Jond

Lower hull planking I have stated before on my other builds that I am more interested in learning the history of these boats; that's how they were made and how they sailed. The walnut veneer was OK but gap issues as it seemed to dry narrower than it laid up. Also the bends we ok unless one wants a perfect surface as Mr Hahn used to do. Real planks were thick enough to bevel and for cleaning up and making smooth. The under layer is 1.5 mm thick same as our 1/16 and that gives much more to work with than 1 mm walnut. also they use 3 mm wide [ easy] and 4mm wide a bit tough for twisting. Anyway here we go. We know if we don't like it, we can sand and paint to look like paraffin. Mr Hahn's navy version was paraffin below, and the topside yellow as they would have been painted too. I do understand that for beautiful models walnut is nice. I am researching more about colors of the time to see what merchants would be. Chappell's book on overall history of sailing is my current source . so lets see if we can do walnut for the hull I am using thumb screws. every once and a while the planks was quite stubborn and a pin was needed. Here I have hard bent the first plank leading up to the transom spiling begins immediately to both ends here the starboard side is glue up and the port side is shaping the wet plank. again only ammonia water in a roasting pan. if I can sand we are ok here, but it will get tougher as we approach the keel. there were several stubborn planks . another day a few more planks the back end shaping up.here you see the splitting of the walnut in its final dry out. also the opening of some gaps. another day and another plank. here the connection at the transom gets tight we are now cutting in the end. this gets trimmed out again for the stern post. almost home. last plank starboard glue up. we're done gluing...now to rescuing, and figuring our how to build out the stern. i shall not build the navy gallery modifications. I also need to sort out the bulk head dimensions. all for now cheers

Well we got more snow, so a little more work. I wanted to start the tedious ratline knot project and get the first jib on. Several sessions of knots and we got to the top of the first mast one side . Per photos we took in Canada, the top three ratlines are slats. Looking at the scale and size , I have to imaging the original was as well. there is very little movement that high in the shrouds to have snapped the slats. Here we see a scale figure. i wish there was an easy way to make figures . Having some one up in the rigging explains so much about scale. Having one's hands in one's pocket however , is not very realistic. On to the bolt rope. As we learned before, the 10lb lines works well. The newer boat and sales are Dacron, but the photos of 1940 show twisted lines darker than the sail cloth. I love the hemp because we can see it. I came across a tear where the bias tape was not sewn in properly. I later took it apart, added a new piece of bias and went to the sewing machine for a quick fix. after adding the bolt rope, hanks and stay it won't show....I hope Now to make the hanks . I will show in the next posting the three different set ups for the two jibs and jumbo. To make the hanks I tried two sizes of copper rings to back twist. working on hanks next cheers

Step 3 outer planking topsides Here my status of student comes out clearly. My previous models were all painted hulls and most focused on actual radio sailing. Thus, the perfect spline, bevel and twist were not that critical. I believe something would have been put on the outer finish of merchant [ packet Schooners] and fishing boats, so nice walnut planking is for the model and not the history. I need to learn anyway, so off we go on this adventure. I have read in magazines and other blogs that many European boxed kits have wood that might be a bit dry. Well I am out of my league so who knows. There are actually four pieces of pear for the topsides included, so I need to treat them well. So here we go on the topsides. · Here is the wood pile as the pieces come tied together. With a little guessing I hopefully and choosing the right wood for each step. The wale and hull planking are listed to be walnut and the topsides yellowish pear. · OK the wales are in place drying. They were very dry and although soaked for hours still split on me. Hopefully the thinner walnut will have more flex. · Here we are glued up · Now to the topsides. It was interesting to figure out a way to clamp. I chose not to use the thumb screws because they would penetrate above the deck line. This pear plank is drying to shape · Here is the glue up. The pear was a joy to work with compared to the dry walnut. · Here I found I needed spacers to thicken the plank to match the wale to hold. The long strip wedges I made for another project saved the day. · Now well into the second plank I was getting the hang of it. Of course, it is easy if run full width for the two pear planks. · Now we’re back to thin 3mm strips of walnut. They went reasonably well. You will see later the issues because I was doing a little guess work on height of the bulkhead, especially forward. Here could reach the first 4mm wide plank going down the hull below the wale. I used the clamps for dry out and shaping Gluing this first plank i switched to thumb screws to try to twist and hold the shape. I made up some wood shoes just to try but as you shall see quickly went back to metal. time to turn her over All for now Cheers

