Albatros by Dr PR - Mantua - Scale 1:48 - Revenue Cutter kitbash about 1815

[Dr PR]

I have been doing a bit of calculations for the anchor buoy and ratlines.

 

ANCHOR BUOY

 

Marquardt (p 192) says a "normal" anchor buoy was 54 x 30 feet (1.37 x 0.67 meters). At 1:48 scale this is 1.125 x 0.625 inches (28.6 x 17 mm). This is almost as long as the shank of the anchor on my model! Marquardt does say smaller anchors had smaller buoys.

 

I looked for photos of models showing the anchors and anchor buoys. I found four.

 

A = length of anchor shaft (head to crown)

B = length of anchor buoy

 

Photo     A          B         A:B

    1      0.938  0.3215    3.00

    2     0.319   0.109      2.93

    3     2.78    0.922      3.02

    4     0.328  0.147       2.23

 

So actual anchor buoy length is about 1/4 to 1/3 the anchor shaft length.

 

Since my model's anchor is very close to actual scale for a schooner of the model's size, and the anchor shaft length is 1.716 inches (45.2 mm), the anchor buoy should be about 0.57 inches (14.5 mm) long, and (using Marquardt's proportions) about 0.318 inches (8.0 mm) wide.

 

RAT LINES (Ratlings)

 

Lever (p 25) says ratlines were spaced 12 inches (305 mm).

Marquardt (p 172) says 12 to 16 inches (305 to 406 mm), with 13 inches (330 mm) most common.

Lees (p 44) says 13 to 15 inches (330 to 381 mm).

Mondfeld (p 288) says 15 to 16 inches (381 to 406 mm).

Chapell (Fishing Schooners p 586) says 16 to 16.5 inches (406 to 419 mm).

 

So there you have it. Ratlines were definitely spaced just about any distance you want!

 

For my model, an American schooner, I will go with Lever, Marquardt and Lees 12-13 inches, or about 0.25 inches (6.4 mm) at 1:48 scale. I would rather use Chapelle's 16 inches because I would have to tie a lot fewer knots!

Edited yesterday at 04:49 AM by Dr PR

[Dowmer]

If you need ideas on how to do a flag that is light and drapes naturally, Chuck Passaro on this site does a nice tutorial on how he does his flags and they look very realistic. It might be in his Cheerful cutter build. I followed his method for the small flag on my longboat.  Link is in my signature.  It turned out pretty well.

[Dr PR]

Dowmer,

 

Thanks for the link for the flag. I don't know if my printer (Brother LED printer) will print on paper that thin. It is a laser-like printer with a very hot fuser, and I can't run anything through it that might melt (would destroy the fuser). That rules out taping the tissue to a heavier sheet of paper. I'll try hand feeding the tissue paper - the worst that can happen is a paper jam.

 

Farther down in Chuck's post he shows how he makes the anchor buoys. The longboat buoys are a bit simpler than what all the books show.

[georgeband]

Phil,

 

Congratulations on being on the final straight, it's just irritating that someone keeps moving the finishing line a bit farther away. You'll get to cross it some day soon. 

 

Anchor nun buoy. 

I made one for my Sherbourne cutter from plastic left-over bits. Think model aircraft drop tanks, bombs, pen tops, there are lots of things that take you along the way. The trickier part is to create the ropes and hoops that all go over each other. The attached pdf is about anchors and describes the buoy in more detail. 

Anchors.pdf

The difficult question is where to store a buoy and its rope. Tying the buoy to the shrouds is reasonable though it would take several sailors to lift it while one ties the first knot. I cannot really imagine where else it could go on a schooner with cramped accommodation below. The rope from the buoy to the anchor is 17 to 18 fathoms (Lever page 68) which on your 1/48 model is well over two feet. That is a big, unwieldy coil to hoist up on the shrouds and then tie in place. Could the rope be kept in the cable tier and spliced or hitched on when needed?

 

Flags.

I spent time with a hand towel looking to see how it would hang. Hold it up by one corner and pull another corner so that a short edge hangs vertically. You can now play with folds in the towel/flag to bring forward the bits you want to show. The critical feature is that some of the flag (ideally 50%) falls forward of the halyard; if you want the flag to be fluttering to one side of the halyard then gravity will win and the short 'vertical' edge will hang at an angle unless you put on a scary amount of tension. 

I will be laser printing onto tissue (teabag paper) later this year when I start on the sails for Whiting. Like you, I am concerned that sticky tape will ruin the fuser in the printer if I have to attach the tissue to stiffer paper. A fall back method that I am considering is to glue the edge of the tissue with a glue stick (Pritt stick in UK). I don't know if anyone else has tried that here, or experimented with different tapes. You could run some trials with that small iron you use for bending planks. 

 

George

 

 

[Dr PR]

George,

 

Thanks for the information. The file about anchors is well done. I have found most of the information, in bits and pieces, in several of the books I have. I was wondering how to tame all those loose ends and your idea of using a (very) small rubber band is good. I don't think I have any here, or if I do I don't know where to find them! I will try a thin strip of painter's tape. But I expect Murphy to be right there to "help" me!

[georgeband]

It was a few years ago and I think that tiny rubber band came from a cocktail umbrella. We had bought a small box of them and each rubber band kept an umbrella closed.

George