Ship_Right

I spent a couple of hours at the reference library leafing through the James Lees rigging book. I scanned the chart of mast and spar dimensions so I now have a ready reference for finally selecting the mast and yard sizes. Tapering these remains a bit of a mystery to me - even when I found references to the amount of taper, I couldn't find any explanation of how to apply them. I find many of these books to be lacking in explanation - even Matthew Betts book - expecting the reader to know the terminology. Just my personal rant 🙂

Second layer planking has been in progress for a while now - and I think can see the end! Being very careful to try to use only full length planks through the whole process. I use a spreadsheet to calculate the required plank widths at 5 cm intervals along the hull. After I have installed a few planks, I recheck all the dimensions and adjust accordingly. Details of how to finish the transom, with the stern post installation, were sadly incomplete in the OcCre kit instructions. I have done the best I can with the help of others' build logs. The Stern Post did not fit on my build - I had to sand it to shape and hope it works out when I fit the rudder. It puzzles me as to why, having supplied a nice piece of oak for the stern post, OcCre then requires the builder to sandwich it between two pieces of plywood; then sand the plywood down, exposing the glue between the plys (is that the plural of ply?) which don't absorb stain. I will end up planking the stern post for this reason alone. Despite my earlier comments, the keel turned out to be just 2mm short. I suspect I didn't quite adjust the pieces properly when I modified the kit position of the bowsprit. I inserted to 2mm pieces of oak between two of the keel pieces at one of the joints. Not perfect but it works for me.

I've just finished installing and sanding the Ice Buffers. I had some problems lining them up so the port and starboard buffers were at equal height at the bow. I was also daunted by the amount of sanding required, so with much trepidation used my recently acquired Dremel to help. I was very careful, and am happy with the results. The picture here has the keel pieces temporarily taped in. I have a problem with the keel, because the keel seems to be about 5-10 mm short, and the part that the rudder will attach to doesn't quite fit properly. Not sure yet how I will line it all up. I have enough of the Oak sprue to make a fill-in piece if that's what it takes, but the alignment at the stern is going to be critical for the rudder to fit properly. Will attach photos when I am closer to finalizing that part. I have just located a copy of Lees' Masting and Rigging at our reference library (snowstorms permitting), so will be spending some time there next week to fully understand what they say about rigging, and how all the different spar sizes fit together.

So the bowsprit should be 7.6mm dia, ditto the foremast. My foremast is 7mm, but my bowsprit is only 6. I'll have to revisit these.

I will celebrate appropriately in the tradition, with Canadian Rye!

? Sorry Keith, but could you expand on that? More in what way? Does this show in Matt's plans?

Been away from this log while I completed the first level of planking. My first time doing this, and I guess the results reflect that. However, I'm not unhappy with it. There are some small gaps, but I managed to complete it using full length planks throughout. Broke a few with my impatience in bending ☹️ but fixed them. I'm expecting it all to work out after sanding, and then the second layer will cover it all up anyway.

I used the dimensions in the kit plans to cut the length, keeping the same distance from the bow forwards when mounted in the original location. When I measure it now, it is 105 mm. I could cut a new one, but I'm not sure what that will do to other parts of the kit rigging.

I'm part way through the first layer of planking. A few things I have learned along the way: My planking tool was way too hot (you can see the burn marks on the planks closest to the keel). I purchased an 1800W fan controller from Amazon, and set to the high end of the middle range it seems to be working well. The low priced compact iron I purchased also does an excellent job helping bend the planks. A trick I came up with for tapering planks, and in some cases cutting them down for their full length, is to lay a piece of double sided sticky tape down on the cutting mat, and stick the plank to it before cutting it. This prevents it from sliding when I am halfway through the cut. I just can't see filing down the pin heads the way OcCre describes, so I am pulling the pins out once the glue is dry. Sometimes the OcCre pin pusher was pushing the pins in too far (difficult to control the amount of force) making it hard to extract the pins later. Putting a thin piece of brass strip right next to the pin before pushing it in stops the pin head from being buried in the plank. Pictures below show current progress ...

I fitted the wales which now overlapped the transom by just enough. Painted according to the Royal Navy scheme - i.e. yellow on the inside of the wales - I used the Yellow Ochre paint from OcCre. All ready for the next challenge!

I referred to a problem with fitting the transom ... no-one else has mentioned this, but when I looked at the videos and phots It seemed that the transom had to be curved. Only slightly - but my efforts to do this were inadequate, so when I offered up the wales they fell short. Since the transom was now glued in place, I made a curved form, "painted" the exposed areas of the transom with water and let it soak in for a while. Then I clamped the form in place and used an iron to apply some heat from the behind the stern. I let it all dry out and cool off.

Well, it's been a rough week ... I followed the OcCre videos. Marked the planking on the deck. They don't specify what pencil to use, so thinking it needed to be fairly soft (to not score the veneer) I chose a 2B pencil. Maybe that was what caused my problems (but I don't know). I could have sent a note to OcCre to ask them what to use, but I didn't expect any problems. Remembering Keith's comments about plank widths, I looked at the Betts' dimensions of the ship and scaled off the drawings. It turns out that the diagonal planks needed to be exactly half the width of the 5mm supplied in the kit, so I drew lines at the plank edges as well as halfway between them. (The width of the long centre planks didn't lend itself to this approach, so I left them "as supplied.") So far so good. Next step in the video is to sand the deck prior to varnishing. What a disaster! Sanding took the graphite from the pencil marks and smeared it across the planks, into the grain of the veneer, making them blotchy and dirty-looking. I was about a quarter along one side when I realized what was happening. Initial attempts to rectify (more sanding, water wash) were completely ineffective. I thought about it overnight, not sure whether to treat the whole deck the same way, or leave it the way it was and move forward with varnish. In one last desperate attempt I used some coarse (120 grit) sandpaper to see if I could clean the boards up without total destroying them. To my relief, this worked (yes I had to re-mark all the boards, but a small price to pay!) - at least to provide an acceptable result. I am counting on loads of "deck furniture" to disguise the remaining smudges. Photos will follow after I finish installing the transom (another unexpected challenge) and the wales.

Happy New Year to everyone, and thank you for all who offer me help and advice as I progress through this build. This kind of modelling is new to me, so every word of assistance is gratefully received! I have read Michael Palin's book - along with several really good books about the Franklin Expedition, the searches and the people involved. In fact they are what led me to this project.

I've sanded the foremast down. Size isn't as consistent as I'd like but it will suffice. I cut all the masts to their final length, and temporarily "stepped" them. The red gadget in the photo is a small copper pipe cutter which I used to cut the dowel - makes a perfect right-angled cut. The photo shows the bowsprit with the modified forepeak taped on temporarily. Haven't cut the bowsprit to length yet - I'm guessing I need to make it so that it protrudes in front of the bow by the same amount as the original one did when mounted further back. I need to look at Matt Betts's book (which I did purchase) to see if it gives me an answer to that question. (Edit: No it probably won't - Matt's book is about the Terror, and my understanding is that the Erebus bowsprit s different).

Evo-Stick is available in Canada - though it looks on the expensive side. Couldn't find the "Fast-Grab" type, but didn't search too hard.