Anchor Hoy by Maurys - POF Harbor craft c. 1825 -- 1:48 - Finished

[albert]

Very nice work Maurys.

[druxey]

Looking very good, Maurys! That bluff bow will be fun to plank, assuming you will plank one side? 'Twill be spiling city!

[Maury S]

thanks for the likes and comments.  If I seem to be missing a step, please chime in.  The bluff bow will indeed be a challenge.  I will be planking both sides up to a point.  I want to show the details of the seating of the "great cat", the water tank and the gearing for the two compound capstans.  I'm not sure just yet as to which planking to omit...some where between leaving one side unplanked and the "windows" EdTosti is doing on Young America.

Maury

[Maury S]

Most of the rough interior sanding is done.  I like the "SuperFlex" sanding blocks.  They are medium-firm foam plastic in a variety of shapes.  I think I picked up the pack at Harbor Freight.  I would never buy any serious tool there, but clamps and sanding blocks are fine.

I have to check the thickness of the tops of the frames to make sure they match side to side and confirm they are "fair", then the keelson goes in.   The spacer blocks need to come out and there needs to  be more longitudinal support in the form of deck clamps or wales.  Not sure which would be better first.

Maury

[EdT]

Hi Maury,  Looking really good.

 

I really like those foam sanders as well.  I believe I ordered mine from Highlandwoodworking.com some years ago.

 

With the ribbands I see in the pics and the keelson installed, you should be able to remove the spacers without difficulty.  More support in the form of longitudinal members is always better, but the deck clamps may interfere with removing the spacers if you wait for that.

 

Cheers,

 

Ed

[Maury S]

Ed, Thanks for the tip.  Looking closely, the spacers are right where the deck clamps and the wales go.  The spacers will be pulled out over the next few days.

I got tired of sanding so I built the keelson (not permanently installed yet).  The bolts, positioned at every other frame and near the ends of the joint, are simulated using 25 pound black monofilament line (#73 drill bit) and fixed in place with a dab of CA, wiped off with acetone.

Maury

[druxey]

I agree with Ed: the wale should go on first. She's looking very nice indeed.

[Maury S]

The spacers are removed and the keelson is glued in place.  The gantry and "square frames" on the building board come in handy by providing a method to hold down the keelson while the glue dries.  Another once-over with 220 grit sanding on the outside of the frames and I'll be ready to layout the wales.

Maury

[Maury S]

Putting the wales on means the stern timbers go on first.  The wales provide support for these delicate parts.  Marking the frames where the wale lies revealed a problem.  The wale was drawn on the profile plan with information gathered from the original Greice drawings (those were not plans!).  As I drew it, it lies under the turn of the hull near the stern so it would not provide the protection to the side of the boat.  See first picture.   I should have used the frame (half breadth) drawings to make sure the wale was at the outermost edge of the frame.  As it turns out, the top of the wale as drawn on the profile (see pic. #2) is a good line for the bottom of the wale on the boat (at the widest point on the frames).  I'm just going to raise it by that much.   I may have to move the riband (temporary batten) out of the way a bit.

Maury

[Maury S]

One of the two temporary battens as been re-positioned higher.  The "School Glue" I used on the battens took as much Iso and effort to remove as Titebond.  Surprised.  I thickness-sanded the material for the first layer of the wales to about .05+".  It just seemed easier to bend than 1/16" stock.  I'll build them up later in three layers since the bend at the bows is so severe.

Maury

[Maury S]

The stern timbers have been glued to the wing transom using the jig shown several posts back.  The outer ones (which were doubled to get the fairing right) may need just a hair sanded off.  I put a temporary batten across the inside for more support.  The wales go on next, which will  provide much more support. 

