Venti

Unfortunately it says "Borrow Unavailable" at the moment. I assume someone else is borrowing it now and I'll keep checking on it. But I saw a picture on someone else's build log and I'm not sure it'll be all that helpful. I think I've decided to forgo the pre-shaped planks given in this kit. I want to get extra practice lining off the hull and bending/shaping the planks the "real" way. Is this a bad idea for this ship? Not sure if they give the pre-shaped planks because it's a learning kit and/or because it's small and difficult to plank. The garboard seems it might be a little difficult but otherwise I don't foresee anything too bad. With this I need some help choosing the size of strips to use for this. The planks given in the kit are 1/32" thick so that seems like it should be the thickness. The width of the planks are kind of all over the place... around 3/16" wide with sheer strake at 3/8". Once again my wood sheets are not labeled correctly and did not come with a parts sheet to identify parts so I will contact ModelExpo and try to get that.

Thank you Jacques, I will check it out as well!

Interesting. Unfortunately, the libraries near me don't have it 😭 I wouldn't mind buying it but I'm afraid that the small picture wouldn't be of any real use...

Yeah! I've seen a few really nice modifications people have done in their logs! I was hoping to find plans for the smack but I haven't been able to find any yet. Would have been a huge help in the Pram and I assume will be for this as well.

Just finished the Pram which was a ton of fun but I am much more excited to start this one! This style of planking seems much more enjoyable to me and is what I've seen done the most on bigger ships. I think I'm going to order some black synthetic rope and some sheave blocks as a little upgrade from what the kit has. For a few days I'll probably be reading instructions and build logs again to be better prepared but I might not be able to help myself and get started 😅

Thank you all! I think I've decided on going with Syren as well. Mostly because I would also like to get some better sheave blocks and ropesofscale doesn't have those haha That makes perfect sense! Good! You're so close and it looks amazing!

Whelp, a big day today. Just finished everything up!! Started with getting the back stays. With the fore stay done I used a rubberband to hold the mast back and to help it from moving. I then used a knot that can be easily tightened and holds under tension (knot 1472 is closest I could find quickly. Instead of both ends doing the same knot, just doing one with the loose end of the back stay). Once this is done, it's incredibly simple to tighten both sides equally. This also made it easy to lash the loop under tension. After this was done, it was just a couple more things. Hoisting the sail and main sheet. This was pretty simple but tying them off on the small cleats was annoying. Not sure if it is because the quality of the cordage or bad technique haha. I was following Trevor's masterclass on belaying to a cleat here: I ended up just doing a loose coil of the sheet on the floorboards. I just imagine it is used often and wouldn't be in a fancy pinwheel. Not sure how it would actually be stored while in use. All in all, I had a ton of fun building this and have learned so much. I just couldn't stop working on it in all of my free time 🤣 I've got the smack instructions out and have started reading them and I've already ready many a build log on it. Look forward to starting a new log and thanks everyone for the comments and likes on this one!

I did not think about the material making that much of a difference, but that makes sense. Maybe I'll look at getting new cordage for the smack as it seems a good bit more complicated and I could use any help I can get. I'll look around, but if anyone has suggestions on which supplier has good quality stuff, let me know! I will look through the many MSW sponsors. Ah yes, this one looks much nicer than stacked overhand knots! Excellent explanation, thank you! I suppose it's like calling the mast the "wood" 🤣

Trevor, thanks again for some of your knowledge! I feel I will never stop learning new things with this new hobby haha. Got a little more done last night! I thought I was going to finish her up, but I got a headache and stopped for the night. I finally got the backstay plates on the mast (I was waiting to get a better idea of the angle they would be at before gluing them on). I would love to find a way to glue the extremely short nails in while still letting the plates swing freely. I got the Halyard and Downhaul attached. The travel done. Almost forgot to put the block on there before... but remembered last minute. And I got the forestay done... Saw lots of issues people were having with this part so it took me a very long time to make sure I got it right. I'm not really sure the intended way to make a loop for this is. (I should probably go read Trevor's log again because it likely says 😆) but I just went with the one loop knot I'm familiar with... Number 290 in Ashley's book of knots. I'm also having trouble with the other knots needed... the instructions call for half hitches (#48 in the book) and I end up doing two (#54). It doesn't seem to tighten up very well which isn't an issue for this since I'm gluing them in place anyways but would love some insight on what some better knots for this would be. With this, is there a good knot for stopping the rope from going through holes? Like for the Downhaul line or Traveler? I usually just do 1 or 2 overhand knots (#46)