Step 2 get ready for outer planking The first thing I did was to put together the under planking [ first planking]. The Kit provided 1x4 mm planks which makes sharp corners a bit tough · Here we see the shear in place. It is pretty much a single bend, and a little ammonia water in a roasting pan is my only preparation · Aha. The first problem. 4 mm is too wide for the bow. I tried rolling it but to no avail. · And yes both sides are suffering · The aft lines seem fine for these first few planks and I let them run full. · My attempted fix at the bow was to take 1/16 x 1/16 bass wood and double up a bit. They are just a hair thicker than 1mm so in the sanding filling we should be ok · I chose to build this area up with soft balsa and then to shape it for the roll up coming with the walnut planking to come in the next step. the curved four little blocks were interesting to get into place. · Ok the first run under planking before sanding is fill with spiling fore and aft to make the curves. See the bass wood is a bit thicker at the major curve. · Here we are filled and cleaned up ready for the over planking. The aft section has a tight roll up to end with future cross planking on the curved area below the transom. · Looking from forward we hope we are Ok. As it turned out the tops of the bulkhead forward and far aft was too low. Following mamoli at this point the inner bulkhead on the lower main deck is also dropped a bit.....more on that later All for now Cheers

Thank You Keith and Mike Today I was sewing away on the new jib bolt rope and found a tare when the bias tape was not sewn in properly . I had to take out one inch of all thread , add in some new tape and go up to stairs to the sewing machine to mend. A lot easier than at sea. I'll show a photo of the fix next time. cheers

Thank you Keith. yes I like to have several things burning at the same time. It takes longer for each but we shall get there. Today I had a tare in the Bluenose jib that I had to repair, and then I did several ratlines as well as work on this one. It is supposed to snow tonight, so tomorrow I can get a long a bit here and shall try to update. cheers

