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JerryTodd

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  1. JerryTodd
    Today, in 1812, Macedonian met the American frigate United States near Madeira in an action lasting just over an hour. After overwhelming fire from the more heavily armed United States, Macedonian struck. After two weeks of repairs at sea to preserve the ship, she was taken into American service where she served until she was decommissioned in 1828 and broken up. The opening of the battle by Gardner. See here for =>More Details about Macedonian
  2. JerryTodd
    The real ship was towed over to Curtis Bay Coast Guard Yard near Baltimore during the week. She joined the training bark Eagle already there and out of the water. Her rig was reduced and she was loaded into the floating dry-dock, formally Navy ARD-55 (I think). I don't know specifically what work is to be done, though she suffers from the usual problems a wooden ship that sits at a dock suffers from. Thanks to Chris Rowsom, Director of Historic Ships Baltimore for the images. If you're ever in town, do visit Constellation, there's an interesting pair of models, both 1:48 scale, in her visitor's center: A model of the ship as she appeared in the 20th century into the 1940's. Builder unknown. The McArdle model of the ship as she was originally being restored. Another model of the ship is located at the Baltimore Convention Center. It's a waterline model of the sloop "restored" as a frigate again, in 1:24 scale I think, but this one was built to go on display at the 1964-65 World's Fair in New York. I remember this model when I went to the fair, always love model boats
  3. JerryTodd
    This year? Probably not, but her deck will be laid, coamings installed, hatches. Maybe even bulwarks, and her deck furniture done, so she'll definitely look a lot more like finished than she does.
  4. JerryTodd
    And the final sub-deck sections are epoxied down. Besides the clamps you see I used some 5/8" common wire nails to tack everything down. The excess epoxy got poured into some of the nooks and crannies in Macedonian's hull. I like to fill these tight spaces so water can't get in there and get mold growing. You know, Mac hasn't gotten wet yet, hmmm. Nah, I want to get moldings on her so I can paint her. Anyway, the tops'ls were unbent from their yards and the yards are ready to receive their hardware. I'll let the deck sit for a while, then I need to clean off the blush from the epoxy. This is stuff from the hardener that rises and leaves a sticky film on the surface. It's washed off with soap and water - which should prove interesting. After that, the sub-deck will get sanded, filled, and sanded some more. Then it gets a layer of cloth on it, which will involve cleaning more blush and sanding. That should stiffen the deck enough for me to cut the fore and aft hatches out - which will get framed - till then, I can't put the rudder tiller and controls back in. There's a lumber yard near by that may have some decent wood for me to mill my deck planking from; yellow pine would be nice. I also need to find something to tint my epoxy to the reddish brown of rosin based pitch as was used in Constellation's time.
  5. JerryTodd
    Clamps off, the next two sections will go on one at a time so I can clamp one, and figure out how I'll hold down the last one. I think it's time to break out the compressor and brad nailer. In the meantime, Hardware got attached to the upper yards. The main t'gallant's just painted and the royals need a bit more hardware yet. The holes in the t'gallants are for the royal's sheets - I didn't put sheet holes in the royal yards as I can find no evidence Constellation ever set skys'ls - this one certainly isn't. The main t'gallant here has a post for it's stuns'l boom iron, but I'm going to go about those another way which will involve some soldering. The royals all done. Note the eyes for the brace blocks are on the forward face of the mizzen t'gallant and royal yards as they brace forward to the main mast - I actually got that right on the first try without having to redo anything. sometimes I amaze myself. The yards, boom, gaff, and wisker booms all painted. The yards still need jackstays installed to be complete. The stuns'l booms and trys'l gaffs are yet to be made, but the corse and tops'l yards need their hardware first.
  6. JerryTodd
    When you need to use them, you cut the lashings, or unshakle them, as the case may be. There's a section on such things in Steel (hsna.org & books.google.com)
  7. JerryTodd
    Clamps off... Next strake of subdecking epoxied and clamped down.
