flyer

The fore yard (similar to a crossjack) was now prepared. Generally I followed the manual. Only for the lift I used two of my wooden thimbles to set up the lanyard. Sometimes I needed to check the setup in Lees' book. The manual could use some additional pictures here, e.g. for the sling. For the stirrups of the footropes I used the same 0,25 black thread as for the footropes themselves. The manual asks for some wire but I find B.E.'s solution much better - but definitely not easier to make. The yard will later be braced about 30° to port, depicting a situation of a becalmed Pickle ready to catch a breeze somewhere from the starboard. (The master said it will certainly come, he can feel it in his bones.) There is quite some fiddling work to do for the fore and the fore topsail yard. I only hope that bit of additional thrust Pickle will get from the fore topsail will be worth all that work for setting up, handling and maintaining those two yards. The yard is ready. The prepared sling lies on the left. yard installed detail with the sling

Hi Tony Truly great looking sail! As we are more or less at the same stage of our respective builds, it's quite interesting to compare modelspan and cotton sails. On my Pickle I was too lazy to form the lower edge of the main sail and the reef bands in a curve. I read somewhere that you hardly notice the difference once the sail is hoisted. I'm quite happy with the result of my shortcut but of course yours is the real thing. About your Sherbourne's windless sails: Sailing ships quite often were and are becalmed. While you could use engine power today you had just to wait it out then. So I imagine my Pickle on a beautiful Sunday morning, lying there on a calm empty sea, with all the sails ready to catch that breeze, the master said, he can feel in his bones to come up. No Elysium yet. Cheers peter

Trying to find out how to set all the jib sails I noticed that the fore stay seemed to lead too far out onto the bowsprit. When changing the bowsprit proportions I didn't change the fore stay accordingly. Moving the attachment point about 20mm inboard provided a better spread of the stays and their sails and also a more harmonic picture. old distribution of stays fore stay adjusted

John, some Swiss people are nice and peaceful. I do not yodel and neither do I practice any other of the martial arts. Thank you Martin. Looong time ago, during my 4 years training as a mechanic, I heard some quite different comments about my craftsmanship. But wood and fabric are more forgiving than iron and steel. And Yes, I definitely love the lines and proportions of my Pickle. It seems that relaying on the Adonis plans and Marquardt's book for improvements was a good idea. Cheers peter

Hi John Nice work. In my experience you don't need to make extra gaps between the planks. If you use a rather viscous, water - based paint, like Admiralty paint, you will still see the individual planks. peter

Thank you, Nils. Again I have to emphasize how much I could profit from ideas found in MSW. It's a great enhancement for our hobby to have such a great forum and I want to thank all those doing much good work behind the scenery. Hi Joe Thank you. I like them myself and only hope that textile glue will hold through all the storms lying ahead. Hi John Out of curiosity I translated wow with my online dictionary and got 'Tonhöhenschwankung' which could be translated back as pitch oscillations. Are you criticizing my singing? Seriously - I had the same question as you and therefore put that horse onto the boom. Do you have them on modern yachts? Cheers peter

The gaff sail (I think in a schooner it's called main sail) is finished and installed. To find the correct size of the sail I had to install the gaff first and take measurements on the model. With a paper sail the size was then checked - and of course had to be corrected again. The sail itself was made similar to the fore gaff sail. I was a bit unsure about cringles on the reef bands, but I thought that reefing a 'boomed' gaff sail would simply be done by lowering the gaff according to the reduced sail size and binding the reef points around the boom. So, no special reef tackle would be needed. Attachment of the sails head to the gaff and of the leech to the mast hoops was done according Marquardt's book. The tack was lashed to the boom. The sheet is taken through a hole on the end of the boom and then fixed to a eyebolt on the underside of the boom with a hooked-in tackle. The running end of the tackle belays to a cleat on the underside of the boom. The boom has a horse on the part overhanging the taffrail. A simple down hauler, consisting of a block on the underside of the gaffs throat and a line leading from the eyebolt used to lash the tack through that block and to a cleat on the foot of the mast, helps with the lowering of the gaff. The block for the flag line is set with an eyebolt onto the end of the gaff. the large main sail is hoisted boom detail with horse boom with sheet tackle throat of boom and mast foot detail with mast hoops and down hauler

Just had a look on the situation on my Pegasus. It will be tricky with your larger (but beautiful pumps) but should be manageable with your nimble fingers. Cheers peter

Thank you, B.E. Hi John Great link, great pictures and mouth-watering offers. Thanks. Hi Spy Thank you for your feedbacks regarding those CA - problems. My first idea was: Point taken. Be careful when talking about great children to your offspring - you could get what you're asking for. Thinking again I must say that you are right. Those are definitely no glass-case models and need dusting occasionally. But I'm afraid that PVA isn't strong enough to hold a simple knot around a block and that the strop may slip. Do you use any additional fixations with thin thread? I really appreciate the likes from all those accomplished model makers. peter

Most elegant. 75 years before 'Porsche design' was founded a masterpiece of function and design arises (and that's only the prototype).

