Spray by Tomculb - FINISHED - BlueJacket Shipcrafters - ⅜” to 1’

[Tomculb]

So I left off having glued the rubrails in place, and giving some thought to the caprails.

 

The outer caprails were pretty straightforward. . . . 1/16th by 3/32nd strips laid and glued against the hull.  I chose to make them from a single strip, so that they would hopefully make a nice graceful curve matching the rub rails and the sheer line.  

 

Next I painted the inside of the bulwarks with Tamiya “Buff”, same color as the yet-to-be-installed waterways and the trim on the cabins.  Before that I used a little wood filler on the bigger cracks in the bulwarks, but found sanding that area (inside of a concave curve) was a little more difficult than I anticipated. 

 

The next strip of the rail cap was another 1/16th by 3/32nd strip, but this time lying horizontal, on top of the stanchions. This also required some creative use of the iron and clamping, so that the horizontal strip didn’t flip vertical.  Somehow it all worked.  Here I did not use one continuous full length strip, but three shorter ones. You can see the painted inside of the bulwarks in these photos.

 

 

Last came the inner rail, a single vertical 1/16th by 3/32nd strip.  Sometimes difficult at the bow, but somehow I got it done. 

 

 

 

 The tops of the completed rails definitely needed some filling and sanding, but that’s to be expected.

 

 

 

What happened next was not expected.  Before I installed the rubrails, I painted the hull below the sheerline with a couple of coats of a Tamiya primer.  It went on well, was pretty easy to apply, but the fumes were nauseating.  Fortunately I got it done outdoors before the weather turned (a cold spell this past weekend had highs below freezing).  What I have learned more recently (elsewhere in these boards) is that you don’t want to use an oil-based base layer and then cover it with water-based acrylic.  I did exactly that, painting an off-white from Model Shipways called “Warm White” over the primer.  True white, like you’d find on many of today’s fiberglass yachts, just seemed too pristine for something Joshua Slocumb sailed around the world.  No issues with the color choice.  But when I tried to give the first coat a light sanding, instead of the dust I expected, the white came off in chips and strips.  It did not adhere well to the primer coat at all.  I sanded and scraped most of the first layer of white paint off.  In the photo below, you can see that I also painted the outside of the bulwarks white, without first using the primer, and it went on and stayed on just fine.

 

 

I then did some experimenting painting scrap sheets of wood.  What seemed to work was several coats of the acrylic, with no sanding in between. That meant I had to be sure to keep paint drips from drying.  The jury is still out, but I think this is working.  The finished product probably won’t be as smooth as I would like, but I can always rationalize that Slocumb’s Spray probably wasn’t all that smooth either.

 

Next I drilled the hawse holes in the forward bulwarks and the deck. Always makes me a bit nervous to drill anything more than the tiniest hole through a completed surface.  Sure enough, I knocked a chip of wood out inside and aft of the port hole in the bulwarks.  I should have tried to hold a block of wood against the inside as I drilled, which would have been easier if I had drilled the holes before putting the caprails on. Live and learn. Paint will somewhat disguise the flaw. 

 

In the process of gluing on the Brittania metal hawse hole lips, I dropped one, perilously close to the mast hole. The thought of trying to get it (or any other small fitting) out of the hull had it actually fell in the hole would be enough to keep me up at night.  To prevent self-induced insomnia, I taped over the hole, as can be seen in the photos.  I made what the plans refer to as the “bow block” out of three 3/16th square strips glued side by side.  I cut the glued-together block roughly to the desired shape, then sanded to fit.  3/16th was a little too thick at the bow, so I tapered the whole thing a bit to lie appropriately on top of the bowsprit.

 

 

 

Final project for this posting was the glue in the painted, construction paper waterways I so carefully cut out quite a few weeks ago.  I debated whether to cut each one into three (or more?) sections, but after a couple of glueless practice runs, I decided I could do it safely with a single boat length piece.  A used thinly applied wood glue (Gorilla brand), which gets tacky pretty quickly but takes a little while to truly set up.  A bit stressful at times, but it all went in pretty well.

 

 

I think painting the hull, including installing the rudder, is next.

 

 

[MrBlueJacket]

Very creative to tape up the mast hole.

[Josh Williamson]

Looking really good Tom.  Love the way your decking turned out.  Everything looks clean. 

Looking forward to the updates!

