Boothbay Harbor One Design 1938 by Jond - FINISHED - 1:6 - RADIO - 21' racing sloop

Jond · February 3, 2016

OK today I finally decided to fix the winches. I made them in an early post just to have something and to experiment with different materials. I never really liked them; painted wood just doesn't get it for me. In the end everything else except the 10 blocks are brass. So here we go on the next effort to make them in brass. I was encouraged while scrounging at the local hardware store by finding architectural posts and next to them small brass note book binding pins. Round head with post and screw in end.

Here we have the real fittings. Please note for the foreward deck we have a new Murray winch with a jam cleat top. This design option avoids adding two more jam cleats to the fore deck just forward of the combing where folks likely stand or sit. With two or three sailors in the boat the jib sheet is managed off this winch and cleat and the side winches enjoy the ride. Murray has effectively become the vendor for small boat bronze winches. FYI it cost $65 just to ship it here from New Zealand

So first lets look at the regular side deck winch,

here we see the wood proto type, the new binding pins, various washers, cut pipe for barrels and the glue up stage of the bottom brass washers creating the bottom handle slots and set screw for one of the new winches.

here are the two new winches under big brother. They are not anywhere as nice as turned brass especially due to the straight barrels. I may get to that later in the spring. I hope these are good for now. . For the 2 side winches I turned the binding pin upside down so I could drill the round end and add the small top screw.

Here I turned the pin screw right side up. I used a side grinder to cut a way the screw head to simulate the cleat. I added two barrels. I need to get another size 6 brass washer that is filling the hole. I just used AC to hold the washers etc. and by screwing the pin together it is very firm; sort of a sandwich.

I could not wait to put them on the boat. There is nothing but glue holding them down. If I loose one, I can replace it easily enough. Then I will figure how to add a screw to screw it down.

cheers

Edited February 13, 2016 by Jond

Jim Lad · February 3, 2016

I wish you'd stop doing that, Jond. I have trouble sorting out which are the full size pieces and which are your excellent miniatures!

John

pete48 · February 4, 2016

Beautiful work Jon, Those winches look Fantastic.

Best Regards,

Pete

mtaylor · February 4, 2016

I'm in agreement with John. I too get confused as to which is which. Great job.

Omega1234 · February 4, 2016

I'm in agreement with John. I too get confused as to which is which. Great job.

Jond - it's a ditto from me, too!

Jond · February 4, 2016

thanks to all of you.

I got the new sails today and completed the sheets and things. Let's hope to have a sunny day to get outside and take a few shots.

cheers

Jond · February 5, 2016

Hi all. I had hoped for a sunny day to take some sail and rigging pictures but it snowed. I went and found a screw on fish eye attachment and had some fun making some images. I am not very good at it and being inside is a bumbler. So here we go

Here is bittersweet junior aching to get outside. She thinks the pond is near. Now lets look at the details and see how they came out

If we were going for a sail we would find this view of the foredeck. The main and jib halyards are made to the cam cleats. the jib sheets are run through the slide blocks on the tracks and currently fed to the side winches. The center winch is available to allow forward looking crew to manage the jib from there. The jib sheets are hooked to the sail so they can be removed for RC sailing.

If we look up to trim the sails this could be our view. We can enjoy our new numbers....oh for blue sky!!!

Here is the new sail head. Rod really cut it down, so it fits nicely under the back stay.

Here is the clew. You can see it rigged with an out-haul through the sheave to a small cleat on the boom. Also note the main sheet block is hooked to the bale, so we can display with all the right rigging. It then comes off for RC sailing.

Here ithe main tack. Normally the tack grommet fits in the shackle attached to the goose neck. In making these RC racing sails the grommet is roughly 1/4 or so too far away. I added a shackle with a rind to simulate a swivel.

Here is the upper jumper strut with connections for both forward sails. the Jib halyard is below and the spinnaker halyard rigged above the fore stay. the spinnaker halyard is made fast to the starboard mast cleat. To solve the previous problem of the jib riding above the turnbuckle, we have added a separate jack stay. Note there are two stays coming off the fitting. one is forward of the and the other rides inside the luff of the jib.

