Sloop from Roslagen by bolin - FINISHED - 1:50

[bolin]

Today I made the first cut for a model I have been planning an researching for a while.

 

 

This will be a typical sloop from Roslagen (an area in the Stockholm archipelago and the coast north of it). Once, such sloops where a common sight along the quays of Stockholm, but from around 1920 they started to disappear quickly. They where typical working boats and where usually not built on a shipyard. Instead they where built by the fisherman/framers on the islands of the archipelago. Maybe with the help of a master ship builder that was hired to help with the critical laying of the keel and forming the strakes and fitting the frames. Then the builder/owner used the ship for his own needs, and for transporting goods to the growing city Stockholm.

 

The hulls where (with few exceptions) clinker built using traditional methods following principles that goes back to the viking age and beyond. Looking at the hulls they in many ways resembles enlarged open boats. And it seems to be the way that they had evolved. For the inhabitants of the archipelago there was a need for different sized boats for different tasks. So the same shape was more or less reused in different sizes.

 

This model will be of a "Storbåt" (= great boat) or "Sandkil" as it was also known. The later name is derived from "transporting sand" and became the most common name as they where used for that during the late 19th century when Stockholm was growing rapidly and many houses where built. There where also larger variants, such as the "Vedjakt" (firewood yacht) that specialized in transporting firewood.

 

My model will be based on a plan from the Eskader (eskader.se) hobby shop in Stockholm. The plan is, as far as I can tell, not based on any specific ship, but is a generalization of the type. It does resemble the following drawing quite a bit, so I think that that has been the primary source.

 

 

The drawing above is from the collections of the Maritime history museum i Stockholm. The text under the title says that it is based on measurements of a real ship. However it does not say which one and when it was done. I do suspect that it was made somewhere between 1930 and 1950, while there where still some ships left to make measurements of. In the 1970s it was believed that none had survived. But then in the 1980s a hull that had been converted to a houseboat was discovered and renovated. I will use the photos from that renovation (which are available at Maritime history museum) to fill in some of the details that are missing in the plans from Eskader.

 

What I miss most from the plans is any indication of the shape and position of the frames. My plan is to build the model as a traditional clinker built boat, shell first, upside down over a plug. The frames will be installed after the shell is complete, so I have some time to continue my research of where they should be placed.

 

The first step will be to cut out the centerpiece of the plug, and then use that as a guide when building the keel. This is an approach that I picked up in Wintergreens log of Kågen.

Cheers

Edited September 3, 2021 by bolin

[bolin]

And today I started to make some sawdust for the model itself.

 

I follow the advice in Harold Underhills book to cut the pieces that are going to be joined to larger assemblies (such as the stem) with extra material, and trim the assembly to its form rather than then the individual pieces. Regarding the placement and the type of joins in the stem and for the stern the plans I'm working from does not provide any information. I did find the drawings for a reconstruction of a similar ship in the collections of the Maritime history museum in Stockholm and put the joins in the same places.

 

 

The keel should have a "T" cross section. I will try to carve it from a square piece. As I don't have a milling machine, and no special planes for this type of work, I will try to do it with a scalpel and a chisel. I do have material for three more tries if the first one does not turn out to well...

 

 

 

[Tom P.]

Bolin,

This looks like a very interesting build.  I'll be following it for a number of reasons: I'm also interested in smaller work boats such as this one, and longboats, launches, etc.  The big ships are impressive, but sailors were in essence skilled workmen and craftsmen, and that's my background too.  With the smaller boats you can get a real sense of this.  Also, I'm very interested in how to build clinker hulls: I'm new to this hobby, so there's a lot I don't know yet.  What species of wood will you use?  The photos show what looks like beech or yellow cedar.

[Vladimir_Wairoa]

Very nice boat Bolin , I will watch. happy build ! Vlad

[bolin]

You are both very welcome Tom and Vladimir.

 

I do have some other clinker builds that I would like to try, and this will be a step in improving my skills.

 

The wood i selected for this model is European Lime wood. That the color is rater similar to pine, which is the typical wood of the original ships, was one reason. It's also rather soft and easy to work with only hand tools. I have read that yellow cedar is an excellent wood for modelling, but I think its hard to get here in Europe.

 

The keel is actually not lime wood, but Obechi. I needed a piece with 10 x 10 cross section to carve the keel, an the supplier only had Lime wood up to 8 x 8 mm. Obechi is also soft and easy to carve, and the color is very similar to Lime wood.

[Vladimir_Wairoa]

9 minutes ago, bolin said:

You are both very welcome Tom and Vladimir.

