JohnSGG

Thank you very much to all for your exceptionally kind welcome. Thank you in particular for the consensus reached on the probable identification of the kit, which should certainly assist in finding plans containing the rigging scheme and also for book recommendations for further research. I agree that a case would be a useful addition to fend off the inquisitive hands of the junior family members. I have also rescued the vessel from its sun exposed position to a more suitable display area! Alan, you are to be congratulated on your perspicacity with regards to the quotation in the title... Let me reassure you however, that as a physician myself I am inured to the presence of the occasional errant phalange. Thanks again, and my great pleasure to make your collective acquaintance. Best wishes, John.

Dear fellow nautical enthusiasts, Thank you for permitting me to share in your august company. Following my introduction I shall elaborate on my particular reason for desiring to engage your attention. Whilst the personal apogee of my ship modelling to date has been the construction of a plywood press fit laser cut pirate galleon (scale and identity not otherwise specified) for the edification of my four year old son, I have a considerable interest and extensive library in the history of ships of the age of sail and modelling. More practically however I have a metal casting foundry that I constructed in my garden. So far have cast in brass a 1:10 desk toy 6pdr on the Armstrong-Fredericks pattern. I hope in the future to have the leisure and liberty to make my proper ship modelling debut. Somewhere gathering dust I have the plans for the Lady Nelson cutter which seems to me a reasonable starting point. In doing so I would be following the footsteps my late grandfather, Frank, who after retiring from a career as a power station architect (interrupted by a stint navigating Lancasters to precise locations in Germany), took up ship modelling, quite likely at least in part to compete with his brother who had already developed an enviable reputation in scratch building scale railway locomotives and rolling stock. The one modelling memento of his that remains in our family’s possession is a two-masted armed trader, fully constructed and rigged but left in an oiled wood finish. This is now unfortunately showing its age and the scars of various mishaps over the decades. Essentially the rigging is decomposing due to sunlight exposure and there is minor damage to the mizzen boom and some spars. This year we will celebrate my Mother’s 75th birthday. It would give her great pleasure if a programme of restoration were to be underway soon. Unfortunately I lack the time, tooling and skills to immediately undertake this myself. I am hoping that someone here may be able to direct me to a suitably skilled individual, or perhaps be that person, to undertake such work on terms of commensurate financial recompense. We are located in the Southwest of England, near Bristol and any contacts in that area would be particularly prized. Yours faithfully, John Griffith.