KevinR

The skipjack is a traditional fishing boat used on Chesapeake Bay for oyster dredging. Skipjacks vary in size, usually 40 – 60 feet in length. They were not built from plans. Almost every dimension of the hull and rig is a ratio of the length of the hull.

Several weeks back, my wife and I went to the Reedvillle Fisherman's Museum in Reedville Virginia. They have a skipjack, Claud W. Somers, a deck boat, Elva C., a replica of Captain John Smith's barge (circa 1608) and what remains of a Chesapeake Bay Log Canoe. It is a small museum with lots of models, model train layout and a boat yard. While perusing the gift shop I came across Steve Rogers, Patricia Staby-Rogers  book “Model Boat Building: The Skipjack” and bought it. I was already working on MS Phantom, but I kept going back to this book.

So here is my build log for a 45ft skipjack. This is my first scratch build model. My primary source is the book “Model Boat Building: The Skipjack”. For reference and additional information I am using the plans for the MS Willie Bennett, Ben Lankford's  book “Modeling Guide for Model Shipways Kit willie L. Bennett” and a spreadsheet I found on line at http://msuweb.montclair.edu/~lebelp/Miscellany.html. The spreadsheet has the dimensions ratios used to build skipjacks and has come in very handy. “Model Boat Building: The Skipjack” talks about the ratios that are used to calculate the skipjack dimensions, but no where in the book are they listed.
 
The books I am using for reference.

Cutting the keelson.


Gluing the keelson.


Adding the stemliner and the transom.





Attaching the strongback. The strongback is nailed in place and will be removed after the bottom planking is completed. There was no specific location given for the strongback so the placement was based on the Willie Bennett plans.

Adding the first plank. This is where you determine the shape of the hull.



The side planking completed.






 
Edited to add links

Have a look here: http://nautarch.tamu.edu/Theses/pdf-files/Olsen-MA1984.pdf   page 232.

Hi everyone. Sorry I have not posted in a while. With all of the warm weather that summer time brought, I could not seem to find the time to work on my models. But now that the weather is cooling off, I have resumed work. Yesterday I completed beveling the keelson and today I started planking the bottom of the hull. I will post some pictures soon.

Hi,
 
I have just published a new book by Ab Hoving titled 17th CENTURY DUTCH FREIGHTERS, Text, Plans and Photos For the Ship Modeler. It features 10 ships and boats from the period. The book is in full color and a plans portflio of 24 sheets comes with it. You can see details at www.seawatchbooks.com.
 
Thanks,
 
Bob Friedman

Well I finally finished the model of my sprit rigged skiff Carrianne. I made 4 main sails and two jibs before i got a set of sails I liked.
 
Here's another video of her sailing. I like it because the sound is good.
 
http://tinypic.com/usermedia.php?uo=adkBqYNLltuvP10Ev533aoh4l5k2TGxc#.VF_6kTTF98E
 
 
 

Thanks for the very kind comments. Here's the best of the photos of the finished Ogallala.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
Thank you to all who viewed this log and especially to those who contributed with 'likes' and with comments - you all pushed me to do my best possible work.
 
Now I can get back to work on Esmeralda. I learned a few things here I can apply to "The White Lady".
 

 
Dave
 
 

A few years ago I wrote a general article on Duckworks about the birth of our colonial Navy.  It's
not scholarly, but it might pique someone's interest in the period and hull design advances.  It's called Our Young Navy.
Paul

Greetings,
 
I have completed the spray shields, I have to admit it took a couple of attempts at getting the curve in the correct place.  I have to admit I have lot's of cleanup work to complete but that will all come before the final coat of paint.
 
 
 

 

 

 
Now on to the engine room hatch!
 
Cheers,
Tim
 
 

Floyd, I'm using these smaller, less expensive boats as a method of learning the techniques of this craft.  I thought about the pinnace but figured the Bounty launch would give me some experience with POF as well as more experience planking.  I will probably do the pinnace if I don't feel competent enough to start the larger ships after finishing the launch and longboat.
 
Grant, excellent idea.  I will remember it for future use.
 
Thanks to everyone for all the tips and likes.

Did some more checking today on the "thwart issue" and found a couple problems.  
 
1.  I did indeed fail to get one of the thwart ends all the way down onto the riser,
 
2.  I apparently let one riser "lift up" or the other one "drift down" 1/64" toward midship.  I believe this is what caused the balance of the thwarts to slant to one side.
 
