wefalck

There are different CAD systems, of course. If you work on a 2D CAD, the dimensions in one plane are not normally correlated with another plane. What I mean is that the body-plan is drawn separately from the plan of the waterlines. They are two independent drawings. This in turn means that you can make all the same mistakes as in hand-draughting.
 
Only, when you use a 3D CAD system and print out different sections of the the same 3D body, everything should tally.

Nice to see a project here on this Ancre monograph. I had the opportunity to see the original (I mean the model) LOUISE at the big model exhibition organised by the Association des Amis du Musée de la Marine (AAMM) in Rochefort in October 2018. A splendid model.
 
I have completed a few months ago a manuscript for a three part series of articles on 'Boating on the Seine in the Age of Impressionism' for the German quarterly Das LOGBUCH. The first part is with the printers. The third part on sailing will appear in autumn. As a matter of fact, I live about 12 km away from Argenteuil ...
 
The Bassin d'Argenteuil is not the part upstream of the railway bridge of Argenteuil, but the stretch of the river below, reaching down to Bougival, where the weir is located that created the bassin. The area between Argenteuil and Bezons has been quite industrialised already at the time in question. After all, this is where the Caillebotte family made their money, which allowed Gustave and his brother to live the life of gentlemen of leisure (though the Caillebottes still looked after their business), leaving behind a signifcant cultural footprint in sailing (Gustave was a founding member of the French sailing club), painting and art collection (Gustave's collection was the seed to what is now the Musée d'Orsay in Paris), and philately (the Caillebotte collection became after their sale by the brothers the core of the philately department of the British Museum in London).
 
Chatou was one of the focal points of the rowing and sailing activities on the Seine. Remember Renoir's 'Lunch of the Rowers' / 'Dejeuner des canotiers' ? It was painted there on the balcony of the Maison Fournaise, a popular restaurant. Today, there is a museum in part of the building. Next door to it, there is the boat-house of the Association Sequana (https://sequana.org/), which has 'clipper' and a copy of one of the boats Caillebotte designed, had built in his own yard, and sailed on the river.
 
I am looking forward to the development of this project !
 

....latest photos !

.....more photos ......

here are the latest photos of the model, finally completed ....

After a long time I update the state of my construction site ....

work on the sails continues .....

The great latin sail and its spar 

The large vertical winch .

.... and other pictures .......

Other pictures .......

the aft deck

1.1.                   Preparing for lofting frames
To address the issue of “Lines to outside of planking” work started over.
The body plan was traced yet again, this time with correct width or breadth. To move all station lines to inside of planking the offset function was used. It creates a line offset by the distance you type in, taking into account curves and all. There is however one disadvantage with the offset, or any of the other “line copy” functions. It creates a line with a myriad of nodes, or control point. Se picture below with the traced line and then the line created with the offset function.

 
The effect of this is that nothing can be done with this line. It is not feasible trying to adjust it or so but the solution is quite simple, just trace a new line on top of the offset line and remove the offset created line.
 

 
Now we have a line that can be tampered with without too much headache. Rinse and repeat and all station lines have been moved 65 mm inwards in a nick of time.
Next step will be a new half breadth plan where water lines start from the inner rabbet line and follow the inside of planking. It is straight forward. Remember to hit CTRL+S to save your work every now and then. TurboCad dies on me once in a while and recently I lost last some half hours’ worth of work.
Be sure to use the curve tool that goes through its control points, not the other one. That will leave you with a host of problems later.
Once the new half breadth plan is done, fairing comes next. Even though the Bezier tool creates nice curvy lines it can’t for example foresee the shape of a counter stern on a boat. Next picture highlights some areas that needs direct attention. On top of the plan is the created water lines.

 
Close to the centerline it is obvious that water lines 7½ and up needs addressing. But look further up also, especially 6½ and 8 have unsightly bumps and dents. If left there is always the possibility to fair the wood frames once installed. But that will create an erroneous shape on the transom in that it will be pointy. Around the centerline the transom should be smooth and round, not sharp with an edge.
After some fairing and adjusting the lines plan is finished.
 

 
Next up will be lofting all frames. A quite repetitive task but better get used to it since there will be more of that down the line.
 
