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Hi Martin Yep, perhaps. Right now I'm considering 7 projects, from Revenge or a bettered Wasa to Agamemnon, Vanguard, Diana, a rigged Confederacy and Cutty Sark. The big question is where to berth the finished ship. Perhaps you heard of that problem - even the best of all admiralties has limits. Cheers peter

The next sail, the jib, needs a bit more planning. By changing the rigging of the fore stay, I was bringing it more inboard and changed the sail size as well. The sail from the kit plan was adapted to the new stay. Then I cut a paper template and checked it against the model. After resizing it twice I had a fitting sail template. The boom had to be shortened as well, of course. paper template for the jib sail

Thank you, Martin. Should be rather straightforward from now. Only the size of the jib with the differently set up fore stay must be checked. Then only the outer jib and finally the boats remain. Almost time to start thinking about the next project. Cheers peter

The fore gaff sail was made and set the same way as the main gaff sail. The main difference was the missing boom. The sheets with tackles are installed as per kit instruction. I mainly use the kit blocks but try to improve their appearance by rounding the corners a bit with a nail file. fore gaff mast foot upwind sheet around the mainmast downwind sheet about two thirds of the whole sail area are now set

Many thanks, Nils. Much easier to work with canvas on a small yacht than with steel on a huge liner. Wouldn't you like to try another sailboat after sending your behemoth ocean liner onto her maiden voyage (through your living room, or wherever)? So do I, Tim. Yes, it seems, that those boats were only in place when she wasn't racing. As the jib boom went overboard quite early, and because I like the kit's appearance with the additional outer jib, I will show her in the configuration before winning the race and also with boats. As I also mentioned before, a ship without boats looks somewhat unfinished or even abandoned to me. Anchor davits: I know of only one model showing them. Perhaps they really had anchor davits for convenience and offloaded them together with the boats when racing. On the other hand, those anchors in the kit would probably weigh just around 50 to 100 kg. It should be possible to manhandle them with a few sailors and perhaps a provisional tackle to the masthead. (No permanent mast tackles were mentioned anywhere for America.) Hence, I'm afraid, my America's crew will have to shed some sweat to rise or drop the anchors. Cheers peter

The gaff topsail is set and it draws. I made two little changes to the kits instructions. The tack was led from the sheave on the outer part of the gaff directly to the block on deck. I couldn't make any sense of that block which the kit fastens on a long line from the inner end of the gaff leading the tack towards the deck. According to the KISS principle I left it off. Another block was added because I didn't want to lead the sheet directly onto its belaying pin. By leading it through a block on deck I could half the pull on the pin and had an arrangement similar to the sheet and the tack. After setting the sail I made a sailor go to the topmast to illustrate the difficulties one would have working on a topsail lashed to the topmast (don't ask me how the poor sailor got there and back). Now I think more than ever that the topsail set flying, as the kit does, would have been the sensible solution for a racing machine. lower corner with sheet attached top halliard (the slim hook is a leftover Caldercraft part) mast foot with additional block for the sheet the sail is set and the simplified leading of the tack clearly visible this working station looks scary even under calm harbour conditions

Next was the gaff topsail. First I pondered about the way of setting it. On the newer pictures in Rousmanieres book its luff is attached to the topmast but the kit sets it 'flying'. As actual work up on the topmast could be difficult without ratlines to go there or crosstrees to stand on I followed the simpler kit version as seeming more probable for the original racing version. The sail was first drawn on paper and then its size checked against the model. Then the sail was drawn with pencil on both sides of a piece of fabric. The material for the hems is added along the sides. The seams between the clothes are just double pencil lines. A stripe for the tablings was also marked. A problem was one wrongly drawn line (Of course one of the last on the second side - greetings from Mr. Murphy). First I tried to rub or scratch it off. This just got me a dirty, scratched sail with the line still there but made me a bit more optimistic for the longevity of my pencilled seams. Then I found that with luck I could cover that offending mistake with the hem and so made it disappear. All the edges where I would cut with my the scissors were now soaked with diluted textile glue to avoid fraying. After drying sail and stripe were cut with the sharpest scissors I could find in the house. The hems were pre-bent to facilitate gluing. The bolt rope, with a strength of 0,5mm, was laid into the hem, glue added and the hem closed around the bolt rope. The hem was pressed with the rear end of a pair of tweezers to improve the connection between fabric and glue. The boltrope was lead around the corners, leaving some extra length to form a cringle and the procedure repeated for all sides. (If e.g. reef cringles were requested along one side I would just puncture the edge of the sail twice with my strong pin, lead the boltrope outside the hem for a few mm, with some slack in it, and then continue inside the hem again.) Again I decided to use classical cringles on the corners instead of the kit supplied brass grommets. The freshly glued hems were pressed while drying. Then the tablings were cut to size, glued onto the sail and pressed again. The cringles got a small lashing to fix them. Now the finished sail was well ironed to fix the glue. And then some expressions - not to be repeated before this noble gathering here - where heard. When I tried to rig the finished sail it was too large - despite the earlier test with the drawing. I had to redo the leech and cut off the width of one cloth in the process. A good soaking with water fortunately weakened the textile glue enough to enable me to pull off the tablings again and to reopen the hem. sail drawn on paper... ...and on both sides of the fabric. That fabric is light enough that you may pencil along the lines on the paper, just visible through it. lines to cut soaked with diluted glue sail (and stripe for tablings) cut, first hem pre-bent bolt rope inside of the hem some glue added pressing the fresh hem to improve adhesion corner with cringle homemade sail press finished sail with tablings

