Bedford

There should be a list of all the timbers in the instructions somewhere, you have to determine which timber is which by measurements and descriptions in that list.

I have had my voyage and made my way home. It was a great experience and my inner thighs are still sore from trying to walk on the surging deck! Lessons have been learned inspite of the fact that the mizzen sails were not used at all. I now know that I need smaller anchors and the correct style is readily available, that's good news. I learned how to tie things off in a later style especially the shroud lanyards. I also learned the lay of the running rigging, ie which ropes go where. I guess you could say I learned the ropes as it were. However I also learned that I have to re-think how I was plannning to operate the sails. The topsails and stay sails on the model will stay as I had planned because it is reasonably correct given practical considerations. The main sails however need a 90 degree rethink, literally. I was planing on lowering the jibs and sails as I have seen on tv and in pictures over the years, this had it's own set of problems I was going to have to overcome. The mizzen sail on the James Craig is retracted like a curtain, ie the jib stays at its set height and the sail is drawn in towards the mast rather than down towards the boom. This should solve a lot of the problems that I saw coming however I have to recalculate the rope movements etc. Must get onto that. This shows the top corner of the sail in the retracted position and how it is drawn out. This shows one of the lines that are attached to the sail horizontally and the pulley it runs through to draw the sail in to the mast.

Yeah Robbyn I thought of that and I found one and put it where I wouldn't forget it.............and went without it I did get a fair bit of stuff to use and because I understand it I remember it. A little side point. They were talking about the names of the sails as you go up the mast. No-one knew what the one above the t'gallant is called, except for me, "Royal" It is too late at night for me to post the pics but I will soon I promise. Steve

The next step is to fit stringers along each side, one low and one for the deck to sit on. They will stiffen her up quite well I think. I am in Sydney, staying at Darling Harbour so I just have a walk to the James Craig in the morning and I went and had a look at her tonight. She is uplit through the masts and rigging and looks beautiful. Sorry, no camera. I paced her out and she is about 55 - 56 metres along the deck and my schooner is about the same in scale. I had a feeling they were the same size ships. This means tomorrows voyage should be very helpfull from what size the anchors are to the size of the shrouds, dead eyes and everything. I wish I had a note pad to take with me. Steve

Steady on girl, I'm human and do have other things to do There is so much thought going into every step because I have to be sure I do everything I need to before continuing, ie I have to work out where and how the prop shafts and sailing keel will mount before I do any planking. These ribs are 10mm thick too so fairing them is going to take quite a bit of effort and time. Besides, this weekend I am getting away from 1:54 scale and taking on 1:1 I am going to Sydney to sail on the "James Craig" She is a Barque so fore and main are square rigged and the mizzen is gaff rigged, I will be paying particular attention to how they employ the mizzen sails so I can learn how to sail this when it is finished. That's not the only reason for going though Here is a link to pics I have posted of the James Craig, check again after the weekend, there should be a few more interesting ones http://modelshipworld.com/index.php?/topic/4078-james-craig-sydney-australia/#entry115816

Not much to see after hours and hours working on it but I have now got all the ribs seated properly and by marking the centre line on the deck section of the ribs and laying a plank along the deck I am able to make sure all the ribs are vertical, centred and the line of the deck flows properly. This is my home made building stand. It was never intended for ships of this size. It should suffice !! Only problem is the clamping screws and stop screws which keep the jaws vertical are only 25mm long which is normally more than enough but they are just long enought to hold the bare keel but I am going to create a rabbet by attaching 1.5mm planks onto the keel, this will make it 13mm wide so it's off the the hardware store AGAIN !!

You got me ! It is a great time of year to sit outside with a nice cold drink and a handful of sandpaper and frame parts. Popeye, I am going for strong because I am from the old school of thinking where it is better to over engineer than under. Steve

PROGRESS !! After two days of cutting, sanding and filing......................... I took this pic on the bonnet of my Land Rover to give a good idea of size The ribs are not completely set yet, there is still a little fine tuning to be done to get them into exactly the right position but I thought it worthy of a few pics and a post.

Right, my first request for input. We all know what the inside is going to look like, a keel down the middle and ribs spaced along it, when planked there will be a void between each rib either side of the keel which I will need to be able to drain bilge water from. If I drill holes in each rib to allow flow I then have to go to great lengths to make sure they are sealed completely to stop water getting into the ply and it will weaken the structure, if they are right at the bottom to allow all water to drain out then there will be nothing solid for the bottom planks to attach to. I am thinking of sealing the interior with epoxy then using some sort of pourable silicone if one is available. The idea is to lay her to one side and pour silicone into each void on the low side and when set repeat for the other side. This should give me a gentle "V" in the bottom so water will be easy to collect and pump out, also being silicone it will seal extra well and a little water left behind will dry out naturally with hatches open and not do any harm. Does that sound feasable and does anyone know of such a product, I think I have seen it for use in making moulds. Thanks Steve

Yeah I might have to make some like Jeronimo did. Steve

I may be accused of getting ahead of myself but I have bought some hardware, some from a very good model ship supplier in Australia I have dealt with many times and the balance, because the Aus one doesn't do R/C, from England. First a couple of motors with reduction gearboxes, on reflection I may only need one of these and a gearbox with contra-rotating outputs to drive both props but we shall see when she is at the stage I can float her in the bath and test her. Two prop shafts with brackets to stand off the hull, too hard to explain adequately so watch and see. They claim to have water proof seals, again, we shall see. Two props, 1 left hand and 1 right hand. Good scale size but may be too small in service but I will see when she floats. Two anchors, they are the right size but have wooden stocks which might be incorrect for the period. I could not find a decent looking pair with metal stock and balls though. The single most important part of this build............an automatic bilge pump! Very cheap insurance and it comes with a light that you can mount outside the ship so you know when it is working. Assuming you only sail at night ! It is so dull I would never see it in the Australian sun but my son had a brilliant idea. Ditch the bulb and use the signal to drive a small auxilliary winch motor to raise a flag, I'm thinking a distress flag ! Once the flag is seen the order will be given "All ahead full and make for the nearest landfall" Steve

Well done m'lady ! One down, how many to go ?? She looks beautiful, you should be proud of it. Steve

Yeah Bob, I figure it lends sharp relief to the hull...........

