to be careful where I stepped and kept the dog out of the workshop. My girlfriend is a pretty handy seamstress (she has about half a dozen quilts in various stages of construction) and she wanted to she what she could do to help. So I took my test piece and a length of .025 Syren tan line that had been coated with white glue and hung to dry and got her to stitch the line into a 3/8" (more or less) seam to approximate a bolt rope for the foot and luff of the main sail. She decided to use red thread to make it easier to see where the stitches went. My next test is to use a pencil to mark the seams in the sail to see how that works. I am pretty sure she could sew them into the sails but I fear it would cause too much puckering (I have seen some pretty ugly examples of this) so I want to try the easy way out first.
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With the hull complete except for the boom I turned my attention to the sails. I had previously taken the sail plan (which is at half scale) had it scanned in and enlarged to make it full scale. I wanted to see how the sails would fit on my model since it is certainly possible that I had mis-measured or tolerances had worked against me and the sails would be too small or large if I just took the drawing as gospel. I cut the main sail out from m y "full-size" sail plan and glued it to a piece of cardboard. I fitted a shackle and halyard to the head and, being careful to route it between all the stays " ran it up to the masthead. Good thing I bothered - I guess the scaling job at Fed-Ex Office was not as accurate as you might like. As you can see in the picture below, the main sail is about 3" short of what it should be. Not surprisingly it is also about half an inch short at the foot. I am going to take Sheet 5 (that shows the sails on the boat) to Fed-Ex Office and get several full size copies made so I can get templates for the "real sails" made. It will be easy to verify that the copies are the correct size - just lay them on top of the original.
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With the back stays in place I used the laser level to check the mast alignment for and aft. I adjusted the model in the cradle to get the laser and water line matched up as hopefully this means that the hull in "level" at least locally. Then I moved the cradle around on the workbench to get the vertical line in the center of the mast at deck level. Then I checked where the laser falls on the mast as it goes up. The laser line is off the mast forward just above the second spreader and at the top looks to be about 8mm (aka 5/16") forward of the mast. This equates to just short of a foot at full scale (5/16 x 35 = 175/16 = 10.9" ~ 1 foot since I am not sure how accurate my measurement was). There is nothing in the instructions about mast rake but I would assume there was probably some. Looking at the full scale sail plan and assuming that the hull is shown "level" (the entire hull length is not shown on this drawing but the deck clearly rises toward the forward end so...) and that the borders are perpendicular to the hull waterline shows about 1 3/4" inches of rack/bend to the mast. I think I will stick with 5/16". Given the amount of clearance between the mast and the deck opening aft I do not think I can get much more rack and I do not want to stress the fore/back stays to get more bend than is there already. With the sails on her I do not think anyone will take too much notice of the mast as long as it does not bend forward.
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With the mast stabilized (side to side) and the new cleats installed and the epoxy set I went and rigged the three sets of back stays. I added new blocks to locations that the plans show as eyebolts to get the horizontal pull on the cleats that belay the two forward most set of back stays. I had previously replaced the single blocks on the deck with doubles at the after back stay to accomplish the same purpose. Here are the three sets of back stays as adjusted. I have not yet decided how to handle the excess line and in some cases the lines are not completely belayed (around the cleat and over the side with a weight since I will likely have to adjust some when I see the mast alignment.
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Before replacing the cleats I decided to true up the shrouds. Used the laser level to get both the model level (side to side) and the mast straight. I used small pieces of wood to wedge the mast in position while I crimped the tubes to freeze the shrouds to the turnbuckles. Then I carefully removed the wood wedges and adjusted the turnbuckles to keep the mast straight. it did not take much more than a turn or two of the turnbuckles to hold things steady. Hopefully doing the for/aft adjustments will not throw this off.
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Keith - when retired and with a cooperative headquarters you can move pretty quickly. I am hearing noises about starting Christmas decorations so I am seizing every opportunity before that evolution begins in earnest.