Hi Nils Excellentissima! (I'm again running out of superlatives...) This is an intriguing little question about the position of the vents. Do you think some poor sailors had to adjust them frequently or did they just have perhaps one cruise position and then perhaps one according to the prevailing winds at an actual anchorage? Thank you for inspiring us. Cheers peter

To set the sail I mainly followed the kit's instructions. Exceptions are the lashings of the sail to the mast hoops. I prepared double holes in the hem of the sail for a double lashing according to an example in Lees' book. I use a thick pin to puncture the sail fabric also for reef points. An additional feature is the single horse I added on the part of the boom overhanging the stern. And whenever I use rigging hooks I take some leftover Caldercraft or Victory parts. I'm still asking myself if there shouldn't be a down hauler on the gaff to assist the handling of that large sail. On the other hand I believe that the rigging was intentionally kept as simple as possible. There are also no brails on the spanker and they probably just could have used the sail to pull down the gaff. This simple rigging seems to match the illustrations in 'The low black schooner'. gaff rigged lashing to the hoops mast foot and boom single horse rigged quite an impressive main sail

Hi Martin Nice progress and nice working place. I wouldn't have the patience to add all those details - I am probably too eager to see a build finished. On the other hand, 'building under the influence' - I noticed that bottle of IPA on your workbench - , might help and increase your patience. Would you recommend it? Cheers peter

Hi Nils and Martin Thank you for the visit and the compliment. Hi Hamilton Ratty? Your sails look great to me. But I think it's very difficult to make seams truly in a scale of 1/64 or similar. That's why I just paint them on with a sharp pencil. The same is true for the boltrope which may look a bit plump when stitched onto the edge of the sail. Gluing it onto that edge is something I never figured how to do. Therefore I glue it into the hem. This is another idea I found in a thread in MSW which I cannot find again. My way of sail making is just a few combined ideas adopted from MSW. A tutorial could therefore have a smell of plagiarism. But you will find more details in my Pickle log and I can try to show a step by step progress when making one of the following sails. And of course pencilling and gluing is quite fast and easily done. The question remains however, how my sails will stand the onslaught of time. The pencilled lines probably will fade but I hope that at least the glue will hold for a few decades. Stitched sails on the other hand could keep in shape for centuries. Cheers peter

Running rigging; setting sail The first sail to set was the schooners main sail, the spanker. Trying to make the sail with the fabric provided with the kit didn't work - it was too flimsy. I couldn't mark the seams with pencil as the fabric was too elastic and deformed under the pencil. Therefore I took the same - a bit stiffer - cotton I used for Pickles sails. As Americas sails were made of cotton I didn't dye it. All the seams between the clothes of the sail, as well as the reef bands and doubling in the corner were marked with a thin pencil. The hem was glued with the bolt rope put into it. To make cringles the bolt rope was taken out of the hem for a short distance. Trying to use the brass grommets from the kit did not provide good results and I made traditional clew cringles. I know, that especially between foot and luff, most probably a grummet inside the bolt rope was used but for simplicity I reverted to the old fashioned cringle. Now stripes for tablings and reef bands were cut and glued onto the sail. Finally the reef points were thread into the bands and the whole sail well ironed to fix the glue. sail maker at work it's a huge sail