Good morning, all! I have just recently started making lots of sawdust and I have started planning a long list of ships to do haha. I love the look of the Winchelsea and would love to build it, but I just wanted to ask about where she sits from a difficulty standpoint. I have only really read through one build log (Trussben's) and he made it look easy, but I suspect that speaks more to his skill than the build being easy 🤣 I am almost done building the Pram, then I plan to build the Lobster Smack and then plan to get the Vanguard Sherbourne. Not sure if that's enough experience to dive into building a Winnie or if I should do something a little bigger (been looking at either Vanguard HM Brig Harpy, HM Brig Sloop Flirt, or HMS Speedy). Thanks!

I think mostly, I'm not sure what the entire process of attaching the sail to spars is called. If there is one haha. Oh duh... If I would just look at any of the pictures I would have seen that haha... Well that's good then, I think it will come out ok! I'm pretty unhappy about how dirty my sail is getting 😭I did use plastic wrap to separate it from my cutting mat as I've read people saying that will transfer colors. but once I cut everything out, it was downhill... I should have left the plastic wrap on.

Got a little done on the sail. Got the gaff and boom connected. Got some of the thread wrapped around stuff. Is this all called rigging? The step says lashing but maybe that's just rigging the top of the sail to the gaff? Idk. I used entirely too much CA to hold the knots where I wanted them. I think I have the boom too far out (? Away from the mast) so the sail won't be parallel to the mast. A little more to go and she'll be done.

Got the boom, gaff and mast done today! Boom and gaff went well, I think I beveled the ends too much so they're pretty small but should be fine. I also sanded the pad on the mast for the boom so it looks significantly better. I haven't glued it on yet because I'm not sure where it needs to be exactly. I got the mast 99% done. All that's left is to drill some holes and then I can start putting it all together... Easier said than done I think... I got too excited and didn't quite follow the instructions for the mast. Once the 8" x 12" and 3" x 12" sheets were dry I traced the parts needed to be cut and cut them all out. I then just glued them on one at a time until finished. I think the instructions way is harder to make mistakes but thankfully I had no issues.

Well the part I was dreading the most is done... I got the mast shaped. I decided to use the dowel and not the square pieces. I'm not sure why they couldn't have given us a smaller dowel sine we had to trim it down so much... I threw it in my drill and started trimming it with some 150 sandpaper. This was so painfully slow... So I got the bright idea to use the Dremel with a drum sander while spinning it in the drill 🤣🤣 I wish I thought of this first because it took off wood soooo fast. I had to be extremely careful though because it was so aggressive. I wish the instructions had more detailed drawings so I could at least have a diameter to aim for.... I keep regretting not spending the $30 for the drawings someone had linked in their log... Won't make that mistake again. I ended up making my own cleats for the mast because the laser cut ones were so small and looked ridiculous. I used some of the brass plate I got to make a pad for the boom but I'm not 100% happy with it. It ended up with small dents and scratches 😭 I might still use it though.

Lots of progress today! Steps 39, 40 and 48 done Step 39: Pintles Got some 0.010" thick brass from Hobby Lobby and cut a 2mm strip out. Cut two 15mm lengths of that and drilled some holes in the end and got started. You can see below the difference in length of these and the ones they supply... Went pretty well after I had those made. Just had to make sure the lower pin was slightly longer than the top one and then make sure to put them the in the right spot to line up with the Gudgeons. When gluing, I had to make sure it stuck to the right spot as well as keeping the pins parallel to the rudder edge. Next I did a test fit to make sure it worked and then I drilled a hole through the rudder to bolt the pintles on. Surprisingly I hit the hole on the other side very easily despite the angle I needed to drill at as you can see below. With the supplied nails, I cut them about .5mm longer than needed and tried my hand at riveting them since this seemed like an ideal piece for that. And it worked well!! It isn't neatly rounded but it definitely mushroomed out to hold it in! Success! 40: Display Stand Pretty straight forward. Biggest thing to note is the hole in the base is slightly too big for the supplied dowels. It's not so much bigger that it looks bad from one side so I used that as the top. Got it glued and square and then just filled in the gaps on the bottom with glue haha. I'm not super worried as I don't think this will be it's permanent display stand. 48: Oarlocks Another super short step but satisfying since it makes the boat look much different. I had to drill the PE parts out slightly for the nails but this was easy after glued to the pads. Pinned them with the nails and glued the oarlocks in. Another very satisfying day! I'm super excited to start the the sail and rigging but not really looking forward to shaping the mast... I will try using a plane on the square parts they give but it seems most other kits give dowels so I might try my hand with the dowel first... We'll see.