As I've mentioned before, anyone interested in a more detailed instruction regarding lofting in CAD should read the work of  @wrkempson found here: https://thenrg.org/resources/Documents/articles/DraftingShipPlansInCAD.pdf 
It is really good and instructive.
 
Thanks for your interest in this and please keep on asking and discussing. Much appreciated!
 

1.     Plans and drafting
I will not delve into too much detail about this process, instead I suggest anyone interested to have a look in Waynes document. What I will do is to point out my own challenges, retakes, and mistakes. That’ll be fun (they said) 😉
 
As previously mentioned, the plans are scanned originals in PDF format. Through some online service I had them converted to PNG, which I understand is the desired format (after BMP) for images with great detail. Both PNG and BMP are uncompressed formats, therefore retaining sharp images even when blown up beyond full scale.
 
The CAD software I use is Turbo CAD Deluxe version 20. It is a reasonable priced software for those without too big ambitions. It says it can handle 3D but I’ve never got my head around using it so I stay in 2 dimensions.
These are the plans I got:
Lines plan with body, sheer and half breadth plans. 
Construction drawing showing all major details as frames, deck beams, mast supports, deck and side planking, deck openings and what not.
Sail plan
Finally, a big PDF with mast and hardware. Several pages long.
 
 
The process of drafting is to take the lines plan first, load into your CAD software and trace all lines of the sheer and body part and leave out the half breadth plan with all its waterlines. Make sure you have the loaded image in correct size. It usually takes a little fiddling about. I used the length between perpendiculars, because I couldn’t really understand the body plan. More on that later…
 
Next you create a new half breadth plan from your traced body and sheer. Corrections need to be made when you see uneven waterlines, and these corrections propagate back through the body plan all the way to the sheer plan.
When you are satisfied dump the body plan and all corresponding station lines on the sheer plan. Add new stations and draft a new body plan. Easy peacy.

I then took the sheer plan into a new drawing and added the image of the construction plan. The first goal was to create the center line with keel, false keel, keelson, stem, stem pieces, stern, deadwood and all that. I noted that the two drawings weren’t too far off one another which was good. On the construction plan the rabbet was presented and so I added that to my center line.

 I took a while to disassemble the structure. One challenge when using the polyline to trace parts is that what looks like a piece is actually a void. Like the small triangular deadwood piece closest to the inner sternpost. Such things become obvious when you explode your drawing.
 
I keep the perpendiculars and waterline to always have a common reference point when moving between drawings.
 
Next I was to start drafting al frames, 47 all in all. The first one sits at the sternpost, like in this picture.

 
The last frame sits at the junction between the keel and the stem.  Forward of that is just bollard timbers, which I don’t really know how to fasten to the hull.

 
The stern is made up of every so much timber there can be. The square-ish timber in the lower left is the fashion piece rising up from the sternpost.

 
Just as I was about to start with the frames I came to a full stop. Something wasn’t quite right. To loft frames one uses the half breadth plan and the sheer plan. The half breadth plan gives you the width of each frame at any given waterline and the sheer gives you the height at any given station/frame line.
 
However, when I was to start with the foremost frame (because they are simple) things didn’t add up. I couldn’t get the waterlines to create a frame for me and I also lacked the rabbet line. Suddenly one thing caught my attention.
 
This is a close up of the stem. Notice how the waterlines all meet the stem very far forward?

 
The only reasonable reason I could think of is that instead of waterlines depicting the shape at the inside of the planking all lines were of the outside! Sure enough, what do you say – sometimes your eyes clouds your vision?

 
Yellow highlighted by me. Say no more.
 
That’s why the waterlines come all the way forward. And also my body plan needs to be re-done. Sigh. But like a chain event I suddenly understood why I had troubles with the body plan.

 
This is a magnification of a part of the body plan. The vertical, straight leftmost line is the square that defines the “body”. But no station goes all the way out, why? Simply because the extreme breadth of the ship falls between two station lines. Not like on old drawings where station 0 is at the extreme breadth. Some things are just plain obvious once you revisit them 😉
 
How to proceed? First I need to re-trace the body plan and make a new half breadth plan.
 