Here we have the main spreader. The line forward of it is the spinnaker topping lift. it is lighter than other and the shackled is hooked under and line made fast to the port side mast cleat.

This picture is fun. I look forward to this type view when we get outside. anyway here you see the fore stay separate from the jack stay. The jib properly rides down behind the turnbuckle. There are many variations on the connection of the tack. I chose to make what I also must make for the real boat, a double spliced line with shackle on one end and clip on the other.

This was fun for a snowy day. I will up date my progress on hull 2 on the next posting

cheers

pete48 · February 6, 2016

Very Nice Jon, My backyard looks exactly the same with more on the way. The Boat looks beautiful, I look forward to your progress on the second one

Best Regards,

Pete

Omega1234 · February 6, 2016

Hi Jond

Bittersweet Junior's looking absolutely fantastic!

Ironically, you've got snow, but we're in for a heatwave with the next couple of days forecast at over 40 degrees Celcius! Yuck.

I'm looking forward to the YouTube video of her maiden voyage.

All the best

Patrick

Jond · February 8, 2016

thanks guys

well the Superbowl is over and more snow on the way. it is a good chance to focus on making the sailing parts work and get hull 2 moving along

cheers

Jond · February 8, 2016

Yesterday was eventful. after a busy day out we came home and Christened Bittersweet Jr. I actually got the rear admiral and friends to visit the sail loft.

after much discussion with David and color design with the boss lady we settled on Internet ordered gold with red out lined for naming of Bittersweet. They sent us the full size for the real boat and scaled down to fit on the model. With a little ceremony and drum role she is named....

of course it's a great excuse to open some bubbly.

one down....though more work on the sailing controls and ballast etc.. and one to go

cheers

jond

pete48 · February 8, 2016

Very Nice, Jon, The letters look fantastic, Beautiful work

Best Regards,

Pete

Edited February 8, 2016 by Pete48

Jim Lad · February 8, 2016

A truly lovely piece of work, mate!

John

Jond · February 8, 2016

Thanks guys

Now I need to focus on making it sail....

cheers

mtaylor · February 8, 2016

Looks great Jon. I'm smiling looking at this update.

Jond · February 8, 2016

Well it snowed again all day, so we had time to do a few things. Now that hull one is done cosmetically, I need to focus on sailing. Some of this effort I am comfortable with and some I am on new ground.

working the real boat

I finished the new spreaders and got them up to David. I gave up on the design of 1/16" by one inch rivets and put screws in to hold the strap at the shroud end. David laughed and said if the boat builders made models they all would used little screws. The shroud gets moused when set up and then all remains as is. I left the big clips without drilling the wood. That all gets set at 5 deg up and 10 deg back, which is easier to do with shroud supporting it during installation. I look forward to that as it also means spring will be here.

working the keel and ballast

I previously showed in the log a trial using the 5 pound [ per side] bulbs for the bigger Marblehead boats on Bittersweet. Now a need to decide how much weight and get ready for the casting. The boat calculates in CAD to displace about 8 pounds of water. That is half of a Marblehead, but the Marblehead is only 8 inches longer and 25% more sail area. I settled on roughly 2.5 + [ per side] calculated from cad and then added a little more wood to the mold in the photo. I figure I can file it down if I need. It also is smaller and a little better than the earlier mock up.

Unfortunately though the center of effort [COE] over the center of gravity [cg] of the bulb puts the whole sailing keel forward. I am not sure calculation of the area of the keel vs. the COE applies at this small size. The keel being forward is not surprising considering the position of the lead in the real keel is also forward . If I simply copied the lead keel it would be to little and too high [ 5 inches] to create much resistance to the wind. I feel much better getting the " moment arm" down to the 11.5 inches equal to the marbleheads. With an open cockpit we do not want to go too far over.

too much info but just to share we are going into this aspect of design with an open mind.