[Moab]

looks excellent!!!...Moab

[Tomculb]

A new, interesting challenge.  I happened to notice while staring at the plans (something I find myself doing quite often) that the chainplates run against the hull underneath the rub rail and the cap rail. My immediate thought was “Oh [expletive deleted], I should have cut notches in those two rails before gluing them to the side of the hull.” But as I thought more about it, I wondered how difficult it might be to cut the notches exactly where needed in a boat-length strip of wood before it was attached to the hull, and would the notches weaken the strip where it needs to bend when glued to the hull?  It would be just my luck to have a strip break as I am as I am bending the lengthy strip to the hull with a coat of drying glue on it.  All academic of course since now I have no choice but to cut the notches after the rails are glued to the hull. 

 

So very carefully, timidly perhaps, I drilled a couple of very small holes in the caprail marking the ends of the first notch.  Then I put a new blade in one of my X-Acto knives and gingerly connected the dots so to speak. Amazingly the end result was a notch I could slide the Britannia chainplate through.  

 

 

Now with a little too much confidence I made the second notch. As can be seen in the second photo below, the holes weren't drilled as close to the hull as they should have been, with the result that at the bottom of the notch there wasn’t much more than paint separating the notch from fresh air.  The final two notches were done with a little more care.

 

 

Next was the rub rail. After staring at it from all angles, I decided that would be pressing my luck.  It undoubtedly could be done by drilling the starter holes from below, but we all know drilled exit holes don’t always appear exactly where planned.  So I cut the chainplates at the top of the rub rail and figured no one looking at the finished product would ever know the difference.  

 

 

As can be seen above, the kit supplied fitting is a single piece, Britannia chainplate and deadeye together, and of course a Brittania colored deadeye just wouldn’t do. I decided I would paint the deadeyes the Flat Earth color discussed in a prior post, and paint the surrounding metal above the caprail black.  Below the caprail the chainplate would be painted white to match the hull.  In the photo below you can also see the notch I cut a little farther away from the hull than I should have.

 

 

I found that I had some tiny nails that I could use to simulate bolt heads, so I drilled a couple of holes in each chainplate to put the nails through.  I then put some glue on the back of the chainplates, slid them through their notches, and pressed them against the side of the hull for a minute or so while the glue dried. Then I grabbed the drill again and carefully drilled into the hull.  The chainplates are placed outside two stanchions, so there was some depth to drill into. The first two times I did this, it dislodged the glued chainplate from the hull (in my impatience I probably didn’t let the glue dry long enough), so I had to hold the deadeye pretty tightly to hold the whole thing in place while drilling.  Some of the paint rubbed off making my very careful paint job look pretty sloppy (but easily enough remedied).

 

Oddly in the picture below, the chainplates don’t look as parallel as they really are.

 

 

Another coat of paint on the upper half of the hull, and the whole thing is beginning to look  pretty good.

 

 

Daylight savings time just ended, and being a morning person, it's nice to look out the window when I get up and see some light.  ☀️ 😎

 

[Moab]

Chainplates and painted deadeyes look great...Moab

[Josh Williamson]

On 9/16/2020 at 6:31 AM, Tomculb said:

In my prior post I mentioned creating margin planks (or waterways) which would lie on top of the deck planking, not adjoining it.  Basically I was too lazy to try to make the edge of the deck planking precisely meet the edge of the margin plank. In retrospect that may not have been a great decision, but it is what it is.  The kit-supplied laser cut pieces would be too thick and too obviously lying on top of the deck. The instructions say they are to be painted along with the inside of the bulwarks (I’m wondering a bit why), and I felt they had to be thick enough to absorb the paint without wrinkling. After looking at a few alternatives, I settled on some construction paper (that happened to be black). I cut them out with an X-acto knife, then used some small sharp scissors (usually used for cutting rigging line) to cut the insets for the stanchions. Then they were painted the same Buff color I used on the cabin trim.  They will be installed later.

 

 

Next was bevelling the stanchions to accept the bulwarks planking, which involved a bit more work than I anticipated.  A lot of wood was removed in some places, shims added in others, etc. No pictures of this task. 

I also realized that if the bulwarks are to be a consistent ½ inch above the shear line as shown on the plans, then most of the stanchions were a little short, and they certainly weren’t consistent in height.  That I would deal with another day.

Nothing very exciting about planking the bulwarks.  As I started to do midway through planking the rest of the hull, I used Chuck Passaro’s recommended method of wetting but not soaking the planks, then using an iron to bend the wood around the stanchions. The iron I’ve been using is left over from applying Monocoat to R/C gliders I built another lifetime ago.

 

At the bow there isn’t anything to bend the planks around, so I built a block to serve that purpose. Holding everything in place sometimes required some creative clamping.

 

I made the transom bulwarks by first gluing the first plank onto the hull and deck, then adding the stanchions at each corner, then adding the remaining planks.

