KevinR

Hi everyone!
 
Thanks for all your likes and comments!  Greatly appreciated.  Special thanks also to Dennis, Jeff, Igor and David for their recent comments.
 
The next few photos show the progress made so far on the owner's cabin at the rear as well as the galley.  I've also temporarily marked the topside of the hull with a black marker pen, just to get an idea of the final paint job.  Not too bad, I thought.  I'll paint it properly afterwards.
 
All the best everyone!
 
Cheers
 
Patrick

Hi Everyone,
Well I spent the past 3 days planking the Ceiling Floor in the hold and the forward cabin. Next I think I am going to finish the deck beams and the forward cabin bulkhead and bunks. I need to stat planning for paining as well. I want to paint the interior before I glue the deck beams on. Ben Lankford in his book stated that the interior of the boats were painted grey. I would have thought the interior would have been white to reflect as much light as possible. I guess I will look for a light grey. I have not decided weather to paint the interior by brush or airbrush. When I have been around wooden boats the interior seems to have had a buildup of paint on all of the surfaces. I am planning on airbrushing the hull.

Hi everyone!
Thank you for stopping by and all of your advice and help. The problem is that the angle of the starboard side planks is greater than the port side. The distance from center line on the starboard is grater than the port. I was able to realign the mast blocks with the stem and keelson. I also moved the forward port side the the forward cabin 3 inches closer to the side. I will have to trim some of the planks on the foc's'le to try and hide the difference. I have only 1 deck beam to complete on the foc's'le. That is the very first one. I placed a stub mast and a temporary sampson post to get an idea of how it will go together. I have not glued in any of the deck beams. The are a couple of additional tasks to complete on the hull before I can glue them in place.
Disassembling the mast blocking.

Making sure the mast is straight this time.

It looks straight this time.

My current status.






 
Thanks again everyone.

I received the following books today

"Notes on Chesapeake Bay Skipjacks" by Howard I. Chapelle $9.95
"Chesapeake Bay Crabbing Skiffs" by Howard I. Chapelle - $5
 

Well, all the hull planks are finally on! While I enjoy planking, I'm really glad that this part of the build is completed and I can get on with other stuff - like drilling lots of holes and then filling them in again - otherwise known as treenailing!
 
Here are some photos of what she looks like at the moment.
 
John
 
One Plank to go!


 
No Planks to go!!


 
And a close up of the partly cleaned up stern just to see what it might look like later.

John, Capnharv, Omega, Matija, Carl, Piet, Elia, Kevin, Tom, Thanks to all of you for your fine comments on the vinyl.  I was also amazed that it looks so real.  I wish I could take all the credit but it was suggested by a local plastic aircraft modeler.  I don’t know if he ever tried it but I’m sure glad for the suggestion.
 
Bob

I finished the jib boom.



My cat interrupted my pictures to eat a string that just happened to be attached to my model.

 
Lextin.

I'll be following this build also! I'm presently building the old Pyro model of the skipjack "Carrie Price", and have both the Midwest and Model Shipways kits waiting, in the wings. In the future I pland to scratch build the Carrie Price in 1/32nd scale to match the MS Willie Bennet.

Looking good Kevin!
I have the same books, nice little bits of info there. One of the Crab Scrape Bateau in the skiff book I'm planning on a future scratch build. One question, How did you determine the slope / cant of the deck? 
Thanks,
Pat

Hi everyone!
Thank you for stopping by and all of your advice and help. The problem is that the angle of the starboard side planks is greater than the port side. The distance from center line on the starboard is grater than the port. I was able to realign the mast blocks with the stem and keelson. I also moved the forward port side the the forward cabin 3 inches closer to the side. I will have to trim some of the planks on the foc's'le to try and hide the difference. I have only 1 deck beam to complete on the foc's'le. That is the very first one. I placed a stub mast and a temporary sampson post to get an idea of how it will go together. I have not glued in any of the deck beams. The are a couple of additional tasks to complete on the hull before I can glue them in place.
Disassembling the mast blocking.

Making sure the mast is straight this time.

It looks straight this time.

My current status.






 
Thanks again everyone.

Very Nice work - I look forward to following along !

Hi everyone!
Thank you for stopping by and all of your advice and help. The problem is that the angle of the starboard side planks is greater than the port side. The distance from center line on the starboard is grater than the port. I was able to realign the mast blocks with the stem and keelson. I also moved the forward port side the the forward cabin 3 inches closer to the side. I will have to trim some of the planks on the foc's'le to try and hide the difference. I have only 1 deck beam to complete on the foc's'le. That is the very first one. I placed a stub mast and a temporary sampson post to get an idea of how it will go together. I have not glued in any of the deck beams. The are a couple of additional tasks to complete on the hull before I can glue them in place.
Disassembling the mast blocking.

Making sure the mast is straight this time.

It looks straight this time.

My current status.






 
Thanks again everyone.

I received the following books today

"Notes on Chesapeake Bay Skipjacks" by Howard I. Chapelle $9.95
"Chesapeake Bay Crabbing Skiffs" by Howard I. Chapelle - $5
 

Patrick,
She looks quite  impressive. You have don a great job.