Now to the servos. they work but not very well in Bittersweet junior. My friend Tom the guru suggested changing the rudder to a see saw to make the pull more direct. So I am determined to get the second hull right before digging into the first boat to make revisions.

I decided to put in the sole before the deck this time. I hope I don't drip on the teak with the epoxy glue or paint.

this was the first attempted fix. I changed the elevation of the 2 servos, one low one high, so the rudder arm could swing and the drum lines go over.

in really working the servos today I could not get it to work very well. I needed to extend the rudder arms to get more pull. That meant reversing and putting the rudder on top .

after several tries I finally figured this out. Here I have put the sail drum low and back and the rudder arms extended and raised . it works yippee

the sail loop works because I upgraded the bungee cord into a triple shock cord. I also got rid of the little pulleys that kept hanging up and the forward fair lead. I soldered two rings......it took four tries to get two rings and added a hook easy to access through the rudder hatch.

here we see the sail loop over the complete sole/ nice and simple....I hope

A little more history

I found some more images of old Bittersweet

here we see sail number 20 sailing by. the link does not clearly identify the name but the number is the number.

here we see MADCAP One of Bittersweet's earlier names. I am excited because that may be a mahogany transom....

captainbob · February 9, 2016

Unfortunately though the center of effort [COE] over the center of gravity [cg] of the bulb puts the whole sailing keel forward. I am not sure calculation of the area of the keel vs. the COE applies at this small size. The keel being forward is not surprising considering the position of the lead in the real keel is also forward . If I simply copied the lead keel it would be to little and too high [ 5 inches] to create much resistance to the wind. I feel much better getting the " moment arm" down to the 11.5 inches equal to the marbleheads. With an open cockpit we do not want to go too far over.

These things are important no matter what size the boat. The center of gravity needs to be placed to float the boat on the waterline and has nothing to do with the center of effort. The center on effort need to be aligned with the center of below water area so you do not have to compensate with the rudder. These do not always line up nicely and is why you frequently see the bulb extending out in front of the dagger keel and sometimes trailing the keel.

Bob

Jond · February 9, 2016

Bob

thanks for your clarification on a need to consider both the water resistance and the area of the keel.[ plus added sailing keel and maybe the rudder] for this size boat. This should affect the weather / lee helm issues. I know this is quicksand...so

On this boat I aligned the center of the keel bulb with the center of displacement to keep the boat flat. I am focusing the weight on the displacement.

I know that the inch pounds of moment from the 5 pound lead keel at say 11 inches down is what will keep us upright. However the sailing keel that i have now will clearly move the CLP forward from the real hull design. I had hoped that in this size i could not worry about it. Your advise is well timed because I have not made these parts yet. I may need to make the sailing keel narrower or further back with just the bulb projected forward. I need to think more about this. thanks for the wake up call

PS thuis may have contributed to the lee helm of the big Charles Notman schooner last summer too

cheers

jon

cheers

Jond · February 12, 2016

I wanted to share the results of taking Bittersweet Jr to a meeting of like minded modelers to see what they thought about sailing her.

Downeast Shipmodelers Guild

I got to take Bittersweet jr to our monthly meeting of the Downeast Shipmodeler's Guild at Maine Maritime Museum.

It was fun until we got to the point that several guys agreed with the concern that just because she is at scale, the sailing rig and ballast could seriously impact the helm. Unlike a typical pond yacht I can not adjust anything above the deck. The consensus was to make a few different options and sail them before " finishing them. another concern is I may need to add a stiffener to the foot of the jib, perhaps plexiglass.

Oh well more to think about.

cheers

michael mott · February 12, 2016

Jon, My own view would be to see how it sails as it is before making any changes, just don't go out in a force 10

Michael

Jond · March 2, 2016

Well all it is time to bring things up to date. Hull 2 has come a long way. She even has a name, but let's catch up first; we left her with deck framing ready for deck.