  8. JerryTodd
    Bob, after seeing your brass work on the Howard, that's very high praise, maybe too high? In preparation for putting down the sub-deck I pulled out the equipment decks so any epoxy dripping wouldn't get on them or the running gear.. I gave the hull a good going over inside with a vacuum and a stiff brush. I removed the mast steps, cleaned and sanded the deck sections and painted them white, then reattached the mast steps while the paint was still tacky. One of the equipment deck beams came loose. Oddly, the epoxy didn't seem to be completely set - it was rubbery and oily feeling. It's been in there since 2009! I sanded and cleaned the spots in the hull with acetone and made a new beam that fit better and epoxied it in. Today I actually epoxied the first two outboard-most strips of the subdeck to the hull. While I had the epoxy mixed I sloshed it on the chainplate backer blocks, the rudder cable guide blocks, the joints where the equipment deck beams attach to the hull, and the underside of the subdeck sections were completely painted in epoxy, as well as the tops and side of the spar-deck beams and the deck clamp. I still had a little left over, which I gave Macedonian's wales a coat, and the seams of her frames got a slosh as a couple of spots popped loose with all the handling she's gotten lately. This is a mile stone that will allow me to move on with the hull, but I keep getting that feeling of locking the door and realizing the keys are inside. This epoxy was left over from when my friend Mark built his skiff and it seems to set fairly slowly. I was slapping in on things for a good half hour and it never got warm or started to gel. I went out for the night and when I got back It was already set up enough to take off the clamps, but I'll leave them on till tomorrow when I set down the next two sections. While that sets, I'll unbend the sails and start working on adding hardware and details to the yards - more brass Bob! I have a zillion little eyes to set in the yards for the jackstays.
  9. JerryTodd
    Sorry, I'm just an old stitch-counter
  10. JerryTodd
    Sorry to pick nits, but When Rattlesnake sailed, USS wasn't in use, further, Rattlesnake was a privateer, not a naval vessel.
  11. JerryTodd
    Coppering only turns green OUT of the water, and most privateers probably weren't coppered - coppering's expensive and these boats were the Saturday Night Specials of the sea. (see page 208 of The Search for Speed Under Sail) Both Pride's and several other recreations/replicas use that bird-poop colored green bottom paint I guess cause it looks like copper gone green and dull copper/brown bottom paint must not be available. But it's more likely a privateer's bottom would be painted in the lime and tallow, or white bottom Chapelle points out.
  12. JerryTodd
    What size/scale are you looking for? There's a variety of braided line available in lots of colors, even camo, at hardware stores and such - parachute or para cord. I'm not sure how small that gets. I think there's some modern model yacht companies that sell smaller stuff. A quick search of "braided model yacht line" got me: http://www.cornwallmodelboats.co.uk/acatalog/cap-Dacron-Braided-Thread.html You use a few colored threads and do a round sennit to make stuff that's very small. http://www.wikihow.com/Make-a-4-or-8-Part-Round-Braid
  13. JerryTodd
    I was in the mood to do some planing over the weekend, and made the gaff and boom for the driver/spanker. These were made from some nice clear pine left over from a sea chest I made for someone. The hardware and other details were based on the usual examination of every image I can find, and the Text-Book of Seamanship by Luce. The blocks and guides for the steering cable were permanently epoxied in place, as were some oak blocks forward to give the chain-plate fasteners something to grip down-the-road. All this wood will get a coat of epoxy when I start laying the sub-deck, which, if the weather holds, should start this week, provided I don't wind up doing something for some one else.
  14. JerryTodd
    I did find some more fish davit references, not that it matters anymore They are from Nares Seamanship 1868 It would make for an interesting vignette
  15. JerryTodd
    I resolved my issue with the driver sheet and the main brace being too close under the deck by routing the driver sheet along the edge of the inside of the hull. I set the tubes for the mains'l sheets. I think all that's left are the fore yard and fore tops'l yard brace fairleads. Before the sub-deck goes down, I need to put in the permanent guides for the rudder cable, which starts with pulling out the temps. I also mounted 3 cleats on the servo arm; 2 for the rudder cable that will allow easy adjustment, and the third for the line that will move the wheel when the arm moves. The three cleats are glued and cinch-nailed to the aircraft-ply arm. This was painted a nice red and remounted to the disk that attaches to the rudder servo. Moving forward, I installed the eyes in the boomkins. I wrapped the place where the iron band goes with some copper tape and drilled two holes at 90° to each other. I made an eye in two brass rods with my round-nose pliers, inserted these into the holes and made an eye in the other end on the boomkin. A bit of CA helps keep it from turning, though it was a very snug fit. This was repeated for the other side, and the boomkins then got a coat of paint. I was going to install the eyes in the hull for the boomkin guys, but after looking at every image and plan I have, I don't see any. Well, in one photo I think a see a wisp of what might be a boomkin guy, In all my images up to the 40's I can't see them. In pics from the 40's on - there aren't any guys at all! The model of her in the ship's visitor center doesn't have any guys, nor does the actual ship. Potter's 1:96 scale drawings and a copy of a magazine article on building a model based on Potter's plans - don't even have boomkins forward! McArdle's book on building her as the frigate, shows the aft boomkins 5 or 6 times, but has no forward boomkins at all - while the real ship he based his model on did have them (with no guys). I can deduce the best positions for the three guys, but it would be nice to know where the really were. You kit guys never have to worry about such things do you
  16. JerryTodd
    I was trying not to be that negative guy
  17. JerryTodd
    The lady of the house. She had something in the van she wanted out, and meant to put it in the garage. She forgot I told her not to open the door, until she heard a snapping sound.
