Jim Lad

Looking forward to seeing your serving machine, Andy!

Hmm, the weather must be odd; it's pretty cold over here too - oh, yeah, it's autumn, isn't it?

John

Hello Jakob, and a very warm welcome to the forum from 'Down Under'.

One of your problems may be that your planks are too wide for your scale.  For true to scale plank widths, your planks should only be about 1.5 mm wide at as scale of 1:200.

Have you read any of the articles on planking in the articles/downloads section?  there are several articles on planking to choose from.  You can find them here:

http://modelshipworldforum.com/ship-model-framing-and-planking-articles.php

John

She's looking very neat and tidy, Popeye, as befits a top class yacht.  Good on yer, mate - nearly there!

John

Aha!  That's interesting information, Bruce.  If she traingular lower studding sails, then the bumpkins roughly where the lower booms would usually be would work well.

John

Delightful work, Danny!

John

Bruce,

I've been having a look at Kipping, Biddlecombe and Lever and none of them mention your boom (that's easier to write than bumpkin)!

I've also had another random thought.  If the booms were where they would presumably have had most effect in spreading the mainsail when running free, then where were the lower studding sail booms?  They should have been in the same area - if she carried them.

John

Frankie,

Please don't misunderstand me. I'm not trying to say that you're wrong or to put you down. The information that you've provided on Bruce's thread is quite correct, but the source that he's found is talking about a bumpkin being used in a very different way to what we're used to, and is of an earlier period than Underhill's particular area of expertise. I find that the mid 1800's is a bit of a 'black hole' with regards to rigging as it was a time of very rapid development in rigging practice and is not nearly as well documented as the periods before and after.

I think it would be really helpful to Bruce if you could use your expertise to help us to understand this apparently particular and unusual use of a bumpkin to spread the foot of a sail when running free. I, for one, have never heard of this use before. Do you know of any other examples?

John

Andy,

I remember many moons ago our chief engineer sailing past our anchored ship in his dinghy, shaking his fist at us and yelling, "Those newfangled stink boats will never catch on."  Strange people, engineers!

John

Lovely as usual, mate!

John

Bruce,

Is it possible for you to give us the source of the information you found and the exact quote regarding the swinging bumpkins?  That might help in tracking down other information.

John

Just catching up, Ilhan.  She's really looking beautiful.  The subdued colours you've used really set her off well.

John

So, as you say that your fleet has expanded by one, we are to assume that you still own the 'stink boat'?

John

Yes, Frankie, I agree with all that, but the contemporary article that Bruce is talking about specifically mentions swinging bumpkins for the clews of the mainsail - a horse of a very different colour!  

John

Ho, hum, just another bulkhead!

Sorry, Danny, but you make it look so easy to come up with that beautiful wotk.

John

Thanks for the input Frankie, but Bruce is looking for information on a different bumpkin - one used to spread the foot of the mainsail.  It's a new one on me, and very interesting.

John

Sounds like a good idea, Walt!

John

Looks like you've made a nice job of her so far Rowand.

John

Bruse,

She would be 'running free' when she wasn't obliged to brace up the yards - either running on a broad reach or with the wind right aft - that would add weight to the thought that the swinging bumpkins were back near the main mast to stretch the foot of the sail out as much as possible.

John

Ain't what it's made of, Mark, it's what it looks like!

John

Ouch!  She looks like she hit an oceberg, Kats!  Nice fix though!

John

Wefalck,

o'm just catching up with your work after not looking in for a while.

Your model is looking first class - a great job on bith the construction and painting.

John

Nice looking blanks, Mark.  I hope you're going to use the one that you've marked - sort of a blood sacrifice for the model!

John

Hey, Andy, i hope the mozzies that your encountering aren't up to this size!

John

Lars,

A standing gaff would usually be supported by a gooseneck and, if it had anything at all, might have a length of chain to support the inner end and take some of the weight off the gooseneck fitting; however in the case of your ship, it seems to have a standing gaff that's fitted like a hoisting gaff with jaws and a throat haliard, so I would think that the throat halliard has been trated like that of a hoisring gaff, in which case it would secure to a pin about the middle of the pin rail on the starboard side.

John

Good grief, Robbyn; don't encourage him any more, or there'll be half a dozen builds on his work table again!

John