Jond

stage 4: fiberglass the hull My main goal is to be able to salt water sail , so we need strength. That means coating with fiberglass and therefore loosing any possible plank detail. Years ago I bought a roll of 6 oz Fiber and it was great for smooth hull pond yachts. [ the Neaskegs by example] Many experts say no more than 2 oz. should be used on a model. I absolutely agree that the stem and rudder post needed to be wrapped in 2 oz and I did that. [ wish I had done the keel, but I traded off a little rounding again for strength] I opted for the strength of the 6 oz for the main hull. Again this is learning proto type. I turned the hull on its side, so while applying the second resin coating I could better reduce drips and things. I looked at the transom that I had wondered about and saw .......oops?. the cedar planks did not conform to the carved mold. So that required a fix to get the right curve. I also used 2oz cloth here in the fix. Also at this stage I aligned and drilled the hole for the rudder shaft through the Keelson. Here I made another mistake, by putting the hole exactly where the rudder post should be according to the dimensions. It would have been fine if this were to be a static model, but I want a working rudder.....I will explain later when I build the sailing rudder and need the brass shaft a bit aft to hide it in the rudder. end stage 4

Stage 3.........well here we go to planking. First of all I have a few sins to share that affect the process, but I will try to explain them away as follows: I learned this basic planking method while joining a pond yacht session at Wooden Boat School in 2001 with my son. We each built hulls for the 'Naskeag' a vintage Marblehead designed by Thom McLaughlin. I include a photo here, so you can see that with nicely milled planks and some care one can have a nicely finished cedar hull. the hull was coated in clear resin and cloth and then varnish to protect the resin. FYI I only finished these models last summer and hope to sail them next year. The cedar strips were cut down from 1x6 red cedar to about 3/16 thick and 5/16 wide and typically 4 to 5 feet long. When provided to us they were all the same. Wow I did not know that was hard. In the pond yacht every plank was full length, there were sharp ends on the final pieces however no butt ends. This is a racing boat and meant to look nice. Most people paint the hull and put on a nice top. We chose to keep the cedar look. Downeast Maine schooners were built for freight; the bigger ones for coal. They were not nice cedar hulls. As I am learning they were red lead below the lower [ empty cargo] waterline and black or white above. I have found documentation verifying this but taken it from pictures. White hulls at launch often became black at refit. Also the 10+/- feet of planking between lower and upper [ full of cargo] waterline was often coated with a bit of slime. anyway, my sin is to take a little less care because after fiber glassing the hull, it is to be painted. Also I stuck with the size planking that is way out of scale 5/16 is like 15 inches or 2-3 time wider than real.....but it is painted. My sin number one was in my learning how to do a good job on making the strips. I have previously [8 and 5 years ago] made hulls for a 5-6 foot 1/24 scale schooner Gertrude Thebaud...still hanging from the shop ceiling waiting for a restart, and a 4 footer Boston 1853 pilot schooner 1/18 scale that welcomes guests to the shop but also incomplete. In those years I used a normal " framing " table saw and the cutting left much to be desired as thickness varied and some scarring occurred. A year or so ago I got a small Proxxon table saw and I am learning to use it. I experimented with a few thicknesses. My reason for this long story is I decided to use up all the precut planks knowing there were defects and thus a need for more filling before fiber glass.....sorry. I am not sure this second point is a sin. I marked out the shear line on every station and set a plank below that as my starter plank. You can see in the photos there is some side bending here as there is about 8 feet or 2 inches in scale of shear on this ship. Looking into the photos of the Maine schooners at launch, I saw their planks were not wide and thus easily followed the whole length of the schooner. their sides were not full of stealers and very little or unnoticeable tapering. The planks remain quite horizontal as they met the stem at the bow. My strips at 5/16 are way out of scale but are going to be covered. So I honored the process of following the shear line and worked consistently from the shear down to the one garboard. This required good soaking in ammonia water for all the planks. Every plank started either at the bow or stern with the soaked end bent both ways and often twisting and coming to a butt joint somewhere along the way. As each plank was set wet it was allowed to dry. Holding them required several methods based on location and access. Small brass screws were the best for the most difficult bends, and clamps of different strengths were used. Often I needed to pull the clamp with rubber bands to get the twist. After drying I would drill 1/16 hole through the strip into each bulkhead. I then touched the hole with a 5/32 drill to help avoid splitting the strip as I tapped in tooth picks at each connection. I staggered the butt joint and added a splice plate behind with two pegs. Attachment was simple wood glue along the seam and at the bulkheads. Each toothpick was cut in half. the end was dipped in glue set and tapped. The hull was upside down to work up to the shear at the bow....downward is reality. I did add tapered stealers between most planks to make up the steep pitch at the bow, hawse area. I also needed about three very short stealers at the keel completing the stern section. As I got to the internal temporary braces they were removed. I plan to reset them as deck supports after removing the bulkheads later. After sanding I liberally used a water putty over all. sanding the putty and hull made it ready for fiber glass At this point I added the cedar strips to transom....oops I will show the goof as my the next stage. Before fiberglass it was important to figure out the rudder and drill the shaft hole for the 5/32 sleeve that will house the 1/8 brass rudder post. lessons learned in these first three stages. While in the Turbo CAD I should have marked each station with the shear line. I had to manually go along and mark the bulkheads before starting the first plank. Also I am not sure but perhaps I could have installed the temporary braces at the right location to double duty as temp frame support and future deck support and not have two activities as I do now. Now with a better saw and some experience....make the strips common and more accurate. this means slowing down on the saw. haste does make waste. If all the strips were full thickness one can do more sand shaping and less fill and shape. Thom McLaughlin had us grind a drill into a taper. This way in one action we drill a hole that replicated the pointy end of the tooth pick....it was easier that way and worth considering if more than one boat is intended. sin three was I used up many tooth picks that were not all round. This is not great as there were a few times the cedar slit and this caused a need for the second drilling process. the oops in my error for the transom...next posting So we are progressing, taking pond yacht techniques and trying to make a more historical ship. I fear a few compromises are happening. this is not a static model. that would have a double planking using 1/16 by no more than 1/8 width. no fiber glass and joints all visible. One might even try to paint on the slime between water lines! end of stage 3