I received the following books today

"Notes on Chesapeake Bay Skipjacks" by Howard I. Chapelle $9.95
"Chesapeake Bay Crabbing Skiffs" by Howard I. Chapelle - $5
 

Hi everyone!
Thank you for stopping by and all of your advice and help. The problem is that the angle of the starboard side planks is greater than the port side. The distance from center line on the starboard is grater than the port. I was able to realign the mast blocks with the stem and keelson. I also moved the forward port side the the forward cabin 3 inches closer to the side. I will have to trim some of the planks on the foc's'le to try and hide the difference. I have only 1 deck beam to complete on the foc's'le. That is the very first one. I placed a stub mast and a temporary sampson post to get an idea of how it will go together. I have not glued in any of the deck beams. The are a couple of additional tasks to complete on the hull before I can glue them in place.
Disassembling the mast blocking.

Making sure the mast is straight this time.

It looks straight this time.

My current status.






 
Thanks again everyone.

Hi Everyone,
Well The weekend is over and I have made some progress. Most of the progress was in researching and planning my next move. I spent 3 days planning where to put everything. My skipjack is very close in size to the Willie Bennet, so I did not want to use the same deck layout. I was hoping to put the second cabin midship like on EC Collier and Kathryn, but there was not enough room. So I believe my only concession to be different is that the forward cabin will have a flat roof and not sloped like the Willie Bennet.
The living accommodations on the Skipjacks were pretty slim. The headroom in the aft cabin on the Willie Bennet was only 3-1/2 feet. On the EC Collier (50') which was 7 feet longer, the headroom was 5 feet in the aft cabin and 3-1/2 feet in the midship cabin. Apparently the second cabin on Skipjacks was only big enough to lay down in and the aft (main) cabin was barely big enough to sit and cook in.
 
I got back to work on the boat and added the aft strongback, the forward strongback with knees and started adding the ceiling floor in the fo'c'sle cabin.

Cap-n-Bob, Thanks for the complement. The cross planking is something different and it is a lot easier to install.
 
I have been working on the Centerboard Case and the midship deckbeams. When I started I ran into some problems with the plans and instructions by Steve Rogers. The Center Board case is suppose to be 1-1/2 inches (3 feet scale). The deckbeams are 1/2x1/4 inch strips. The deckbeams are suppose to be notched to fit over the shelf clamps (deck beam supports). The shelf clamps are installed 1/4 inch below the top of the side planks. When I started laying it out, for the deckbeams to be even with the top of the Centerboard Case, they would have to rest on top of the shelf clamps. This would also make the height of the deck camber 1/4 inch (6 inches scale). At the time 6 inch camber seemed excessive so I shortened the center board case by 1/8 inch and notched the deckbeams.
 
I notice today in the photos in the plans, that the shelf clamps looks like they are installed 1/8 inch below the top of the side planks. I also noticed that the deck will have a good rise at the bow. Re-thinking the 6inch camber now, it does not seem so excessive for a boat with a 14 foot beam.
 
I believe that the error was in the placement of the shelf clamps. They should have been placed at 1/8 inch vice 1/4 inch.
 
Now the big question is do I scrap the centerboard case and deck beams I worked so hard on this weekend or keep going with what I have? I had a lot of fun and learned a lot, this weekend working on the inside of the hull. I also believe I could do a better job if I did it all over. The Centerboard Case and deckbeams are just dry fitted so replacing them would not break any thing. The shelf clamps are glued on. I could cut them off and place a new one in the correct location. I have also thought about just running a 1/8 inch strip right above the current shelf clamp.
 
Now for the photos.

Today I started working on the Centerboard Case. My plan is to finish it over the centerboard Case over the weekend. We will see if I can follow through with my plans.

The outside of the hull is almost finished.  I finished shaping the bow and added the keel.

I have completed the planking on the Skipjack this evening.





I still have a lot of sanding to smooth out the planks and shape the blocks at the bow. The planks were purchased from National Balsa. The dimensions of the bass wood strips are not consistent and leave a lot to be desired. You get what you pay for.
 

Ok, back to the build. 
 
I found my 1:48 scale vinyl.  It turned out to be the foil around the top of a wine bottle.  I wrapped it around .06" (3" scale) plastic sheet.
 
That's all for now.
 
Bob
 

 

I received the following books today

"Notes on Chesapeake Bay Skipjacks" by Howard I. Chapelle $9.95
"Chesapeake Bay Crabbing Skiffs" by Howard I. Chapelle - $5
 

Hi everyone!
Thank you for stopping by and all of your advice and help. The problem is that the angle of the starboard side planks is greater than the port side. The distance from center line on the starboard is grater than the port. I was able to realign the mast blocks with the stem and keelson. I also moved the forward port side the the forward cabin 3 inches closer to the side. I will have to trim some of the planks on the foc's'le to try and hide the difference. I have only 1 deck beam to complete on the foc's'le. That is the very first one. I placed a stub mast and a temporary sampson post to get an idea of how it will go together. I have not glued in any of the deck beams. The are a couple of additional tasks to complete on the hull before I can glue them in place.
Disassembling the mast blocking.

Making sure the mast is straight this time.

It looks straight this time.

My current status.






 
Thanks again everyone.

Hi Bob
 
Yep. That surprised me as well!!
 
I guess it's a case of 'rich boys and their toys".
 
All the best!!!
 
Cheers
 
Patrick