 

Along the way I started building the steering apparatus, none of which has been glued together or painted yet. Also below, transom planking further along than above.

 

 

What followed of course was a great deal of wood filler and sanding. Here are a few "before" photos; "after" photos are further below.

 

Next came the rubrails. The plans show them to be 1/16th of an inch from top to bottom, and the inventory shows 1/16 x 3/32 strips to build them with. I took a couple of those strips, rounded the sharp corners, and glued the 1/16th edge to the hull. I also used a single strip for each one, wanting to avoid any sharp bends where two strips join. The rubrails run part way out onto the sides of the bowsprit, and I made those parts with two short 1/16 x 3/32 strips glued side by side.  All in all the process went pretty well.

 

 

At this point I made some decisions about the caprails.  The deck plan shows them to be 1/4 inch wide, which looks about right.  But a cross section of the hull shows them to be quite a bit wider -- 3/32 strip outside the bulwark, 3/32 width of the bulwark plank, 1/8 stanchion, and another 3/32 strip inside the stanchions, for a total of 13/32 (or easier for my mind to grasp, a gnats eye wider than 3/8).  That just seems too wide. As mentioned earlier, I used 1/16 for planking, and the part of the rubrail outside the planking could also be 1/16.  Most of the stanchions were thinner (after beveling) than the 1/8 square they started with, and a 3/32 stanchion seems like a good width. And the inner plank might even be 1/32 (left over from planking the deck). Moving outward in, that’s 2/32 + 2/32 + 3/32 + 1/32, for a total of 8/32, or 1/4 as shown on the deck plan. I think that will look better.

 

Having made  that decision, I added shims to some stanchions, shaved some stanchions, and added tiny caps to most so that they are all a consistent thickness and height.  The photos below were taken when I was close to finished with that task.

 

As I write this I'm ready to start installing the cap rails. But first I think I will glue the waterways in place, then paint the inside of the bulwarks.

 

 

 

Tom, looking at your post again in more detail, I'm amazed at how smooth your hull looks.  What kind of wood filler have you found works best for you?  And I assume there were several sessions of filler/sanding?  Good job, it really is coming together!

[Tomculb]

Thanks Josh.  I used to use Bondo, which someone on one of these forums recommended years ago.  It is actually an auto body finish product, but it works very well in this context too.  However, it has really noxious fumes (my wife would be downstairs and at the other end of the house and would complain when I used it).  More recently I've used Elmer's WoodFiller, which works very well too, without the fumes.  I picked that up at Ace Hardware.

[Tomculb]

And I should have added that, yes, quite a few sessions of filling, sanding, filling again, sanding again . . . 

[Tomculb]

Not many pictures in this post, but yesterday I reached a major milestone--I completed painting the hull.  

 

I put something like three coats of white on the entire hull, then followed with another three or four down to a bit below where the waterline would be.  

 

Then came masking the waterline.  I made photocopies of the plans showing the bow and stern from the side, then cut out templates I could put up against the stem and stern.  The waterline having thus been marked at each end, I used the gadget pictured below to connect the dots, so to speak.  I must have bought this thing 20 odd years ago, and have now used it a grand total of three times.  

 

I have a roll of Tamiya 6mm (1/8th inch) masking tape that worked pretty well following the gently curved part of the waterline.  I have some nameless, much older tape that is half that wide, and it handled the sharper curve (where moving forward the bow bends inward toward the stem) quite well . . . until I lifted it off the hull to reposition it, and it pulled a bubble of paint with it.  To touch, it feels noticeably stickier than the wider tape, and I decided I had no choice but to not use it.  Using three or four pieces of the wider Tamiya tape to make the curve left me concerned that the bend wouldn’t be a smooth one, and I found it all but unavoidable to leave a tiny wrinkle here and there. 

 

I had bought some Model Shipways “Hull Copper Red” to use below the water line, a color that I might more accurately describe as “plum purple.”  Especially when wet it’s pretty ugly, but dry it does bear some resemblance to anti-fouling paint I’ve seen on many a sailboat.  I read somewhere that anti-fouling paint was becoming an alternative to copper toward the end of the 19th century, so I figured this wouldn’t be too far off. This picture is after a couple of coats of the stuff.  You can see where I had to use several pieces of the wider masking tape to make the curve.

 

 

After three or four coats of the stuff, none of the white showed through any more, and it had become a solid consistent color (whatever that color was). So yesterday was the moment of truth, as I very slowly and carefully peeled off the tape.  And low and behold, the waterline looked pretty good.  There are a few small blemishes, a couple of larger ones that I will try to touch up, and a few more tiny ones that nobody but me (and perhaps others on this forum) will be likely to notice.