thanks guys ...if you are in a chair please be close to the kitchen because this may take a while. stage 2....set up frame and get ready to plank The first step is to glue up the keelson. I set up two stations, 19 & 21 at the bow and 1 & 3 at the stern and set the center 1/4 plywood section into the slots. I then took the two 1/4 by 2.25 plywood strips and fit then on the outsides and into the station slots. the plywood had a natural bow of about 3/8 over the length. Therefore I took a one inch aluminum box tube and clamped it to the length of the assembly and left it to dry over night......it worked! next I took out the keelson and laid out the stations lines and water lines so I would be able to see them to align and level the stations as I progressed. next is to start at the bow and work aft, one station at a time. The blocks were screwed to the stations first and then as I glued the slots of the station to the keelson, I screwed the blocks down to the building board. Some stations were only 1.5 inches apart and I needed to hold the drill horizontally to drill each station, thus I had to work one end to the other. I chose to leave out a few stations where they were only 1.5 inches apart. The next step was to cut out spacer blocks and temporarily glue them at the outer edges of the stations to square up the frame. You can see in one photo to make the transom was an experiment. I took a 1x4 soft pine board and sort of carved out the shape of the transom. using the band saw I cut the outside and then the inside leaving a block with a slot to grab the 1/4 inch center keelson. I also built around the keelson because to install the rudder I need to drill 5/32 hole right through it. I will show that later. The final step is to add blocks at the bow to act as knighthead - hawse timbers and receive the planking. Sanding these to shape led to cleaning up the outer strips of the keelson assemble at their extreme ends for fairing in the planks. I finished by fairing up the bulkheads a bit. end of stage 2

Well here we go! I have been reading many logs over the past few years and now am ready to jump in. I have several previous builds, but not many ready for the gallery. we can talk about a few of them later. They were meant to prepare me to build a series of Maine Schooners, some of which hopefully can sail in the local harbor during windjammer days festival. We are coming up to the centennial of the final and best built schooners, many which supported the World War I effort. There were 10 each 4 masted Schooners built here in Boothbay Harbor. Unfortunately there are no known plans, so much research is under way to achieve that goal. In the mean time I need a proto type, so this build is my proto type for the process. I chose 1/48 scale as it produces roughly a 5 foot hull length. [ normally a bit small to sail!] There will be a fight between accurate detail and making it function as a sailor. All this is to be a learning process. I started this build late last year and to date am almost through the hull building. I start this post with a catch up on the process in mind. stage 1: Research and Plans: Maine Maritime provides several different plans of Schooners built either in their facility, Percy and Small or others in Bath Me. There is a great book A Shipyard in Maine by Ralph Linwood Snow and Capt. Douglas Lee. Douglas Lee also produced plans for several Maine ships including this one. He also developed great details for all big Schooners based on his research of the Cora Cressy [ a five master also from Bath]. Another valuable book is The Schooner Berth L Downs by Basil Greenhill and Sam Manning. This book is labeled " Anatomy of the Ship" and shows what you need to fill in the gaps. Station templates: I took Photos of the Plans, as they were in 1/96 scale, and pasted them into Turbo CAD Deluxe 20. I then improved the grid lines and scaled up to the full size ship. I then traced each station on a separate layer. I set my viewports to 1/48 fixed scale and wiggled to get them all to fit on a portrait view @ 11x17. After printing them out , I had a view of every station. I glued them to a sheet of 3/16 luan plywood and cut them out on the band saw. A little sanding on the edges cleaned them up. I then set them in a vise and cleaned up the slots to fit over the laminated keelson and did a little pre fairing. When I drew the stations, I included a common extension leg, so that when they were set upside done on the building board they would all be at the right height. [ easier to see in the photos] I also predrilled holes all around the stations to simplify the cutting out of the stations after fiber glassing the hull. My plan is to leave roughly 1/2 inch ribs at each bulkhead for permanent reinforcing of the hull. The Keelson: This is my name for the whole assembly [ shoe , keel, keelson and riders as well as stems.] it consists of three pieces of 1/4" plywood laminated. this adds strength but helps in straightening and is very easy to work with. I took 4 photos of the line plan and again pasted it into the Turbo CAD. I set up the water lines and used offset to control correct positioning of all the stations. I then stretched and tweaked the photos and they came out OK. I created 4 each 11x17 landscape printouts and pasted them to the plywood. After cutting out the "Keelson" assemble center piece, I trimmed more plywood to form the two outer strips and was ready for laminating. Building board: I had some building boards left over from some Vintage Marblehead pond yachts built 10 years ago. I recovered the blocks and screws from two boats and had enough to lay out the stations. I prepared the blocks, pre drilling them for attachment to the stations [ horizontal screws] and then ready for installing. end of stage 1

Meddo I just wanted to let you know there is another owner of the Halifax kit out there living your log. My kit sits in is beautiful box waiting for me to have the nerve. I am enjoying reading each step and I love H Hahn's books. I am, currently focused on Maine schooners but plan to do Halifax in the Kit followed by Hannah scratch. best regards