Well probably a very short session tonight... The pintle straps supplied seem to be WAY too short... I might have used the wrong piece for the bottom rudder gudgeon but even so the longest one only has about 1/16" engagement with the rudder... I think I'll get some thin brass sheet and cut my own out.

Here's the pictures I forgot! Going to work on her now!

Haha I'm trying! I've just been enjoying it so much I keep finding myself at my desk working on it. I do find myself reading your log multiple times a day haha it's very helpful. I did see that most people say the nails included are too big, but I think the ones I got were of a useful size! Once I post more pictures you might be able to see from the size of the heads on the gudgeons.

Little update... Finished steps 35-38 35: Tiller Assembly I'm ashamed to say I wasn't able to get the small brass rods to rivet correctly so I ended up CA gluing everything in... I first tried the rod that hooks onto the rudder and it didn't deform easily. So I annealed it and tried again and almost broke the whole thing because the rod bent so much so easily... I did try again with the harder brass but then I couldn't comfortably hit it hard enough to mushroom into the rivets... I tried again on the connection for the extensions but same result... I need to just get a short length of it in a scrap piece of wood and practice a bit. I did glue the extension to the tiller so it's not exactly usable but I think it's ok as long as it's out of the way of the traveler line. 36: Eyebolt in bow Pretty simple. Put some CA glue on the hole and threw the eyebolt in there making sure it was oriented correctly. Once it dried I cut off the excess, leaving a bit for the stay plate. 37: Stay Plates Also straight forward. I bent the plates using one of my tweezers with a straight end to the specified angle. Drilled a hole in the inwale but I mis understood the instructions and drilled a hole below the center of the inwale when it said below the center of the slot. So the bolt isn't quite centered on the inwale but it's hardly noticable. I'm not really sure what they intended for the "bolts". I couldn't find what was meant to be used but I ended up using the leftover bit from the eyebolt. The fore stay plate was even easier, just had to put it through the eyebolt bolt and glue it on. Afterwards, a short section of the brass tubing was put over the bolt to represent a nut. 38: Rudder Gudgeons I had a lot of fun with these for some reason. First thing I did was drill out the holes slightly so that the brass nails that the kit came with would fit through them. I then cut two short sections of the brass tube which happened to be almost the perfect length just eyeballing it! Glued those on with the thicc CA glue. While they fuly cured I marked out the spots they would be on the transom marking the center line so the rudder would hopefully not be crooked. I also put the tiller on for this to make sure it would fit since my transom is taller than intended. Glued them into their spots with a tiny bit of glue and let them sit. Then drilled the holes through the transom for the nails. I ended up cutting the nails to half the thickness of the transom so that both ends would have a nail head and look propely riveted. This was very tricky getting the tiny nail (about 1mm long) into the hole before the glue cured 🤣. It came out very nice thoug, and I'm most happy that the holes on the inside of the transom were straight (indicating I drilled fairly perpendicular to the transom). I forgot to take pictures of everything but the tiller so I will add them this evening when I'm home from work!

Not a lot of steps completed but that doesn't mean a lot wasn't done... Finished 33-34B 33 Painting the Hull This was much more involved than painting the Dory... I primed everything in white and now I kind of wish I would have gotten some red primer hahaha... the outside of the hull was, as you'd expect, easy to paint. With the giant flat surfaces and the primer almost the same color as the paint, it was very smooth sailing (heh). The inside, however, was a much different story... Seems that everyone agrees that multiple thinner coats of paint is the best approach to painting and that is what I did for the inside. I think 6 coats later, it is done. It came out pretty good I think! Funnily enough, the Admiral pointed out that it is the same color as a Dr Pepper can (that I had been drinking at the time). I ended up painting the rub rails as well as the top section of the stern transom. I don't know why, just seemed like a good idea and I like the way that it turned out! I guess that's all that matters. Painted the dagger board and rudder as well and threw a coat of matte varnish on everything. I have to touch up the dagger board a little bit as the fit in it's case was too close and it rubbed some of the varnish and paint off 😅 34A. Floor Boards This was made trivial with all the pre-work I did before! a simple matter of placing glue on the cleats and putting them in place. I did have to sand off some paint to ensure a good fastening. One small thing I'm not 100% happy with is where the two sections of floor boars meet, they are not lined up on the outside edge. It's pretty hidden by the midship thwart but I'll always know it's there. 34B. Installing thwarts and stern sheets. This also went very smoothly all that was needed to do was sanding a bit of paint off and gluing them in place! Next up is the Tiller assembly.... I have cut out all the pieces and read the instructions but decided to stop and write this up and then study some other build logs for this step particularly.