Build Packet Schooner from Mamoli Halifax kit Here we go again on another adventure. After building schooners of 1802, 1853, and downeast Schooners 1894, 1906 and 1921, I wanted to get back and learn about the design of the early schooners. I shall put together a brief posting with some of the references I have been reading. Today I just want to get the general introduction as to what I am building and why. I live in Maine and shall remain most interested in the maritime history of this region. I include all New England and maritime Canada as the region. I shall leave it to the true authors to record all the real back ground, and shall simply summarize a few points…….again from what I have read and seen to date. I always look forward to more research in this area and appreciate some tips already received through these logs. It is well recorded in Boothbay, Maine that starting in early 19th century 'Pinky' and similar schooners were being built . So, where I am going is to build a few known designs taking some liberties to improve my understanding of the evolution of the coasting schooners. I would like then to build some representative schooners that were built here. That starts with pre-Pinky and ends with the 10 four masters built in 1921. See my Charles Notman where I built it to be a prototype for sailing size models . It had a documented design I could use to learn. I chose the kit Halifax as a first build in this adventure because she represents several things of interest to me: · She was built I believe in Nova Scotia as a Packet in 1768.…Harold Hahn's book on Colonial Schooners gives a great history of her. · She was taken over by the British navy in 1770, which means there are very accurate drawings. I believe it should not be too difficult using common sense to reverse engineer and remove features that would only have been done for a navy vessel and I shall speak of that in the bashing process. Harold Hahn said if one goes to the actual admiralty drawings there are tick marks indicating what was to be changed in the lines. He then listed several items that he believes were added. · There is a fun Maine story that she sailed into Machias, Maine trying to recover stolen cannons . Unsuccessful, she hired a pilot to get back to sea. The naughty pilot reportedly steered her onto a reef and the ran away in the night…….She was lost to the US...wow score one for new England rebels. · She was a subject of the renown Harold Hahn. I was able to get plans of her as well as Challeur, a sister ship in the small British group in late 1770’s. This gives us accurate drawings of another boat a little bigger. Apparently there was a second Halifax commissioned by the British navy after the first one was lost in Machias, and some confusion that i plan to evade So what am I building? Each Christmas time I have fun on ebay as a flurry of models seem to come available and if you are diligent a good deal is in the offing. A few years ago, I bought the Mamoli kit, and it has been sitting on a shelf. So, as I continue to work more sparingly on Bluenose, I have started this kit. I am also bashing another kit of a plank on frame version of a similar schooner. i feel it is important to learn how to build the whole frame, so concurrent with this build, an unrecorded first attempt of plank on frame is also on the bench. I plan to use that partially built model as a partial framed out hull in a dock yard diorama, so it shall not have a build log or name. Working on it in parallel does help explain though the slow pace this build might take on this kit. I must also say I plan to ignore what I call the navy embellishments. So I shall take images from a few Harold Hahn diorama views to confirm what I believe to be pretty straight forward. Fishermen nor early 'packetmen' did not have great windows in the cabins, lions on the stem nor guns on the decks. Also as a yank and building a representative boat using the Halifax kit, I see no reason not to take liberty and declare I am in 1:48 scale. The kit as being metric is 1:50. Yes I have metric rulers!! I may change my mind later but what I am building is 53 feet on deck and not 55+. Again I will also need to change the sailing rig to represent the commercial Canadian build and not the British Navy redrawn sail plan with top square sails etc.. That change could be challenging, but it is my goal. lets start....Step one the frame So first of all I opened the kit and found myself amused by the way they [ mamoli ] do things. The drawings are exploded isometric views, the instructions are pretty basic and off you go. I bought a set of Harold Hahn plans and I go there for questions. I cleaned up the bulkheads and keelson assembly ready to put together. This model is small compared to my usual work, so I made up mini blocks to use to square up the bulk heads. Surprise. The interlocking under deck ties everything together. So without too much trouble we get the bulkheads on in the first day. I wonder how true they are?...we'll see Cheers

As winter moves along in it's slow pace, we have divided our work into several areas. Finally as planned, I am able to come around and work slowing on getting things further wrapped up. I have a chance to show off in late July so there is now some pressure. Fortunately that crowd is more about real boating and not modelling, so i should do just fine. One requirement though will definitely be to have more sails. As planned I have started two kit bashing exercises on 18th century schooners. I will start a log there too one of these days, as soon as I figure out where I am going with it. I also keep looking at Charles Notman that needs more work too, as do the sailing one designs that need to be in the water in late June Bluenose, I have the following update: here is an image showing the corrected peak halyard without a bridle and the lacing of the sail. I add this as it shows the job facing me on more sails. I may compromise a bit......yes i should have soldered the ring! Here i have remade the fore sails . One of them twice as I scorched with the iron trying to get the blue desolvable ink out. My rear admiral took over the iron so the two jibs are fine here I have cut out and blackened my first attempt of making the dory hooks. Some times trying to use up things in the shop helps , here i think they did not come out too well. maybe with some grinding.....we'll see this may be compromise one. Finally I have set the patterns for the ratlines. I have great photos of the Bluenose ll so I can see which few change to slats etc. I have also redone all the chain plate connections that were removed a few times. here I am debating line weights and knots. The aft connection is a splice into a wrap holding a ring on the shroud; the center a clear clove hitch; and the forward another spliced connection. This is definitely an area for compromises. I shall attempt to make ' beckets' spliced at each end and hitched in the center, but maybe not 175 plus of them. they all have to be perfect lengths. I will do several with the lighter line and see how they look but assume knots and imagination will work here. cheers for now

Wow. Just found this build. I look forward to learning as you put this back together. Thanks Jon