Augie, none have a flatter roof than my Land Rover, trouble is it is just over 2metres tall so I would end up with a rig over 3 metres tall She will fit inside one way or another. Robbyn, correct me if I am wrong but didn't I once read that you were an english professor? Surely you of all people can come up with an adequate superlative for such a build Seriously though, she is a big project and I am looking forward to having bigger bits to work with. As for you making a schooner I don't think I have seen many in kit form so good luck. They are much easier and quicker to rig than square rigged vessels due to the small number of sails and corresponding timberwork to control. Steve

Well done Robbyn, you have come such a long way in the SFII haven't you ? Remember I told you I was going to build a schooner, click on the link to "maine three masted schooner" in my signature. Steve

Well what a week, I feel like Shaz, always something else going on. Back and forward to Sydney with dad in and out of hospital, all well now hopefully. Time to start the hull so I marked out and cut card templates and have started cutting the ply. I started cutting with a fret saw but it didn't take long to realise that not only was it going to take forever but it wasn't going to be accurate enough. struggling to hold the piece with one hand and saw with the other isn't the best way so I bit the bullet and bought another tool for my workshop.... Three ribs cut but I will cut all the centres out in one go when I have them all cut to the ouside profile because the saw blade needs to be dismounted and fed through a drilled hole before re-mounting to cut out the centres. The keel..............that is long !!!

Yeah Robbyn, that sounds like a plan, surely nothing could go wrong there! Actually it is quite a good plan, when one start bugging you you can switch to the other and so on. I will be watching Syren too. Steve

Now you've gone and spoiled my fun, I imagined all kinds of folks sitting at their computers scratching their heads and eventually googling "esky" As for sailing her, we have a beautiful lake just out of town called Lake Canobolas, no power boats and not so big it gets a chop going under normal conditions. It is generally fairly calm. Even a 50mm wave will represent a 2.7mtr swell so I think the lake should be good. I might want to find somewhere less populated to learn to sail her though because I don't want to show up with a beautiful big schooner and look like a novice. Steve

Welcome aboard guys, hope you brought your esky because it is going to take some time ! Steve

Hey Robbyn, looking good my dear. I notice you are getting your head around the terminology too. You have gone from "string" " thingy" etc to bowsprit, boom, block and the word we all come to know, B***** !!

Yeah I love them and hopefully she will look good under sail. She has great classic lines too. I made Thermopylae years ago and still have the plans, I want to make that in this size and r/c her but that is a major task running all that rigging via r/c and learning to sail her so I thought a classic schooner first. This project might put me right off the Thermopylae idea too, you never know, but I do enjoy a mechanical challenge.

Jim Lad, She should stand in the back of this one, I will have to lay her over a little to get her in. Failing that if I take the back seat out, which is dead easy, she will fit fully rigged in there. I have another large 4 door sedan with a fold down rear seat too so if I make a suitable cradle it would lie in the boot of that. He said, hopefully! Steve

Aye Popeye, big she is! If I am clever the top masts and bow sprit jib boom will all retract far enough to fit her in one of my cars. Be a bugger if they don't retract enough !

I sincerely hope I fail to disappoint but this is my first attempt at such a thing. I like to work all the mechanics and problems out my way but will always welcome suggestions. The masts and tressles are made of Tasmanian Oak which is readily available here and quite strong. More pics, that is a 12 inch rule behind the mizzen mast.

Well I figure it is about time I start a new build and post up a thread. This will take a while so be very patient. I love tall ships, I love tall ship models and I love scratch building working models. Hence this project. I aquired a fairly rudementary set of hull plans a few years ago and am now in a postition to put my money where my mouth is and build it. The aim is a fully operational schooner done my way. It will be what aeromodellers used to call stand-off scale because I am making consessions to my lack of knowledge about the forces that will be applied to her under sail as well as the fact that the plans include nothing of the rigging and precious little detail of the deck fittings. I know how to rig a ship because I have done a few kits, two schooners among them. I have never sailed anything in my life so she will be made in the guise of a replica or restored ship which has had engines added, ie she will have twin screws like the replica Endeavour. She will never be becalmed. Stats:- Hull length - 1045mm Beam - 210mm Mast height - 930mm from keel Sails - Cotton (at this stage- open to suggestion) 3x sails, 3x top sails, 3x stay sails. Construction - Marine ply keel and ribs, plank on frame, fibre-glassed. I have started in an unusual way in so much as I have made the masts first. I was going to make one to test the principles but decided that it was going to be much more expedient to machine multiple parts in one hit than do three seperate set-ups. The first pic shows the style of schooner rig I am aiming for. Squaring the top of the masts It is nice to be able to use full sized tools on a model for a change Cross tree or tressle, the timbers are a bit heavier than scale and not tapered to the outer extremeties but they are what the top mast shroud lines will attach to so they are deliberately heavy for structural reasons. Machining the mast tops, all three at once.