 

I do have some other clinker builds that I would like to try, and this will be a step in improving my skills.

 

The wood i selected for this model is European Lime wood. That the color is rater similar to pine, which is the typical wood of the original ships, was one reason. It's also rather soft and easy to work with only hand tools. I have read that yellow cedar is an excellent wood for modelling, but I think its hard to get here in Europe.

 

The keel is actually not lime wood, but Obechi. I needed a piece with 10 x 10 cross section to carve the keel, an the supplier only had Lime wood up to 8 x 8 mm. Obechi is also soft and easy to carve, and the color is very similar to Lime wood.

i am big fan of clinker myself so will watch eagerly. good luck V. 

[bolin]

The initial shaping of the keel turned out quite well.

 

 

Now I need to gradually change the angle of the "T" to a "Y" and more like an "I" towards the stem and stern so that the garboard plank has a flat surface. Before I start with that I want to make the frames for the plug to make sure I get the angles right at each station.

 

I have started to draw a line 1 mm inside the hull line at each station so I have the correct size. The planking will be 1 mm so the plug must be reduced by that much.

 

 

 

 

 

[Nirvana]

Bolin, 

I take that is your last name 😇,

The "Rospiggen" is on the flag of Österåker municipality. Where I grew up.

I am so happy to see this build log, as I also have the plans.

During my last visit to Sweden, I went to Eskader and got some plans for scratch building along with this one.

I will certainly follow this log with huge interest.
Thank you for it.

[bolin]

Per, you are very welcome to the show. Actually my last name is not Bolin😉. I picked it as a handle since its a ship term I'm familiar with, and can say know how to handle on a square rigged longship. My avatar picture shows a sail with a bolin set (or a bow line as the English term is).

 

Today I received a small package from HiSModel (hismodel.com) in the Czech Republic with fittings to be used (very much) later in the build. I have earlier bought aftermarket blocks from Vanguard Models (I think Chris gets them from Russia), and those are good. What HiSModel offers are photo etched clamps with rings or hooks that fits the blocks. Regarding the quality it is not really fair to compare them as Vanguards blocks are pear wood while these are beech. My initial assessment is that these blocks looks more realistic, but that the quality is slightly less consistent than Vanguards blocks.

 

 

In the package I also got some heavier black thread, which means that I can finalize my ongoing build of Will Everard. This may keep me away from this build for a few days...

 

[bolin]

My build of Will Everard was declared finished yesterday, so now I can focus on this build instead.

 

Today I completed the drawing of lines on the frames for the plug and glued them to plywood. Twelve frames for a hull that will be less than 30 cm means less than 2.5 cm between each frame. This will give ample support for the planks.

 

[bolin]

I have now started the build for real. The first pieces has been glued together.

First a few pictures on the construction of the plug. I work almost exclusively with hand tools. There is no place for a real workshop in the house, so I have not bought any power tools.

The center piece was filed and checked against the keel, stem and stern pieces before I started sawing the slots for the bulkheads.

All pieces cut out (with some margin on the bulkheads to allow for corrections during fairing).

 

The pieces have been dry fitted. 

 

 

And on to the pieces that have been assembled. There are some margin left on the "outside" of these pieces as well so that the lines can be adjusted after they have been assembled.

I have made a simplification of the joints in stem. There should have been a more advanced scarf joint both for the two pieces of the stem and at the joint with the keel.

 

The transom has given me some trouble. The modeling plan indicates that it should be flat, all the way down to the keel. As far as I know that is an unusual form for similar clinker built ships or boats. The lowest part tend to be pointed towards the end. The plan I showed in the first post of this thread has that form. I went as far as to go to the shop that sold the plan (Eskader in Stockholm) and looked at a built up model they have there. It has a flat transom.

 

Since the plans I have does not provide any details about the arrangement of frames I had to look for other sources. The best I could find is a series of pictures from the renovation of a similar ship (known as Helmi) in the 80s. This ship is the last original hull of a sloop from Roslagen. She was discovered rebuilt to a houseboat and was renovated with help from the Maritime history museum in Stockholm. The pictures are from their collection.

 

 

In the picture above a row of nail heads indicates a cant frame in the corner between the side and the transom, and also a piece of timber on each side of the stern on the inside. My interpretation of this information is version of a flat transom (seen from the inside).

 

 

Cheers

 

[bolin]

This build got interrupted for some weeks while I finished my Bohuseka. I have done some few things in the meantime.

 

First the building frame was completed (but still no fairing).

 

Then when I checked some of the pieces I had started to build I realized that the transom was to wide. I measured it again from the plan and found out that I only had to adjust it, not start over.