 

 

The starboard side looks a little better.

 

I cut out the laser-cut rudder a month or more ago, slightly tapered the leading edge and more aggressively tapered the rest, glued it to a 3/32” (I think) dowel/rudder post, and more recently gave it a coat or two of the purple plum paint  Then after the first or second coat of the same paint on the hull, I used a fine toothed saw to cut a 3/32” deep and maybe ¾” long notch in the aft end of the keel. I then cut a short strip of 3/32” by 3/16” stock, drilled a hole in it to take the bottom of the rudder post, and then glued the whole thing in place. The pictures below were taken later, after the hull and rudder assembly were fully painted.  The paint job on the hull right against the rudder looks much better in the first picture, and fortunately in real life, than it does in the second and third pictures.

 

I was somewhat distressed with the bottom of the rudder post hole being noticeably off center, and put some effort into hiding that flaw with wood filler and sanding. Only once I was satisfied with the resulting camouflage did it dawn on me that the bottom of the keel is something no one will ever see once the boat is complete and affixed to its stand.  I guess such is the compulsion of a ship model builder. 

 

Next up . . . affix that stand to the hull, or at least drill some holes in the keel for that purpose.  Then get some deck furniture on board, followed by spars, sails and rigging.  That pin prick of light at the end of the tunnel is indeed getting larger.  ☺️

 

[rshousha]

This is a really nice looking model. As you mentioned in an earlier post, the paint job really does look quite realistic for this particular model. With the Vendee Globe in full swing, I wonder if there's a run on this kit at Bluejacket? 

 

[Josh Williamson]

Nice job once again, Tom!  Always impressed with the clean work.   Cool choice with the hull paint - seems like that will give the model a nice, period-authentic character.  Can't wait to see more

[Ken_2]

I like your boat very much, as well as your descriptions and your approach to the build.  I am learning so much from you, that it is slowing me down as I study what you write!!

As an example, I spent a lot of time trying to figure out how the planking terminated at the stern.  I could not find internet pictures, nor were the instructions illuminating.  Then, … voila … you produce the first good pictures.

 

Thanks for all your efforts to log and take good pictures

 

Ken

[Tomculb]

Thanks for all the kind words of encouragement.  

 

I believe there are now five active Spray logs on these forums, and for every such log there have to be many boats being built by people who quietly sit on the sidelines or who aren't even aware that this website exists. 

 

I started my build a year ago so I can't say I was inspired by the Vendee Globe, but following the race now certainly puts an interesting perspective on Slocum's voyage.  Or maybe it's the other way around.  Working from home now due to the pandemic, between the race website open in a window behind what I'm supposed to be working on, and my model bench in another corner of the same room, it certainly is easy to be distracted.

[Tomculb]

A note on my previous post (painting the hull).  I had thought I was going to paint a waterline stripe, but seeing how the tape I used struggles with sharper curves, and foreseeing  the difficulty of making two strips of tape manage those curves at a precise distance apart (say 3/32”), Spray will just have to do without a waterline stripe.  I also realize that I approached that feature incorrectly. I should have started my painting with a black, imprecise but wider (say ¼”) stripe, then covered it with a single strip of tape of the chosen width, then painted white above the tape and anti-fouling maroon below.  Problem with that, though, is whether I could get the white to adequately cover the black of the waterline.  An issue to be addressed on a future build, and who knows, maybe this will be my last one with white topsides.

 

I think I am now at the beginning of the most fun part of the build, where accomplishments and projects take weeks or days (or even hours) rather than the year it took me to complete the hull.  😃

 

While still painting the hull, I took a few breaks to work on the taffrail (or is it more properly a taff“deck”?).  I cut it from some 3/32” stock, using the edge of the sheet of wood for the rear edge, my fine tooth crosscut saw for the sides, and an X-Acto knife for the longer, forward edge (which was pretty easy, going with the grain). I then used a couple of scraps to build shelves under the inner edges of the toprails, and dry fitted it into place.

 

 

 

 

Of course I still had to cut the curved line I traced on the leading edge,  a little more of a challenge. A few weeks earlier, noticing that one of the gaff jaws and the two “brace brackets” (that will one day extend aft of the transom) are oddly not laser cut, I bought myself a jewelers coping saw online.  It came with 120(!) blades, and reading a bit about this tool, I learned that it is not a question of whether you will break a blade, but rather how frequently you will do so.  Thus well-informed, I picked a courser one of the blades, and began sawing along the line I had traced from the plans.  I quickly realized that following that line precisely will take some practice, so I erred outside the line and ended up with a rough approximation.  The sawing was actually easy and quick, just a little ragged. That was remedied with some sanding, and the end result was pretty good.  And I didn’t even break a blade!