I'm blaming this on 1) inexperience 2) eyesight.  Although I have tri-focals I'm still having problems with measurements at the 1/64" scale.  Therefor, since I have no desire to quit ship modeling I have taken the following steps.
 
1.  Ordered the Bounty Launch which is larger than the longboat,
 
2.  Ordered a new magnifying visor which is more powerful than the current one and also (any maybe more importantly) lighted,
 
3.  Have drawn up plans for a larger shipyard that I will be building while waiting on items 1 and 2.
 
4.  Have decided that I will use the longboat as a "filler" project while working on the launch.
 
Will be start another build log when items 1-3 have been completed and I'm ready to start on the launch.

Thanks Dave for your comment. I really like your work and you have a very interesting website.
 
I have been able to get in some more work on my Longboat. I thinned down the cap rails to approximately 3/32” wide. I really like the look of the thin cap rail. I painted them with Badger Model Flex Marine Colors Bulwarks Red. This paint lays down nicely and leaves no brush marks. I then made the risers. I used a balsa cutter that I got from Micro Mark to scribe the lines in the riser.
 
Next up is to make and install the floorboards. I plan on using BobF’s method as he described how to make them in his Longboat Build Log.
 
The picture has the Long boat sitting on a 3/8” thick mahogany base that I made last weekend. Tim Wood held a work session at his house in Virginia Beach for members of the Hampton Roads Ship Model Society. I brought my new Byrnes saw and between the saw and Tim’s wood working tools, the end result was a very nice base for my Longboat to be displayed on. Thank you Tim for hosting this event.
 

Here's my fourth try with my "sea of grass".
 
To review, I selected an HO scale scenery kit for a field of barley and bought two of them - and a good thing, too. Each contained ten trees of eight strips. The strips are 4 in./100 mm long and .056 in./1.4 mm wide and assemble just like deck planks. The stalks are about .40 in./10 mm tall - about 40 inches/1 meter to scale and a close approximation of the short grass prairie of Kansas and Nebraska.
 

A tree of "planks" of prairie grass.
 
Being plastic, I tried gluing them to sheets of styrene but that didn't work; for some reason I couldn't discern these sheets of grass warped kind of like potato chips. I tried thicker plastic and it helped. For the fourth try I used contact cement to glue styrene sheet to 1/16th in./1.5 mm plywood. I detailed the strips and stalks - dark brown for the soil and darker green and pale green-yellow at random on parts of the stalks of grass. As I assembled the strips I bent and twisted most of the stalks to give them a more 3 dimensional appearance - about 5000 stalks!. The plywood and styrene base for the sea of grass is in four strips to fit through the opening of the sphere. I epoxied sections of brass tube to the underside of the strips for alignment with brass rods in three places. Here's the result.
 

This disc of prairie grass is 4.5 inches/114 mm in diameter.
 
I worked out exactly where the prairie schooner needed to be and flattened the grass in the wheel tracks and set the lower hull and wheel assemblies in place to see how it all looked.
 

Lower hull and wheel assemblies (with a yellow rubber band to hold them together) posed on the prairie
for a picture. The wheel tracks would show better if I photographed this at a higher angle - too late now.
 
I still got a little bit of the potato chip effect but I think it's more a result of having one side of the plywood sealed and the other side not sealed and subject to abnormally high humidity. I live in a desert and three thunderstorms have passed through in the last week. Didn't get any measurable rain - it all evaporated before it hit the ground - but the storms did drive up the humidity from the usual 10 to 15% to over 40% and I'm sure it's temporarily warping the wood a bit.
 
The "sea of grass" turned out to be more labor intensive than anticipated - especially with three false starts that used up most of one kit - but I think the result is worth it. 
 
Still working on figures and have detail work on the lower hull and wheel assemblies to finish before I can fit it all together inside the sphere.
 

 
Dave

Hi. 
Found this while researching my next project.
Thought I should share it with you.
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/17563/17563-h/17563-h.htm#CHAPTER_XII
Its a E-Book.
Some nice drawings and lots of excellent history and content.
 
Regards Antony

I thought that after building the companion way and skylight, the fife rail would be a piece of cake.  Clean up the castings, slap a few coats of paint on it and glue it to the deck.  Wrong!  Now you need to make a tiny cleat.  I wasn't quite sure what to make the cleat out of so I tried a piece of the 1/32” thick sheet.  That didn't work too well because the piece broke apart too easily.  I ended up using a piece of the 1/8” square stock.  I drew the profile of the cleat on the side of the wood and started filing.  Using needle files and an emery board I whittled away until all I had left was the cleat.  Sort of like making a toothpick from a 12” diameter log.  I decided to do both fife rails at the same time so I make two cleats.
 