When that is done I can take the body plan and do a line copy of each station at 65 mm inwards. 65 mm is the thickness of the planking. With this new body plan I can then make a new half breadth plan. Just doing a straight line-copy enters a slight error because the inner line is a tiny bit smaller. Think circles inside circles. I will play around in my CAD sw to see if I can remedy this.
 
And when that is done - Then I can start lofting frames!
 
Why didn’t the draftsman just draw to the inside of planking? Probably because the lines come from Gratitude, the sister ship, and that they measured her up to create drawings for Atlantica.

Preface
§1 Expectation management
It will be quite some time before any sawdust is made here, probably not before late fall. If you wonder when that is, well, that is October where I’m located at about 58 degrees north. Maybe already in 2021...we will see…
 
§2 Pogress
To quote @mtaylor: “The shipwright is slow, but the wood is patient."
For you as an audience, I urge you to stack up properly with fizzy drinks and popcorn, because this will take some time. However, there are a couple more boats I like to build down the line; hence this build will not take forever, hopefully.
 
§3 The builder - me
Just on the upside of half a century old, maintaining a full time day job, summer holidays spent sailing, managing five to seven kids (or actually young adults now) and half a handful of grand kids I will disappear from time to time. See §2.
 
§4 The captain is always right. Period.
 
§5 In the unlikely event that the Captain is wrong – refer to §4.
 
§6 The ship
When investing so much time and effort into any project there needs to be something that makes you “tick”. There is no shortage of plans and kits of almost any kind of ship. Af Chapman comes to mind, but he will appear later in my boat building career. We have a plethora of leisure crafts, mainly small. Our Swedish constructors didn’t draw them like Fifie of Scotland, GL Watson or NG  Herreshoff, the Wizard from Bristol RI.
 
My mind finally went for Atlantica.
 
Atlantica is a gaff rigged ketch of English smack heritage. Built in Denmark and launched 1980. The main mast is cutter rigged, meaning it has more than one head stay. It also has a bowsprit. More details and specifications for the ship, see below.
The ship is in full service today as a sail training vessel owned and maintained by SXK Seglarskola (SXK Sailing School) which is a sub-branch of the Swedish Cruising Association - SXK (Svenska Kryssarklubben).
More information about the Sailing School can be found here: http://www.sxkseglarskola.se/
 
The site is in Swedish but use Chrome browser and Google translate. The site translates really well. Needless to say I’m a member of said Cruising association and have know of Atlantica and her sisters for a long time.
 
§7 Type of ship – English smack
For some reason I’ve been attracted to this type of hull form, mostly known as a pilot cutter. It has a straight, almost vertical stem, a keel that slopes considerably from stem to stern, a large rudder and either a cut of transom or rounded one. The hull is quite narrow with one mast flying a gaff main sail and topsail. Add to that three headsails and a retractable bowsprit and it makes a handsome vessel.
 
The hull and sail area makes for a fast and seaworthy vessel, which was a demand for piloting. It was a race to get to the merchant ships, first come – first served, any day of the year in any weather.
 
The smack was used in dredging and fishing and was very similar in hull form to the pilot cutter because it also needed speed under sail. First, it takes speed to be able to tow the dredger. From what I’ve read it needs to be above 2 knots. Secondly, when fishing is done, the race was to get home first and land the best deals on the fish market.
 
As with any evolution the smack was not so big from the beginning but grew over time. When the boom grew too large they went from cutter rigged to be ketch rigged. However, as a type, they weren’t that big, usually under 75’ or ca 25 m length on deck.
 
In their hay-day at the end of 1880 the smacks were counted in thousands. 1887 there were just above 3000 registered smacks sailing out of Grimsby, Hull and Brixham. At the turn of the century Grimsby had only 34 left, Hull none.
 
What was the reason for the quick decline? The industrial revolution with steam powered boats swiftly killed the sail powered competition.
 