 

  

 

At about the same time (before the rudder was installed), I eyeballed where the top of the rudder post should penetrate the deck (not that it actually will penetrate the deck).  Handy thing to have done that, some weeks later when I was ready to install the steering apparatus.

 

 

Next project, affixing the stand (assembled kit parts), while I am still comfortable turning the boat upside down. Not having a drill press, I wasn’t confident of my ability to drill holes straight from the bottom of the stand’s end pieces all the way up and into the hull. And I don’t think I have any screws that are both thin and long enough to work that way.  Instead, I took a couple of small nails with sharp points, cut the heads off, drilled very small holes in the notches in each end piece, and pushed the nails in, point up.  I had previously established where the stand needs to attach to the hull for the waterline to be horizontal.  I then turned the stand upside down and pressed it against the hull at the appropriate place, resulting in two precisely spaced pin pricks in the bottom of the hull.  Then using a trick I came up with on my previous build (Model Shipways America), I drilled the starter holes in the hull and the stand just enough larger to be able to force a couple of short pieces of 1/16” OD brass tubing in.  Not as secure as screws, but no way the stand and hull are going to separate without some intentional effort.

 

 

 

 

Now on to that steering assembly.  A couple of months ago I posted a picture of some of it assembled and dry fitted on deck.  It took a little more work than I expected to build all the pieces, but I had numerous opportunities to do it when the only alternative was watching paint dry.  The most interesting piece to build was the rudder post cap, with the tiller sticking out astern. You will notice two pieces of brass rod (one blackened) . . . . as Bob Garcia (a frequent contributor to these forums) appends to his posts, “Measure once, cuss twice.”

 

 

 

The first issue that bothered me is that when you pull, from a fixed point, something that will describe an arc when pulled, as you pull less and less of the force is pulling it along the arc, and more and more of the force is trying, in this case, to pull the tiller off the rudder post cap, until you reach a point where none of the force is pulling along the arc anymore. An engineer (of which I am not) could probably describe that problem better.  The problem is very counter productive here, because the more you move a rudder away from the centerline, the greater the force of the water against it.

 

To reduce that inefficiency, I decided that the outer blocks needed to be ahead of the end of the tiller, not directly abeam of it. But put too far ahead, the line would rub against the aft corners of the aft deckhouse, and even short of that, the farther forward I put those blocks, the more likely Joshua would trip over the lines (I should probably give him more credit than that). I finally decided that I would affix those blocks to the furthest aft stanchion (other than the one in the aft corner). But that created a new problem.  The lines leading to the drum would be approaching the drum at an angle, with the force eventually pulling the line forward and off the drum.  So I decided to add a block on each side of the drum, so the line would load on and off the drum at a 90 degree angle.

 

 

Brilliant I thought, until after I put those additional blocks in, and realized that they were in the path of the end of the tiller! So much for thinking things through. At least I think the helm can be put over to about 45 degrees without any significant interference.

 

A couple of additional observations.  Before I got started I decided I wasn’t capable to rigging this with only one line, as would be the case on the real boat.  My fingers just aren’t small enough to take the line attached to the end of one block, lead it through a couple more blocks, wrap it around the drum, then back through some more blocks, and then (the real challenge) attach to the end of the block on the opposite stanchion, all while maintaining the appropriate amount of tension.  So I used two lines, and with each one I took three wraps around the drum, hung the ends over the side of the boat with mini clamps attached to add some tension (see the picture above), and covered the lines on the drum with white glue heavily diluted with water.  After letting it dry thoroughly, I snuck some sharp scissors under the drum and cut each line where the cut couldn't be seen.  It held!

 

 

Incidentally, the wheel in the pictures above is not yet glued in place.  Seems likely it will get snagged on something quite easily, so I won't glue it on until later in the build.

 

Second observation, and for me this took some considerable mental gymnastics.  The line(s) wraps around the drum from the underside rather than over the top.  Visualize this--turn the wheel to starboard and the drum pulls on the line on its starboard side (if that line wraps around it from below) and releases line on the other side. Pulling on that starboard line pulls on the tiller, which then moves to starboard.  Since the tiller is attached to the back side of the rudder post (the opposite of every other tiller I’ve ever seen), it pulls the rudder (which is directly below it) to starboard, turning the boat to starboard.  It took me a lot longer to convince myself I was right about that than it took me to write this paragraph.

[MrBlueJacket]

For a waterline stripe, have you considered some vinyl striping tape?

