Bedford

The Batavia may link us more than you realise. Among the punishment handed out to the mutineers was the sentence of being put ashore on mainland Australia and left here. This happened to a few of the mutineers so they were the first penal colonists of this country, long before the English started sending there criminals here. It is said that when the English colonists reached the central western coast (around what is now Geraldton) they encountered a few blonde aboriginals. Descendants no doubt. On a side note, although it would have been very hard going for the early convict settlers I think we got the better deal in the long run. Sun, sand, good weather, gold. Thanks England

Chain plates To get the correct angle on the chain plates I fit the masts at the correct angle and run a line of cord where the shroud will go, I centre it over the dead eye and continue down onto the hull. This shows where the chain plate needs to attach in order to get the straight line with the shroud. In this case I then drilled two 1mm holes through the hull using the chain plate holes as the template. I then used a magnet to weed out the brass plated steel nails from my nail tin and selected 60 long brass nails which were then annealed to soften them for bending. Once all that had ben done I mixed a small amount of epoxy and put a blob (technical term) on each hole on the inside of the hull for one station at a time, ie starboard mizzen chain plates first. I then pushed that through the hull with my finger so I had a small sphere of epoxy on the outside of the hull at each hole. This ensured the hole was filled with epoxy to ensure water could not get into the wood. Then I place the nails through one chain plate and while pressing them firmly against the hull with my thumb I used pliers to bend the inboard end of the nail over to form a rudimentary rivet. When all are done I will apply some thickened epoxy over each of these to ensure it won't move or foul anything and it will be water tight.

I tried to come up with all kinds of fancy ways of doing them, partially because I didn't trust the solder to hold them in the way I have ended up going. But I used 40/60 solder instead of the softer 60/40 and they seem to be quite strong. So I went with the K.I.S.S. method you see in the pics. I should have realised the 40/60 would be strong enough after I made the bull bar pictured for my RC Land Rover, It is all brass and 40/60 solder and I can pick the vehicle up by the bullbar and it weighs 3.5Kg!

I have tried a few ideas and come up with a suitable chainplate that will look the part I reckon. Mass production tomorrow.

It does define her lines very nicely. Funny, I have always thought it was missing something and then after not working on it for a week or so it just screamed for that stripe when I went back to it.

It's been a while, no reasons, no excuses, I just haven't felt like doing anything with her..... I am in the process of making chain plates but had to get more brass to do it so while waiting I fitted the shroud tables and realised that she looked a bit unfinished in the hull. Then I realised she needed a stripe.

Beautiful work Michael

And he slips in a semi nautical reference, "You ain't Robinson Crusoe"

That's not much really when you consider the James Craig cost $20 million to restore. It is all relative though. Steve

I agree with the new compass placement, it just looks right!

Lovely work Michael. No radio eh? Brave man, that! I would never have the intestinal fortitude to do that. Steve

Standard procedure Robbyn, the trick is to get all the wall side stuff on the same side. It usually tends to work out though.

G'day Bruce! Have you seen Bruce? No Bruce.

More hold ups, I got my dear old mums' old sewing machine out to try my hand at sail making and it didn't work, I could not get the bobbin working. I reasoned that dear old mum had no mechanical aptitude at all and she could do it so I must be over thinking it. I asked a lady friend to come and see what she could do with it but she had no luck either. Tonight I started pulling it apart and bits of the bevel gear that drives the bobbin fell out onto the table. That's terminal in a 40 year old machine so I will borrow the afore mentioned friends' machine. Michael, you were talking about all the things you saved over the years and while I try to limit the amount of bits I keep, the macine is full of cams, gears, shafts, specialised screws and a good healthy motor and speed control unit. I will be stripping the machine out before I toss it.

I'm with the "I have to remind myself it isn't full size" brigade. I aspire to this level of build but fear I just don't have the patience. Steve

I have seen the stern section in the Freemantle museum and been aboard the replica when she was in Sydney at the Australian Maritime Museum. There is a book called Islands of Angry Ghosts that tells the gruesome story of the Batavia as well as the story of discovering and recovering the artifacts. It is a chilling read. This build is quite interesting and I love the stern you have made. Steve

One thing I got from the video is a much better realisation of the size of the model, she will be magnificent under sail

I have been otherwise occupied for the last few days, yesterday I was just about to start work on the schooner when my son knocked on the door and said "wanna come 4wd'ing" uuuuuuuuuuummmmmmmmmmmmm, yeah! Only 10 mins from home is a nice place with plenty of variety but I didn't get home til 7:30 and was a bit tired so didn't touch it. Today, on my way home from work and my son rings, "Dad, can you do me a favour"? mmmmm, what? "Come and get me unstuck" He was about 20K's out of town up a track he should not have attempted on his own and I had to winch my car around his so I could winch him out, 3.5 hours after I left work I got home! No work on the schooner tonight either ! Wish me luck for tomorrow.

Yes, it's a sad day when we can't learn from our fellow modellers. Steve

Never mind Bob, I wish I lived around the corner from you so I could learn more. That works beautifully. Steve

Bob, yes all the hardware will be accessable via deck houses and hatches but the running rigging will be in brass tube which will be fixed in the hull and never be seen again, this way I don't have rigging running through a bunch of blocks below deck which could be a maintenance nightmare. I have to make sure it is all aligned where it needs to be and everything fits and works freely before I fit the deck. I think that if I build another such model I will approach the hull / deck / control and rigging from a VERY different angle, the idea is rattling around in my head now but it is way too late to do it with the schooner.

You might just have given me some ideas there Bob, excellent! Steve

As Douglas Adams said, "You live and learn, well at any rate you live" You are definately learning so much, keep it coming please.. Steve

It always intrigues me how you see these shapes inside the stock material. I guess that comes witha lot of machining experience. Steve

I was going to move the motors forward when mounting them permanently, this would have meant no cutting ribs and it would have helped move the centre of gravity forward but this involved making drive shaft extensions, I made one that would fit over the 3mm prop shaft and reduced down to fit into the 3mm coupling on the double cardon joint. I was concerned though because a double cardon will allow the shaft to move sideways so it could bend out of true under power which would be catastrophic so I ditched that idea and cut out some ribbing and mounted them with the couplings direct onto the prop shafts. After fitting the motors I floated her in the bath and powered her up to make sure the motors and props were operating properly and freely. Holding the stern down to the correct water level I powered her up to a reasonably high speed and the motors sang in harmony like a twin engine plane does (for anyone who knows what I mean) this told me they are well ballanced and should not cause the handling issues the mis-matched smaller motors did. I also made frames to locate the masts in the correct position so I can move onto the next phase of construction. Before I can fit the deck I need to rig her and get all the operating systems fitted and working properly. Then I can close the hull. This means partially fitting the standing rigging and fitting the running rigging then unshipping the lot so I can fit the deck and deck houses etc.