Centerboard Schooner C. Chase 1846 by Maury S - FINISHED - Scale 1:48

[Maury S]

I spent a day "kit bashing" Syren Ship Model's Windlass kit.  It came out OK but the scale is too large for this boat.  Boats of 85 - 105' had windlasses of 18 - 24" max. diameter.  The original plans show a max diameter of about 15".  These come out somewhere above 20" and there is no room to maneuver around it on deck.

 

 

I'm using some stacked watch gears for the purchase rim.  The barrels are bashed from the kit and the construction system is great.  I'm not a fan of AYC since it doesn't sand as well as box. 

The real windlasses of the era were built from a solid log so I'll try that for the barrels.  This boat was built in 1846, right about the time that the pump-brake windlass was developed and it's not clear from Chapelle's plan that this was of the pump-brake type.

Maury

[Maury S]

I turned some windlass barrels.  They are correct scale to the plans.  Whelps will be tough.

Maury

Maury

[Maury S]

Bulwarks are in and being evened and faired.  Note the strake above the covering board is a scupper strake (2.5" open to the next strake above).

Maury

[Maury S]

There is a small gap between the top of the wale and the bottom of the covering board.  Only way to solve the problem is to replace the wale.

 

New piece installed at the fore.

Maury

[Maury S]

Entire port side wale replaced.

Now over to the starboard side.

Maury

[niwotwill]

Very nice Maury. I've been following your log and now started to follow with MSB so I get your updates on a regular basis. I'm using TurboCad to develop plans and loft the brigantine Leon from Harold Underhills plans but with so many copies of copies of copies the plans are quite unreliable as the waterline have become blurred. I friend of mine has suggested my starting a pungy she schooner from plans he bought from Mystic Seaport years back. So I'm very interested in your model and the research you've put into getting a very nice model.

 

Great looking model the scale really shows the models construction details.

Will 

[Maury]

Will, Thanks for the kind words.  The research was frustrating.  After a long search for a centerboard schooner of the size I wanted (+ / - 60') I settled on the C.Chase because the Smithsonian could supply plans (although in a different scale) and Chapelle has at least some comments.  Turns out that is all the actual information I've been able to find,  including the records of the shipyard where built.  I determined there was ample info. on the type of boat so I went full ahead.  The advantage is there is no way someone can challenge me on some of the small detail.  Practice with TurboCad on the pungy plans.  It takes a while to master that.

 

[Maury]

Rough shaping of the main rails.  They are going to be finished at 2 3/4" thick, 10" wide.  They are a bit over-sized still.  Next up is to find an efficient way to cut the scarph joints.  The rail pieces are differently arced so making the first cut on the table saw is probably not a good choice

.

Maury

 

[Maury]

Worked a bit on the metal work for the hatch covers. 

Maury

[druxey]

Hmm. That has a nice ring to it!

[Mark Pearse]

Hi Maury

 

is there a functional reason for the rings being offset like that?

[Maury]

Mark,  The illustrations and photos I've found show them that way.  I don't think they were heavy enough to require a mechanical advantage of a block and tackle to remove them, but maybe???

Maury

[FriedClams]

On 10/23/2019 at 4:31 AM, Mark Pearse said:

is there a functional reason for the rings being offset like that?

Hello Maury and Mark.

 

I built a sardine carrier that also had these offset rings in the hatch covers and wondered about that myself.  The hatch covers on my model were considerably larger at 2’ wide by 6.5’ long and would have required a man on each end to lift them, but were essentially the same configuration.  I think this ring placement was to keep the cover from rolling over to vertical once it was lifted.  This would almost certainly happen if the rings were placed in the center at each end unless the cover was perfectly balanced which is unlikely.  And I believe that rings were used instead of regular door pull type handles because the rings drop flat onto the cover when not in use and wouldn’t be crushed or broken the first time something heavy landed on it.  Or I could be totally wrong.

 

Maury your model is looking great and your log is a pleasure to follow. Very nice work.

 

Gary

 

[Maury]

Thanks, Gary.  I reviewed a lot of photos this weekend and all contained the opposing corner pattern.

Maury

[Maury S]

The monkey rail (at the qtr. deck)  is supported by stanchions...34 of them, 1 foot above the main rail.  I do not have a duplicator, so I bought a pack of 6 mm stanchions from Model Expo-online.  They need a center pin so I have to drill a hole drilled through to accept a .027" pin.  Final product below:

There were complications to accomplish this.  I need to drill a hole for the pin, top to bottom.  I need some way of holding the piece so the hole is centered.

The base of the stanchion is about .011+",  the cap is about .010+" and the narrowest part is about .05".  I'm far from expert with a mill.  If all the boring was done without moving the x or y-axis, everything should be centered.

To drill from the base toward the top, using the mill I made a jig with a .010" hole a little shorter than 6 mm deep so the inverted stanchion would slide into the hole (top to bottom), but the wider base would be a bit proud of the jig and held centered.  See inverted stanchion inserted in jig.