  18. JerryTodd
    All fixed Now, what was I doing before this distracted me?
  19. JerryTodd
    So, Saturday morning I go into the shop/garage to install the last of the fairlead tubes with the idea of starting to put down the sub deck on Sunday, when I notice the top of the mizzen topmast and it's t'gallant are lying on deck, and the main from the top up, is leaning at an odd angle. Turns out the model's on it's bench under the garage door, and she's taller than where the door goes when the rig's up. Hurricane Denise blew in and opened the garage door to put something in (despite being warned not to do that very thing). The door struck the mizzen and main before she realized what was happening, and then blew off to the church yard sale before I got up. Yes, I was upset, and the entire vocabulary of my sailing life came to the fore, but then I figured, feces takes place. So I set to making repairs, or replacements, as the case may be. The decapitated mizzen topmast. The severed head of mizzen topmast. Broke at the tops'l halliard sheave. A 2 inch brass rod reenforces the joint. The brass rod was CAed in and the joint got epoxy putty squeezed in. A little sanding and paint and it's all set. The sheared head of the mainmast. It got a 4" brass rod and epoxy putty too, but that didn't hold in the flat break across the main's end grain. The next day I put a pine Dutchman in the back side of the mast head. Today that was reenforced with pieces set in on either side with their grain running vertically and straddling the break. Just before the clamp went on. We'll see how it turns out tomorrow. It may get another piece set in on the front face. I had every intention of making a spare set of topmasts and some other spars - I just didn't expect to need them this soon. No, I didn't get upset with Madam Guillotine, I just summoned up my inner Jew and used the power of guilt - my mother would be so proud.
  20. JerryTodd
    I think he's more concerned about the depth of the rudder, Qwert Actually, too deep of a rudder will cause cavitation - it will stall and be ineffective. You get more effect with waterline length near the surface. Take note of how schooners and yachts based on Grand Banks boats often have 1/2 heart shaped rudders with their greatest length at the waterline and coming to a point at the keel. You can see that on Friendship sloops, for example. Also, rudder throw beyond 30°-35° can cause drag enough to stall the boat, especially with fast rudder movements. Heck, I've done that in my 16 footer.
  21. JerryTodd
    Thought I'd relax a little and make some spars. These have been rough cut ever since I first made the masts; today I shaped them; all the t'gallant and royal yards. The nice thing about this time period is that the yards are round over their entire length, all the details are "iron" bands and eyes. Macedonian's spars will be another story.
  22. JerryTodd
    So now the fore boomkins are installed. I had the sticks rough cut from that mahoganyish pallet wood, I made the aft boomkins from. I had to get up the courage to cut a hole on either side of the head for them to go through. The first one was really tense, but the second one was less so, if not easier. I have no plan or measurements for these thing, or their position on the bow, so I stared a lot of photos. One photo was at an angle where I could measure the boomkin was 70% of the length of the top-rail of the head, back from the bow. I had to shape the boomkins. The tip is basically a cube with the corners knocked off. From there to the head planking it's 8-sided. Then it's square right to the hull. Once everything was shaped and fitted, I drilled a hole in the inside end and in the hull for a 1/16" brass rod. On the ship today, they're merely bolted to the hull-no bracket, socket, or anything like that. With everything checked for fit, I painted the portion inside the head white. When that dried I CAed the rod into the boomkin. I got some kneadable epoxy putty a while back and put a wad of it on the end of the boomkin that would attach to the hull, and a drop of CA on the brass rod, and installed them. They seem to line up nicely with the fores'l tacks.
  23. JerryTodd
    The first link worked for me
  24. JerryTodd
    So, in another thread the subject of signal flags came up, renewing my hunt to figure out a signal in a painting of Constellation. I never got an answer, but I did find a resolution and I drew up all the flags I've be using on the model in scale. Well, what I do there I obviously must do here, so... Here, in 1:36 scale are the flags that will go on the Macedonian. The image may have been resized by the forum, but there it is just the same.
  25. JerryTodd
    So, in another thread the subject of signal flags came up, renewing my hunt to figure out a signal in a painting of Constellation. I never got an answer, but I did find a resolution and I drew up all the flags I've be using on the model in scale. Well, what I do there I obviously must do here, so... Here, in 1:20 scale are the flags that will go on the Pride of Baltimore The image may have been resized by the forum, but there it is just the same. BTW: if you look back in the thread a bit you'll see that hideous black and yellow ovally thing is the Lord Baltimore badge Pride had pasted on her t'gallant. I wouldn't have put it there, but it was there when I sailed on her, so the model get one too. Scaled down to 1:20 didn't help it any.

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