Yacht America by flyer - FINISHED - Mamoli - scale 1:66 - with some alterations

[flyer]

Hi Martin

 

Ain't I?

Thank you.

 

Flat- or highlands - wherever you go the cows are already there...

Cheers

peter

[flyer]

The fore deck is completed. While dry-fitting the tiller before starting on the afterdeck I found that I need better access to the rudder head. I therefore cut out a section of the deck. The new building sequence is now: Waterways - cockpit - deck planking.

 

dry fitting the tiller

[Martin W]

Now that's a bold move!  I have to hope that this won't remain as the permanent access to hold?

 

Cheers,

 

Martin

[flyer]

Before starting on the cockpit and rudder I put on a false keel also to protect my copper plating during work.

 

To insert the cockpit parallel to the deck I had to scratch away first some material on the bulkheads below. In the aft part of the cockpit a slit was cut out for the tiller.

Then the base of the cockpit was inserted, the rudder hanged and the tiller glued in place. The tiller arrangement which brings it forward below the bench seems a bit strange but I didn't find any examples with the tiller above the bench. This seems a cumbersome way of steering and could perhaps have favoured the installation of a wheel later on.

 

The companionway was built more or less according to the instructions. Two handles made from brass wire will facilitate the opening of the doors. While dry fitting it,  I found I had to lift up its forward end a bit to get the doors at right angles to the cockpit floor. The gap will be covered by the base rail. The cut out part of  the deck above the rudder head is in place again - only provisionally, you never know.

 

Now planking of the after deck can start.

 

false keel (1x5mm strip)

 

dry fit of rudder and tiller

 

slit for the tiller

 

I guess it would be easier to steer with the helmsman sitting on the floor...

 

 

the companionway is in place but not yet glued in

[hamilton]

Hi Peter:

 

Wow - your America is coming along really nicely! I'd say the coppering is more than "acceptable" - the rivets are a great detail - and I love the "dockyard" feel you provide in your photos. Really brings the model to life.

 

Also - you live in a remarkable place! I've never been to Switzerland, but hope to in the near future. If you love rain you should try coming out to the Pacific Northwest! We have mountains, too - though not as dramatic as your Alps - and we have, as I say, lots of rain....so if you're ever feeling too dry, this is the place for you.

hamilton

[Mirabell61]

Good work Peter,

 

those copper plates look very nice, one can really see the nail-heads sunken flush into the copper surface...

 

Nils

[flyer]

Hi Hamilton

Thank you.

Yes, I suppose Switzerland could be dryer than your place. However the part I live is the most foggy region of whole Europe. But only if it doesn't rain. Or snow. But judging by some movies you still win the humidity contest. Personally I went no further northwest than SF which was cool and humid enough - I still ask myself how they could celebrate a summer of love and peace there, back in the 60ties, without freezing their mildewed behinds off.

Never mind. Come to Switzerland. Not only the landscape also the food and the wine are fine. People are a bit grumpy, but you get used to it.

 

Hi Nils

Thanks. Yes, I love to work with those Amati plates.

 

Cheers

peter

[hamilton]

I guess you have to be a bit grumpy to balance out the food, wine and scenery.....

hamilton

[flyer]

The afterdeck was now planked and both decks sanded and scratched to get them smooth. Then the stanchions were glued onto the inner bulwark side. The scuppers were gnawed through but proved to be rather tricky and don't look too good. Working from inside to the outside they ended up on different heights, sometimes just infringing on the upper edge of the wales and correction was difficult.

 

afterdeck nearly completed

 

deck finished

 

stanchions being glued on

 

first 2 scuppers...that seaman isn't happy about their quality either

[hamilton]

Hi Peter:

 

I found the scuppers to be very tough too...I ended up drilling them out very slowly starting with micro drills that were quite small and very gradually opening them up from both sides and using jewelers files to square them up. Another trick I learned was to clamp a piece of scrap hardwood on the opposite side of the drill to prevent the wood from flaring out when the drill went through...mine still did not turn out perfect...it's a very tricky business...but I still think your America is coming along very nicely....

hamilton

[flyer]

This morning I felt a bit sick, but working to build this beautiful America helped.

The bulwark is now finished with the - rather tricky - capping rail. The rounded parts in the stern were made from glued stripes as suggested by the kit. The second try was better than the first but the strip quality (or lack thereof) caused some problems.

Then the cockpit was completed using the kit provided parts. Here, the capping proved to be tricky again. The kit's part was cut open and bent into position, then glued with epoxy and fixed with nails for the drying. It sits a of centre. Apparently it moved a bit while I tried to fix it. The relative sizes of bench and capping rings were unfitting - another shortcoming of that kit. The companionway is in place as well and I started on the furnishing of the deck.

