Bedford

Michael, the beads are not sperical, they are more cylindrical so that can't happen. Wouldn't be a bad idea though. Bob, I think a lot of people who build these models are terrified of breaking them so they don't tension the rigging enough, especially the standing rigging. When you think about it though all that rigging is designed to strengthen and support the masting and even in a model it does just that so my rigging is tensioned quite well on all my ships, I do tension it gradually and evenly so as not to over tighten one side which could lead to breakage. I did read once that you should soak all the rigging cord and hang it out to dry under tension to take all the stretch out of it but I didn't do it with the first ship, built in 1997, and it is still nice and tight. I did it with the second model but don't think it made any difference so I haven't done it since. I have more to do in the garage, ie make the aft deck house to mount the servos in, but again it is way too cold, snow is looming and they are experiencing what they are referring to as a megablizzard in the snowfields not that far south of here.

The weather was kind this weekend so I got the work done in the garage. I had to make them in two halves so I can fit them around the masts and glue them in place without having to unship the shrouds etc and lift the masts out, I have to do that later. I made the two halves for each station and drilled the holes for the masts at 86degrees and the holes for the sail controls vertically. The biggest drill bit I have is 12mm and I needed 14mm for clearance in the hole so after goning to the hardware store and seeing that they were over $70 I decided to give that a miss and find another way. Eventually the penny dropped, LATHE. I turned some bar down to 14mm and then a smaller shank to go into the drill chuck and because I already had 12mm holes I tapered the cutting end down so the bit would self centre in the hole. Then I just cut two grooves into the stock to form the cutting edges of the flukes and filed the excess away ahead of the flukes to provide a cutting edge. Set the drill bed back to 86degrees and bore out the holes to 14mm. easy. Bracket made In place around the mast with the pipe for the cord to run through back to the servo I was concerned about having a smooth fair leed for the line to run out and in this case it will run through a sweeping arc from side to side each time she tacks so I can't run the cord over a cut brass edge. Luckily I have glass beeds that fit very nicely in the end of the larger tube size I bought to use to make couplings for the control plumbing. I will cut the larger diameter piece into 15mm lengths and glue a glass beed into the end, this will then just slip snuggly over the smaller tube that protudes from the deck. The beauty of this is that I can remove it and attach a vacuum cleaner over the control tube to draw replacement lines through without it getting caught on a restrictive fair leed placed inside the control tube.

While Michael talks about it being warm enough to get stuck in and paint the cutter, Floyd you'll love this, the next thing I have to do is make the upper guides for the masts (immediately below the deck) this involves spending a few hours in the garage and even though winter has just started it is just too flamin' cold to go out there and do it. Hopefully a warmer weekend will grace us in the not too distant future.

Beautiful work John, I must get down to the Museum and see it for myself one of these days

Geez Robbyn, you should write a book on excuses !! Seriously, good to have you back and I hope all works out for you. Steve

OK then Bob, I'll do them. Get your passport in order, I will give you one weeks notice to get here for the launch !!

Love it Bob, want to do my deck fittings ??

Stays'ls are finally on, now comes the long and probably tedious job of setting up the controls.

More and more changing and modifying the way the sails/lazy jacks work. Originally I laid a cord across the sail in the line of the lazy jacks and stitched over that with a zig zag stitch. This allowed me to draw the cord through to create loop points along that line, these were stitched into place by hand. The problem is that pulling the lazy jack through a cord loop encountered too much friction and it didn't move freely. Next I dramatically reduced the number of loops I ran the lazy jack through which freed up the sail movement but when the sail was pulled down the reduced number of loops meant the sail was all over the place but at least I now knew I was on the right track. Next I added some brass rings the the course sail lazy jack line, this added the control of the downed sail without increasing friction much. For the tops'ls I ran the lazy jack line from the apex of the outside corner to the first hoop on the topmast, the reasoning behind this was to stop the sail deforming under tension but it meant the lazy jack ran to a point above it's block on the mast which meant the sail didn't pull in very well, it also created a very rigid line of pull when setting the sail which meant that the sail would not billow properly as there was an ungiving line across its centre. I decided to remove that line of thread altogether and now the tops'ls billow much more nicely and I have stitched brass rings directly to the sail in line with the lazy jack pull and the sails pull in and gather nicely with very little resistance. The lazy jack is now inline with it's block and I am much happier with all of it. Next, stays'ls !

