Schooner Germania (Nova) by KeithAug - FINISHED - Scale 1:36 - 1908 / 2011

[Mark Pearse]

Hi Keith

 

I'd also guess the extra holes are bilge pumps, it wouldn't be unusual to have more than one outlet as connecting the outlet hoses from multiple pumps into one hose is commonly done - but has risks & lowers the pump efficiency. Option could be some sort of stern well that's in the deck....?

[Bedford]

You can't have exhaust below the water line therefore you can't have cooling system pick up beside exhaust.

[vossiewulf]

If you wish Keith, you can go to a considerably higher level of gloss if you shift at this point to automotive finish buffing compounds. You don't need an electric buffer, they work fine with some elbow grease. There are many different "cuts" however from pretty rough to final polish, if you want to try this ask your local auto supply place which to use for final buffing.

 

I've done some very high gloss finishes this way, they look great with beautiful natural woods like you have here.

[John Allen]

Methinks water discharge above the water line? other may be for an additional seawater pickup not related to engine, but used as an adjunct for washing down the boat and seawater baths to preserve the fresh water, unless there is a pump on the motor for this.

 

As Keith knows this comes from an individual that does not trust in the wind to take him where he is going. Which means my offered  suggestion comes from someone that knows very little about the art of sailing or sailboats.

[KeithAug]

On 4/28/2019 at 7:12 PM, paulsutcliffe said:

She who must be obeyed

Paul - wasn't aware you knew my wife personally!

 

Thanks to all of you who have offered opinions on the holes - I could have provided a little extra information to inform your detective work as follows:-

You can see the origin of some of the pipes inside the hull. I don't know what the feature is ahead of the engine but it seems to be associated with 2 of the outlets.

15 hours ago, vossiewulf said:

you can go to a considerably higher level of gloss

Vossie - Thank you - i will try this some time. I wasn't really trying to get a high gloss finish and actually chose a silk finish poly. It just looks a bit shinier than it is under flash lighting.

 

9 hours ago, John Allen said:

an individual that does not trust in the wind to take him where he is going

John - I admire the confidence of the motor driven boating fraternity - particularly the ones who put their lives in the hands of single engines that are engineered to meet a price point in someones choice criteria. Sails have never failed me, occasionally they rip - but usually you have more than one to get you home. Engines on the other hand have failed me more than once. 

Edited April 29, 2019 by KeithAug

[Mark Pearse]

That structure forward of the engine looks like some sort of tank, possibly it's a fuel tank & breather pipe but it's doesn't seem to be a great location for a breather pipe as a following sea would surely reach them. I'm guessing a grey water waste outlet from a holding tank....bath, shower & sink waters fall to a low holding tank & are then pumped out from there. 

[Bedford]

I put it to you that the item forward of the engine is in fact a gen set therefore the plumbing to the stern is its exhaust.

[KeithAug]

10 hours ago, Bedford said:

engine is in fact a gen set therefore the plumbing to the stern is its exhaust.

I like that suggestion Sherlock. Prompted by your reply I had another look at the plans.

Their appears to be two identical units mounted in opposite directions at the origin of two of the pipes. They do look as though they may be generators. Not sure why two would be needed - either overkill or an owner who cant live without his aircon.

Edited April 30, 2019 by KeithAug

[Roger Pellett]

For a luxury yacht like this what marine engineers call “hotel loads” could be quite large, perhaps larger than the load required by the auxiliary engine. As we know air conditioning gobbles up a huge amount of energy.  By splitting generating capacity between two units, one could be shut down when demand is low, more efficient than runnng a large unit at low power?  Since the yacht is of German construction would the electrical system be DC simplifying synchronization problems with two units?

 

Roger

[KeithAug]

14 minutes ago, Roger Pellett said:

one could be shut down when demand is low, more efficient than runnng a large unit at low power

Good point Roger.

 

15 minutes ago, Roger Pellett said:

Since the yacht is of German construction would the electrical system be DC

Roger - I don't know about the DC. The replica is of German design but built in a Spanish yard.

[KeithAug]

I have been away for a few days and gardening duties are taking more time - hence not a great deal done on Germania.