As a goodie I already placed the eagle on the stern. It was weathered a bit with walnut stain and the lower part painted to resemble the picture in  John Rousmanieres book.

 

 

bulwark finished with capping rail

 

 

cockpit finished

 

the eagle has landed

[Mirabell61]

Peter,

 

nice progress with the deck fitting out, looks good  

 

Nils

[flyer]

deck furnishing

Looking at the various illustrations available of America and several models I notice a certain uncertainty about the exact layout of the deck furnishing. The cockpit seems rather clear-cut, as well as the skylight in front of it and that pretty little round skylight behind the fore mast. The rest differs: The gratings are sometimes companionways and the fore companionway is either there or missing. I decided to put the grating in place and leave the final installation of the fore companionway until after bowsprit and anchors have been installed.

 

Skylights and gratings as well as the capstan were put together according to kits instructions. Only the sides of the big skylight were additionally planked with 3mm strips. The deck below the grating was painted black. I find it looks as well as a real opening below and was much easier to make than really cutting through the deck. The doors of the fore companionway were glued from 1mm strips with cartridge paper hinges and door handles from brass wire - all similar to the companionway in front of the cockpit.

 

skylight

 

it seems the bosun doesn't like that worker sitting on the skylight

 

The forward companionway is not yet glued in place. It looks like that wooden handle of the sliding roof will have to be replaced by brass wire anyhow.

 

 

 

 

Geoff Hunt versus William Turner - or - those ... backstays

Marine painters were not always  painstakingly sticking to every little detail of the rigging like Geoff Hunt. William Turner for example was more concerned about light and colour - he was basically a landscape painting impressionist, after all. (Me, although I'm trying to build model ships in Hunt's style, I often end up with something like a cartoon in Turner style...)

 

Marine painters also not always had full access to their object and sometimes had to paint from memory or drafts. This could explain a certain ambiguity about America's schooner mast topmast backstays. In some pictures you see lines leading to the topmast head but it's never fully clear if those are flag lines or backstays. May be the painter was far from certain himself.

 

Quite certain however is that no backstays were installed in the manner the kit depicts them: similar to the lower mast shrouds. However I didn't want to leave that poor topmast without any support from the side and the back. Fortunately I found in Marquardt's book ( Karl Heinz Marquart: The Global Schooner) a remark concerning backstays of smaller craft (he cites Steel):" ...hooked to a thimble of a strap round the lower dead eyes and sometimes with a lanyard and thimbles. " You even find an illustration on page 173. This will then be my solution: Only two deadeyes per side for the schooner mast and topmast backstays lashed to the aftermost of them. This decision came in handy when I broke the first two deadeye strops while trying to bend them around those channels. As usual in a mamoli kit there is just enough of everything and no spares.

 

channels and deadeyes for the fore mast shrouds

 

those parts forward of the mast are not yet glued in - but I think the companionway makes sense and should stay

[hamilton]

Hi Peter:

 

Looking good - I found those deadeye strops to be way too soft! I ended up breaking one and improvised a repair by using a modified gudgeon leftover from my HMS Blandford....it's on the non-display side of the model so it's not too offensive. You obviously were more careful with yours than I was!

hamilton

[flyer]

Hi Hamilton

 

Or I was just lucky. Still 4 more of those deadeyes to install and the 2 spares already used...

Question: When attaching the lanyards to the deadeyes did you ever feel that those soft strops bent around the lower deadeyes could open up again by the pull?

 

Cheers (and how is Syren coming along?)

 

peter

[Martin W]

Hi Peter -- You've been working pretty diligently since the last time I looked.  That cockpit is intriguing to say the least, and the other deck furnishings all catch the eye.  Your question about the strops around the deadeyes takes me back to my Rattlesnake, where I had that very problem.  I ended up having to glue the strops around the deadeyes, and in some instances try to find an unobtrusive place to wrap wire around the strops to hold them in place.

 

On the matter of die Schweiz vs the Pacific Northwest, I have to say that the Alps represent the archetypal mountain range with their awe-inspiring granite faces.  But a year ago, I flew into Vancouver BC and saw some mountains that took my breath away.  As a displaced Oregonian, however, I have to recognize that the Alps, unlike St Helens, don't tend to explode. 

 

Cheers,

 

Martin

[flyer]

Hi Martin

 

Thank you for the compliments.

 

Flying into SFO we sometimes had the opportunity to look at the Pacific Northwest and the beautiful mountains (or rest thereof) from the air. Breathtaking it is (and I doubt that the Matterhorn still would look that impressive after it exploded ).