[Josh Williamson]

This looks really good Tom.  Nice job working through the logic in the steering assembly rigging too.  Also really liking the color combo you have for the individual components.  👌

[Tomculb]

Nic,  I did give some thought to vinyl tape, but not having any handy, I moved on thinking I'd come back to the idea, but I had kind of forgotten all about it.  Thanks for suggesting it. Taping the water line would have the additional advantage of covering the occasional ragged edge I have now.

 

Doing a little digging in these forums, Chartpak tape came up several times.  And some suggest adding a coat of polyurethane or shellac to make sure it adheres indefinitely.  Any recommendations on the subject?

[Tomculb]

Thanks Josh.  I do like to use color sometimes to highlight detail, but I have to be careful not to overdo it and not stray too far from what has at least some chance of being historically accurate.  As to the latter of course, as Nic mentioned on your log, we have to rely mostly on speculation when it comes to Spray, since there is so little authoritative material to rely on.

 

Also, I stumbled upon your profile recently, and it appears that we are at opposite ends of the same state.  I'm in Spokane.

[Tomculb]

Some more small projects completed.

 

The taffrail has been cut and dry fitted in place for some time. With the steering gear completed (other than gluing the wheel on), time to finish the taffrail as well.  I bent the traveler from a brass rod, and blackened it with (remarkably enough) Blacken-It.  I bought a bottle of the stuff over 20 years ago, and have at least half left.  I dilute it in water about 50/50, and use it over and over again.  Works great. The sheet will come down to a block at the rear of the taffrail, then run forward amidships to a cleat.  The plans refer to a belaying pin but don’t say where it is; I decided I liked my rig better. The traveler isn’t glued in yet, since a block will be slipped onto it later, with some kind of bale.

 

Next I started work on the spars, the mast first.  The plans call for tapering the top 4”, but I decided on a more even taper most of the length. The instructions suggest using a hobby knife to cut the tapered portion into a tapered octagon, then sand it back round. I just don’t trust myself making long cuts with a sharp object.  Instead I wrapped tape around the base of the mast, stuck it into my cordless drill, and sanded away.  The sanding pad I used, which was several years old, didn’t survive very well but the mast came out just fine.

 

The supplied mast bands contemplate a dramatic narrowing of the mast at the top, more than appeared reasonable to me, especially since the shrouds go all the way to the top, without the spreaders you would find on a modern boat of this size. I think Slocum would have wanted something a bit more substantial than wobbly  spaghetti at the top.  At least that was my rationale for limiting the amount of taper.  The truth of the matter is that I got tired of sanding.  I decided I could make reasonable mast bands with tape (I ended up ordering narrower tape than what is shown on the test spar in the picture below).

 

Next up:  the Donut Project.  The plans call for a ring around the mast to hold the boom jaws up when the mainsail is not raised.  The instructions suggested simply wrapping tape around the mast, but I thought I could come up with something better.  I almost bit off more than I could chew. I cut out a small piece from some 3/32” sheet, then tried to drill a ¼” hole in it.  I was smart enough to start with a small bit (1/16”) and gradually, bit by bit, work up to ¼”.  I also sandwiched the target piece between two other pieces, clamped together.  But the clamps weren’t tight enough, and things started sliding around. And the result was a mess.  But nothing some filing and sanding couldn’t fix, or at least improve upon.  Then I got out my jewelers scroll saw and tried to cut a nice circle about 1/16” larger than the drill hole.  The result wasn’t pretty. But after some sanding, and twice breaking this little thing in half, I got a Donut which, when largely hidden by the boom jaws, won’t look all that bad.

 

 

 

On to the boom and gaff jaws.  I mentioned previously that while the kit supplies a 5/16” dowel for the mast, as drawn on the plans the mast is ¼”, and that’s the size dowel I decided to use.  Which meant that the laser cut boom jaws were too large. As an aside, just about all of the spars as drawn are slightly slimmer than the designated dowels; the main boom as drawn and as used by me is 3/16”, but the supplied dowel is 1/4”.  Which meant both ends of the boom jaws were too wide.  So I took some more 3/32” sheet and my trusty jewelers saw, and cut one out more to my liking.  I’m still learning how to use that saw, but I’m getting better.  And this time while sanding I managed to break the jaws only once. 

 

 

I had no choice but to cut out my own gaff jaws, as the kit doesn’t supply a laser cut one. That’s undoubtedly because the jaws bend up at close to a 60° angle. I used 3/32" sheet rather than the 1/8" called for. This time my precision sawing turned out pretty good.  I then cut the jaws in half where the intended bend is, sanded the newly cut end of one piece, and glued them back together.  The bend ended up at closer to 45° but I can live with that.

