Wasa by Andre - FINISHED - Corel - 1:75

[Andre]

After making the lower part of the mizzen mast, I continued with the foremast. I made the cap from solid nut wood, of 15x15 mm. I had some metal parts that I could fit on them. I also made the cap already for the main mast, where the only difference is the diameter of the space for the mast part.

 

I had not glued the second mast part on the lower part, but the construction is very stable after adding the shrouds.

I had made the platform such that the space for the second mast part was just big enough to fit, including the somewhat extending axis for the sheave. The sheave of the second mast part was used for the line running from the cap, throught the sheave, again to the cap, and then to deck.

The fid that keep the second mast part supported on the platform was connected with a small line to a small holder.

I had seen these details in the build log of md1400cs, and it thought them to be a nice addition.

 

The futtock shrouds, from the platform to the lower shrouds, will follow later.

 

[Andre]

Also the stay from the second level of the foremast to the bowsprit now made and attached. It was a tedious task to make sure that the two times three ropes were of correct length to ensure that there would be tension on all of them. The way it came out is not perfect, but good enough. It is nice to see that the tension on each of those 12 ropes is not that high, but the tension on the one rope for the stay is actually rather high.

 

And next also to the second level of the main mast: installed the platform (previously already made), the deadeyes on it, and installed also the second mast. Again, like the fore mast, with a fid and a rope to hoist the second mast up and down. Again, the second mast is not fixed by glue.

 

 

[Baker]

Just viewed your entire build log from the beginning.
Beautiful model.

[md1400cs]

Andre,

 

NIce update - if you can 😃  fix this...

 

Regards as always,  stay well my friend

 

[Andre]

Michael, Patrick,

 

Thank you for your compliments!

 

Michael,

I had not even noticed using the wrong side of the block. Is an easy fix :).

Thanks for alerting.

[Andre]

First, I had corrected the rope from the stay on the block at the bowsprit.

 

Meanwhile, also made the shrouds on the second part of the main mast. And the stay from this second level to the foremast.

The number of deadeyes at the wales for the main mast is nine. I had seen in the technical discussions at the Vasa Museum that it was likely that the last/nineth deadeye was not for a shroud but for a back stay. So, I had decided to use this one for a backstay to the second level of the main mast. I used the same rope thickness as for the shrouds thusfar.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Andre]

Meanwhile also made and installed the topmasts of the mizzenmast and the foremast.

All drawings and other models show that the platforms of the mizzenmast and the main mast are tilted, but I find that odd to see. Therefore, I have them approximately horizontal.

 

The last photo shows the three stays at the bowsprit, coming from the foremast. The lowest stay is 2 mm, the middle is 1.2 mm and the top is 0.7 mm.

 

Mizzenmast:

 

 

Foremast, with not all ropes cut yet:

 

 

 

[YankeeD]

Andre, I am building the 7 provincien and have (had) the same problems with the angle of the platforms (de mars).

A lot of models show them quite angled whereas sometimes you see them horizontally.

 

Angled is said te be for the fact that (mostly sweet rain) water will run down and away.

 

But I also mounted them horizontally, which seems more logical and fitting to me. water will run away anyway with the platforms being rather open en the ship probably always rocking due to waves.

 

further a very nice build. Rgds Hans

[Andre]

Hans,

 

I am happy to read that you adhere to the same thoughts on the levelling of the platforms.

 

I am also following your Dutch log on the 7P: wonderful !

[md1400cs]

Andre,

 

Nice updates !

[Andre]

The building of the masts is nearing completion already. Meanwhile installed one royal mast: the fourth section, or uppermost part, of the foremast.

 

[Andre]

I have now reached the maximum height of the model, because I have now also installed the two remaining top sections.

 

At the bowsprit section, I have now also made the stays from the bowsprit mast to the forestay. Before attached these 12 lines, I had first put some extra tension on the stay. With the stays higher on the foremast, there had been some loss of tension.

With the additional 12 lines, the stay does curl upwards. I think this is difficult to avoid. I assume that this can be prevented by putting even more tension on the stay from the foremast to the bowsprit, but I also do not want to risk putting too much tension on the bowsprit itself... Balance - Balance...

I have attached the 12 lines using the 'rolling hitch 2', Ashley knot number 1735.

 

 

[fmodajr]

Beautiful work!

[Andre]

I am now busy with the futtock shrouds.