Once I had the opportunity to make a displacement flight from Tokyo to Nagoya (thanks to all the unpleasant aftermath of the Fukushima disaster) which takes you just around Fujiyama - really the archetype of a volcano. But some of those in the Pacific Northwest are almost rivalling it.

 

Cheers

peter

[riverboat]

Hi Peter just catching up on your build.....excellent work as always...... beautiful job on the brass plating and deck,,, oh yeah ,really liked your added scenic shots too....

 

Frank

[hamilton]

Hi Peter:

 

Actually once the deadeyes/chainplates were attached to the hull there was no issue. But one modification I made to the chainplates (not sure if you did this) was to snip off the mounting pegs on the back side of the chainplates and just glue them directly to the hull with a small amount of epoxy. I was a little nervous that they wouldn't hold, but in the end they were fine and there was no snapping or breaking of these small parts....thankfully!

 

The Syren is moving slowly! It's a really busy time at work, so not much modelling getting done at all. I did have to cut a new bulkhead because one of the ones provided in the kit had a great big gap running along the edge, weakening it considerably. Fortunately, I have a decentl supply of 3/16" maple ply lying around from my Bluenose scratch build that I could easily cut a new one. I've now gotten to the point of assembling the basic framework and rough fairing the hull. When I'm able to get back to it, I'll be starting on the gunport framing.....I might post a casual log once my plate clears at work.....perhaps over the Christmas holidays.....in the meantime, I'll just enjoy your build and others on this forum!

hamilton

[flyer]

Hi Frank

Nice to hear from you. I'll go quickly and pay your newest junk a visit...

 

Hi Hamilton

I left the pegs - or stumps of them - on the chain plates because I was afraid they wouldn't resist the pull of the shrouds enough without them.

And on the last 2 I finally run out of luck. They broke in 3 places but I hope that after mending with epoxy they will hold. While at it, I also strengthened the others with some epoxy below the deadeyes where one snapped while pinching it.

And I'm glad you're rethinking the decision not to post a log on Syren and look forward to it...

 

Cheers

peter

[flyer]

The deck furniture is finished and installed. Also the tubes for the anchor chains are in place and with some luck all fit with the two nameplates on the bow.

The forward companionway got a new handle for the sliding roof (the one in the cockpit as well) and is fix installed. The bowsprit as first part of the masting is in place and the jib boom ready for installation.

 

forward companionway with new handle

 

The fully furnished deck seems still spacious

 

the nameplate got again a light treatment with wood stain to get a warmer gold colour

 

the stand

Before starting to make and install the masts, the schooner got onto her definitive stand: Two Amati bras columns on an oak plank from the local woodshop. Now America looks almost like she is swimming and her elegance begins to show.

 

 

she swims!

[Martin W]

Hi Peter -- Nice details!  I actually liked the original handle for the sliding door, but this one looks much more to scale, and is probably more appropriate. 

 

And 'elegant' is the right word indeed -- she's got lovely lines.

 

Cheers,

 

Martin

[hamilton]

Looking good Peter - the stand looks very nice - I just used the one that came with the kit....yours is much nicer

hamilton

[mojofilter]

Hi Peter -

Haven't dropped by for a while - your America is looking great!

Reading your post on the main mast topsail shroud, I think you are justified (historically) in omitting them.  I found a copy of Low Black Schooner: Yacht America 1851 1945 by John Rousmaniere.  There are many drawings and paintings, and even a few early photographs and none shows shrouds running from the chain plates to the top of the topsail mast.  My Mamoli kit had them and I used them, but running rigging alone would look nice.  Are you planning to do the sails?

I think the brass columns look great!  I will order a set - much better than the supplied wooden cradle.

 

- Tim

Edited November 29, 2016 by mojofilter

[flyer]

Thank you , Martin.  I might probably have heard once hinted that elegance and America are not always thought to be synonymous , but here they certainly are ( and we shouldn't forget SS United States).

 

Hi Hamilton

This same kind of stand was used on Pegasus and Pickle and I'm thinking about remounting Granado on a similar one. But be aware that those brass columns need reworking of the slits. For the base I tried first a plank from Amati in some unknown hardwood but it was much too red. Common Swiss oak from the wood shop looks much better and I'm quite sure that some Canadian hardwood (perhaps even the ever present maple) would look fine.

 

Hi Tim

Nice to hear from you. Yes, the pictures in the book seem clear about that topmast rigging. However the version I mentioned with a smaller backstay to the lower deadeye of the after lower mast shroud cannot be ruled out by the same book. I'll try that.

