Fishing Smack c. 1920 by G.L. - FINISHED - Scale 1/20 - POF - cross-section

[cog]

very nice work on the goose neck

[Baker]

As always
Very nicely done.

[michael mott]

I really like the way you made the hoops for the mast.

Michael

[G.L.]

Thank you for the feedback, Carl, Patrick and Michael.

[G.L.]

19.2.4 The Mast slats

The back of the mast was protected by a series of oak slats for the rubbing of the gaff jaws. The slats extend from the upper position of the gaff jaws to the lowest reef position. At the top they were kept together by a steel ring, at the bottom by a copper plate.

Gluing the first slat.

All the slats into place.

Making the copper plate. At the bottom of the slats I made a groove for the plate.

Fitting the plate.

Plate nailed into place, seen from behind.

Seen from the side.

Making the steel ring out of brass.

Ring into position.

 

 

[G.L.]

19.2.5 Finishing the hound pieces

On each of the hound pieces there is a ring for a block. At starboard side for the crane line, at portside for the trawl warp.

[G.L.]

19.2.7 Ring bracket for the blocks of the jib halyard

[G.L.]

19.2.8 The mast cap

The avoid that the mast cap can turn around, the forward side of the mast top is flattened.

The making of the mast cap.

The mast cap into position, not yet definitively because it will have to be removed during the rigging of the shrouds

[G.L.]

19.2.9. Turtle block for the top gallant halyard

On top of the mast the is a turtle block though which goes the top gallant halyard. I make first the sheave.

Making the block

The block into its place.

[G.L.]

19.2.9 The mast sealing

The mast will have a leather sealing. I glue first some wooden blocks at deck height to simulate the mast wedges.

I cut a piece of the leather of an old discarded shoe.

I sew a sleeve with it. I use a 1.5 Volt battery as jig.

I slide the inside out turned sleeve over the mast...

... tie it up just above the wedges and slide it down again.

I tie it up again just below the first binding and again just above deck height. The binding is cut equal with the deck line.

 

[G.L.]

For those who lost the thread of my story; an overview of the mast fittings:

[G.L.]

The shipyard was closed for a week due to a holyday trip to the south (Portugal) to seek the sun. We had indeed two and a half day in the sun, for the rest of the week the weather was cloudy with a lot of rain. But to be honest we had a beautiful trip. Portugal is a beautiful country and the Portuguese are a very gentle people. Probably we will go back next year.

 

Now a summary of what I did with the cross section during the week before our departure.

 

Part 21. The boat

Before rigging the mast I want to do something different.
Although there is a boat slide next to the main hatch, the practicum does not provide a boat. The reason is probably that the boat is too long for the cross section and would stick out of the cut away.
Still I would like to fill the empty space on the deck with a work boat. Thus my boat will have to be small enough to fit on my deck. I find the lines of a suitable rowing work boat in an old edition (1998) of the French magazine 'Le Chasse Marée'. It is a small 10ft rowing boat, just the size that I need. The boat was used as work boat on French fishermen in the Saint Malo region during the period of the smacks. (drawing from le Chasse Marée)

I start with sawing out the stations.

I screw the stanchions on a base plate...

... and fill the space in between with soft wood (pine). That will give me a good holding ground for thumbtacks when I am planking.

Filing, scraping and sanding the mold.

The keel and stems.

Making the poop

And gluing it to the sternpost.

Now the planking can start. I first cover the mold with kitchen cling film to prevent the gluing of the planks on the mold and then place the whole of keel stern and stem on the mold. The planking is a slow business, I can only glue one plank each side a day. This week I only place three planks each side.

 

 

[Baker]

Great start.,excellent work !

[FriedClams]

Great job on all those mast fittings G.L.  And thanks for that overview post - it was a big help.  I’m looking forward to future posts and progress on your row boat.

 

Gary

[G.L.]

Thank you for nice comments Patrick and Gary. And also thanks for the likes.

 

This week I went on with the boat.

 

The whole hull is planked now.

Once removed from the mold, it is a  fragile shell which has to be handled with care. It fits on its chair.

Now the boat has to be finished. First I place the frames to give it more strength. To form the frames (2x2mm walnut sticks), I immerse them for a while in boiling water.

I am afraid that pushing the frames now in the hull could damage it, therefore I pre-form them round a PVC pipe.

Then they can be placed into the hull. I do not glue them yet. When they are dry they keep more or less their shape an can be sanded before gluing definitively. Due to lack of space to place the clamps, today I skip everyone a frame.

The following day I place the remaining frames.

All the frames and the rub rails placed. The port rub rail is coming loose a bit, it will have to be glued a bit tighter.

The bottom boards.

Gluing the risings.

I make paper templates to determine the shape of the thwarts.

The other thwarts.

I saw the gunwale out of 1.5 mm thick walnut veneer.

To make the gunwales following the sheer of the boat, I put some weights on it while the glue is drying.

The finished boat; the hull is stained dark and the thwarts and gunwale are painted in green.

The boat secured for sea on the deck.

[mtaylor]

Nice work on the small boat.  It came out looking great.

[G.L.]

Thank you, Mark.

 

This week I went on with the mast.

 

19.3. The spars. Rigging the mast

The rigging job starts with making rope for the shrouds. Three strings of four black yarn.