Thank you Nils. Martin, it should improve. There were some rumours that at least you will very soon live in a great country (again)!? (This baffles me a bit as I always found it to be a great country - with room for some improvements, but great anyway). Hamilton, thanks. Yes, the boats will be hanging from iron davits, roughly amidships and outboards. There are illustrations in Rousmaniere's book showing such an arrangement. And a very happy new year to all of you! peter

booms, anchors, boats The booms were constructed as instructed by the kit. The only little addition were the iron (cartridge paper) hoops to hold the tongues of the gaff. boom and gaffs detail of the gaff The anchors were installed as instructed by the kit. The anchor chain hanging over the bulwark and chafing on the lanyards of the bowsprit rigging seems a bit strange but I couldn't think of a better arrangement except just letting the anchor hang outboard below the hawse pipe. However there it would cause some drag which should be avoided in this racing machine. Another question was how the anchors were handled as no permanent gear is installed. Being comparatively small I guess they were manhandled with the help of some temporary tackles. anchors stowed the chain will probably chafe on the bowsprit rigging I will install two boats as depicted for example in John Rousmaniere's book. I ordered 2 quaicraft model boats with a length of 83mm in scale 1/64. The raw boats show acceptable details and seem about right in size and style for America. However the first painted example looked too much like plastic. After dismantling again the small decks and the thwarts were made from wood and some details were added, such as a rudder, a water barrel, boathook and oars which are leftovers from other kits and a mast. Now I have to find out how to attach the boats to my cast metal Amati davits and how to install all on America. raw and finished boat - in the background a mock up for the installation of davits and boats

Thank you Hamilton. The previously built Pickle and several clever books are a great help for me. Cheers and a happy new year to all peter

Congratulations Tim. A very nice corner stone for a great fleet, I'm sure (even if that allegory is a bit listing). To the Cutty Sark and beyond! I'm looking forward to that build log. Keep up the good work peter

Hi Tim She is really looking great. Ahem... now that you have nearly finished her, do you already know, where you will apply next those considerable skills you demonstrated? Cheers peter

The bobstay was now set up below the jib stay tackle. I used 0.5 black thread and set up a 0.25 natural thread tackle to a block on its own eyebolt on the bow. The bowsprit shrouds were next. Unfortunately I found only 3 of the 4 needed cast thimbles in the kit. The good news were 4 wooden hearts in about the right size which I could localise in my 'leftovers drawer'. For the shrouds I used 0.75 black with 0.25 natural thread for the lanyards. bobstay and jib stay tackle wooden hearts for the bowsprit shrouds In between the work on the bow the main topmast standing rigging was installed. The topmast stay was made of 0.5 black thread and set up as instructed by the kit. That rope triangle for the forward end seemed a bit strange was however the logical solution with the 'eyed rings' provided by the kit. fore mast head with schooner stay and main topmast stay Generally, while working on the rigging, I was occasionally in a dilemma. According to the sources, the aim of the ship builder was to provide a relatively simple rig, taking a New York pilot schooner as a model. On the other hand some of the kit's proposals were rather complicated such as this stays forward end or the bobstay. I was looking for technically plausible solutions with the available material but as my clever books (Lees and others) mainly cover the period up to 1830 I was sometimes lost at sea. Anyhow, that the main topmast has no shrouds seemed correct. However those prominent backstays definitely were incorrect and to leave them off, as other kits propose, I thought inappropriate. Either to leave the topmast bare or to have supports forward and aft seemed more logical. I therefore balanced the topmast stay with a pair of backstays attached to the lower deadeye of the lower mast shrouds. This isn't an open contradiction to the contemporary paintings and is covered by Marquardt's book. The 0.5 black thread of the backstays was set up with wooden thimbles (from the 'leftovers drawer') and a 0.25 natural lanyard. topmast backstay lower end Now the jib boom inner end was fixed. An additional bolt through the ears on the bowsprit betting and the rear end of the jib boom holds it. jib boom inner end Installing the dolphin striker wasn't easy as I was unable to identify that part in the kit's box. After several tries I made one of 0,8mm brass wire. Of course the eye on the bowsprit broke when I installed it (one of those days) but could be replaced with an eyebolt. The martingale stay is 0.5 mm black thread and the two back ropes 0.25. I used some Amati 3mm blocks to set up the lanyard made of 0.1 mm natural thread. Finally the jib boom guys (not sure if that's the correct name) were set up with 0.25 natural thread. I decided against the use of 'tarred' rope as they are put directly to cleats. dolphin striker with martingale stay and back ropes standing rigging completed (except a few loose ends)