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After looking at the aft back stay design awhile I decided that having the bitter end of the aft tackle going more or less directly down to the deck edge cleat was not how I wanted to do things. It is much better (IMHO) to have the line going to a cleat such as used here to approach the cleat from more or less the same level as the cleat - i.e. pulling on the cleat in the horizontal plane instead of the vertical. To facilitate this I replaced the aft single block with a double (which I luckily had in my collect of brass blocks). As you can see in the photo below the line comes off the becket, around the deck block, around the becket block, around the deck block again and then forward to the cleat. I am considering changes to the other back stay tackles so they also approach the cleats from deck level not above.
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While waiting for the varnish on the new cleats to dry I started to get the back stays rigged (as far as possible) without having a place to belay them. This involves getting the pendants to the correct length and rigging the tackles through the appropriate block. Here are the after back stays with the tackle terminated with a clamp suspended over the side to provide a little tension. The bits of blue tape mark the cleats that need to be replaced.
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In preparation for rigging the running back stays (there are three sets of two) I made up the six tackles that connect the back stay to the hull. I made two of the type on the left and four of the other. The two with a line to both sides of the block (which is barely visible - sorry) are for the after back stay where both ends belay to cleats and there is a single block at the back stay pendant. The other two sets of back stays have the block shown in the picture at the end of the pendant. That all went without difficulty. The problem started when I tried to belay the aft back stay tackle to the indicated cleat. The cleats in question are the after most ones which are mounted outside of the deck "railing". It came free from the hull with very little effort. I had suspected this might be a problem, especially since the force on these cleats is mostly vertical given the way the rigging is configured per the provided drawings. So I decided that I would replace, at a minimum the eight cleats that belay the back stays (the after most set has two cleats per back stay). I took one of the cleats that came off and managed to drill a .040" (#60) hole vertically through the more or less center of the cleat. I got a piece of .039 music wire to use as a pin through the cleat and drilled a #60 hole in the hull to hold the cleat. That example cleat is shown on the left in the picture below. I had so much fun doing that one that I decided to make new cleats with the hole from scratch. I needed seven so I decided to make a few extra in case I encounter this issue with some of the other cleats. There will be a short intermission while I stain and varnish the crop of new cleats.
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Yves - I am trying to stick with the look as it might have been in the 1930s, so no carbon fiber, white canvas is what I am trying to portray.
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While pondering how exactly to go about mounting the mast/boom I built frames to hold the material for the three sails. They give you an idea of how BIG the sails will actually be. My girlfriend (the quilt lady) is going to cut out the fabric today (maybe) and I will get them mounted on the frames in preparation for the glue/water mixture to be applied.
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The deck is "officially" complete. I am still considering some method of adding some additional strength to the cleats that will be under load. Like drilling down through the center and adding a .025" wire with a drop of thin CA to freeze the wire and wood together. I need to let the Titebond set overnight before I do anything. I think there are only a few cleats where they see much if any load. all the jib sheets go to the winches first so the winch takes whatever load there is. The backstays may be where I need to do something as they might be under some tension trying to get the mast aligned correctly. On to building the frames for the sails and getting the mast, boom and standing rigging aboard.
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I got the last of the blocks for the main sheet and the main sheet traveler installed too.
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I decided to redo the block/eyebolts for the jib stays. I added a small turnbuckle to the block that is there for the jib's downhauls. It was going to be tight getting the jibstays hooked in as it was and now I have the ability to tension the jibstays after the wire is secured. It means that the jib and flying jib will not be positioned as close to the deck as they would have been otherwise but I think that is a price worth paying. I will have to slightly adjust the size of the jibs to account for the slight decrease in length at the luff. I changed out the supplied eyebolt for a bigger one to accommodate the turnbuckle.
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Finished gluing the big pieces an d started on the blocks, eyebolts and chain plates. hope to finish the deck hardware today and start working on the frames for the sails tomorrow. Here are the stbd chain plates and the blocks and eyebolts on the stbd side forward. I moved the out chain plate a b it forward of the inner so the rings holding the turnbuckle do not interfere with the chain plate. The blocks, eyebolts and chain plates are attached with epoxy so hopefully they will not be pulled out when tensioned.
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I finished placing (although not all are glued in place just yet - for instance the forward hatch with the four skylights) all of the major deck furniture and other topside items except the whisker pole, eyebolts, blocks "chain plates" and cleats. Here is how it looks now.
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