Bedford

Yeah, it's all just opportunities to learn isn't it?

Love the lines of old tugs and I'm interested to see what this new build of which you speak will entail.

Magnificent work Mark

Eberhard, while I have no knowledge of the vessel type you're building I have sailed on Bark Endeavour which has a skylight in the deck just forward of the wheel and while it doesn't interfere with the operation of the wheel it does have a wooden grate over it. I know a lot of ships had wooden grates for the helmsman to stand on to give better grip on a drier surface so maybe that's the answer.

I hear you John but as I often say, "It's not the mistake that matters, it's how you deal with it"

On my Royal Caroline build I swung around with the vacuum cleaner and broke the shrouds away from 2 dead eyes on the port mizzen shrouds. Walked away for over a year while I built my full size sail boat but recently decided the best fix was to completely remake that whole shroud assembly.

This might be useless info in this case since you don't want to buy new stock but something to keep in mind. When I made the 1:8 scale Tammie Norrie I used 0.8mm birch ply for the strakes. You can cut it with a decent pair of scissors and get perfect edges.

That model suffered a warped backbone too but it's the fix that matters.

Another beautiful Ranger there Mark, she's coming together very nicely, but then I've seen your other one so no surprises there!

Ah yes, the mindless tedium of ratlines!

She's coming up very nicely John

I think a lot of us have been brought undone by the water content of PVA, I know I have, had to pull the bottom off my mahogany runabout model and redo from scratch!

These things keep our minds active, figuring out solutions is an important skill.

Another master class, and she looks like an interesting ship to model

Always a joy to see how you bring these tiny masterpieces together and I'm pleased to know I'm not the only one with a black hole around my work table, I've got a tiled floor and small pieces still disappear! 

That's the beauty of being a volunteer John, they can't really push you either way and they sure can't sack you. Do it in your time mate!

Poetic licence my friend, yes they are on her in the period you are modelling but they weren't original. Only you and a handful of us will know.

I can see why they were added though, she would have been a bit roly poly I imagine.

She's really looking the goods John

6 hours ago, wefalck said:

Thanks ! Even better would be the ability to avoid such mistakes in the first place 😁

Ah, but this is how we learn. Especially useful for those wise enough to learn from the mistakes of others.

I was talking to someone just the other day who's doing that, can't remember who though. It will be a great trip, enjoy the sailing!

Thanks, she looks quite "salty" doesn't she.

It is truly written that "A fair line supersedes any given measurement" 

Vaddoc, you know I admire your work so please don't take this as negative criticism, it isn't!

I think we can make life hard for ourselves sometimes, like all the trouble you went to in order to get the deck profile printed. All I do is plot out the relevant points and draw it. You can use pins at all the mold stations and run a fairing batten (a length of thin section flexible wood strip) around them. This not only shows you any station points that are wrong but gives a guaranteed fair curve to the hull.

I've just built a full sized sail boat this way and it's very accurate and symmetrical. 

She's looking the goods John!

If memory serves, when I sailed on Bark Endeavour in 2015 the manual showed 100 lines in the running rigging. She's an older style rig with fewer sails and hands aloft to do everything so I can imagine in this rig with more sails and lines to do most of it from deck level she's going to keep you quite busy!

On 12/4/2024 at 7:05 AM, KeithAug said:

That's good. In the past I have tried very hard to find something suitable. It would be good to know where he gets it. 

Keith, he got it from an RC sailing supplier here in Aus. There will be similar shops in your neck of the woods. It's a hard film kind of like a very thin x-ray film and the stuff he gave me is somewhat translucent, it's more for function than scale appearance but I think it'll do the job.

I've made some good progress on the pond yacht, thanks to Mark Pearse for sending me the rigging cord!

I've made two travellers for the sheet horses from hard brass wire, now to try and work out how the sheets were originally set up, I'm trying to make sense of the pre-existing holes in the spars.

There is a bloke I know through dinghy sailing that has mylar sail fabric suitable for pond yachts, he's coming through in the next couple of days and will drop it in for me. I think it'll be a whole lot easier than me trying to sew normal fabric nicely.

Thanks Keith, the existing mast and boom appear to be original and a second boat we've been given of similar age and size confirms that, she was most likely built as a Bermudan sloop.

These are very simply rigged so it won't take much work in that regard but I think I'll need to build a nice display stand for it.

I'm starting to make progress on the pond yacht,  I've ordered some rigging fittings suitable to the period and created a new cranse iron.

Hi John

Thanks for the input, I'm pretty well convinced she had a Bermudan mains'l due to the height of the mast and the lack of wear or any other indication of a gaff on the mast.

The rudder turns quite freely so that's still a bit of a mystery. I'm not too worried about it as it'll be fine for display purposes as is.

Mate, it's exquisite. In the second pic you can make out scroll work at the bow, it's duplicated at the stern and it has been suggested it could be 100 years old but I don't know about that as the finish is in beautiful condition.

There appears to be no shrinkage in the deck either as there is absolutely no gap anywhere around the margin. Master craftsman built from excellent quality timber.

It's a real pleasure/honour to be working on it.

I've been asked to restore a lovely old pond yacht for display in a local yacht club.

It's beautifully made, the hull is carved from a solid piece of mahogany hollowed out and the deck is another piece of mahogany. Perfectly fitted and screwed down around the margins. 

I have no experience with pond yachts so I'm looking for some help with the details.

Specs are:-

• L.O.D.    668mm - 26 1/4"
• Beam    160mm - 6 1/4"
• Mast     843mm - 33 3/16" with lower shroud mast band at 315mm - 12 3/8" high and upper shroud/stay mast band at 618mm - 24 5/16" high
• Boom   493mm - 19 3/8"
• Bowsprit is missing

So the questions so far:-

The rigging left in the mast suggests she was a fractional sloop but I'm not sure if she would have been gaff or Bermudan rigged. There are still two haly'ds at the top of the mast but it looks like there could have been three.

How long should the bowsprit be, its heel, for want of a better word, is 114mm - 4.5" aft of the bow.

There are two sheet horses, each running the width of the deck. 1 for the jib and one for the main. Might she have a club footed jib.

There is no "comb" for setting the tiller and it has no holes in it or any indication it had things connected to it. How did it steer.

I don't need to get her back to true sailing condition but I'd like her to look as close as possible to original and I'm hoping they don't want her stripped back and refinished because she's in gorgeous aged condition.