 
Assembling the fife rail was simple enough; the two stanchions were glued on, painted it white, installed the belaying pins, that I had previously blackened, and glued on the cleat.  The one modification I made was to remove the pins on the bottom of the stanchions that are supposed to be fastened into the deck.  I thought that the large pins on the other two legs of the rail would be sufficient to hold it in place and that drilling two holes in the deck would be easier to position than four.
 
The pumps were painted black and the navigation light stands were made just as described in Chuck’s practicum.  My jumbo paper clips seemed a bit thick so I used a ‘Size 1’ paper clip.  The lights in the picture are not finished and still need another coat of paint and have the handle attached.
 
 

 
The mast coat, I discovered, could easily be made using my three-hole punch.  I punched out some holes of the manila folder, used my circle template to draw the inner hole for the mast and cut it out with my x-acto knife.
 

 
Once all the parts were ready; first the mast coat was glued to the deck using the mast dowel to get its correct position.  Then I glued the fife rail into the holes that I had previously drilled when I installed the skylight.  The holes for the pumps were drilled a bit off from where they show on the plans, in a position that looked good and was easy to drill.  The last thing I installed was an eye bolt on the starboard side of the fife rail.  This eye bolt is shown on the drawings and is mentioned in the practicum later on when Chuck describes rigging the Main Gaff.
 

Hey everyone,  
 
Been finding a bit of time to build lately but I have been kind of all over the place with what I have been working on.  I got the chain plates and cap rail fixtures installed, have completed building the deck houses, and have been working on a plan of action to tackle the sails and rigging for this ship even though 1) I'm not there yet and 2) this model is not typically displayed with sails.  
 
Before I get into pictures I want to welcome Wayne back to the log, glad to hear from you again man.  
Also Sal, who is building a beautiful rendition of this model over in his build log and where I am drawing a lot of my inspiration. I got the chain plate technique from him and will likely be stealing another little trick he used on his Phantom, the lining around the sunken cockpit.
 
Now for progress and pictures!
 
Last time, I left you with the blackened chain plates and they are now installed.  When hammering in the nails, some of the blackening agent came off of both the chain plates and the heads of the nails, the one pictured here is one of the better looking ones but some lost quite a bit of their finish as shown in the second picture.
 

 
I'm not sure yet if I will just paint them black or leave them because it really doesn't look terrible, maybe it adds a little character?  I'll have to see what the admiral thinks.  Also, if you guys have any opinions on whether to paint them, leave them, or some other idea, let me know in your responses.
 

 
Here is a picture of the hull in pretty much its current state with the chain plates, eye bolts, and belaying pins installed on the cap rail.  Also, you can see the cleats are painted black and the deck has been wiped down with some wipe on satin poly.
 

 
Next, I have been working on the deck fixtures.  I built most of them a while back, before MSW 1.0 went down into the deep abyss, but there were still some details needing to be finished.  
 
Here is the progression of the companion ways' hatches.  This first picture shows the rails and the front and back of each hatch.
 

 
Once the hatch frames were assembled, I realized I needed to thin some more boxwood strips for the hatch roofing planks.  This is a simple jig I made which works quite well.  It is just a couple strips of brass which are the desired thickness (in this case 1/64"), the strip is placed between them, secured with thumb tacks, and sanded until the strip is flush with the brass strips.
 

 
Here are a couple pictures of the hatches .
 

 

 
I was really surprised to see the difference between the raw wood and the wood with the wipe on poly finish so here is a good comparison picture.
 

 
When installing the hatches to the companion ways, one of the hatches was not very square and did not sit flush so I clamped it down and let it dry.  The clamps made a great tripod for the photo :lol:
 

 
Last, a picture of the deck fixtures as they stand right now.  You can see the companion way doors are also installed in this picture, they are each two pieces of box wood with little notches cut out and filled with pencil lead for handles.  I think I will do some touch up painting before installing them and the wheel definitely needs a new paint job.  
 

 
I have made a little bit more progress but forgot to take pictures so I will do that when I get home but I made and installed the traveler and the cockpit coaming is done and has its own cap rail installed on it.  I am also really excited about the sails, I have bought some material and have been trying different techniques for the stitching and other details.
 
Hope you all enjoyed,

Greetings,
 
Yesterday afternoon I completed cutting the mounting board then I added a beveled edge with the router.  Today I spray painted the upper hull with semi gloss black and in  a few days I'll add the gold pinstripe to the hull. 
 