 

The photograph of a completed model on the kit box shows the spars painted (the instructions say paint the same color as the inside of the bulwarks), while a photo on the BlueJacket website shows the gaffs and booms white and white trim at the top and bottom of the main mast.  I decided to do the latter, staining most of the mast with Minwax Golden Oak. No particular reason; it just seemed more interesting that way. 

 

Last post I said I was going to do without a waterline stripe, and Nic suggested considering using vinyl tape.  I did a little research, found people like something called Chartpak for such purposes, and I ordered some (3/32” wide).  My biggest concern was that it would stick more or less permanently, and I would risk peeling off paint if I tried to adjust it while putting it on.  Not the case, fortunately; if anything, it’s not sticky enough.  I used a drop of glue at the bow end of the hull (not on the stem), then used a single piece for each side of the hull, using a little bit of tension to get it to bend smoothly around the necessary curves.  Used another drop of glue at the transom.  It was actually a lot easier to do than I feared.  I did have some problems on the stem though, leaving a gap where two very short strips from each side were supposed to come together, that I found difficult to cover with tape.  I gave up on the tape and dabbed it with a black Sharpie felt pen, and it doesn’t look too bad.  Fortunately it’s not in an area that is easy to see when the model is displayed on its stand, and an eyepad and chain running from that very spot to the bowsprit will conceal it a bit more.

 

Next project . . . . sails.

[Tomculb]

Funny . . . . that last photo doesn't belong there, I've gone into Edit mode twice  to delete it, and I won't go away.  😑

[ccoyle]

7 hours ago, Tomculb said:

Funny . . . . that last photo doesn't belong there, I've gone into Edit mode twice  to delete it, and I won't go away.  😑

 

Fixed.

[Josh Williamson]

Tom,

 

Looking great.  The Chartpak product does a really nice job of that waterline stripe... impressive.  I'll need to look into that for having on hand for future models.

 

You came up with a much more convincing gaff jaws than I could.  I tried cutting the shape out several times, and kept splitting the basswood sheet.  I'm sure their is a technique and/or tool that I am missing.  Anyways, that looks very nice how that came together.  

 

Also really liking the eye band solution you came up with.  I too found that the supplied eye bands were undersized for the proposed mast diameters at their respective locations.  

[BobG]

She's looking wonderful, Tom. I'm about to start reading Slocum's book, "Sailing Alone Around the World." I just might have to build this model someday too!

[Tomculb]

Thank you Chris.  Now the final photo is the one I intended.

 

And thank you Josh.  Will be interested to see your signature line when "TBD" is replaced by the name of your next build.  ⛵

[Tomculb]

Thank you Bob.  I have taken an occasional look at your Pen Duick build and it looks spectacular.  The work you did on that hull makes me very glad Spray was an old work boat, not a racing boat.  Although it doesn't appear that you're back to work on the model yet, it's encouraging to see you posting comments on these forums.  Hope you're back at the model table soon.

 

Speaking of racing, I have been absolutely transfixed following the Vendee Globe solo around the world race.  Given the huge differences in technology and goals, it's sometimes difficult to imagine any similarities between what Slocum did and what these guys and gals are doing, but there is definitely a common spirit, and a monumental amount of courage, in both cases.  Slocum didn't have the instant communication, shore team and weather reports these people do, but he also wasn't slamming into 20 foot waves at 25 knots with boats that are proving to be more fragile than Spray  was.  Of the 33 starters, 5 have dropped out already, 1 dismasted, and 4 with structural/foil damage.  Among the latter was a hull that split in two just ahead of the mast and led to its skipper spending 11 hours, most in the dark, in a life raft before he was rescued by a competitor.  If you haven't done so already, search for "Vendee Globe tracking map", and turn on the option that shows the winds they are dealing with.  As someone who once spent many hours and days racing sailboats, I find it absolutely fascinating.

 

 

Sorry for the off-topic diversion.

[BobG]

1 hour ago, Tomculb said:

Thank you Bob.  I have taken an occasional look at your Pen Duick build and it looks spectacular.  The work you did on that hull makes me very glad Spray was an old work boat, not a racing boat.  Although it doesn't appear that you're back to work on the model yet, it's encouraging to see you posting comments on these forums.  Hope you're back at the model table soon.

Thanks, Tom, I'm getting close to spending some time on the Pen Duick. I've been deep down the guitar playing rabbit hole lately and just purchased a new guitar to add my collection which now stands at 6. More than I need but I enjoy them a lot.