Over the course of about 5 hours I made 4 final decisions on the hull paint scheme, needless to say all the decisions were different. In the end I decided on the minimalist approach advocated by my wife and daughter. I could have toughed it out but the white flag seems more sensible. The final decision is for a waterline band and a bulwark band - both in white.

 

I made a start on masking up the hull in preparation for airbrushing. The first line of tape to go on was fairly easy and followed the bulwark plank at the deck line (the plank edge was still visible beneath the varnish).

I don't have a decent laser level so the waterline band was marked out with the traditional pen in a surface block method. I tried a few pens but none would produce a easily visible line against the dark mahogany background. To create a surface for marking out I laid a series of vertical bands of tape (at about 1 inch spacing) and then marked the lines on these.

Having done this I carefully peeled back the upper (lower) edge and without removing the tape cut it back to the marked line. I then used this as a guide for placing the horizontal masking tape strip.

I then repeated this for the lower (upper) horizontal masking strip.

Finally I removed what was left of the vertical strips of tape.

 

I now need to decide what I am doing about the scuppers - 5 each side. The scupper doors are not very visible. They hardly show at all on some photos (look below the left hand end of the steps).

They are more clear in the next photo.

And disappear entirely in the next photo.

On the model I want them only to be seen when you are looking for them - so they need to be quite subtle. I also don't want to weaken the already insubstantial bulwarks. Anyway something to think about overnight.

 

 

 

 

Edited May 2, 2019 by KeithAug

[BANYAN]

Can't wait to see this Keith; should look good.

 

WRT to the subtle scupper port lids, I am sure you will have considers a very light touch etch (by scalpel or the like) - or a feint pencil line (4H or the like)?

 

cheers

 

Pat

[vossiewulf]

4 hours ago, KeithAug said:

In the end I decided on the minimalist approach

(Tells the grumbling crowd of half'drunk woodworkers to go home and put out their torches and put up their pitchforks)

 

I'm sure you'll like it in the end more this way, it's just not very common for someone to walk by beautiful wood that's beautifully finished and say to themselves gosh, I really wish I had hidden that with paint. And you know to keep a supply of boring non-figured planking wood around for the next time you're looking at a painted finish

 

[vaddoc]

Beautiful work Keith, your hull looks way better than the real boat. I missed the beginning but I ll pull up a sit for the rest of the journey.

 

Vaddoc

[KeithAug]

On 5/3/2019 at 2:01 AM, BANYAN said:

WRT to the subtle scupper port lids, I am sure you will have considers a very light touch etch (by scalpel or the like) - or a feint pencil line (4H or the like)?

Hello Pat. I did consider making a template (hole in a piece of brass sheet) and then scratching the lines into the hull. I worried however that I would make a mess of it. I din't consider pencil lines but I would be concerned that they would degrade over time with cleaning.

 

On 5/3/2019 at 2:12 AM, vossiewulf said:

it's just not very common for someone to walk by beautiful wood that's beautifully finished and say to themselves gosh, I really wish I had hidden that with paint.

Yes Vossie - feel free to cancel the contract!

20 hours ago, vaddoc said:

your hull looks way better than the real boat

Vaddoc - thank you for looking and the positive comment.

 

I decided my preferred approach to the scuppers was to cut the doors out of .004" soft brass sheet and surface mount them. The scale protrusion above the hull is .150" and I think this will give me the barely visible look I am looking for. The doors were scaled form the plan and cut out using a craft knife - a few passes with the knife did the trick. The corners were then rounded with 600 grit wet and dry paper. The brass was easily distorted and I flattened it by applying force with the wrong end of a 10mm reamer while pressing the brass into a piece of MDF. I needed 10 doors - 5 per side.

I marked out the position for the doors using masking tape. The positions were scaled from the plans. Using masking take had the benefit of masking the hull from any inadvertent spread of glue.

The doors came out gently curved which helped as the concave side was put on concave face towards the hull. Applying clamping pressure  ensured that the edges were forced hard against the hull. They were glued in position using 5 minute set 2 part epoxy. I chose epoxy to give a little adjustment time.

The scuppers look very obvious in the next picture but I am expecting them to "fade" with the application of the matt white bulwark strip.