The mounting board is cherry and still which still needs to be finished along with cutting the screw slot on the back side.
 
Cheers,
Tim
 
 

Closer to 40 tries than 20, Michael. Shows you how extreme my obsessive/compulsive disorder has become.
 
Finished the rigging that I can tie off before bottling the model.
 

Larboard view with a pencil for size reference.
 

Starboard view.
 

Gaff foresail extended away from the model to tie the sail to the gaff. This sail will get in
the way when the mast hinges for going into the sphere so will need to extend similarly.
It has nine lines that will need to be adjusted and glued when inside, perhaps less - I'll
know for sure when I drop the masts to bottle Ogallala.
 

I needed two blocks for the peak halliard and the gaff topsail up haul and decided to
combine them into a violin block just to keep things neat and tidy.
 

I needed a pair of cleats, smaller than the first batch, on the bowsprit for the stay
sail and jib down hauls. They were made from 36 gauge wire (.008 in./0.20 mm)
bent in an "L" about .040 in./1.0 mm both legs. I glued one "L" into a hole then
drilled a second hole next to it and glued a second "L" into it.
 

I decided I needed tackle to pull the foot of that big mainsail taught along the boom
and a pair of cleats to tie off to. These cleats were made the same way but smaller
with the "L" pieces at .030 in./0.75 mm each leg. They are about two-thirds the size
of the wooden ones I made earlier (two visible on the bulwark) and easier to make.
 
I hadn't planned to be as complete with the rigging as I've been since I started on it. I haven't done the topping lifts and reef tackle for the fore topsail and the leach lines for the two gaff sails (and a couple other minor lines) simply because I don't have enough places on the pin rails to tie them off. I have coils of rope to prepare for each belaying pin (matching the color tied to it), paint touch up and some other minor detail work on the upper hull to complete. I'll do much of this to fill in bench time while focusing most of my attention on other aspects of the project.
 
My "fill in" work while rigging Ogallala was my test figure, the first of three or four to make. I got him finished and I think he turned out okay.
 

My helmsman wearing a green jacket, gray pants, red shirt, black shoes and a straw
skimmer. He's .685 in./17.4 mm tall - smaller than an HO railroad figure - 5 ft. 9 in./1.75 m
to scale. The hem of his jacket is a narrow strip of paper wrapped around him to make it
look more realistic than just building up with gesso. It also conceals my mistake in making
his torso a bit too long. I found that the front lap and lapels can be simulated with brush
strokes of gesso carefully applied.
 

Larboard quarter view. If you look carefully you can see where I didn't quite blend in the
gesso to the paper hem. I changed the background color to light blue for contrast with
his green jacket. He looked too much like a head floating above gray pants with the
green background.
 

Starboard quarter view. I can't figure out why his jacket and pants have highlights as if the
paint was gloss rather than flat. Perhaps the color correction I applied enhanced them. The
straw hat was made from discs of ca treated paper glued together and glued to his head after
I cut the top of his head off flat. I painted the edge of one disc black for a hat band before
gluing them together. I think I need to add one disc to the top of the hat.
 
I'm not entirely pleased with my first human figure - he's no better than "good enough" - but I am encouraged by the result and what I learned to try three more.
 
I have some detail work on the lower hull and wheeled components to do.
 
I need to get to work on a second try with the sea of prairie grass which will be my primary focus. Not really applicable to ship modeling so I won't go into a lot of detail when I report on it.
 
Then I'll be ready for the part I find most stressful - bottling it.
 

 
Dave
 
 
 
 

Thank you Daniel. 
 
I finished the finish. So many things require this step being complete so I'm anticipating some progress. Got the floor boards in and began work on the mast, centerboard & rudder/tiller. 
 

 

 

I have done a little more work on my Longboat.  I painted the frames and inboard planking using Badger Model Flex Marine Colors Bulwarks Red paint.  I like this paint and it left no brush marks.  A special thanks goes out to Kurt Van Dahm for recommending these paints.
 
I then cut out the cap rail from a sheet of boxwood.  I cut it over sized but made it fit at the stem and the transom.  This will allow me to thin it down once installed.  I glued one side on using rubber bands and wide sanding sticks to keep the cap rail at a 90 degree angle to the planking.  Once the glue set up I installed the other side using the same process.
 
Here is a picture of my process:
 

 
Here is a picture showing the over sized cap rails installed.  They will need to be thinned down to approximately 3/32".
 