Serve the shrouds for the eye seizing with my self-made serving machine. It is inspired by the Syren serving machine, but surely not as good.

The first shroud is a single one for the starboard side.

With the shrouds placed, the mast will be finally into position, so I may not forget to place the roll of the jib boom roller.

The forward starboard shroud laid around the mast.

On top of it comes the forward port shroud.

Then it is the turn of the next starboard shroud which is a twin shroud.

The very last one is the twin port shroud.

I will now attach the dead eyes to the shrouds. To place them at a parallel line with the lower dead eyes I pin the top dead eyes on a wooden board on which the level is marked.

Making the eye seizing.

Then the end seizing.

And finally the middle seizing and cutting the surplus of the rope.

The three starboard dead eyes are rigged. The loose end of the shrouds are at the aft side of the shrouds.

After some time the three port dead eyes are also rigged. Here the loose ends are at the forward side.

[cog]

Prachtig! (beautiful)

[Baker]

Knap! (means also beautful)

[G.L.]

Thank you Carl and Patrick,

 

This week I continued with the shrouds.

 

Now I can connect the lower dead eyes with the upper ones with the lanyards.
A knot at the end of the lanyard at the backside of the first hole in the upper dead eye prevents it from slipping out of the dead eye. The lanyard is going down and up through the deadeyes like shown on the pictures.

The end of the lanyard is tied up like described by zu Mondfeld in his book 'Historic ship models'

The following order of rigging the dead eyes is first the starboard forward shroud, followed by the port forward shroud.

Then the starboard middle shroud.

The port middle shroud.

Then the starboard after shroud

And finally the port after shroud.

[G.L.]

Now the rat-lines have to be tied to the shrouds. Seems a very boring activity to me, but it has to be done. At the bottom, just above the upper dead eyes comes a stave. On smaller boats it was often a wooden bar, but on a smack it was an iron stave, served with rope. I served a 1,5 mm brass bar.

The stave held into position for rigging.

The port stave rigged.

Both staves rigged.

I clamp now a card with the rat-line intervals against the backside of the shrouds.

A ratline is a piece of cord with a loop at both sides.

It is parallel attached to the shrouds at equal distances.

It is tied to the middle shroud with a clove hitch.

And the loops are attached to the outer shrouds with seizings. I am not very handy with rope work. Here is my progress after a whole afternoon.

[G.L.]

Practice makes perfect. Slowly I find my way in making the ratlines and at the end of the week the whole starboard side is done.

For the upper three steps the spacing between the shrouds becomes too narrow,  I replace them by staves.

[cog]

nice result, even for "boring" work like ratlines

[FriedClams]

Beautiful work on the shrouds and ratlines G.L.  I really appreciate the detailed explanation of your work.  The small boat came out excellent.  The two tones of wood set off by the green are quite handsome - somehow nostalgic.  Very nice.

 

Gary

[BANYAN]

Looks the 'ants pants' G.L. Some lovely detail there.

 

cheers

 

Pat

Edited June 10, 2019 by BANYAN

[G.L.]

On 6/8/2019 at 10:00 AM, cog said:

nice result, even for "boring" work like ratlines

 

On 6/9/2019 at 5:48 PM, FriedClams said:

Beautiful work on the shrouds and ratlines G.L.  I really appreciate the detailed explanation of your work.  The small boat came out excellent.  The two tones of wood set off by the green are quite handsome - somehow nostalgic.  Very nice.

 

Gary

 

On 6/11/2019 at 1:35 AM, BANYAN said:

Looks the 'ants pants' G.L. Some lovely detail there.

 

cheers

 

Pat

Thank you very much for your encouraging words, Carl, Gary and Pat.

[G.L.]

This week, the only thing to report is that the port shrouds are also provided with ratlines and staves.

[cog]

Looks a bit like a cross section from a fishing smack ...  

[G.L.]

On 6/15/2019 at 10:34 AM, cog said:

Looks a bit like a cross section from a fishing smack ...  

Well Carl, I do my best to make it look as much as possible like a smack.

Thanks for the reaction.

 

G.L.

[G.L.]

19.14. The spars. The topgallant and the spreader

A lot of smacks had two topgallants, a long one for use in summer (approx 10.30m long) and a shorter one for the winter (approx 8m long). I will place a summer topgallant on the mast. To make the topgallant I move from the kitchen back to the workshop. The making process is almost identical of that of the mast. First I saw and plane a pine stick in a squared shape.

I scrape it to an octagonal shape.

And finally I sand it round.

At the frontside of the mast, the spreader is attached on top of the trestletrees. I make the spreader of  apiece of oak.

The backside of the spreader narrows towards the outsides.

The two holes of the mounting bolts in the middle are reinforced with a square brass plate and in the two ends there is a groove for the backstay.

The two mounting bolts fit into the holes in the trestletree.

gluing the spreader into place.

The mast with spreader and topgallant. The total height of my cross section is now 135cm (4ft 5in) and there is still a wind vane to be added.

The wind vane is made of brass. The parts:

Everything soldered together:

The vane itself is made of a piece of cotton. I color it with red ink and afterwards I rub it in with textile glue so that it doesn't start to fray.

Then I cut out the vane and attach it to the arrow.

The wind vane on the mast. Another 2.5cm added to the model height.