Absolutely beautiful work

Just a few pics with the woodwork in travel mode.

It was 1988 mate! I went to Sydney this weekend and took the schooner to show dad. With top masts and bow sprit jib boom retracted she fits quite happily in the back seat of the falcon - the red road car shown in prior posts for those international members.

Hey John, just for you. I stumbled across a pic of the Craig when she was on the pontoon in Darling Harbour which is when I first saw her. Brunswick green, I knew I wasn't going senile yet.

Thanks guys and welcome aboard Bluey! Sounds like you have just read the log from stem to stern, glad you enjoyed it. Stay with us as she nears completion. (He said knowing there is still a VERY long way to go yet)

6 down 3 to go ! With a static model you have to leave all your ropes long enough to tie off but with working running rigging I have cord everywhere, they all have to be long enough to run the travel of the sail plus the height of the mast plus enough to run the length of the ship. Good thing I know what each of them are for.

Excuses, excuses! You sound like Jake Blues when trying to stop Carrie Fisher from shooting him! I think you have put the HOBBY where it belongs, in your spare time when you feel like it. This will probably lead to better outcomes and less injuries. Enjoy yourself. Steve

4 down, 5 to go.

You've got my interest, I love the Craig

That's more like it.

Thanks qwerty, I have had that in the back of my mind but I think you just brought it to the fore. I can see myself making bigger hoops. The sails are going up and down but not always 100% evenly so improvement is needed but I am happy with the progress.

Never mind the camera debate, just make sure you take the pics and post them !

John I have thought of all of that but will always try the easiest solution first and by placing the lanyard between the master block above the gaff and the yolk and moving the down haul forward of centre I have found the centre of force required to make the gaff come down evenly. I still have a few drag issues with some of the hoops and may go for 1mm brass wire instead of 0.5mm as this would present a larger diameter rubbing point and being heavier should help too but I have even considered having a haul down line for the hoops. I think if it came to that I would give up on the idea though. This is the challenge I set myself so I must cop the greif and work through it.

Ahh so that's a clapper. I was thinking of lining the rubbing edge of the yolk with a brass wire to reduce friction but my son and I put some thought into it and came to the conclusion that the best way to reduce friction is to reduce the number of items causing friction so I removed half of the hoops so now there is one every 40mm instead of every 20mm and this has helped the sail itself go up and down the mast. Then instead of running the lazy jack through loops every 20mm on the sail I reduced it to just three loops, this dramatically reduced friction there and while the sail is not as controlled as it is hauled down it is still managable. You will see that I also moved the point of attachment on the gaff forward to a point that equalises the down pull so it happens smoothly without the outboard end of the gaff heading down first which caused the yolk to jam on the mast. The other step was to add a lanyard from the master block on the gaff halyard to the yolk on the gaff, this ensures the gaff pulls up at the correct angle, again, preventing it from jamming on the mast. The result is a sail that can be raised ad lowered very easily.

I was always concerned that these issues would arise but I decided to wait until this point to see how much of an issue they are and what may be needed to fix them. If all else fails maybe the course sails will be hand set but we will see. Now to google "clapper"

I have attached the first sail and tried raising and lowering it. You can see the lazy jack, the line that hauls the gaf down and gathers the sail in the process. It passes through loops sewn into the sail at 20mm intervals. It all looks good but the gaf won't travel evenly on the mast because there is too much friction so it goes up too steeply and binds and does the same coming down. The other problem to arise is that the boom is nowhere near heavy enough to hold the sail down when it has wind in it so I will probably have to find a way to stay the boom to the mast to maintain the correct angle. These pics are with the fan on.................wind in your sails!