Santa Maria by Emmet - Amati - 1:65-Columbus Caravelle 1492 -Third Wooden Ship Build

[Lapinas]

12 hours ago, Emmet said:

Hi guys

I have been traveling around Florida for the past month. Some for vaccinations, some for a broken tooth cap and most for fun.  Among other places we went to Marco Island and St. Augustine, Fl. and Cumberland Island, Ga.  We are back in Hudson and getting ready for St. Patrick's Day. On the 17th we are having some young people for corned beef along with seniors who must be double shotted or have J&J's single shot.  We are delivering to friends who have not been vaccinated.

Rob,

We are staying in Florida as long as possible but have to be back to Jersey in mid April for some doctor stuff. Hopefully we do not have to stay in Jersey long and can be back in New Hampshire by mid May.  We have to be flexible because doctor decisions keep us around sometimes.

Let me say that the Santa Maria is a difficult ship. Being away from building takes time to recover and you have to do a big review of what you are doing.

 

 

Looking nice!

[Emmet]

I had to tear my shipyard down for the Admiral's St. Patrick's day party.

Finished painting and it took a lot of brush strokes. I have to put some pics on line.

Going to start rigging but need to spend some time thinking about it. The instructions are not much help so have to look around the net for ideas as well as the help areas on the MSW site. I am glad I did La Pinta before but it back home in NH.

Just started working on the crow's nest. Unfortunately I do not have the tools to enlarge the hole so I drilled a series of holes in a circle and carved it out .

Pictures tomorrow.

[Emmet]

We will be leaving Florida for Jersey 1st week of April.

I am not going to put the masts up until I get to  Jersey.  Our Odyssey gets pretty loaded for the trip north. 

 

 

 

[clearway]

she is really coming along Emmet🙂

 

Keith

[Emmet]

Thanks Keith-been thinking about you. How are you doing with your job?

Amati's Santa Maria has many significant challenges and, while I have been distracted by too many parties, I am enjoying the build. We go to Jersey on Wednesday with a stop with friends in S. Carolina. So I will resume building there and hopefully finish the Santa Maria but the rigging is fairly rigorous so I am not sure. I may have to bring it to New Hampshire. 

Nice to hear from you. I have to see what you are working on these days. I have not been spending much time on line.

Happy Easter or Passover or whatever you might celebrate.

 

Pretty tricky putting the deadeyes on the chainplate.  I will have another picture which shows the deadeyes more uniform on the chainplate.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[clearway]

Doing good ty Emmet and a happy easter to you too. Still working, though partial furlough still in place, but we are getting busier. Still on my Terror build at the mo with rigging underway.

 

Keith

[Emmet]

We will be heading north tomorrow. It was great in Florida this year. We stop in South Carolina to see family then head to Jersey for doctor visits. If all is well we continue on to New Hampshire.  

The Santa Maria is quite a challenging build.  The rigging demands magnifying glasses and constant handling of tweezers and needle threaders.  The smallness of the blocks wears on the eyes.

Continuing on.

 

 

 

 

Edited April 6, 2021 by Emmet
delete pic

[Emmet]

 

 

another pic

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Lapinas]

Nice progress I have to do some catching up with my build!

[Emmet]

Still not back to build-busy with the change of houses and things to be done-plus the visiting of doctors.

 

I had this photo of the turret in an upside down position so that you can see the lines for the yards.

 

[Emmet]

I have been a little busy at our Jersey house but am making some progress on rigging. 

 

I thought I should put some pics in on my status and show some of the work I am doing.

 

 

This is back breaking work because you have to stay on top ot the work for a long time.

Tying the blocks is very challenging. You do get better as you go.

This ship is much more difficult than the La Pinta.

 

 

I am doing the deadeyes in 3 stages as shown.

Stage 3 will be tying the deadeyes together by going from Port to Starboard with each line.

 

 

 

 

 

[clearway]

ahhh the crazy organised chaos of rigging!

 

Keith

[Emmet]

Doing the deadeyes was a very challenging job.  I did not glue right away and had to some fixins to make sure the deadeyes aligned like the pros on 

this site do so well.  I should say that I tied the line from the tree to the bowsprit to make sure I did not move the mast while working away.