Beautiful. My problems included getting ca glue to set to hold prebent planks, since they are quite large they over powered glue and I had solid plug for a form. I assume the small planks held well since there's no mention of the glue up. Anyway when I get back home I am inspired to try again. Thanks for the lesson Happy New year Jon

Thank you for sharing this build. I am starting to move into these 18th century schooners . I have read some of the history and have a few kits to play with. I can't wait to get going and shall start right after the holidays, and you log is a great help Thanks for sharing Happy holidays Jon

This is a wonderful build. I am getting ready to build some of these early schooners. I have two kits of Halifax , one bulk head and the second plank on frame. I look forward following your progress for this is a new area for me. One goal will be to learn how they sailed. I just visited Washington and saw similar class models at both museums. I can't wait to get going. Happy holidays Jon

Great looking sails. These schooners remain amongst the prettiest while under sail. Enjoy the end run Cheers

Very impressive painting. I hope you get a sunny day and we can see it outside. I used tape for the boot top and gold cove... Enjoy the holidays Jon

Kieth Wow I love the production plank method. My failed dories started cutting each plank on the scroll saw. My issue there is the two direction teeth on many blades grab the wood. I am going to try to get one way blades. By slowing down the stroke I feel safer making these small cuts on the skroll than on the big band saw. I need 12 of each side plank for six dories, so it must be easier to try your method. We'll see I hope you Christmas dinner went well. I look forward to follow-up in the new year Cheers

Michael It's always a pleasure to find one of you builds and leaf through it. I love seeing you successfully removed and reinstalled the mast. I am also envious to see machining parts. I have so much to learn. Happy new year Jon

Wrap up Bluenose for year end In this post I just want to share a few items as I clean up and get ready to continue at slower pace as I begin a new area. · Here we have remade the foresail and gaff and got them reinstalled. This was a full eight hours due to many issues I spoke of before. · Here she is sort of coming at you. Unfortunately it is easy to see the wrinkled jumbo which will be replaces and up graded. The main is wrinkled because it was furled. Not sure what to do there. They have photos of Bluenose sailing with only the main but never with the main furled. Someday next year we shall replace it or furl it up and add a storm sail · Here is full shot of the new sail and new rigging. It is a medium file size so can blow up to better see details · One of the fun things is I used 1 mm halyards and ran enough to raise using the winch. Here once we raise the sail the coils become huge · Here you so two halyards looking forward from port side. So what’s next A The list to finish is long , I will stretch it out a bit, but here are some items that I shall plod on with and update next year: 1. I have the next three sails under way, jumbo jib and jib topsail. They get chain sheets and things and will be fun to rig. 2. Top sails... 3. Fisherman sail 4. Dory rigging under way: hooks made and ready to rig lines 5. Oil barrels and one more wooden barrel forward. I want to learn what it was for too 6. Remake mainsail and gaff 7. Remake all dories and fit them out. 8. Decide if I am not going to dissemble to move, tighten up and coil all lines. 9. Make flags 10. Make people….currently have stiff railroad figures. I would like to learn to make figures doing things 11. Consider changing out sailing turnbuckles for more realistic look. Currently have that standard issue of getting shrouds to stay tight. 12. Possible...........Make sailing mast and spars. I am drifting away from sailing again B help my friend continue his restoration of his wife’s 1960 ish Bluenose model · Here in the photo you can that she rests on the shop rigging table. We plan to upgrade his deck furniture and add lines like back stays, dories and their rigging etc. we also tell a few stories when he visits. C. next build. I shall start a series of builds of 18th century new England [ + nova scotia] schooners. Again, I want to learn how they sailed. I ‘ll start with some kit bashing then eventually get to plank on frame. Happy holidays Jon

thanks Keith I hope we can all continue. I mean why not? and for me I have a lot more to learn. This year has been just great and I am getting excited about branching out next year. Merry Christmas

Great bench. I bought a scroll saw for last year because my band saw is a big old 10 inch and I want to learn plank on frame. I am thrilled to see I can watch you make frames because I struggle using the saw. The up stroke grabs my wood. I will look to see how you work with delicate wood. Thanks jon