...and was Her Majesty amused? Thanks JPAM

standing rigging The masts were completed, stepped for good, fixed with epoxy and the white colour touched up. For the standing rigging I decided to use rope strengths according Marquardt's book (The Global Schooner) and check the run of all ropes and lines with Marquardt and Lees. I was - and am - a bit sceptical about the accuracy of the kit's drawings. For example the mainmast shrouds are set up in a traditional way while the fore mast shrouds are led through rings at the masthead. And the fore stay (which seems to be rather a jib stay) looked strange, set up fix between two other eyebolts. And that unnecessary complicated bobstay looks almost ridiculous. For information about possible corrections I had a look at the different pictures of other models in the web and the available pictures and drawings of the schooner. Somewhere I read that America's rigging follows roughly the layout of a typical New York pilot boat. Therefore I had a look at the available pictures especially of the Phantom kit from Model Shipways. The similarity is in fact clearly visible and I could take some inspiration from there. I use a mix of leftover and new Amati and Caldercraft lines in black and natural. As small schooners may have no mast tackles, I left them off. The shrouds were set up with black 0.75 line with a traditional loop around the masthead - on mainmast and on the fore mast where a convenient shoulder below the rings at the masthead is even already available. The deadeyes seem a bit big but I had to stick with them. As mentioned earlier I installed only two pairs of shrouds for the mainmast. For the schooner stay I used the same 0.75 thread and set it up with two false splices. It seems strange to have no way of easy adjustment but I found no other examples e.g. of an installation similar to that on Pickle. The fore stay is in fact missing and what is there instead is rather a jib stay. It was attached to the mast head just above the shrouds with a spliced eye - in a traditional way. Without any crosstrees I couldn't use a spliced eye with a mouse as for the traditional fore stay, but treating it as a jib stay solved that problem. The lower end needed some adjustment as well. A normal fore stay would be set up with deadeyes. A jib stay however could go through a bowsprit sheave and brought back to the bow to be set up with a tackle or thimbles. The second solution is in fact used on the pilot boat Phantom. As the bobstay in the kit's drawings looks false I thought that the artist perhaps did mix up a simple regular bobstay with the tackle for the jib stay which would be just overhead. And this is my solution: The upper part of that double tackle will hold the jib stay to a ringbolt in the bow, while a bobstay with a single tackle will lead to a second eyebolt just below. Thus giving roughly the same impression as the kit but present a functional rig. The jib stay is made from 0.75 black thread with a 0.25 natural lanyard. Finally unused ringbolts at the mastheads where filed off and the white colour touched up. main mast head - all set up according to kits instructions fore mast head with shrouds and jib stay attached in a traditional way two pairs of main mast shrouds fore mast shrouds - I drilled two 0.7mm holes through the position lights, thread the shrouds through them and fixed it with a drop of glue. lower end of jib stay with tackle first part of standing rigging completed

Thank you, Hamilton. Good idea to sand the belaying pins - they look a bit heavy anyhow. Cheers peter

masts The masts were made as per kit instruction. I usually put the parts of the masts together before stepping them. So far I had no problems to put the shrouds in place around the already standing topmasts. A little fid was added for said topmast. A considerable problem (or several of them) was (were) presented by the cast parts. Of course the openings for the mast parts were too small. Reworking them was tricky and several parts broke. Epoxy or drilling holes for new ringbolts to replace those broken off were the solutions. I decided to paint the mast hoops in black metal, guessing they were cast iron - copper or brass are also seen on other models. Next will be the stepping of the masts. another broken cast part despite generous white washing the new fid remains visible provisionally stepped masts

Thank you , Martin. I might probably have heard once hinted that elegance and America are not always thought to be synonymous , but here they certainly are ( and we shouldn't forget SS United States). Hi Hamilton This same kind of stand was used on Pegasus and Pickle and I'm thinking about remounting Granado on a similar one. But be aware that those brass columns need reworking of the slits. For the base I tried first a plank from Amati in some unknown hardwood but it was much too red. Common Swiss oak from the wood shop looks much better and I'm quite sure that some Canadian hardwood (perhaps even the ever present maple) would look fine. Hi Tim Nice to hear from you. Yes, the pictures in the book seem clear about that topmast rigging. However the version I mentioned with a smaller backstay to the lower deadeye of the after lower mast shroud cannot be ruled out by the same book. I'll try that. Sails? Sure, but I don't know yet if the fabric from the kit will do. I'll have a try and if not, there is still enough left from Pickle to make a full set of sails. Cheers peter

The deck furniture is finished and installed. Also the tubes for the anchor chains are in place and with some luck all fit with the two nameplates on the bow. The forward companionway got a new handle for the sliding roof (the one in the cockpit as well) and is fix installed. The bowsprit as first part of the masting is in place and the jib boom ready for installation. forward companionway with new handle The fully furnished deck seems still spacious the nameplate got again a light treatment with wood stain to get a warmer gold colour the stand Before starting to make and install the masts, the schooner got onto her definitive stand: Two Amati bras columns on an oak plank from the local woodshop. Now America looks almost like she is swimming and her elegance begins to show. she swims!

Hi Frank Nice to hear from you. I'll go quickly and pay your newest junk a visit... Hi Hamilton I left the pegs - or stumps of them - on the chain plates because I was afraid they wouldn't resist the pull of the shrouds enough without them. And on the last 2 I finally run out of luck. They broke in 3 places but I hope that after mending with epoxy they will hold. While at it, I also strengthened the others with some epoxy below the deadeyes where one snapped while pinching it. And I'm glad you're rethinking the decision not to post a log on Syren and look forward to it... Cheers peter