 

Today I glued the upper part of the transom. The gap will be filled with a diagonal plank.

 

[bolin]

I have followed up the work on the transom, and it is now more or less completed (some cleanup is still needed).

 

 

As I have mentioned before the plans does not include any details for the inside of the hull. The supporting knees and frames are conjectures from me based on the little material I have found elsewhere (mostly the renovation of the similar ship Helmi that I have mentioned before.)

[bolin]

Today I thought that I was closing in on a milestone; gluing the keel pieces together. I had worked on the landing for the garboard plank on the keel and was becoming satisfied.

 

But before I do that I thought that I should fair the form. When I started that I discovered a mistake; frame 9 on port side is to narrow. I had cut that side along the same line as frame 10.

 

Now I need to figure out a way to fill out the frame and then cut it to the correct shape.

[KeithAug]

12 minutes ago, bolin said:

Now I need to figure out a way to fill out the frame and then cut it to the correct shape.

An interesting and elegant little ship which I will follow with interest. In so far as filling out the frame is concerned I have found that laying up multiple layers of thinly cut planks around the edge of the frame works well. 

[bolin]

I have fixed the faulty frame 9 by bending and gluing a number of strips of wood to it. I cut a template from the starboard side to get the correct shape.

 

After this I have faired the build form and then treated the frame ends with shellac. The plywood I use in the form is very soft and I thought it a good idea to harden it a bit. Then I painted the frame ends with white paint. I need to mark of the position of the strakes on the form and needed a better contrast. I also hope that the acrylic paint will make it easier to loosen the hull if some glue would spill to the wrong spot.

 

 

 

[bolin]

With the build form finished I can start to assemble the keel with the stem and stern.

 

The fist try to glue the stem did not work, the glued join was to weak and broke off when I started handle it. I decided to use tree nails to reinforce the join. To create those I bought a draw plate. Its the type for drawing metal wire, but it seem to work just fine with grill sticks as well.

 

So with my first tree nails I reinforced the stem.

 

And proceeded to glue the transom piece to the keel as well. Not that the keel will be shortened to correct length now that I know exactly what it is.

 

 

[wefalck]

As I said, I love those small local/regional boats and will follow this log !

[bolin]

You are most welcome wefalck!

 

Today I reinforced the knee at the transom.

Then I proceeded with shaping the outer line of the stem, which I had left oversized when I first cut them out. I also beveled the corners of the transom where the planks will land.

 

With that done I finally feel ready to start the actual build, that is to start the planking. Up till now it has more felt like preparations.

 

By tradition there shall be 11 strakes up to the wale. I suspect that it will take some time to complete.

 

 

[bolin]

The first plank (the starboard garboard plank), cut, shaped and glued.

 

[Maury S]

Bolin, You will eventually find out that the drawplate for metal is not a good tool for working with wood.  It is made to compress the wire while a wood draw plate like the Byrnes tool..

 

https://byrnesmodelmachines.com/drawplate5.html

 

shaves off the outer edges.  As you start making thinner nails, you'll appreciate the difference. 😀

Maury

 

[bolin]

Maury, thanks for your input. I suspected that it might be the case when I bought the draw plate. I have also confirmed that it is not really built to be used for wood. It works reasonably well when I draw the wood backwards, then it shaves the wood thinner rather than pressing it together. However, if I will need any larger numbers of tree nails in the future I need to get a better tool.

 

On my model I have now finished the second strake.

 

 

[bolin]

It feels like I'm starting to get the hang of how to do the clinker planking. Just seven more strakes to do.

 

Today I will just share a picture of the cutout at the end of the planks that reduces the overlap at the rabet in the stem and at the transom. These are a bit tricky to cut out, but I have thus far avoided to cut through the planks.

 

 

 

[G.L.]

Looks good, Bolin.

[bolin]

Thanks G.L.

 

Step by step, the hull is coming along. Now six strakes are done, five more to do until the wale.

 

Here I have lifted the model from the building frame to scrape off some glue spill on the inside and to check the shape.

 

[druxey]

Just found your log, bolin. It's always nice to see a model of a less usual  subject. You are coming along well with her.

[bolin]

Thanks druxey. Your Greenwich Hospital Barge build log has been a great source of information for clinker building techniques.

[druxey]

Tak!

[bolin]

The last clinker strakes are cut, formed, soaked and clamped to the mold for drying. Now there is only gluing it in place, and then its time to lift the hull from the mold and move it to another building slip where the framing can start.

 

[Nirvana]

Looking so good!

So glad I  have the plans myself.