[MrBlueJacket]

15 hours ago, BobG said:

Thanks, Tom, I'm getting close to spending some time on the Pen Duick. I've been deep down the guitar playing rabbit hole lately and just purchased a new guitar to add my collection which now stands at 6. More than I need but I enjoy them a lot.

Then there's the story of the lady in court, who killed her husband by beating him with his guitar collection. "First offender?" asked the judge.

"No, first a Gibson, then a Fender" answered the lady.

[rshousha]

Nic, you are amazing. I actually use some of your jokes around the table!

 

[Tomculb]

This post is all about sails. My first build with sails was my most recently completed one, the yacht America.  That kit didn’t come with any sail material, so when I bought my Spray kit from BlueJacket, I also ordered some additional material.  It came off-white in color, which looked really good to me, and I didn’t do anything to dye it or otherwise mess with its color.

 

I have never been a big fan of sewing sails, because the stitching to me looks out of scale (even in museums). And although I think we have a sewing machine somewhere, it hasn’t seen the light of day in decades, I don’t have a clue as to where it is, and I have no idea how to use it. So what follows is my methodology for making sails without sewing, using glue to make hems that enclose bolt ropes. Undoubtedly there are reasons why it won’t work for lots of people, but it has worked well for me. 

 

For those who don’t want to sew, Ben Lankford’s instructions to America suggest as an alternative using an iron-on fabric glue product called Wonder Under.  When I Googled that, what came up instead was something called HeatnBond, which comes in a 15 foot roll (I have used less than a foot for two sets of sails) for about $8.  

 

But I’m getting ahead of myself.  The fabric was a little wrinkled, but a little ironing made quick work of that.  My wife suggested putting a damp dish towel on top of the fabric to prevent scorching it with her iron, and she undoubtedly saved me from having to order more material from BlueJacket.  Next I cut sail templates out of heavy construction paper, starting with tracing the plans, but then comparing with the boat as built, trimming and adjusting to assure the finished sails will fit correctly.  Once I was confident of that, I traced the sail outlines in pencil on the fabric.

 

 

I started with the mizzen, and I took more pictures of putting that sail together than either of the others. The first thing I did was to cut a few ½” strips from the roll of HeatnBond and apply it to the outline of the sail.  The product has paper on one side and glue on the other.  The instructions say to iron it onto the fabric, paper side up, applying the heat for no more than about 2 seconds in any given place.  I did this with my hobby iron (in one of the photos above), not my wife’s iron. 😊The process is actually pretty easy.  After gluing in place, I drew a ¼” outline all the way around.

 

Although I think both sides of the sail end up looking pretty good, the side without the hem is better, and I made the sails having decided that the starboard side of the boat will be my display side. That meant the sails needed to be constructed port side up, folding the hems onto the port side.  Although I put a large “P” on the port side of each construction paper template, when I traced the outline for the jib onto the fabric, I neglected to notice the absence of a “P”, an error I didn’t notice until after I had glued the strips onto the fabric, necessitating an irritating do-over (what is in the photos) for the sails to be consistent.

 

Next using my X-Acto knife I cut out the sail along its ¼” border (which will be folded over to create a ¼” hem).  Cutting the fabric and glue strip together yielded a much cleaner cut than all other ways I tried cutting the fabric.  Also, I had to put some real thought into cutting notches at the corners.  I decided I wanted both hems to overlap at each corner, so as to create some reinforcement (similar to a real sail).

 

To create the hem, I folded the glue strip over onto the main part of the sail (as can be seen in one of the photos above).  With the paper still attached, it’s much easier to create a straight fold then just folding fabric.  For a bolt rope, I used some heavy thread (or maybe more correctly called light string or cord), stretched taught to be sure it’s straight. I then peeled off the paper and ironed the hem in place over the bolt rope. This time the instructions say apply the iron more slowly, about 8 seconds in each section. Note the sheet of wood between the sail and the cork board, to protect the latter from the heat.

 

 

On those edges of the sail not attached to a spar (leech of all three sails, plus foot of the jib and luff of the mizzen), instead of a bolt “rope” I used thin copper wire, so that I could bend some shape into the finished sail. At the head of the jib, I bent a small loop of the wire (blackened) to create the kind of halyard attachment I’m used to seeing on sails (I have no idea whether that’s historically correct, but I like the look).

 

Final step was to use a colored pencil (a shade of brown) to draw panels on the sails. There is a photo of Spray online, and I used it, rather than the plans, to determine the layout of the panel stitching, or so I thought.  Looking at the photo again later, I don't think the panels on the jib are similar to those on the main and mizzen,but that's the way they'll be on my Spray.

 

 

 

Next up, attaching the sails to the spars.