The next job is to make and mount the rubbing strip. This is profiled so i need to make a profile scraper.

 

Edited May 5, 2019 by KeithAug

[FriedClams]

I know your post above is about the install of the scupper doors, but I couldn't stop looking at the hull.  The light reflecting off it really accentuate its graceful form.  And all those coats of finish gave it a strong visual depth.  Very beautiful Keith.

 

Gary 

[Zbip57]

On 1/23/2019 at 12:57 PM, KeithAug said:

Quote

On 1/22/2019 at 8:29 PM, Mark Pearse asked:

Do you know how they manoeuvred the top staysail & topsail when going about?

Mark - I spent a long time wondering about this when I was building Altair. Here is by best shot at the answer:

The worst case is the obstruction caused by the (fixed) stays that brace the fore and main masts.

Clearly the topsails have to be rigged on one tack and they are unobstructed by the rigging on the tack they are hoisted on.

When going about, one option is to take them down and re rig them.

I think only the most dedicated of crews would do this - and then not often.

Most crews seem to ignore the problem and just accept the loss of efficiency by letting the sails lie on the rigging lines.

I have only ever sailed sloops so I'm not an expert and would welcome any other views.

 

Hi Keith.  I was searching for an answer to exactly this question, how are topsails re-positioned when changing tack?  It was actually your astoundingly beautiful Altair build which brought me to this forum.  At first I thought you were intending to build a functioning model of Altair to be sailed by radio control, in which case I had hoped you would solve for us how to tack the topsails.  But, totally understandable, your priceless Altair and now Germania are both far too valuable to risk losing at sea.

 

I built a much simpler plywood gaff-rigged model schooner according to the "Irene" plans purchased from Gary Webb at Bearospace, and successfully sailed it all last summer.  For video of the boat in action, see YouTube playlist: http://tinyurl.com/kamanik

 

The original plans featured a 3-sail rig of mainsail, foresail, and jib, which works really well.  But, over this past winter I decided to add topmasts to support a more complicated 8-sail configuration including topsails.  That led me to thinking about how those topsails could be tacked.

 

Since a radio-controlled model is notably lacking in "dedicated crew" required to take down and re-rig the sails during each tacking manoeuvre, I tried to come up with a way it could be done (in theory) using a winch servo.

 

Similar to flying jibs using two sheets, one to port and another to starboard, to pull the jib forward and across when tacking, topsails can use two tack lines to pull the foot of the sail up and over the obstructing rigging when changing tack.  I've explained with photos and video in this thread:  Newbie from Ottawa

 

Unfortunately I've since had to admit defeat on this idea.  The problem is my crude sails are much too heavy.  They're basically cut out of bedsheets, eh.  The heavy sails tend to bunch and snag while being pulled over the gaff peak halyards and triatic stays.  If the sail material were something much lighter and smoother, like silk, I'm sure it would work fine.

 

For now, even though it offends the purist in me, I'm just going to leave the topsails fixed and delete the triatic stays, with only a single stay joining the peaks of the topmasts.  Once the lake warms up a bit, I'm itching to try it out like this.

 

[KeithAug]

17 hours ago, Zbip57 said:

For video of the boat in action, see YouTube playlist:

Thank you Zbip. I particularly liked the film from the bow showing her tacking.

[KeithAug]

22 hours ago, FriedClams said:

but I couldn't stop looking at the hull. 

Thank you Gary. Your comments are much appreciated.

[KeithAug]

Before making the rubbing strip I completed the bulwark stipe masking at the stern. The rather rough marking was improved by removing the tape, smoothing with a french curve, cutting and then replacement.

As far as I can tell the rubbing strip is of double "U" profile.

I used the back edge of a box cutte blade for the scraper. Profile notches were cut in with a grinding disc mounted in a craft drill. I did this twice, the wider notch on the right proved to be too wide. The one on the left is .090" wide and this looked more in scale when offered up to the hull.

The big advantage of using the back of the blade is that the blade itself can be left razor sharp for later use....................................................................................................... just kidding, I ground the edge off to avoid slicing my fingers.