Welcome back.
 
Worked mostly on foremast rigging. Since most of this work is repetitious of the mainmast rigging I won't go into the details of how it was done.
 

Foremast with most of the rigging - and looking like a birds nest. It's
easier - and safer - to rig as much as possible of the mast off the model.
I took this photo right after stropping all the blocks while waiting for the
glue to cure so I can trim all the loose ends.
 

Foremast in place with the standing rigging and ratlines rigged. Also in place
are the gaff with throat and bridle halliards and vangs. The bird's nest is slowly
being un-tangled with lines going down to the deck and tied off to the pinrails.
 

Close-up of fore topmast, gaff, crossjack and topsail yard. You might notice that the
topsail yard and crossjack halliards pass through the tips of the yards to become
the respective braces. The lines are not glued at the tips, only at the mast. This
arrangement allows the yards to rotate to a position more parallel to the mast
after the mast is hinged down to the deck for fitting through the bottle's neck.
 

Another view of the crossjack and top. Note that the running rigging is in four shades
of tan to simulate varying states of wear and weathering. I still have the topsail yard
halliards and the topsail clew and buntlines to route to the deck and tie off. That will
leave the other ends of the clew and buntlines left hanging until I bend the topsail.
 

Overall view of the progress so far. I didn't forget the ratlines on the main topmast shrouds, I left them off
because they were frequently omitted on schooners like this. I also have the fore braces and vangs to rig.
 
 

 
Dave

Thanks everyone for your comments and Likes.
 
Marty, I appreciate you letting me pick your brain for ideas and solutions when I get stumped.  I am sure that your wife gets a lot of positive comments on your Long Boat that she is displaying in her office.
 
Stuntflyer and Jason, your build logs have really inspired me. I refer to them often and have printed many of your pictures for reference. Jason, I am also following your Syren build log as I want to build mine sometime in the near future.
 
I have spent some time tonight converting a balsa cutter that I got from Micro Mark into a tool to scribe the lines on the risers and the thwarts (seats).  I am happy with the results on scrap wood.  I will post pictures of this at a later date.

Thanks for the kind words guys, (and to everybody for all the likes) but it's not as good as I hoped.  However, practice makes perfect so I'm continuing.
 
Got the outer hull sanded and stained and the bulkheads removed.  Remember, I'm going for an "in-service" look and not new.
 
There are a couple of holes at the very stern of the hull, but I know how that happened and they won't be visible from the inside (and nobody is gonna be allowed to pick them up) so I just left them, but they won't occur again.
 
Also figured out the Macro setting on this camera so should be no more blurry pictures.
 
 
 
 

Thanks, for all of the comments. The Chesapeake workboats are some of my favorites. During Oyster and crab season I see several of the Chesapeake Bay Deadrises on my way to work. I think it says a lot about a wooden boat type that is still being constructed today. The same construction method that was used to build Skipjacks is used to build the Deadrise workboats.
 
I am leaving for Texas and Louisiana to attend a family reunion. Sorry, I will not have any updates for a couple of weeks. I will be logging on occasionally to check on other member's build logs.

Firstly I wish to thank everyone for the welcome. This is my first ever build log so it may take a while to find my feet. I am working from drawings that I received from a friend although as there is no stern or bow view I think at least 1 page is still missing. After much trial and error through the drawing and cutting stages as well as materials I have now achieved the basic shape of the hull although the stern will be work in progress for a while yet. I am currently waiting for my first delivery of timber which will include 5mm x 1mm beech strips for the first layer of planking as well as 5mm x 5mm walnut  strip for beams. As you will notice I am also building the hull in stages starting with the keel to lower gun deck. This was decided (after filling the spaces between the top of the bulkheads with pine blocks) and the rest with balsa that I should have a strong enough base to mount the upper halves of the bulkheads as well as adding more if required. Once the planks arrive I shall complete the shaping of the hull and decide whether to take the curve of the stern higher,(I'm afraid I'm not sure of the term for this) It doesn't quite look right to me. 

Thanks, for all of the comments. The Chesapeake workboats are some of my favorites. During Oyster and crab season I see several of the Chesapeake Bay Deadrises on my way to work. I think it says a lot about a wooden boat type that is still being constructed today. The same construction method that was used to build Skipjacks is used to build the Deadrise workboats.
 
I am leaving for Texas and Louisiana to attend a family reunion. Sorry, I will not have any updates for a couple of weeks. I will be logging on occasionally to check on other member's build logs.