Maury

[Maury S]

Looking way forward, I've been researching the lining of the water tank and the sheathing of the outer hull.  Grimwood's American Ship Models, where the boat is featured in one section,  says nothing about the tank lining but indicates the lower hull was sheathed with copper plates.  I have doubts about that (copper bottom) for several reasons.  Grice's drawings from the National Archives give no indication of any hull plating.  Several sources, including an article in NRJ by Erik Ronnberg, Jr. back in 1980 (26; 3, 125 -148) about copper sheathing indicates how expensive it was.  Since resistance to worms seems to have been a major reason for sheathing, coppering may not have been done if the worm was not prolific in New York or Philadelphia harbors.  As it turns out Mr. Ronneberg's father built a model of the same boat in the 1950s.  The photos of that model (see attached link)    http://shipmodel.com/models/anchor-hoy-full-hull  show "white stuff" below the waterline (artist's license?).  As far as the tank lining, I've not found anything specific in articles about harbor craft, but tin was prevalent as was zinc alloyed over iron sheets.  If anyone has any knowledge or a source reference, I'd appreciate the info. 

Maury

[Maury S]

I needed to re-glue the stern frames.  There is hardly anything to glue to and when I removed the Jig a couple came loose.  The key is to hold them in the jig while the wales are being glued on.  That meant cutting away some of the jig so I could get my fingers and clamps in there.  I cut the jig back to just where the outermost timbers meet and I beveled the edge of the slots.  Spacers were glued between the timbers to stiffen the section.  See picture.  The glue is drying on the first two wales now.  After the second strakes are on, I'll pull off the jig, hopefully it will come off easily.

Maury

[Maury S]

The second wale strakes have been installed.  Clamped to the frames and held tight against the first strake.

Once the glue sets, I pull off the stern timber jig.

Maury

[Maury S]

The two thin strakes of wales are in.  I made the mast step and the steps for the two capstan axles.  The step for the mast has a rectangular hole and the ones for the capstans are round for the diameter of the axles.  There is nothing in the Grice drawings about the steps so I took some liberty.  They are fit but not permanently attached.

Maury

[Maury S]

I was sanding the inner frames and half of the stern timbers got knocked off.  Back to the jig holding them in place.  I'll limit my sanding work to those times when the model is on the board and in the jig.   A couple of bullwarks strakes and something more across all the stern timbers will add to the support.  That involves laying out the planking above the wales, which in turn involves removing some of the temporary battens.  Patience!

Maury

[Nirvana]

Maury, that looks so good. And yes, patience is needed too.

[Maury S]

I've sanded the inner sides of the frames down to 220 grit.  The bottom of the deck planking was measured from the profile at six frames and transferred to the inner edge of the relevant frames.  A thin batten was clamped at each of the marks and examined for "fairness".  Once satisfied, I marked all of the frames.  This sets the bottom of the deck and the top of the deck beams.  I'll make a pattern piece 8" deep to mark the bottom of the beams / top of clamp.  Visible in the picture are the two wales and the temporary support batten on the outer side of the frames.  The batten will be removed to add the bulwarks.  Which brings up another issue.  How do I remove the temp. batten without weakening the glue of the wales or other joints in the frames?  At the NRG conference, a table mate was explaining how the folks at TiteBond told him to break the bond with heat.  It seems to breakdown above 200 degrees.  To test it out, I held my plank-bending iron against my #11 blade which was held in the glue joint.  It doesn't work any faster than Iso, but with a little wiggling of the blade, the bond gives way.  Be careful with the iron!

Maury

[Maury S]

Back to the outer planking.  I need one more strake (bulwarks) to give the stern timbers added strength.   Material was thicknessed to .0625" (the first layer of wales was .05" leaving a small ridge to butt the next layer of wales)  and cut to a width of 10.5" (.22" actual), bent with a heating iron and form to get the bend at the bow.  The pieces are approximately 30' long, making 3 pieces per side.  There is some slight edge bending for the two aft-most pieces.  Glued to the frames and held tight against the wales with parallel clamps.