I decided that I could do all of the deck in one go. I am trying to make this easier and faster...ha ha

so we are are all set...right??

opps!!! something is wrong. Somehow the fore deck move about 1/8" to starboard. Thank goodness it will be painted.

Here is the fix. A little cutting and a little auto finish putty. This is what separates me from the real modeling guys.

OK a little deck paint and we are off to the races. The color and material are real deck epoxy that David had in his shop. It is the deck color of Osprey the real boat of the 2006 design built at wooden Boat school and now on the web looking for a new home. You can see her in the earliest posts. let's see how she cleans up.

now time for more work on getting fittings to a production process. The idea is to make this process less daunting and try to get others to try.

the spreader is better this time as I used screws and not tiny rivets.

This jumper strut is just like the first one on Bittersweet.

The mast head is also the same as before

Making these little parts is so easy after all the trial and error of the first time. Building two models at a time has a few benefits.

I wanted the winches to become an easy production this time. I resupplied my washer collection and got to work. Here the base washers with their set pins are in place ready for final glue up.

Here I am turning the head of the posts down to fit inside the base washers and making the barrel tubes. The head being actually screwed in squeezing the barrel between top and bottom make them quite stable.

here in just one sitting, and a few cups of coffee we got all three winches done. The unusual foredeck winch on Bittersweet with a jam cleat on top is not normal and will not come the second hull. Honestly however i wish the base washers were just a bit smaller OD.

OK we are just about coming out of the shop.

everything is on except the mahogany rub rails. They have since been installed. The whole hull has been repainted,but a few more touch ups are in order.

I have decided for this second hull to honor the effort sponsored by a long time local family to create a new 2006 design document that allowed them to cold form a new hull to give Eight bells a rebirth. She is shown early in this log and was built at Brooklin yard in Maine. There are articles about her in Wooden Boat magazine.[Issue #199 Nov/Dec 2007 DIGITAL ] There is also a second boat, Osprey, mentioned above and also shown before in this log. It is the second boat built from this design and being built at wooden boat school is also documented.

This model [ hull 2] therefore represented the 2006 design. Please notice the combing connects with the mahogany splash board that curves to a point. This cosmetic change nicely identifies these boats as a rebirth of a great class.

so stand by as in the next post. she gets her name

cheers

Jim Lad · March 2, 2016

You make it all sound so easy, mate!

John

Omega1234 · March 2, 2016

Hi Jond

You, sir, are an absolute master at metal work, without a doubt. It's just marvellous what you're doing.

I can't wait for the name to be revealed, so please make the next Uodate quick!

Cheers

Patrick

Edited March 3, 2016 by Omega1234

pete48 · March 2, 2016

Looks Good Jon, I am looking forward to the next posting

Best Regards,

Pete

Edited March 2, 2016 by Pete48

mtaylor · March 3, 2016

I think we're all sitting here waiting with bated breath, Jon. Looks superb.

michael mott · March 3, 2016

Nice fix on the little oops. I like the colour of the deck.

Michael

captainbob · March 3, 2016

I see lots of fun on the water coming soon.

Bob

Jond · March 3, 2016

wow thank you guys it is so great to know I am not alone here in this pursuit. I must say though comments are over kind as I get a few moments from time to time to view your incredible work. I have so much to learn. example...my varnishing is horrible.

oh well if we have fun, learn something and then get to sail around the harbor this summer all is good

here is a fun photo of 1955 races

cheers

Jond · March 3, 2016

Hi all

Today I want to share some things I have learned along the way regarding this class and the explanation of what the second hull represents. That also leads us to describe what other hulls remain unexplored.

Each summer a festival is held in late June celebrating Windjammers. Several large schooners come to town and I shared photos last year in my Charles Notman Schooner log of Bowdoin and other local beauties.