Whelp, while reading another build log I noticed something I hadn't noticed before... I put the dagger board case through the bottom of the plank instead of setting it on top of it so the dagger board would go through it... This is why the dagger board case was too low for the thwart. What is weird though, the hole in the plank was MUCH to long for even the entire dagger board case... if it was just for the dagger board itself, it would have been even worse which would have looked terrible with the dagger board lowered.

I also find the information very interesting. It's also useful for when building these kits to get a better understanding why something is the way it is.

Been a few days but I've got some progress done! (In the middle of selling and looking for a new home). Got steps 23-32 done. (29 and 30 are non-existent). And part of 34 done; the first 34 of the two 🤣 23: Chain Plate Slots Drilled a hole with a bit about 1" and used a xacto blade saw to make it square (ish). Had to modify the saw blade a bit to get it to fit in the hole but afterwords it came out ok. I'm thinking it'll look fine with the chain plates installed. 24: Rudder Gudgeon Pad Not much to say here. Very straightforwards and simply. The laser marked slot on the transom was not the center of my boat so I had to just slide it over. 25: Rowlock Pads I cut a few 3/4" strips and marked every 1/4" and used a regular xacto blade to shape these. Ended up making 5 because one (my first one) did not come out how I liked. The instructions only mention that they should be 1' 6" aft of the forward thwart frames but later pictures show 4 total so I just measured the 1.5" behind the bottom frames 2 and 3.... now that I'm writing this I see that they say 1.5" behind the thwart frames and not bottom rails... whoopsies. My boat is just custom 😁 26: Rub Rails Since I used the strips intended for this for the floor board cleats and removed them, I got some new pieces from Hobby Lobby. They didn't have 3/64"x1/8" but they did have 1/16"x1/8" so I used that and sanded it a little extra to get closer to 3/64". Pre-bending them helped a lot and I welcome the opportunity for more bending practice as I have lots more to do in my future! I got them pretty flat with the inwale and sheer plank so I was happy about that. 27: Dagger Board Pretty straight forward. I started sanding this thinking I would only bevel one side of the dagger board but mid sanding i saw that it did say to bevel both sides so I did. Thankfully I wasn't too far in and it came out mostly symmetrical. The instructions do not say to do this but I rounded the front edge as it didn't seem very aerodynamic with a flat edge. I made the stop at the top as the instructions say with 2 long strips along the top with a small piece in between at the ends. Sanded it all level and rounded everything and it looks good! 28: Rudder Nothing too tricky here either. I left the char on the curved side of the rudder to help me keep track of my bevel job to make sure I didn't over-do it at any point. Rounded the front at the bottom and cut out the small notches for the pintles. 31: Thwarts and Stern Sheets I'm not sure if it matters but for the stern sheets, I glued a strip of scrab to the bottom to hold them together so I kept my spacing. It also allowed me to sand the edges and make sure they will line up in the end. The forethwart was very simple. I had to trim the thwart knees a little to make sure they were level and flush with thwart. I had to do quite a bit of trimming to the thwart so that it would fit especially in the slot for the thwart frame. The slots were not deep enough to fit. The midship thwart was a very different situation... the knees required significant trimming so that the thwart was at the same level as the dagger board case. So much, that the thwart knees could not reach the inwale... I trimmed them so there is no notch for the inwale and attached them to the sheer plank. Once I go these made, I put a tiny bit of glue on the bottom and glued them to the thwart and let it dry. Afterwards, I slid the thwart into position and glued the knees to the plank. Once that glue dried I was able to easily break the bond and slide out the thwart. 33: Painting the Hull I just got done with priming everything and letting it dry. Will sand it and paint it tomorrow! 34-1: Floor Boards I really liked how the stern sheets come out when using the extra strip of wood glued to the bottom so I decided to do that with the floor boards. Once all boards were glued together, I roughed out the shape of the bottom of the boat and started making sawdust. I did this for both sets of floor boards but on the ones that go around the dagger board case, I only glued the long strips together. Once I get them glued in, I will do my best getting the smaller boards in and symmetrical. Had a random issue where the tip of the bow transom knee broke off - above the hole for the stay plate. I "fixed" it with wood filler... I spent way too much time sanding it to make it look half decent and then put some thin CA glue into the wood to make sure it doesn't break again. It's "high performance" wood filler but I don't trust it haha. What's everyone's opinion on where pictures are in these posts? Right after the section talking about the relevant parts? Or all dumped at the end of the post like I usually do.