Following the hint of SpyGlass I will fix the future 'splices ' with PVA instead of CA glue. The sail is hoisted and looks approximately the way I hoped. Two pairs of brails are secured to two additional cleats on the fore mast. The tack is lashed to the centre ringbolt behind the fore mast with a thimble. The sheet consist of a tackle with a double and a single block, hooked into the clew and a ringbolt in front of the main mast. The vangs are set up as per manual. The gaff is positioned slightly to port, depicting a situation with a light breeze somewhere from the forward starboard quarter. Yards, boom and main gaff will be placed accordingly. fore gaff set the gaff is pulled to port by the vangs the running end of the sheet tackle belays to an additional cleat on the mainmast fore mast with tack lashing and provisionally belayed brails

Hi Spy Sure, I was stumbling over those abbreviations again. Thank you for the input regarding CA and rigging. Splices will be fixed with PVA. I tried and it really needs just a few minutes to be strong enough to permit continuation of your work. One place where I will continue to use CA is for the stropping of the blocks. I keep it simple by knotting the hook or ringbolt into the required black thread and the use one simple knot to tie the block in. That knot almost disappears in the furrow on the side of the block but needs a strong fix not to come apart. Discolouring is no factor with black thread and I hope neither will becoming brittle as that piece of rope should lie inert around the block. Hi Martin It will only be a very light breeze, hardly filling the sails. Sorry, but the crew is outright unwilling to move far inland into Oklahoma and I was unable to persuade them to leave that traditional great seafarer country, Switzerland. But I'll keep trying... On the other hand you describe your only crew member as a visually impaired butcher. But he is in fact doing very fine work on your Fly and you should perhaps consider a prolonged employment. Cheers peter

Hi Nils As I'm not such a excellent seamstress as you are I had to find another way. Hi Spy Thanks. I heard before that PA'ed ropes shall go brittle. Do have any actual experience of that problem? Certainly a bit of PVA would work as well and also has the advance that in an emergency in most cases it can be dissolved and taken apart again without too much damage to the rope. I'm sometimes asking myself how the PA will age and if someday all the PA-glued planks will come apart. Cheers peter

While checking the various lines on the gaff sail and their belaying points I decided to come back on that decision about the vangs. Marquardt himself isn't that clear about the Fitting of vangs with a slung gaff. In the illustrated example of a slung gaff he has vangs installed. As the manual asks for them as well and I think the whole handling of the gaff would be easier I decided to install them. vangs installed To get an attachment point for the tack lashings of the gaff sail I moved the schooner stay's tackle to the port ringbolt and prepared two more ringbolts on outboard of the three positions abaft the fore mast. gaff sail Following the positive experience I made with Pegasus' sails I will make those of Pickle the same way: - I use the finest cotton I can find. It is dyed a light brownish grey with a mixture of (very cheap) black and sage tea. Before cutting it, I brush the cutting lines with diluted glue to prevent unravelling of the edges. - Clothes seams are drawn as double lines with a sharp pencil onto the fabric. They probably will fade a bit but I think the sail maker used manila thread with a colour nearly matching that of the fabric. The seams probably did show much less than usually depicted in those laboriously stitched sails. - Doublings and reef bands are small stripes of the same fabric, glued on. - The bolt rope is glued into the seam. To form cringles and earrings I lead the boltrope through small holes out and back into in the seam in a small arc. Again the boltrope is less prominent than in other examples but when using a manila rope the colour should again blend in with the sailcloth. - The glue I use is a special textile glue which can be additionally fixed with a hot iron. -The reef lines are put on the usual way. (Hurrah, I found something nearly as tedious as knitting ratlines!) The making of that sail differs completely from the prototype, but I think the overall scaled down impression is as good as that of a stitched sail with its usually too coarse seams - and it's quite quickly and easily made. The gaff sail is now ready to hoist with brails and tack lashing attached. drawing of the sail with measurements taken from the model seams drawn, sail cut out, and first part of boltrope threaded in finished sail with brails attached detail with cringle splicing and knotting To secure all those blocks into rope ends and to secure lines around thimbles or ropes I use more and more a 'false splicing' according to a method I saw somewhere here in MSW. I pull the thread around the block or rope, thread it through itself with a needle, thread it back again a small distance farther out, adjust, fix all with a small drop of CA glue and trim the ends.