 

The strips were made from old Venetian Blind slats - not sure what wood but it has very fine and straight grain. The profile was scraped before the profiled edge was slit off on the circular saw using a .031" slitting saw blade. The strip was .050 thick (1.8" at full size).

the rubbing strip fully overlaps the bottom edge of the scupper doors and hence is cut to allow the doors to open.

The back of the rubbing strip had to be relieved to fit over the scupper doors. The strip was offered up to the hull, the scupper positions marked and then the relief scraped away using a box cutter blade. I also took the opportunity to mask off the remainder of the "not to be painted" hull.

The rubbing strips were then clamped in place following the line of the deck edge (the lower edge of the lower bulwark plank).

With the strips clamped in place a thin bead of CA glue was run along the edge and allowed to weep behind the strip by capillary action.

A fine line was then marked at the scupper sides using a craft knife. 

I have ordered a replacement airbrush to replace some cheap ones bought with the compressor. When it arrives I will get on painting the hull.

 

Edited May 9, 2019 by KeithAug

[wefalck]

Kind of strange that the freeing-port cut through the rubbing strake. Never saw this before. It also means that the rubbing strake is not below the deck-edge, where the hull should be strongest, but above it, around the bulwark. Correct ?

 

Keen to see the painted result of all these efforts ...

Edited May 9, 2019 by wefalck

[KeithAug]

33 minutes ago, wefalck said:

It also means that the rubbing strake is not below the deck-edge, where the hull should be strongest, but above it, around the bulwark. Correct ?

Eberhard - Yes I agree. As I look at more of the detail I find a few things that are not as I would want them. I wonder if some of the build was compromised by rushed design or build. With particular respect to the rubbing strip, clearly any discontinuity weakens the strip itself and   introducing vertical edges provides opportunity for the strip to be caught and pulled off when rubbing against the dock. Like you I can not remember a yacht that I have been on where the rubbing strip is compromised in this way.

[druxey]

Don't leave all that masking tape on for too long! Looking great so far.

Edited May 9, 2019 by druxey

[KeithAug]

1 hour ago, druxey said:

Don't leave all that masking tape on for too long! Looking great so far.

Druxey - yes you make a good point. It is all low tack tape and the edging tape is Tamiya tape but never the less I agree it should not be on for more than a few days. Hopefully the airbrush will be here on Saturday and at 3 coats a day I should have the paintwork finished by late Monday.

[Mark Pearse]

6 hours ago, wefalck said:

the rubbing strake is not below the deck-edge, where the hull should be strongest

Hi Keith, Eberhard

 

it does seem odd, but I bet they were going to put it at the deck line but it looked better higher up. Elongates the hull, maybe a better proportion between the topsides above & below the strip....

[FriedClams]

Hello Keith

 

Nice technique using the spent utility knife blade to profile the rub rail.  I will remember that.  I can see this being useful in many applications.  Thanks.

 

Gary

[Jim Lad]

Very nice progress, Keith.  It looks like the rubbing strip isn't a rubbing strip but just some fancy decoration. 

 

John

[KeithAug]

On 5/9/2019 at 11:43 PM, Mark Pearse said:

maybe a better proportion between the topsides above & below the strip.

 

5 hours ago, Jim Lad said:

It looks like the rubbing strip isn't a rubbing strip but just some fancy decoration

Mark / John - you both make plausible suggestions. Whatever the reasoning it is still in a vulnerable position and somewhat weaker than it need have been. Maybe people with millions to spend don’t worry about repair bills.

[KeithAug]

I had an internet access problem for most of the week but finally it seems to be in the past. It was 8 days ago that I last posted and the new airbrush arrived a week ago today. Over Sunday trough Tuesday I applied 7 coats of white matt Humbrol enamel paint, - oil based and diluted to the consistency of skimmed milk.

The barely visible effect that I was trying to achieve on the scupper doors turned out how I wanted.

I took a lot of care to press down the edges of the masking tape. Fortunately this paid off as I got no bleed at all. The tape came off cleanly and fortunately didn't pull of any of the poly layers. Given the interest previously shown in the paint scheme i have included a number of photos.

 

 

Edited May 18, 2019 by KeithAug

[Keith Black]

Keith

 Did it pass your wife's and daughter's muster? I think it's beautifully striking!