While glue was drying, I worked on the "waterproof" cabinet that surrounds the forward capstan axle, sitting in the middle of the water tank.  The cabinet was formed around a 3/4" x 3/4" blank, waxed so the glue would not stick.  The cabinet sits over the step for the axle.  It is "cutaway" on one side for viewing.  I like the way Dan Vadas did the cutaway on his section, marking the edges of the cutaway in red so there will be fewer questions on why the cabinet does not go all the way up.

Maury

Edited October 16, 2016 by Maurys

[druxey]

One can never have too many clamps.... Looks like you are making good progress, Maurys.

[trippwj]

Very nice work, Maurys.  Glad to see you have gotten those stern timbers under control. 

[Maury S]

Planning...I've been reviewing Robert Cairo's series on Service Craft (NRJ 1976 - 1978) as well as several Theses from the Nautical Archeology Dept. at Texas A&M.  The water tanks seem to have been made of cedar until around 1835 +/- (when iron tanks were introduced) and were compartmentalized to minimize the water moving around and affecting the handling of the boat. 

Knees are another issue.  Very few drawings of service craft show much detail in framing, etc.  Some show lodging knees at beams in stress areas (mast partners, etc.) but very little about hanging knees.  Similarly, the reports of Excavations of merchant ships of the era seem not refer to hanging knees.  I see references to lodging knees, described down to a mm in thickness variations.  It seems dimensional standards for merchant boats were quite lax.  Grice designed and built warships under contract with the Navy, so I'm sure his yard held reasonably strict standards for anything they built.  Anyone have a reasonably good idea on knee arrangements of the early 1800's for American, merchant boats?

Maury

[druxey]

One hoy plan I've seen states that the tank was to be of cedar, fastened with copper and with four compartments.

[Maury S]

Before going further, I reviewed my Echo Section project instructions to confirm the order of things. 

The limber plank needs to go in, so I looked up sizes in Steele and came to an approximation based on

the smaller gun ships.  A 3 1/2" x 10" plank with a 9" separation from the keelson.  The rabbet was cut on the table saw, plank laid in place to determine frame locations, and holes drilled (#73 drill) while off the boat.  I put on a coat of clear finish (Rustoleum Poly matte, water based), then filled the holes with walnut colored wood putty to simulate treenails.  The clear coat prevents the putty from staining the area surrounding the holes and can be lightly sanded off afterwards.   I used the same method on the Echo section and it worked well.

Maury

Edited October 24, 2016 by Maurys

[Maury S]

The limber planks were installed using hold-downs from the gantry above, clamps through the frames and heavy weighted objects.  A 9" spacer plank can be seen between the keelson and limber on the port side (upper in the picture).  It is removed once the glue is set.

Maury

[Jim Lad]

She's coming along beautifully, Maury.

 

John

[Maury S]

Thanks for all the "likes" and comments.  I installed the clamps and cleaned up the keelson and assorted frame parts where the remnants of the spacers still showed.  The clamps will have at least two actual treenails per plank for additional support, the rest are simulated as described earlier.  The mast and capstan axle steps needed re-working with the limber planks in place.  I was drawing the capstans and after looking at the scantlings in Steel's "Elements...." I thought maybe I over-sized them for the size of the boat, but then realized they have to be large enough to handle the anchors of the large ships.  My original sizing seems appropriate.

Maury

[Maury S]

The fore top bulwark (if it has a name, I've forgotten) is bent and installed.  It is 15" by 2.25".  Scantlings for boats of this approximate size show one plank (up to about 16"), not two.   It terminates at frame "E."  I have abandoned boiling prior to bending any pieces that will be visible.  Chuck Passaro has convinced me that heat alone works, and shrinkage as a result of the water is minimized and raised grain is gone.  I use a plank-bending iron and a hair dryer.  Just to check out the accuracy of the clamps, I laid some flat "beams" at several locations and set a long wide thin board across them.  All is fair for the deck!

Maury

[albert]

Beautiful work Maurys.

[druxey]

Taking shape nicely now, Maurys!