Thank you Mobbsie. Patience? What patience? Finding out how to make sails and trying new techniques while I go along is also very interesting - and sometimes even rewarding. I'm trying peter

Running rigging As starting point of the running rigging I took the fore gaff and sail. I consider this the most enclosed part and difficult to get at after other parts are finished. Basically it is easier to bend the sails onto yards or gaffs and install as many lines as possible before putting them up, but I put the gaff up without sail, because I wanted to adjust the angle of the gaff by eye and take it from there for the cut of the sail. While preparing the gaff and checking Marquardt's book I decided for several changes. According to Marquardt you have to differentiate between slung gaffs and hoisted gaffs. The rigging for those is different. Pickle's plans show a mix-up between both. A slung gaff (as basically foreseen in the plan) seemed more convenient but those never have vangs. It seems plausible to fix a slung gaff above the fore yard. The sling was installed as descript in the manual, only the lanyard was made from natural thread. The descript topping lift however is one for a hoisted gaff. I changed it to a version out of Marquardt's book and as it is permanently installed I used black thread. Finally two pairs of 2,5mm blocks for the brails were put onto the gaff. The standing peak tye (which replaces the topping lift) needed a thimble (or a ring). I took again one of the 2,5 mm single hole deadeyes from Amati's fittings which I used also for backstays and other parts, where the manual requires a 'thimble' made by hardening a becket with super glue. Gaff with standing peak tye. It's great to have that much skilled help... detail with sling and lanyard

Hi Martin Shouldn't you watch your language? Murphy says that all the children reading this forum speak symbols fluently. Thanks Jason. Thank you Frank. I hope you are enjoying the 80ies! Dear John The sails! Be relaxed, if you don't hoist them, there isn't hardly any hard part. I still wonder how so many strops could break. Just try to bend it into the right form in the first try and don't bend it too sharp. I think that if you manage to put the open ends completely into the channels' slits and seal them all with a healthy dose of epoxy, it should hold. In the meantime I found that Granado uses the same kind of strops for the smaller deadeyes. I didn't have problems there. Regarding your pending decision: From Amati/Victory I only know the Pegasus kit. It's a marvellous one but not without difficulties. The big difference was the building manual. Caldercrafts manuals are, in my opinion, unsurpassed. Thank you bug. I'm also wondering about the life span of our models. If you keep them in a good, stable environment the first to give in could perhaps be the plastics parts and the CA glue. But I hope this will only be a problem for the next but one generation. Cheers peter

From now on it was rather plain sailing to finish the standing rigging. One difference to the kits manual are the topmast backstays. They should have about the same strength as the shrouds and I took 0.5 mm black thread to set them up. The jib boom got a footrope for the safety of the sailors working there. And of course the outer jib stay was set up via the traveller. Trials showed than the traveller definitely needed an in-hauler. To keep it simple, I put a 0.1 line in position and belayed it below the belfry. I'm still unsure , if I should replace it by a stronger thread or even add a tackle. Any ideas? Generally I'm very happy with the changes I made. With the standing rigging finished Pickle now shows quite some nice proportions and elegant lines. jib boom with outer jib stay via traveller and its in-hauler the footrope hangs perhaps a bit too loose outer jib stay tackle and in-hauler provisionally belayed The standing rigging is finished - now comes the hard part.

deadeye strops again Another strop came apart and this time it was beyond repair. I tried but it looked awful and I had to take it out - including that backstay collar which was fixed to that strop. (Oh, I can hear you sniggering there, Mr. Murphy!) One of the spare strops was prepared. This time I soldered it after the deadeye was inserted and glued the whole thing into the slit of the channel with a healthy dose of epoxy. It's probably now the strongest part of the whole vessel - and if I know something about Murphy's law therefore certainly the next one to break. beyond hope and repair... new strop soldered and installed it was worth the effort