The Boothbay Harbor One Design fleet has a parade as an event that occurs among all that activity. I look forward to being in it this summer . One thing to note from this photo is we have 4 types of boat hull in our fleet.

type 1 wooden hulls

1938 to the war year 1941, 21 boats were built including LOON the prototype. Bittersweet is hull 20 and was named Sea Rascal then. She was the last hull built before the moratorium, as Boothbay became a busy Navy yard in 1941-45. After the war another 17 wooden hulls were made up to the 1950's, The Hodgdon yard was a major builder of the fleet

During the 1950's, The Hodgdon boat yard made their own design and called the Hodgdon 21. It is a BHOD except they built the hull down the fin keel a bit correcting a weakness inherent in a canoe hull design. In 1972 they changed that boat to fiberglass and it has since evolved into the Christmas cove 21 and many were built.

BITTERSWEET

Here is our boat as she sailed here in black and later in white as part of a small fleet until 2011. I showed earlier in the log her before and after reskinning photos and we are now completing her interior restoration work.

Type 2 fiberglass

In about 1973 Someone built the canoe hull design BHOD in fiberglass as well. Hulls 38 to 54 were made in fiberglass with a cork core. I plan to study this and learn the facts over this next summer. It sounds like another boat to build too. The design incorporated new aluminum masts and booms and corrected the rigging to include the lower spreader.

Type 3 new fiberglass

In 2006 permission was given to use the new Brooklin drawings to build a separate plug and then fiberglass hulls

here is a detail showing that the new fiberglass built hulls have new Harken racing gear, travelers winches etc. they come either wood or aluminum mast but new rigging. FYI they are sweet and so far they are hulls 54 to 57

Type 4 cold mold ceder and glass

EIGHT BELLS hull 11

In 2006 there was an effort by a family to recreate their boat Eight Bells. They commissioned the Brooklin yard to generate drawings and molds to cold form a new hull .

A key part of that story is shared in this article in Wooden boat. How about that photo....now you see one reason we love these boats.

You can see the forms for each rib and the strip planking.

Here you see layer two in cedar veneer.

Here is the outer layer also in cedar.

And here you are off sailing

Another family bought both Bittersweet [ see above] and Osprey with the idea of taking them to wooden Boat to be born again. They were also given permission to use the new drawings.

OSPREY hull 26 rebuild

work done in Wooden Boat school

here she gets named...good stuff.

reprieve..osprey out of the shop

off for a sail

After all of this we get to a point where I can understand what I did with two sets of drawings going into this modelling . My second model used the 2006 drawings created for and used in rebuilding both Osprey and Eight bells. Example; remember the plywood bulkhead holding the chain plates. To make a collage so to speak, I took the lovely mahogany transom of eight bells and Newport Blue Classic deck color of Osprey and created a fun boat.

here we are in the sail loft...it is time for naming. the proto-type unnumbered sails are bent first and then.....

can you see it?

it is a bit actually corny, but I called her OUGHT 6 to honor the year of the design of her birth. I have a challenge now to come up with a sail number. Hull 6 still sails i will get more input first.

so sorry for long wind but I am using this log to collect my learning about this wonderful class.

cheers

Edited March 4, 2016 by Jond

pete48 · March 4, 2016

Hi Jon, Fantastic posting ( it was worth the wait ) I have that copy of WoodenBoat ( I remember the cover ) It's in a box somewhere around here, I will have to dig it out . You gave alot more insight to the Class well done

Best Regards,

Pete

Sign In

Boothbay Harbor One Design 1938 by Jond - FINISHED - 1:6 - RADIO - 21' racing sloop

Recommended Posts

Join the conversation

Recently Browsing 0 members

About us

SSL Secured

NRG Mailing Address

Model Ship World ® and the MSW logo are Registered Trademarks, and belong to the Nautical Research Guild (United States Patent and Trademark Office: No. 6,929,264 & No. 6,929,274, registered Dec. 20, 2022)

Helpful Links

About the NRG

Our Emblem ®

Nautical Research Guild ® and the NRG logo are Registered Trademarks, and belong to the Nautical Research Guild (United States Patent and Trademark Office: No. 6,999,236 & No. 6,999,237, registered March 14, 2023)