I was wondering if I would finish this ship here is Jersey but now I have to go back to the doctor in a month. I passed the stress test, which is necessary because I have three stents in the master ticker, but failed the EKG. Turns out I developed atrial Fibrillation the morning of going to the doctor. Anyhow, yet another drug. Now I have to quit drinking, I hope not forever. Why would I tell this site? Maybe it relieves stress. I'm a pretty lucky guy.

 

 

 

Edited May 2, 2021 by Emmet

[Emmet]

I managed to do the ratlines.  It was very challenging trying to keep the shrouds in a straight line and make tight knots. I put a touch of glue on the end of each line.  I was wondering how to make the shrouds tighter. I tightened them as much as I dare when installing. I was wondering if wetting the shrouds before attaching the deadeyes would help with shrinkage.

 

Edited May 2, 2021 by Emmet

[Emmet]

I certainly am into the chaos of rigging.  It is a job trying to learn all the terms especially as they are given in Italian.  I have been looking at many illustrations for terms. I found a helpful page for translations.

https://www.euromodel-ship.com/eng/files/NAUTICAL-TERMS-version.20.pdf

I hope the following terms in the following photos are clear.

 

 

 

 I guess it took quite a few men to haul the main yard into position.

 

Edited May 2, 2021 by Emmet

[Emmet]

I am showing details that are often now shown.  These things are so new to me that I think I am doing something major and they are difficult.

 

 

[Emmet]

I think top gallant is the wrong term. It should be top sail.  Top gallant would be for a third sail on the main mast. I'm trying.  Just do not trust me.

[Emmet]

Decided to make the sails so that the ship looks like it is underway with the wind at their backs.  I started with the small sails and made a lot of mistakes. I got a little better by the time I got to the big sail.  My fingers were well coated with CA.

 

 

 

 

 

[clearway]

You are learning the ropes Emmet😊 looking at the ratlines they might look better if thread a lot thinner than the shrouds was used instead (just personal choice by me).

 

Keith

[Emmet]

I wondered about that Keith but I had plenty of the thicker string and very little of the thinner.  Thanks for commenting. I have to find out more about increasing my choices of material.

[Emmet]

I should say that the india ink might have worked better, even without diluting, if I had used a thinner string.

[Balclutha75]

 

On 5/12/2021 at 11:41 AM, Emmet said:

Decided to make the sails .... and made a lot of mistakes

They look OK to me. The dashed lines for the panels, I guess they'd be called, did you just do those with an ink pen? More work to follow? Thanks.

[Emmet]

No. They came that way. I just had to cut them out. Sorry for misleading. By make I meant using aluminum wire and trying to make it look like the ship is under way.

I am not sure what to do about the dashes. I have been looking on line for an idea but so far have not seen anything.

I ought to add that the sail mentioned above on the main mast is a topsail not a t'gallant.  I have learned a lot about sails during my research.

Here is a picture I found that shows a ay the sails can be furled on the Santa Maria. My kit has no instructions or illustrations that helps to understand how the bowsprit should be rigged.

 

 

[Lapinas]

Good progress, Emmet! I have to play catch up with you now

[Louie da fly]

Hi Emmet. You're doing well on the learning process. You might be interested in the pictures of carracks/naos (same type of ship as Santa Maria) at https://www.pinterest.com.au/lowe1847/carracks/ - I put together all the contemporary pics I could find of them on the one page. I've tried to put dates on all of them I could, so you could look for pics from about the time of Santa Maria - though I think she wasn't a new ship in 1492, she wouldn't have been more than maybe 20 years old, probably less.

 

Note for example that there don't seem to be any of these with a sail on the bowsprit. You might be able to work out the correct rigging for it from these - it seems to have been used to help support the mainmast, rather than as somewhere to put a sail.

 

With the shrouds being a bit slack, you could try tightening up the lanyards (the ropes joining the upper to the lower deadeyes), but it might be just too much, and you've probably already finalised these to the point that you'd have to undo them completely and re-do - hardly worth it.

 

Keep up the good work.

 

Steven

[Rob S]

Happy New Year Emmet! I hope you/yours are well.  Your build is looking good:)

[Knocklouder]

Really great work and the pictures are very informative , between you and Lapinas my job is made so much easier very good work👍