Hi John Badger or Granado? The way your skills are improving, you could do any (or both). I don't know if there is a natural progression. I went from LaGloire (frigate) to Granado (2masted bomb vessel) to Pegasus (3masted, ship rigged sloop) and to Pickle (tiny schooner) - whereof Pegasus was the most complicated also because Pegasus' manual didn't have the same standard as manuals from Caldercraft. The kit itself was excellent. Usually I take the decision for a new kit according to which finished model I would really like to have. And I always ask my wife for her opinion. She isn't particularly interested in ship building but she agrees to live with some the models (we agreed on a maximum of 2 of them in the living room) and has a very good eye for good design. Granado sure is a bit more complicated than Badger but Badger is quite close to Pickle - play it again, John? I also have my doubts about the masting of Badger. She seems a bit top-heavy with those very high masts. A plus for Granado is the available information. There is a book about her in the 'anatomy of the ship' series (ISBN:1 84486 005 1) and there is a original plan available (http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/85419.html). Have fun with the decision! Cheers peter

Spy, I forgot about the replica as an information source. Although the authenticity of the rig is doubtful you can be sure that it works. They fixed a dolphin striker, which I won't, but provides something to stand on below the jib boom. That means for me no bowsprit horses and a single one below the jib boom. Problem solved. Thanks.

Hi Jason 'less is more' is one of my favourite quotes as well. (If you look at the top of my head it might even be genetically built in.) However sometimes it gets complicated in model ship building. It is not always clear to me if omissions in the kit or plans are because of kit costs, keeping plans simple by omitting self-evident details or because it really wasn't there. One example was the belfry I added on Pickle. I assume any vessel of Pickles size would have a ships bell. But where? And would the addition of a bell be in line with the overall level of detail? The same question arises for the binnacle. Another question are horses on bowsprit and jib boom. I'm quite sure that the jib boom should have at least a single horse. But does the bowsprit need one? You could work standing on the bobstay as one able seaman demonstrates. But if I rig a double horse above the bowsprit (as on my Pegasus) I could also add a netting to stow the jib sail. Or would this be too much for such a small vessel? After my experience with the bees I tend to a simple solution with just a single horse below the jib boom. able seaman Kilmister checking the need for a bowsprit horse (today without hat because of the wind) Cheers peter

Hi Spy '...and a dog.' reminds me of the famous question: What will be the standard cockpit crew composition in 10 Years? (It came up after eliminating navigator, wireless operator, flight engineer and second officer by increasing automation and duty time.) Answer: One pilot and a dog. The pilot is there to feed the dog. And the dog is there to bite the pilot if he tries to touch anything in the automated cockpit. Now, what might the duty of the dog have been in this cutter? Cheers peter

Thank you again Spy. Never came across a self acting sail. So far I had to handle them myself. Does it mean that they just let it swing unattended to the other side when tacking? Thanks Nils Hi Martin O'Brians Steven Maturin is a great comfort to landlubber me. And being lazy helps to crafty solutions. Redoing the whole shroud was too much work for me. Thank you Jason. I did put a blob of CA into each slit but it seems that I wasn't generous enough and epoxy holds better. Anyway, CC uses better strops in other kits (Granado for example).

The first of that unique deadeye strops finally came apart and one leg slipped out of the channels' slit. I pulled the strops legs together with a sling of some 0.25 line. Fortunately the problem arose at an outermost deadeye and the botched strop should be sufficiently masked by the topmast shroud's collar at exactly this position. the skipper inspects the broken strop Repaired strop. On this picture I discovered a second one about to brake. This particular construction of the deadeye strops really is unusable and should be changed! The main topmast shrouds were now rigged. They were set up with thimbles according to Marquardt's book. While cross checking with Lees rigging instructions I found that a schooner seems to resemble a ship without a main mast. Lees rigging details suit the most if I take the fore mast as such but Pickle's main mast matches more the description of the mizzen on a three masted ship. shrouds set up with thimbles bees on a schooner While trying to find out how to set up the bowsprit rigging and the jib stay, I slowly came to the conclusion that bees are quite at sea on a schooner. I wouldn't go as far as Jack Aubrey who called them bloodthirsty reptiles and resented them completely when Steven Maturin let his bees fly free in the cabin of HMS Lively but I had to admit that they should go. A little work with knife, file, sanding paper and paint reduced the bowsprit to the simpler appearance favoured in Marquardt's book and the kit's instructions. Now the stay and the bowsprit rigging could be set up according to the manual. reworked bowsprit (bees gone) better without bees