Thanks Keith and Jeff I have come to a resting point I think, as we approach the holiday break. I went to our monthly Guild meeting this week, and many members agreed. These huge models are too consuming, and the product is one that cannot travel or do much but take up too much time and space. It is a wonderful learning process, as we can see the detail so much better; but maybe it's too much. I need to make simple boats large to sail and then smaller scale for all this detail and learning how the sails worked. Yesterday, I just replaced the fore mast for the third time. A few things broke, tiny pieces disappeared and needed remaking, and most lines needed untangling and fixing. It was a full day to get it back to when it was before. And that is nice to be able to do but not practical. I am thinking of slowing a bit on this build and stretching it out, so yes I eventually complete it but in the coming new year I can start new things. I love this model. Today I laid out three new sails, replacement jumbo and the jibs. I am just not going to rush to get them done. 2018 planning I want to build older 18th century schooners like Halifax using Hahn's books and to learn again how they sailed. I bought a Halifax kit to play with first. Then I want to learn plank on frame. If I keep going backward on Bluenose, I just won't get there. I shall continue to plod along here part time. There are new sails to make , I may go back and redo the main. I might furl is again and rig a storm sail and reef the foresail. I have to do the jumbo as the attachment is cringles on the sail, rings on the shroud and continuous lashing. also, I need to shrink the bolt rope and improve the three corner connections. I'll never be satisfied with the existing sails. Last winter I totally failed on dories and I need to do them again too. Then I want to rig them, so perhaps one is being launched. I made the hooks today. More importantly is a the 3/16” [1:64] scale Bluenose that belongs to my friend and is still in the shop on my main table. We just met to review this winter and we agreed to rebuild all his deck furniture and add several lines that are not on the simple kit rigging. So to all happy holiday. I shall post more pictures as I get her cleaned up. Cheers

Re rig sails to fore and main gaffs I have gone around a few times trying to figure out what to model for the two gaffs. This post is my decision making before I do something and move on. The work is focused on the fore gaff that I have rebuilt along with a new sail. Due to such few archive photos though, I would like to better understand both main and fore sails at the same time. I find that Jensen drawings = BN ll, but the archive photos do not always agree. I also believe the racing rig of say 1930 could have been slightly different from the 1940 long time fishing rig that I am favoring and finding documented. In my last post I showed the four corners of the BN ll foresail and some progress. I liked the details and basically used the reinforcing, grommets, strapped rings, reefing points and new roping to remake the sail. Clearly the boom [ foot] is lashed tied and tails pulled through the lines. The three holes bored through the end of the two gaffs seems to have been carried over [ with my loose interpretation of the old photos.] · Here is Nova Scotia BN archive’s best photo of the boom and gaff. This shot and another one clearly shows some key items that I believe reflect ultimate rigging of the fishing Bluenose. I make some cropped views below to rationalize some detail decisions BN II used a bale in the gaff to hold the foresail peak [ recent posting] · Here BN ll lashed the peak to the gaff on the main sail and have bored four holes. First let’s look at a little progress · Here is my new foresail clew and iron mongery. see the attempted moused hook for the boom tackle. · Here is the new tack. note the use of black lines for the hoop ties. I cleaned up the boom cleat and that shall hold the down haul. · Here is the new throat. The shackle is not yet there. I need to figure out lashing connection and holes through the jaws first. · In this photo of the peak you can see I did the BN ll bale just to look at it, but I plan to change it to lashing. You can also see the topsail sheet block attached to the side of the gaff and the white peak halyard blocks with galvanized rings directly on the gaff…there was apparently no bridle on the 1940 version. Second let’s study old photos of the Nova Scotia BN archive · Here in a BN archive cropped shot, one sees two light colored lines running aft of the fore sail peak grommet [ ring]. I suspect they go through the holes in the gaff and thus sort of lash the sail less neatly than on BN ll . There is no bale. Also, there seems to be a fore and aft top ring that must be holding the down haul at the end of the gaff among the coiled line. [ likely the stored down haul in the photo]. You also see the white peak halyard block attached directly to the gaff · In this photo I cropped the best view of the end of the main gaff. It looks quite like the fore and confirms the top sail sheet blocks were not on top as they have been rigged on BN ll. · In this cropped archive photo there is a white block suspended on a leather cap like other fishing schooners. It rides on the starboard side. I believe but do not yet know how but I read somewhere that these leather gloves held the block and could ride over and around when tacking. Anyway, my other schooners have the topsail sheet blocks rigged like this, so I am using this photo to set mine on the starboard side. · Looking forward on the fore gaff and boom we see they are clean, no lazy jacks like BN ll Lashing details on BN ll · Here we already spoke about the boom lashing. This is this BN ll detail with tails tucked that I have copied. On the archive photo above the tails are left loose on the main, and I may do that if I rebuild that sail. One can also see the spiral lashing has a figure 8 knot holding it on top of the starboard jaw. That works for me. · Here in the end of the main gaff we see the knot and seizing detail of the lashing on port side. On the starboard side [ photo above] the lashing goes through a sail grommet before being tied off to port. We also see very nice lashing of the peak from all three holes. · In this cropped photo of the end of the fore gaff we see a similar detail of the end of the line tied off on the starboard side. The last line draped over the end is temporary line while sails are furled holding down the gaff. It came off when sailing. · Here is the main peak under sail. Note the flag is added to the down haul that was slice through the end hole and dropped on both side rails while sailing. · Here is the end of the fore gaff under sail. The down haul is single here. So I may not be right but at least I have had fun trying to figure our how all this stuff works. Now I just need to have the time to complete this step. cheers jon