Didn't have time to post yesterday, but got some decent progress in the last 2 days. Steps 18-22 done. Well, I still have a bit of cleanup on the mast step but that's it. Unfortunately, it took way longer to do these steps than it should have 😭. Seat and thwart frames went ok. I spent a VERY long time trying to make sure they would be square with the boat as well as fitting against the frames as good as I could. They all came out pretty square I think but it wasn't as good getting the angles to match the planks. So I did the best I could without taking so much off that it would look different than the others and then filled in the gaps with wood filler. (Thinking about getting some auto body filler to try instead of the wood filler in the future). With trying to match the angles, it changed the location of the drain holes and they didn't line up with the corners in many cases so I need to add them back manually. The floor board cleats went on very easy and I didn't even need to pre-bend them. After completing the next step I realized that I had used the wrong strips for the cleats and went through the process of removing them which was not easy. You can see the random spots of gray on the planks and that is from my tweezers slipping from the cleat and damaging the planks. I eventually though to poke tiny holes with my tweezers throughout the cleats so the alcohol could get all of the glue at the same time and then it became much easier to remove. Not ideal if you want to save the piece of course but these strips were meant for the rub rails and I did not want to try to put all 5 pieces together and then glue it to the sheer. After that I cut the correct size strip to length and bent them with my iron and glued them in nicely. Now I just need to get a 1/8" x 3/64" strip from hobby lobby for the rub rail. The transoms were very straight forward. I was able to just cut the bow transom right where the laser mark was as the plank ends at this side were almost perfect. I had to translate the line on the stern transom up so that I would be above the sheer plank. The mast step was another disaster 🤣 I did not realize that the bottom layer was meant to go between the frames and the top layer went across the top. I was concerned about the angle the mast would be at so I started looking at other builds and discovered how they were meant to be. So I tried to trim the bottom layer (after they were glued together) and it ended up breaking off the top piece too. I went to sheet that they came from originally and cut new ones out so that it would fit better. Despite being very careful, while drilling the hole for the mast, the top board broke right in the center. I think I should have drilled the hole before cutting out of the sheet and this might not have happened. Or maybe add some CA glue around where the hole will be. Anyways, I glued the two halves of the top layer to the bottom layer and finished making the hole for the mast and all things considered, it came out alright. Still need to clean the end up to line up with the frames still but I wanted to make sure the glue was completely dried before doing this...

Thanks Trevor! I am happy that the planks ended up at least symmetrical. Got some more done! Steps 12-16 are done. That is Skeg, Bilge Keels, Dagger Board Case, Bottom Frames, Inwales, and Stern/Bow Quarter Knees. Everything went pretty smoothly, thankfully. The Skeg and Bilge Keels needed very little sanding to fay (new term learned) with the bottom of the boat. Dagger Board Case was very straight forward as long as you keep everything squared up. Bottom frames were slightly annoying due to my ineptitude of lapstrake planking. Or maybe it is just the nature of lapstrake planking that the frames didn't line up well with the planks without lots of adjustment. Even then there were lots of gaps between the two. I plan to fill these with some wood filler and clean it up while keeping the holes in the corners for water draining. The inwales went extremely well. I think mostly because they are slightly larger than on the Dory and easy to handle. The quarter knees were also very quick and easy and came out well. Partially because of my incident early by thinking the bow quarter knees were the transom knees 🤣 they were already sanded and basically ready. All that was needed was a small amount of sanding to match the angle of the transoms. Side note: When warned about the char rubbing off on the planks from the molds, I decided to try coating the molds with a very thinned out pva glue. After removing the ship from the building board, I am pleased to say that there was not a single mark from the laser char on the planks.