Back to sailing, a smack usually had a crew of four to five men and a boy, hence the boats could not grew too large.
·         The ships boy also with cooking duties. Signing on at 12 years of age. Apprentice for 5 to 7 years. Did not get paid usually.
·         Deck hand, also an apprentice. Had some pay, but not much.
·         Third hand, an able seaman that was given responsible for watches alone.
·         First mate, captains right hand. Could take full responsible for the ship.
·         Master, or captain. Answered only to God when at sea and when in port answered to the ship owner.
 
§8 The ship – Atlantica
The name is from one of the sponsors, an insurance company. She is built on the lines of her sister ship Gratitude, albeit a fair bit bigger. Again, see http://www.sxkseglarskola.se/ and menu item “Fartygen”. Gratitude is the real deal. She originates from Lowestoft, after her fishing career sold to Sweden and rebuild for cargo carrying.
 
Atlantica, main specifcations
Length on deck: 85’ or 26,2 m
Length on spars: -
Breadth moulded:  20½’ or 6,27 m
Breadth extreme: 21’ or 6,4 m
Depth: 10½’ or 3,2 m
Sail area: 5810 sqf or 540 sqm
Displacement: 134 tonnes
No of bunks: 32
Building material: oak on oak with laid deck of keruing
 
§9 Plans and other sources
In short - a book and a bunch of PDFs’.
 
Why, or where I got the book I can’t remember. I used it to spice up the hull of Regina (see my signature), my previous build back in early 1990, that I know.
The book is in all essential a build log but in printed format and from 1980 well before internet forums. It is full of b/w images and short descriptions to each picture.

 

 
What about plans then? Yes, after a fairly short search I was directed to a fellow model builder. He was involved in the process of the Atlantica build and had gained access to all relevant plans as scanned to PDF. He sent me the lot free of charge! To show my gratitude I donated a sum for the new main mast of Gratitude. The mast came tumbling down when out on an autumn sail this last fall. No one was hurt and not too much damage either bar the mast.
With the help of CAD I have already started to draft the ship. I use Wayne Kempsons’ treatise on “Drafting ship plans in CAD” as a guide. See https://thenrg.org/resources/Documents/articles/DraftingShipPlansInCAD.pdf
 
For the actual layout I will look at the plans from EdTs’ book Naiad.
 
§10 It feels good to end the preface in double figures
Tools and equipment might be of interest. At the moment I do not own a miniature table saw, no small lathe or a fancy milling station.
 
But what I do have is a full size jointer, a full size planer, a full size (2 m) band saw, full size table saw that can take blades of 12” diameter, a wood lathe and a drill press. The lathe can be converted to a disc sander and a thickness sander and for the table saw I will source some thin blade, probably 1,5 mm to try to mill delicate planks. Fall back solution will be a fine tooth blade for the band saw and then a couple of runs through the thickness sander. In the future I might buy me a Proxxon table saw since the Byrnes one is out of reach with VAT and shipping. Until then I’ll make do with what I have.
 
In addition to that I have a cupboard of ordinary carpenters hand tools.
So it will be down to basic skills and a lot of trial and errors during this build.
 
Let the work begin!
 
 
Index
1. Plans and drafting
1.1. Preparing for lofting frames
1.2. Frame lofting party
 
 

The main lower shrouds are done, the fore topmast is shipped and fitted with shrouds and the fore yard is in place.  I considered not putting any yards in place until all of the standing rigging was in place but I realized that I could mount yards without getting in the way of other rigging too much so I'm doing it because I like the way it looks.  For this picture, I have also included the fore lower topsail yard in order to show a different way that I'm making the jackstay.  For the fore yard, I bent little pieces of wire around the jackstay but for the fore lower topsail yard, I soldered little pieces of wire to the jackstay making it a little less prominent.  (The jackstay stanchions have not been put in their holes yet so they can be seen)
 

Next was to complete the spine of the cutter. Cutting the rabbet along the top of the keel was easiest for most of its length by attaching the keel (rubber cement again!) to a board and using a shaped scraper as shown. The stem and stern posts were scarphed on, the joints being accentuated with a little pencil. The aft scarph was unusually short, as shown on the surveyed plans.
 

