SaltyScot

A joy to read and observe. I missed this!

Welcome, George. Enjoy the journey.

Welcome to the forum. As stated above, don't be afraid to ask questions, it will help you along your way. Enjoy!

I am finally home and have the moving truck full of stuff that we are keeping from the house unloaded, Trevor. I haven't been able to get in the shipyard just yet, the CEO's list of to-do's seems to grow longer instead of shorter Tomorrow is a rainy day here (no sudden, unwanted snowstorms for us!) so I will be bale to sit down and get on with my build. I am very much looking forward to that.

You made a fine job of that, Trevor, I really like how the sail turned out. I don't have sails on my current build but this post will go to my "aha, that's how it's done" folder

I agree, Phil, those railings really add to the overall look of your build. You are doing a fine job with this one.

Steep learning curves are part and parcel of the hobby, Jo. It looks like you are headed in the right direction and I like your planking solution sir

My fellow modelers, the CEO has declared that my presence is needed elsewhere for the next week (at least). Her mother's house is under contract with the closing date set for April 28th. She plans to move out on the 23rd. The plan is to spend a good part of next week up there in DC to get the final bits and pieces out of the house that are either being sold or donated, before the moving company gets there. There always appears to be something else to be done up there and both myself and the CEO are counting down the days until the 23rd rolls around. Because of all this, I will be away for an as yet undefined period of time, that matter is not under my control....... I go where I am requested because, as we all know, happy wife, and so on......

I know exactly what you mean, Glenn. On my Endeavour build I had fully finished the hull, painted and varnished it and was very happy with the result. While I was drilling the holes for the stanchions at the stern of the boat I slipped with the tiny drill bit and went through too far. When I saw the drill bit sticking out through the underside of my nice shiny hull (and the hole that got made when a piece of wood got punched out by the drill bit), I nearly lost it. I had to just take a very deep breath and tackle the issue otherwise I would have thrown the drill against the wall, or something worse.......... Like you mentioned, getting on with something enjoyable and uplifting is the way to go. Your build looks good mate.

Been there, Trevor. My shipyard is in a spare bedroom here in our home. When I get the vacuum out and get in here, I hear all the bits of nails (and the odd tiny cleat) scuttling on up the vacuum hose.

Those hatches look good, a job I will be faced with later on down the line on my build. Now I know where to get the inspiration!

I know that feeling!

Heres hoping you are not hurting too much this morning, Bob. I hate to tell you that we have had 80 degree weather these past three days, so I won't 🤣🤣🤣

I agree with all of the above, nicely done, Phil!

That is spectacular news, John. It just shows that good work is appreciated. You should be proud of that achievement sir, as I'm sure you are.

There is definitely an unpredictability to our weather here right now. Yesterday and today we had 81F, fantastic weather to be outside doing stuff. Tonight we are expecting thunderstorms and highs tomorrow of 57F. Grab the sun while you can I guess I hope it shines up there, Trevor, so that you can get out and get your spraying done.

It is not in the trash yet I have a lot of other projects going on at this time, both inside and outside the shipyard. This may be one for a long, cold winter's day.

The planking is coming along nicely, I have made good progress on the one side. I was perhaps a little ambitious when I said I would finish this in one afternoon , I am taking my time and enjoying every minute of it: I added a stealer strake to get me back on line while I was working up the hull. I should have done that on the one above it (towards the sheer strakes, the hull is upside down right now), because there is a gap. That strake will be coming off again: I also steam bent a nice piece of walnut that I will be using as a false keel and up to the beakhead (you made me think of this @Kenchington when you described just what a false keel is). It will cover the nasty plywood that currently runs along the keel and keeps separating:

But you came up with a decent solution, Glenn. Nice save

Well put, Phil. I have decided to run with it. this is a lesson learned and one that I am sure to be aware of in future builds. I am a little frustrated with myself for not getting that fairing right but am not going to lose any sleep over it.

Hmmm, that is slightly annoying if that is the case. My issue with that is, if I had faired those parts you mentioned any more than I already had, the strake from the forward bulkhead would have had a weird angle coming off that bulkhead and onto those pieces. Perhaps the whole forward section of the hull should have been faired a little more...... Well, the matter is moot now, unless I rip off all the planks and start over. That being said, while I was fighting with that splitting plywood yesterday, I very seriously considered actually starting again and making the bulkheads and keel (or whatever it's called) out of a decent piece of wood, so basically scratch building them using the plans. Food for thought.

Be sure to put a little varnish along the tape lines when you spray, that will prevent the paint bleeding through the tape (don't know if you knew that already mate )

I enjoyed my time in the wood shop/shipyard today. I still have to tackle the beakhead issue (unless it is something I am over reacting about) but more about that in a bit. I fitted the garboard strakes this afternoon using @Dr PR's method explained here (thank you, Phil). Using the small flat iron plank bender certainly helped things along very nicely: Now, onto my issue with the beakhead. The plans clearly show the beakhead protruding nicely out a ways from the point of the bow: The problem I am having is that the way the false keel was made, the point of the bow sits way too far forward for there to be any significant gap from that point to the tip of the beakhead. Here is an image showing the initial hull fairing. Note the distance from the tip of the false keel (there may be a correct term for it but I am not aware of it), and the tip of the beakhead: Once the planking is on and following those faired pieces at the bow, there is no way to achieve the gap shown in later images in the plans. Here is what it looks like on my build at this time: And here the plans from Chapelle's book: So, tell me, am I making a big fuss about nothing or do I have to extend the beakhead somewhat? I would hate for the bowsprit to not have enough to sit on. All that being said, I like the way the hull is shaping up, she certainly has nice lines: I also removed all the tabs from the bulkheads and did a dry fit of the sub deck just to see how I was doing. It went quite well: Tomorrow I hope to finish the first planking and get her sanded down. I did apply some filler here and there on the sheer strakes to strengthen them up a little after I removed the bulkhead tabs. I will trim all that up once she is fully planked.

You enjoy that, sir. It is a beautiful part of the world. I spent some years in my youth in the south of Wales and fell in love with the place. Anyone reading who was not familiar with that border region and the nomenclature would think you were going to watch a marching band

Oh, yes, I am familiar with these. I wasn't aware they were called Turk's heads. Are you going to weave it onto the tiny tiller yourself or carve it out of wood?