Sails? Sure, but I don't know yet if the fabric from the kit will do. I'll have a try and if not, there is still enough left from Pickle to make a full set of sails.

 

Cheers

peter

[flyer]

masts

The masts were made as per kit instruction. I usually put the parts of the masts together before stepping them. So far I had no problems to put the shrouds in place around the already standing topmasts. A little fid was added for said topmast. A considerable problem (or several of them) was (were) presented by the cast parts. Of course the openings for the mast parts were too small. Reworking them was tricky and several parts broke. Epoxy or drilling holes for new ringbolts to replace those broken off were the solutions.

I decided to paint the mast hoops in black metal, guessing they were cast iron - copper or brass are also seen on other models.

Next will be the stepping of the masts.

 

another broken cast part

 

despite generous white washing the new fid remains visible

 

provisionally stepped masts

[hamilton]

Looks great Peter - I found the holes on the belaying racks to be too small on mine as well. But instead of trying to widen the holes (didn't want to try after my experience with the deadeye strops) I sanded the belaying pins themselves to be a little thinner....Anyway, the masts look really nice - she's shaping up very well

hamilton

 

PS - where I am in Canada there is maple, but not much - mostly softwood here - back east it's much more plentiful

h

[flyer]

Thank you, Hamilton.

Good idea to sand the belaying pins - they look a bit heavy anyhow.

 

Cheers

peter

[flyer]

standing rigging

 

The masts were completed, stepped for good, fixed with epoxy and the white colour touched up.

 

For the standing rigging I decided to use rope strengths according  Marquardt's book (The Global Schooner) and check the run of all ropes and lines with Marquardt and Lees. I was - and am - a bit sceptical about the accuracy of the kit's drawings. For example the mainmast shrouds are set up in a traditional way while the fore mast shrouds are led through rings at the masthead. And the fore stay (which seems to be rather a jib stay) looked strange, set up fix between two other eyebolts. And that unnecessary complicated bobstay looks almost ridiculous.

 

For information about possible corrections I had a look at the different pictures of other models in the web and the available pictures and drawings of the schooner.

Somewhere I read that America's rigging follows roughly the layout of a typical New York pilot boat. Therefore I had a look at the available pictures especially of the Phantom kit from Model Shipways. The similarity is in fact clearly visible and I could take some inspiration from there.

 

I use a mix of leftover and new Amati and Caldercraft lines in black and natural.

 

As small schooners may have no mast tackles, I left them off. The shrouds were set up with black 0.75 line with a traditional loop around the masthead - on mainmast and on the fore mast where a convenient shoulder below the rings at the masthead is even already available. The deadeyes seem a bit big but I had to stick with them. As mentioned earlier I installed only two pairs of shrouds for the mainmast.

 

For the schooner stay I used the same 0.75 thread and set it up with two false splices. It seems strange to have no way of easy adjustment but I found no other examples e.g. of an installation similar to that on Pickle.

 

The fore stay is in fact missing and what is there instead is rather a jib stay. It was attached to the mast head just above the shrouds with a spliced eye - in a traditional way. Without any crosstrees I couldn't use a spliced eye with a mouse as for the traditional fore stay, but treating it as a jib stay solved that problem. The lower end needed some adjustment as well. A normal fore stay would be set up with deadeyes.  A jib stay however could go through a bowsprit sheave and brought back to the bow to be set up with a tackle or thimbles. The second solution is in fact used on the pilot boat Phantom. As the bobstay in the kit's drawings looks false I thought that the artist perhaps did mix up a simple regular bobstay with the tackle for the jib stay which would be just overhead.

 

And this is my solution: The upper part of that double tackle will hold the jib stay to a ringbolt in the bow, while a bobstay with a single tackle will lead to a second eyebolt just below. Thus giving roughly the same impression as the kit but present a functional rig. The jib stay is made from 0.75 black thread with a 0.25 natural lanyard.

 

Finally unused ringbolts at the mastheads where filed off and the white colour touched up.

 

main mast head - all set up according to kits instructions

 

fore mast head with shrouds and jib stay attached in a traditional way

 

two pairs of main mast shrouds

 

fore mast shrouds - I drilled two 0.7mm holes through the position lights, thread the shrouds through them and fixed it with a drop of glue.

 

lower end of jib stay with tackle

 

first part of standing rigging completed

[JPAM]

"are the yachts in sight?" The queen supposedly asked, 
"Yes, may it please your majesty", the signal-master supposedly answered. 

"which is first?"

"the America".
"which is second?"
"Ah, your majesty, there is no second". 

apocryphal or not, it's still a fun story. 

your S/Y America is looking quite fine.