Jim Lad

Mike,

With the sails stowed, the clewlines and sheets will still be shackled to the foot of the sail except, of course, that the sail will be furled on the yard.

With respect to the upper topsail, the sheet won't be shifted from its position either sheckled to the lower yard or set up in the tip with a tackle.

John

Lovely work on those very complex pieces, Juergen.

John

Not quite, Augie!  I'd rather meet a bear dropping than a Drop Bear!!

John

Crikey, Grant, don't mention Drop Bears - you'll frighten the tourists away!!

John

Kester - remember that as the right side of the brain controls the left side of the body, only left handed people are in their right minds!!

As for ropes, if you coil a right handed rope anti-clockwise, it will kink when you run it out!

John

That looks very nice, Juergen.  I like the way you have fitted the upper frames into the bulkheads!

John

And each one of those bolts is threaded and had to be screwed in!

John

Bite!

John

Crikey, Jason, you're nearly there!  Another 'Mercury' almost ready to sail!

John

Danny,

Looks like I'll need to take a drive up the F3 when I need some serious metal working done!

John

Very nice looking stern timbers!

John

A very interesting and nice looking boat.  She'll make a fine model.

John

I bet someone got it in the neck over that empty reserve tank!  Strangely enough, that photo Kevin posted is the only one I can find of the R14 under sail - you'd think that such an unusual incident would have bred more photos.

John

She has sails!  She has sails!  looking good, Popeye!

John

Why do you need a lathe, Andy?  You're obviously doing fine without one!

John

This sounds like it will be an interesting project, Wayne.

John

Thanks for your 2 cents, Håkan!

I know these craft were beamy, but there seems to be very little under the water and contemporary paintings show them carrying an aweful lot of canvas in fairly strong conditions.

John

Great, Michael.  There seem to be quite a few manufacturers who have all the dimensions published.

John

Sorry, Michael.  I saw your question and then forgot to answer it!

And I'm afraid my answer is - I'm not sure; I only build 'em!    If you go back to page 1 of this more or less rebuilt log you'll see the only known painting of the Stag showing her under full sail.  Like all other paintings I've seen of such cutters, the mainsail is hauled in fairly flat - maybe to stop it from blanketting the square sails, which would give her a lot of driving power.  of course the paintings may simply be using artistic licence to show a 'romantic' view of the cutters under full sail.  It would be a pretty easy job to slack away the lee backstay - it's only two tackles to let go.

I'd be intrested to hear from anyone who has any actual information on the sailing of these ships.

John

PS Actually I'd like to get some information on how they managed to keep these craft upright when they were under a press of sail - they don't draw a lot of water!!!

Thanks Tony!

John

Michael,

Have a look at this web page - it's a manufacturer's catalogue with thimble sozes.

http://www.nobles.com.au/3dissue/section03/files/14.html

John

Thanks Andy - we tend to call both 'bottlescrews' (or sometimes the open sided one 'rigging screw).

John

Michael and Andy,

I always thought that 'turnbuckle' was the North American word for 'bottlescrew', but you've both used both terms - Is there a difference?

Michael, you could always put a Senhouse slip on the lashing for the dinghy!

John

Popeye, Russ and Bob (Rafine) - Thanks very much for your encouraging words.

Adeline - They're actually single backstays, but set up with a variation of the double Spanish burton tackle, which gives a mechanical advantage of 8 times.  I think, as you say, that that's an indication of the weight of canvas she carried!

Augie - the forestay set up is really unusual.  I first thought that the stay must run over a sheave between the bowsprit (offset to port) and the stem, but there isn't any space for it there.  After much studying of the plans and an equal amount of head scratching, I decided that it actually ran through the stem.  As the knee that it's lashed around is right on the centreline that makes sense as it gives a straight lead for the lashing.

Bob (Cap'n'Bob) - we have to use spiders here.  The rigging fairies won't come to Australia as they're too scared of the spiders!

John

Well, the spiders have started work in earnst now.  The lower shrouds, forestay and running backstays are rigged, but not yet finally tied off, although that can be done anytime now.  Next job, I think, will be to rig the boom as I won't be able to get to the parrel once a little more rigging is done around the mast.  Then it'll be on to the ratlines - only one lower mast to do.

Here are some pictures of where we are now.

First, a few general views of the model.  I think she's finally starting to look like a real cutter with the backstays rigged!

The unusual arrangement of the backstays.  These are very like the backstays that Petersson shows in his book 'Rigging Period Fore and Aft Craft', but are pretty unusual for the period judging by the contemporary models that I've seen.

The inboard end of the backstays, showing the details as shown on the plans, which confirm the backstay arrangement as shown in the painting.

The very unusual lower end of the forestay.  This is shown in detail on the plan, so I have to assume that it's as rigged.  The plan shows four turns of the laniard secured by four hitches, so my stay has (you guessed it) four turns and four hitches.  I think I'm going too far!!!

John