I am close to the end of sewing the new bolt rope and my crew just showed up outside the shop. In case some of you worry that we eat all of the turkeys for Thanksgiving, let me assure you there are plenty here in Maine

Making replacement foresail mid-point I am part way through the tedious sewing on the bolt rope and looking to a few new steps. This also rests those sore thumb joints a bit, gets more coffee, and brings me back to the hoops. I include here this wonderful image under sail in full size Here is the cropped view showing two hoops. Just like the lazy jacks they used twisted wire. Perhaps the original was line but maybe tarred. Not sure but i think this means we go to black thread; but how to tie it? if line tied is wire twisted. There are no good photos of this detail of the old one. Keith was nice enough above to send the text book. It looks sensible in real size but gives me two knots to finish off. I plan to practice a few since I need to make another batch of rings for my planned sailing mast. The next pictures show the slippery slope I have entered. My rear admiral came along and said she wanted to try to do a better job sewing the seem lines to reduce if not eliminate the puckering. While she was away working, I foolishly raised the other two sails After she came back I was playing around and here is the new foresail if I show it raised……. what to do?.. do I remake everything? Here we are coming at you how can I not do these sails raised????? Here is the sail peak detail. I do not agree with the block being on top, but I like the three holes and bale holding the sail and spliced down haul … here is the temporarily installed foresail peak....The sail is fine, but look at that gaff!!!! The ugly side sheave that works, the end band and eye, the Bluenose ll black bridles [ I just realized Bluenose did not have bridles on the fore gaff, the blocks were strapped…. another oops as I just added them based on jensen drawings and BNll. I decided to remake my fore gaff to bring up the details and to demote this first spar to sailing status. I think now it is inevitable that I must also change the main sail and that means a new main gaff too. Some day I will take steps only forward Cheers

OK I am back looking at this post of yours from last month. I will definitely set up a practice board. i was concerned with the diagram you put on my site because the tails are loose on both sides. I did it differently and had both tails on the same side allowing a simple square not. fun city I think as i figure out what to do here. cheers

I love the rats nest comment on temporary condition of lines. You can say that with a smile because you do a great job cleaning them up on their cleats. The binnacle detail is great too. Turning brass for lights wow ... can't wait to see the next step. Cheers