I have first attached a copper rod (1 mm diameter) beneath all platforms, such that the futtock shrouds are approximately vertical. I had first patinized the copper rods. I knotted each shroud to the rods, using a rolling hitch.

The futtock shrouds are then attached with a hook to the metal rods from the deadeyes connections beneath the platforms. I used a buntline hitch to attach the ropes to the hooks.

 

 

[Andre]

Following on the futtock shrouds, I had first made the ratlines for the futtock shrouds. This also to get some experience with making and tying the rat lines.

Next step was of course making the ratlines for the normal shrouds. Naturally, this took many hours. Prior, I had thought that making the ratlines would be unpleasent, but I rather enjoyed it.

In order to have equal distance between the ratlines, I had printed (from Excel) equidistant lines of 5 mm on paper. The paper then attached behind the shrouds, which made it also easier to see the ropes and to push them around the shrouds.

 

I made ratlines only on the shrouds leading to a platform, so not at the upper parts of the masts. In the book of Zy Mondfeld, it is described that these sections should not have ratlines, and I also saw that in the museum model these upper shrouds are without ratlines.

Meanwhile, I also made the stays from the toplevel of the mizzenmast to the shrouds of the main mast. This was again with self-made 'triangel' blocks.

 

 

 

[fmodajr]

Top notch work and beautiful to look at!

Congrats,

 

Frank

[Andre]

With the masts in place, I noticed that the stand that was provided with the kit is not very stable, because the center of gravity is now higher with the mass of the masts.

Therefore, I decided to make a new stand.

I had some old solid wood that I had kept which was dark with some wood stain, but with sanding it became light colored again. I had cut some paper to match approximately the shape of the hull at the places where I wanted to have the hull resting on the stand. I made the shapes in the wood using a band saw, followed by more detailed sanding to fit the shape.

In order to have the stand and the ship attached for the cases that I want to place it somewhere else, I have added some additional wood blocks in between and these wood blocks are equipped with two holes: one to fit a rod in to fix it to the hull/keel of the ship and the lower holes are prepared so that the stand can be fixated into a display cabinet, lateron. It was quite some effort to align the holes in the stand with matching holes in the keel...

 

 

 

 

 

[Andre]

I have made the yards, following the dimensions as described in the Corel instructions. I have done the tapering with my larger lathe (I had bought a very old version). This is a bit overkill compared to the smaller lathe, but it has the big advantage that this lathe is more intended for metal turning. Therefore, the knives can be fixed into a holder and the wood turning is thus more precise, as I could now do the tapering with a fixed angle of about 3 degrees.

The big yard on the foremast took most time, because it is diameter of 7 mm, whereas I did not have nutwood in that diameter, so I made it from 8 mm.

 

 

 

[fmodajr]

Nice solid lathe!

Great job!

Frank

 

[Andre]

I have made good progress with the sails. Karl (Karleop) and Michael (Md1400cs) were a good source of information and example, as always.

Karl had in his blog on MSW the dimensions for the sails for the Vasa, which I only had to modestly adjust to fit the sails to the dimensions of my yards.

 

I have stitched the vertical lines at always 8 mm, because this was a convenient separation on the sewing machine. And the number of columns then fits nicely with the examples of others.

After stitching the lines, I used a 1 cm overlap, that I divided in half to make the nice seams at the outside of the sails, I used an iron for shaping these seams.

Before making the seam at the bottom of the sails, I inserted 0.5 mm copper wire in the seams. This will give a good and uniform bended shapre to the sails lateron. I also inserted the wire in the bottom seam. The copper wire was already bent. With the wires inserted, some of the sails can be mounted losely even without the yards...

 

As I had seen done by others, I had added the reinforcing rope at the lower sail of the foremast.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Andre]

Next step in making the sails was attaching the bolt-ropes, including the eyes at the corners of the sails. The eyes at the top of the sails, made by sewing the 'left-over' part to the sail. Originally, this should be done by splicing, but this was too difficult for me.

A time-consuming part, because it was all handwork, whereas the previous step of the sails was with the sewing machine...

 

The lower sail of the main mast does not have the shaping wires in the seams, because I intend to have this one furled up, like the 1:10 model in the Vasa Museum.

 

[Andre]

I have installed the first sail. Before installing on the ship itself, I had attached the sails to the yard and also some of the blocks.

I have started with the topsail of the bowsprit. This area includes a lot of lines and thus a lot of checking for the appropiate connections of ropes and blockes and belaying pins. I had made the parrel from wooden strips and some brown plastic beads.

 

The wires inside the seams of the sail make that it falls nicely and with some curve.

 

 

 

[WalrusGuy]

The sail look so life-like and full of wind! Can't wait to see how she looks with all the sails on 

Edited November 21, 2020 by WalrusGuy

[Andre]

And also the second sail of the bowsprit installed, including the many ropes attached. It turned out that putting tension on the ropes from the yards towards the tip of the bowsprit was key in having this yard firmly in place. Surprising how stable this is now, with all the ropes at tension.

Before attaching the ropes to the belaying pins, I had first watched on youtube how this is done on a real sailing boat. I attached the rope in this same 'real-life' manner.

Only the ropes at the bottom of this lower sail towards the hull of the ship (the sheet line) is still to be done.

Also to be done is making coils on the belaying pins.

 

 

 

[Andre]

I have been attaching the sails to the yards, including most of the blocks. This so that it is easier once the yards&sails are attached to the masts.

 

The sequence of installing yards&sails is a matter of choice, but I decided to start with the mizzen mast, because it is more or less standing on its own.

I made the mizzensail to have eyelids from rope, to install the bunt lines, before adding the sail to the yard. The mizzensail is attached to the mast including the parrel, which is with a block leading to a ring at the base of the mast.

The spider part at the top of the mizzen yard was made from one continuous rope, because I milled some space beneath it, so that the tension is always divided among all lines.

The hailard, the parrel-rope (tye) and the line coming from the spider-part are all attached to (three) rings at the base of the mast.

 

The ropes at the belaying pins and on the deck still need to be wound up, but I save that until I have attached more sails.

At present, I have not fixed the knots with diluted glue, so that I can adjust tension later on.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Andre]

The topsail of the mizzen mast has meanwhile also been installed.

The crossjack only has braces and no lift, so having the crossjack horizontally was not so easy. I finally did so by putting a lot of tension on the sheetlines of the topsail with which I could get the crossjack horizontal.

Also the start of the bowlines added to the topsail using rings and not blocks, but not the bowlines themselves yet. This will be done later.

 

 

 

 

Edited December 25, 2020 by Andre

[Andre]

Meanwhile also installed the topgallant sails on the main mast and the fore mast, except for the bowlines.

The lines for the lift are tied to the deadeyes on the platform and also the clewlines will be so. This makes them more or less independent from the rest. There are several belaying plans for the Wasa, and I have taken this configuration from the plan that I found in the built-log of md1400cs. I noticed, that in the Billing Boats plans, also the lines from the topgallant sails go to the belaying pins in the railings.

The halyards are both connected via spiders to the stays. For the main topgallant sail, I made a 8-line spider block, which was actually a mistake that made it more difficult. I realized later that all plans show 6-line spider blocks, and I made thus 6-line spider blocks for the foremast topgallant.

 

 

[Andre]

The next sail is the foremast sail. The one in the middle, the topsail, will be done next.

There are now many lines/ropes running from the mast and the yards to the deck. The lifts are attached the wooden pilars on deck. The bunt lines of the foresail are attached to the 4 blocks on the deck. The clewlines, the leechlines and the braces are attached via belaying pins on the railing.

 

 

 

 

The first spider attachment, I had made a mistake by making 8 lines per spider, which makes it more complicated to put tension on all of the ropes. This was the one that I made for the topgallant of the main mast.

The next spider, I did make it with 6 ropes. This one was for the topgallant of the foremast.

The third spider, I did differently: I did not make the 6 lines from 3 ropes, but made it from one rope and I pushed it with needle through the stay. This way, it is easier to put tension on all lines, because the lines remain adjustable. This spider is for the topsail of the foremast.

 

 

 

 

[Andre]

Also the last sail of the foremast, the topsail (the middle one), has been installed. This sail has a nice curve in it, due to the copper wires in the seams. The lower sail bent somewhat too much to the front, in my opinion. But I do not like to add a small rope to tie it to the mast...

Also the bowlines of the three foremast sails installed, using 4 mm blocks. Missing still is the sheet line from the (lower) foresail.

 

The buntlines on deck have been tidied by making flamish roles. The lines at the belaying pins have been cut short now. Lateron, I will add line bundles.

The area beneath the first flatform is very crowded with blocks and lines...

 

 

 

[WalrusGuy]

That's some awesome work! Are you following a book for the rigging or are the plans sufficient?