A #71 drill bit was used to bore a little more than 3 mm deep. (boring all the way through never came out centered on the other end).  All the pieces were drilled this way.

Next, how to bore from the center of the narrower top down to complete the hole?  In the jig, I bored another hole .011", wide enough to hold the (bottom of the)  stanchion, but the top was loose, so never plumb.  How to hold the top so it was centered on the drill bit axis?

I bored a 2.35  MM hole . in a piece of scrap lined up on the jig and reamed it out so the cap of the stanchion would just fit in.

The stanchion was inserted (upright) in the larger hole and the "scrap" piece was then placed over the cap, held in place so the drilling from the top down was centered on the drill axis.

After drilling a little more than 3 mm deep, it was removed from the jig and checked to see of the pin would be centered.  All were.

Back to the rails.

Maury

 

 

 

[Maury S]

Starting to work on the main rail.  They are just pinned for now to get things lined up.

Scarph joint in the rail.

Lots more work to be done.

Maury

[druxey]

Starting to take on a finished look now!

[Maury S]

The rail is pinned and is marked for the next two pins moving aft, drilled and repeated.

As I move aft, slight deviations in the arc of the rail show up, so the rail is removed, slightly edge-bent and put back on.

Jig for bending is simple:

Two resistance boards (upper left and right) are the thickness of the plank (rail) to be bent, and have a covering board to prevent the rail from rising up and twisting.  The lever-arm has a similar covering board.  Slightly move the lever with a heat source applied until the small adjustment is done.

Maury

[druxey]

Elegant bendng solution!

[Maury S]

Test fit of stanchions between main rail and monkey rail.  The main rail is marked, then monkey rail is taped to it and both are drilled out simultaneously.  To use Druxey's term; a bit fiddy getting them all in place.  (not sure it's the proper usage of the term).

Maury

[niwotwill]

I like you stanchion alignment very ingenious for drilling the turned stiles you bought. For your reference I'm building a pattern follower for my lathe using David Antscherl's plan on HMN Swan Class Sloops volume 1 page 288 I'll let you know how it works.

 

C. Chase is looking really great and I especially like the centerboard.

 

Will

[Maury S]

The rails are installed and nailed.  The alignment of the pins in the monkey rail went more smoothly than expected.  The fancy end of the rail (someone will tell me the term for that piece, I'm sure) is carved from a piece of 1/4" x 3/8" box.  Inside of curve cut while part of the longer piece, then cut off and finished.  Still some more adjustments to be made, thinning them down a bit.

Maury

[Maury S]

While at the NRG Conference, I met Andy Small, one of the two vendors present.  He makes wonderful laser-cut accessories, mostly for the model train crowd.  One being a "Fish Cart or Hand Cart" and some boxes that I can display next to the boat.

 

Since he makes great wheels, I asked him if he could cut a "ship's wheel" and he agreed to try.

Below is the resulting kit (two wheels shown). The pieces are sandwiched; dark outer rims and handles with the light colored spokes in the middle to make a really good scale wheel.

I've assembled one as a test.  Since the ship had a metal wheel with wooden handles, I need to wait for some good paint to arrive.

In the meantime, he is happy to sell these kits (one wheel) for $5 plus $5 shipping and handling.

Contact him at:   sales@traintroll.com 

www.traintroll.com  1-401-480-5381

Maury

 

 

 

Edited November 18, 2019 by Maury S
spelling

[Maury S]

The ships wheel is built and painted.  Minor touchup still needed.  I've thinnned the monkey rail a bit and added the anchor catheads.

 

Maury

[Mike Y]

Very nice build, somehow missed it before.

The model looks great!

[Maury S]

I cut and installed the Noble Wood with hawse flanges.

Maury

[Maury S]

Just below the noble wood is the upper cheek (temporarily tacked in place).  There are two and no apparent trail board between the two.   It is a complicated piece because of the multiple angles.  Looking at the photo, I think the forward part needs some more thinning.  Very hard to hold and sand.

Maury

[Maury S]

The covering boards need something between the main and quarter deck.  A simple hanse will solve the problem.

 

Maury

[Maury S]

From the plans there is decorative scroll on the stem piece but no trail board.  Two cheeks curving up to the billet at the end of the stem, and a rail above the noble wood going out to the top of the stem with a light intermediate rail below that.

Between the plan and the illustrations of other boats in American Fishing Schooners... by Chapelle, I've got it pretty close.

 

 

Back to the cheeks.  These are the most complex pieces I've ever cut/sanded/carved/sanded.  Multiple angles and curves.

I started with an over-sized block with the angle between the hull planking and stem cut.  Next came beveling the after portion to align with the slope of the hull vis a vis the vertical line of the stem.  Everything past that was trial and error on the fit.

The notch on the left one is for the gammon iron holding the bowsprit to the stem post.

 

 

The varying thickness of the lower cheek must be an issue with the lens.  Doesn't look that way to the eye.

Maury

 

 

 

[michael mott]

Just catching up Maury things are coming together nicely. I like the wheel too.

 

Michael