So, after many layers of gesso and sanding a good surface was achieved on the plug. While gesso coats were drying, I began construction of the backbone of the cutter. The stem and stern posts were cut out of wood a scale 2" and 3" respectively. The stern post was tapered to 2" at the heel. The rabbets were marked out carefully and cut. The drawings of this cutter showed both inner and outer rabbet lines. This established the changing bevels. The outer line was cut with a new scalpel blade and the bevel cut using a miniature chisel. Thinking ahead, the holes for the ringbolts were drilled using a #72 bit held in a pin chuck. Next will be the keel.

Just about completed the smoothing of the plug. It is worth taking time to refine this even though it isn't part of the model itself. A little filler was required in spots in order to create a smooth fair surface. Next will be several coats of gesso and sanding. The planking runs can then be marked out.

The sheer was sawn out and smoothed using shaped sanding sticks. The half-hulls were then joined with a central 'spine' to allow for the keel/stem/stern post assembly. The projection allows me to clamp the plug in my vise. Shaping then began using a sharp chisel and gouges.

The lifts for the plug have been cut out and glued up. Next, the profile of the boat was marked out on the inner surfaces of the halves. I remembered to keep the off-cuts of the lifts to temporarily glue on again in order to scroll-saw the profiles!

Well, having read the thread on an article seen the drawings and photos about a cutter preserved in Venice, the beautiful form has inspired me to attempt to build a model in 1:48 scale. 
 
The first step was to download the photos of the pages in the article that showed the surveyed drawings.  These had to be stitched together and distortion removed, which was done in PhotoShop. Then  the drawings had to be re-sized to 1:48. Having  the overall length, width and depth helped define the reduction required.
 
Once the drawings were to scale, I could begin. The first step was to begin preparing a plug on which to build the hull. Leaves of yellow cedar were cut from blocks (1) and sanded. Four layers a scale 4" thick, two layers 8" and one layer of 15" were needed for each half of the plug. These thicknesses matched the waterlines on the plan (2).
 
Tracing paper was used to transfer the waterlines to the leaves of cedar and laid down using graphite paper (3). The opposite pairs of wood leaves were rubber cemented together before cutting them out on the scroll saw.
 
To be continued!

As we are getting older, good lighting is important. The eye looses gradually its elasticity and therefore the ability to focus on close items. This can be to some extent compensated for by a greater depth of field, which is effect of narrowing pupilles due to stronger light.
 
By and by I have replaced all the incandescant bulbs in my lamps with LED-bulbs of 150 W equivalent. Due to the waste heat such strong light would have not been possible with tradtional bulbs - it also happened to me that I burnt myself on halogen bulbs. I also bought a sort of indoor LED flood-light that I installed above the worktable. It was actually cheaper than a strong LED-bulb.
 
Some people advocate daylight LED-bulbs (5600 K), but I prefer 'warm' ones (3600 K - 4000 K), as they give a more pleasant atmosphere. The models would be typically viewed under such light conditions, so the light colour would be appropriate for that reason too and colour changes become unimportant.

As I have used this technique on virtually all my models made over the last couple of decades, I may be allowed a couple of comments :
 
Not sure what scale you are working in, but 'bond' paper seems to be rather heavy even though it would be a good quality of paper. I would rather go for something as thin as possible.
 
If I wanted to stich-on the bolt-rope (I never worked in scale, where this would be possible physically), I would use the thinnest fly-tying yarn I could get holds of (something like 18/0 and perhaps even split it).
 
The reef-points are actually held in place by stiched-on crown-splices on both sides of the sail. These can be simulated by two figure-of-eight- or over-hand-knots that are pulled very close to the sail.
 
Not sure, whether 'dafi' presented his technique (already) in this Forum, but for his 1:96 scale HMS VICTORY he developed a three-layer technique using self-adhesive tapes as used by book-restorers to (almost) invisibly patch up ripped pages. Strips of that paper-tape are pasted from both sides onto a backing of very fine silk weave ('silk-span') to create the effect of the sail-panels. This composite can be crumbled and creased to give a realistic cloth effect and when stitching-on the bolt-rope the silk-weave prevents the edges from ripping out. Interesting technique, but I have not yet used it myself.

This is my most recent attempt in 1/87 to show the reef points in a realistic as possible way: