Le Martegaou by HakeZou - FINISHED - Billing Boats - 1:80

[HakeZou]

After a busy and stressful week of work, I decided to completely take Saturday off and not do anything work-related. I got a bit of work done in the yard, but also spent a lot of time working out my strategy for lining the stem of the ship. After a couple of failed attempts, I ended up finding a strategy that worked pretty well, I think. At the very least, I have lined the port side, so I just have to do this for the starboard side now.

 

I started off by taking a photo of the stem with a ruler pressed against the backside. I pulled this photo into Powerpoint, set the slide size to 8.5"x11" figured out how to reset the ruler in Powerpoint to metric, and then drew a 1cm line. I dragged the 1cm line on top of the ruler, then resized the photo until they matched. Next, I printed off the image at 100% size. 

 

 

After carefully cutting out the stem, I had a template for the port side. (I intended to do one for the starboard side at the same time, but was careless and tore off part of that one. I'll have to reprint the file so I can make the starboard template.) Now it was time to glue the planks onto the template, ensuring that I had a bit of overhang that could be sanded to fit. I started with the two vertical pieces for the stempost, did the two horizontal pieces for the head, and then added addition pieces to fill the curves. The bits at the bottom (I referred to them as Long Island, since the assembly vaguely resembles New York) required very careful placement to ensure they would cover everything that was needed.

 

    

 

Before trimming the overhang, I applied painter's tape to the outboard side to ensure that it held it together. I was very careful trimming along the curve where the rabbet line needs to be, but left most of the overhang elsewhere. This would ensure that it could slide into place against the hull.

 

 

 

Finally, I sanded off the paper template, removed the painter's tape, and glued the assembly onto the stem. I left it overnight with some clamps holding it in place.

 

 

Since I woke up early this morning, I wandered down to the basement and finished up the port side of the stem. First, I sanded off all of the overhang, then sanded down the surface.

 

 

Finally, I added the final touches. I used my Exacto knife to clean up the rabbet line a bit. I drilled two holes that will eventually be used for the ropes tied around the bowsprit. Then, I used a square file to open up the holes for the transverse pieces of the beakhead. While doing this, I grabbed the 2x2 plank these pieces will be made from and tested the fit until it could just barely slide in. 

 

 

 

Once I start lining the hull, I may need some additional tweaks to the rabbet line. And I'd really like to smooth out the more visible joints, but overall, I'm pretty happy with how this turned out. Now I just have to do it again on the other side! 

[HakeZou]

It's been a couple of weeks since I posted my last update. In part, that's because things have been very busy at work. But it's also because I've been struggling a bit with the Martegaou. I finished lining the starboard side of the prow and moved onto the second layer of the hull. This has been more of a challenging problem than I anticipated.

 

At first, I was going to work from the sheer strake downward. But the bulwark has a bit of an awkward curve and I had a hard time getting the planks to line up without some significant edge setting. I thought I had things going okay...until I pulled the clamps off and saw how badly misaligned the planks actually were. So, I pulled them off and decided to work from the bottom upward. After some frustrations with tick strips (an issue of not being able to measure accurately enough since I don't have calipers...yet), I just started sliding a plank around until I found a natural line on which it would lie perfectly flat. It's a more intuitive approach than using tick strips, but this has worked pretty well for me on previous models.

 

Now that I had a strategy, the challenge was shaping the planks. I've never actually done planking with a rabbet line, but I'm so grateful that I am this time! As I'm sure all of the experienced builders know, rabbet lines are incredibly helpful! At first, I tried shaping a plank that stretched from the stempost rabbet line to the sternpost one. But, I soon found that too challenging. However, I solved that problem by making each strake from two planks. The butt joints will be aligned so that they alternate among the three center frames, ensuring the joints aren't too matchy-matchy.

As you can see in the photo the bottom strake is finished and the after planks for the next two strakes are on (port-side only). I actually did the three after strakes first, so that I could be sure the forward plank on the bottom strake stayed true, ensuring that it lay flat against two planks, rather than just one end. I forget where I read that you should treat each plank as a project in itself, but this has been a helpful mindset to have. The after planks haven't been too difficult, but it took at least an hour to shape that one forward plank perfectly. 

 

It's taken a few attempts, but now I'm rolling on the second layer of the hull. This will definitely take some time, but I'm glad to finally have a solid start on this step.

[BobG]

Nice work on this challenging build, Hake.

[HakeZou]

Thanks, @BobG! I'm definitely making it more challenging than it needs to be, but hopefully that pays off in the end. At the very least, I have no doubt that I'll achieve my goal of improving my skills.

 

After another hour-and-a-half or so last night, I finished off the first three strakes on the port side. Since I'm following the natural curves, I haven't needed to use any thumbtacks or anything else to hold the planks in place while the glue dries, nor have I needed to bend these planks. I have just slotted them into the rabbet lines and then laid them in place, smoothing them out with my thumbs. It has been nice that these strakes could be full width from end to end. But these will probably be the only ones for which I can say that, since I'm approaching the upper curve of the hull and the angles will be changing.

 

A few shots of the finished strakes. First, a full-length shot of the hull, then details of the planks going into the stempost and sternpost rabbet lines.

[HakeZou]

The second layer of the hull on the port side came together much more quickly than I expected. Once I got in the routine, things started to go a bit quicker and an unexpected day off work gave me a bit of extra time. I still need to go over this with fine sandpaper, but I'll wait to do that until I've finished the starboard side (which I haven't started yet).

 

A couple photos to mark this milestone: a full-length shot and then one each from the forward and aft quarters. Looking carefully at the photos, there are a couple spots that I'm going to have to inspect before the hull is completely finished. 

Next step: lining the starboard side of the hull.

[RDDP]

This looks great ! Clean and smooth job. I was wondering if you used yellow glue for the second planking or another type ? I'm building the OcCre San Juan and the directions call for using contact cement for the second lay of planking. I don't relish working with that type of glue. Thanks Hake

[HakeZou]

On 4/21/2022 at 3:42 PM, RDDP said:

This looks great ! Clean and smooth job. I was wondering if you used yellow glue for the second planking or another type ? I'm building the OcCre San Juan and the directions call for using contact cement for the second lay of planking. I don't relish working with that type of glue. Thanks Hake

Thanks, RDDP! I hope that the San Juan is coming along well! I think OcCre calls for contact cement when doing any kind of final planking for the hull or deck. A quick search for contact cement on MSW will help you find other people's opinions. As for me, I just use wood glue, though I use a fairly wet brush to thin it a bit. Some folks actually mix wood glue and water in a more precise way, but I'm not sure of the preferred ratio. 

[HakeZou]

The lining of the starboard hull is finished! The job isn't perfect, but I can confidently say that this is the best hull I've done yet. Evidently, I did not manage to fair the hull exactly the same on both sides, so I didn't get the planks to line up symmetrically. However, other than that, both sides are looking pretty good. I can't wait to see how this looks once there's finish on it!

Next steps: assembling the rest of the exterior—cap rails, beakhead, rub strips, then the rudder.

[HakeZou]

I've done a bit more work over the last couple of days. At this point, the instructions essentially say, look at the drawings for the rest of the kit. So, I'm mostly on my own to solve the necessary problems. And there have been problems.

 

My plan is to finish the exterior of the ship first, then work on the deck fixtures. First up, the cap rails. Although I've covered up the rest of the plywood, I'm not sure how to do that well with these. So, I sanded them down to get them as clean looking as possible. I'm generally happy with the look...except that I snapped one in half! While I was able to glue it back together and to get both of them solidly in place, there's still a crack showing. I filled it as best I could with sawdust and wood glue, but I'd be happy to take any suggestions on how I can hide that better.

 

After installing the cap rails, I turned my attention to the beakhead. This ended up being more of a challenge than I expected. I realized pretty quickly that the bowsprit needed to be attached before the long pieces on the side. So I took a bit of time to shape that. (To others building the kit, note that the inventory calls for the bowsprit to be 140mm long, but the drawings show it at 70mm. Given the size of the sail, I think 70mm is the better size.) The bowsprit is both glued on and tied into place with two ropes that run through predrilled holes. I used a common whipping knot for the ropes. There's a bit of clean-up to do on the side pieces, but hopefully I can make it look better soon.

 

Next steps: Clean up the beakhead, then install the rub rails. 

[HakeZou]

The last two evenings, I've enjoyed several hours of distraction and, perhaps, a bit of procrastination. This has allowed me to make some impressive looking progress! In reality, though, there are a lot of preformed pieces involved, so things went more quickly than they might have otherwise.

 

First, a profile shot of the model as she stands now. The rub strip is leftover wood from another kit...I think it might be birch? I like the contrast with the sapele on the hull. Just so I can use it as a reference while working on the deck fittings, I also put the mast in place. It's not installed yet, but does fit nicely and give a good perspective. Many of the measurements in the inventory list seem generous and I suspect that's true with the mast too—it just seems too tall for a lateen rig.

After installing the rub strip, I started working on the rudder. The pieces came together quickly, since the blade and the splices are pre-cut plywood. I shaped the tiller out of a 3x3 piece of obechi that came with the kit. I think I probably need to keep sanding down the tiller, since the handle portion still seems a bit too thick. The big challenge I've run into here is that I'm planning to add hardware in a different way than the kit's plans. Originally, the tiller and the sternpost portion of the spine had tabs sticking out, with the idea that they would be glued together. I think that would look fine if they were painted, but I'm now committed to not painting this ship and have sanded off the tabs. I bought a thin plate of brass, thinking I could cut some strips from that. Unfortunately, I don't have adequate equipment for that task, so I'm holding off on installing the rudder until I have a solution for the hardward. Right now, I'm considering four options: 1) connecting eyebolts as hinges; 2) painting aluminum foil with brass paint, then using that for the metal braces and hinges, with a short piece of brass wire as the hinge pin; 3) picking up some brass foil and doing the same solution as #2; or 4) using aluminum or brass foil for the braces and eyebolts for the hinges.   

In the meantime, I got started on the deck fittings, which I've broken into three stages: the bow, midships, and the aftdeck. Since the rudder is involved in everything on the aftdeck, I started at the other end. First up were a pair of knees to support the stempost and beakhead, along with the splash guards. These are all pre-cut plywood, so just needed to be cleaned up and installed. Next, I did the forward bitts. Since there's so much light-colored wood up front, I replaced the 3x3 obechi with some 4x4 walnut that I had sitting around. I have mixed feelings about these, but they're small enough that they were a pain to shape. So, once the glue sets, I am planning to sand down the tops a bit more, to round the heads and make sure they match each other better. Third, I made the athwartship beam out of the same 4x4 walnut. The two support pieces are pre-cut plywood, so I just had to clean them up and adjust them a little bit to accept a slightly oversized beam. Finally, the forward hatch consists of two pre-cut plywood pieces. 

With the beam in place, you can really see how much the deck warped! The more I look at this photo, the more I want to just replace the starboard bitt...

 

Next steps: install the midship deck fittings, then solve the problem with the rudder hardware.

 

[RDDP]

Great seeing your progress ! The contrast you are setting up with the different woods is very appealing. I really appreciate the subtle custom changes you are making to the original design. Very nice work !

[HakeZou]

Thanks, RDDP! I've ended up doing a bit more kitbashing than I originally intended...maybe I should adjust the title of this log. The risk of increasing knowledge and skills, I guess, when I can see a better solution for the boat in my hands!

 

This evening, our living room was in disarray for some carpet repairs. While the rest of the family went off to their bedrooms, I slipped into the basement and had a very productive session working on the midships deck fittings. As I cut out the preformed plywood pieces, I quickly noticed a problem—the coaming for the cargo hatch was not going to look good. I'm not sure if the issue is errors in the manufacturing process or errors in my build. But the curvature of the side pieces was nowhere near the curvature of my deck and I was not convinced that they would line up quite right with my hatch. You can see some of this in this rough fit of the pieces below.

I also found it weird to have one side of the coaming be obechi and the other three be plywood (this would be less weird if I were following Billing's recommendations for painting). So, I decided to make the other three out of obechi. Thankfully, Billing was generous with the 2x4mm obechi strips intended for the hull, so I had plenty of woodstock that would match. Since I was bashing this coaming, I figured I would also eliminate the butt joints. Mitre joints look much nicer and are pretty easy for me to pull off since I have a pair of mitre shears. The key challenge was the forward joints, where the 2x4 pieces meet the 4x8 block. These two were harder mitre joints than I've ever done! The first one (on the left in the photo) was a smidge too big, but I did much better on the second. Here are a few photos of the blocks as I cut them and then dry fit on my cutting mat.

 

Once I installed the coaming, I went ahead and finally added the top layer of wine barrels. The plans call for a plastic lifeboat to be sitting on cradles that straddle the cargo hatch; I'm leaving all of that off.

With the hard part done, I turned to the pieces on the forward side of the mast. Apart from the hatch, I'm really not sure what the function of the other pieces is, so I won't spend any time describing them. But, a low-angle and a high-angle shot of them, with the mast in place.

 And one final shot of the deck as it is coming together.

Next steps: solving the problem of installing the rudder and then adding everything for the aftdeck and stern. That portion will be significantly more complicated than the deck fittings that I've already done; definitely not a project for a single evening as the forward and midships portions both were.

[BobG]

That's some really nice work, Hake!

[HakeZou]

Thanks, Bob!

 

I decided to cut out the pieces that will be installed around the aftdeck, just so I'd have them ready when I was. Then, as I laid them out, I realized that these are installed in two groups: a companionway along with a superstructure that is built on the cap rail and over the rudder. And then I couldn't stop myself and dove into the companionway.

 

According to the plans, the companionway is built from five pieces of pre-cut plywood. Once I had the four walls assembled, I couldn't help but think that it looked really plain and that the edges of the plywood didn't look right. So, I made two doors out of sapele, adding door handles made from brass wire. Then, I used some leftover decking planks to line the other three walls. I was planning to just use the plywood roof piece, but had trouble getting it to curve appropriately, so I replaced it with some more leftover decking planks.

 

I didn't think to take photos of the process, but here are a few photos of the completed companionway. Not installed yet; it's just sitting in place for now. There's still a bit of clean-up to do, too.

Next steps: installing the rudder and the stern superstructure. I ended up deciding to order some rudder hinges; since the rudder has to be installed next, there won't be any significant progress until those arrive.

[HakeZou]

One of the new challenges for me is that the Martegaou kit does not come with pre-made sails. Since I'm still waiting on the rudder hinges to arrive, last week I started researching how to make sails out of the bolt of sailcloth that came in the box. Surprisingly, I didn't find as much on MSW as I had hoped (though I didn't search the buildlogs as deeply as I could have), but I did find a very helpful tutorial on YouTube by Davao Ship Modeller. Since I made a couple adaptations to Davao's process, I thought I'd go into some detail here.

 

First, I taped down a piece of parchment paper on top of the diagram that came in the instructions. Then, I traced all of the lines with a very fine point Sharpie. After cutting out my new templates, I was ready to roll. 

Next, I needed to pin the template onto the sailcloth. In Davao's video, they had some larger pieces of wood that clearly worked really well. With my wood stock, however, I had to go with something considerably more light weight, some 2x5mm planks. They did the job, but it definitely took some finagling to get adequate tension on both the parchment paper and the sailcloth. Once I had satisfactory tension, I attached the template to the fabric with straight pins and then removed the wooden frame.

 

 

Now, I was ready for the sewing machine. My daughter and I are the only ones in the family who know how to sew, so I've been able to lay claim to the machine for the past week. However, my machine sewing has been VERY limited; as a kid, my mom taught me needlecrafts, but I never used a machine until a few years ago. Since I had only ever used the machine to sew on Scout patches, these two sails were going to be my most ambitious project by far. With some trepidation, I set to work on the seams of the staysail...I started with the smaller sail just in case things went horribly wrong. In the end, it turned out okay. Definitely not perfect, but good enough. It's a bit hard to see in the photo, but this is the back side of what I was sewing, showing the seams on the sailcloth, with the template side facing down.

Next up, the part I was most concerned about: hemming the sail. I've only hemmed things once and my mom was standing over me to ensure that I got it right. I was definitely in over my head on this part, but I managed to make a simple hem. Not a good one, but I think good enough and I definitely learned how to do it better on the next ones. The first photo here shows me folding and pinning the first hem. The second shows the staysail after I had hemmed all three sides and pulled off the parchment paper. (There was still a bit of Dritz Fray Check drying on the corners, which is why they look off color here.)

Finally, I added the bolt rope, leaving a bit of thread at the corners for loops to use as attachment points. Following Davao's model, I used some diluted PVA glue for this task. I'm planning to sew them more securely into place...but I need to find the manual for the sewing machine so I can figure out the right setting for that task.

After spending most of the week figuring out how to do the staysail, the mainsail went much more quickly and turned out better. The mainsail still needs its bolt rope, but otherwise, I think these are pretty well set for now. For a first attempt at making sails, I'm really pleased with how these turned out! There are definitely some imperfections and some simplifications. I'm not in a rush to make more sails, but at least I know I can if I need to.

Toward the end of the Davao video (beginning at 4:08), they show a method of making the sail appear as if it has caught the wind. I like the look of that and so may do that, but if so, I'll wait until I'm closer to the point of actually hanging the sails. For now, they'll just sit off to the side, though I might build the antenne and attach the mainsail while I wait on the rudder hinges to arrive.

[HakeZou]

I'm doing a bit of thinking aloud in this post, so would definitely welcome some feedback. While I'm still waiting on the rudder hinges to arrive (two more days!), I've continued tinkering away a bit. I've built the antenne and am applying finish before adding the ties and the sails. I've also started cleaning up the pieces for the stern superstructure. 

 

While studying Baugean's woodcut of "Une Allège d'Arles descendant le Rhône," I noticed that the upper transom seemed to bear a version of the city's coat of arms. Here's a detail of the woodcut and the version of the coat of arms that I pulled from Wikipedia. In the woodcut, I think that I see the lion of Arles below a banner that presumably reads either "CIV. AREL." (abbreviation for Civitas Arelatensis) or "AB IRA LEONIS" (the city's motto, "From the anger of the lion").

Ambitiously, I'm trying to do something a little bit similar on my upper transom. My plan involves three-layers of wood lining to recreate the banner on the city's coat of arms. The bottom layer of sepele has been cut so that triangles stick out on the sides. The middle layer is also sapele and is just a simple rectangle. The top layer is birch (I think...leftover wood from another kit and I'm not certain); I'm trimming it to be a smaller rectangle framed by the middle layer. I tried writing "CIV. AREL." in very fine point Sharpie, but it looked terrible since the ink bled. My best attempt so far has been to write that in pencil...but I'm not convinced that it adds anything more than a blank piece of wood would do.

Any thoughts or advice on this? Am I trying to do too much here? Is there a better technique for writing on wood? At the very least, I would need to take another stab at writing the city's name more neatly.

[HakeZou]

My rudder hinges arrived early! With those, I was able to finish up and install the rudder. And then I got on a roll and finished installing the superstructure on the stern. From the time I began researching these allèges, I was baffled by that superstructure. I knew it had to have a function, but I just couldn't imagine what it was. As you'll notice in the photos, I think I've figured it out! I think it's an elaborate cradle for the antenne. At scale, the antenne would be about 30 meters long (almost 100 feet), whereas the deck would only be about 22 meters (almost 75 feet). The superstructure extends the length of the ship and would provide a more stable resting place when the antenne isn't in use.

 

Anyhow, some photos, since the assembly of the hull, deck fittings, and superstructure are now complete. First, the overall impression.

Now, some shots of the superstructure. The wings were a special challenge, since they are thick plywood pieces that need to be bent with some challenging curves. After I was satisfied with the curves, I lined them with sapele. On the upper transom, I ended up deciding to use a blank piece of birch on the scroll, without any writing; I just wasn't satisfied with my penmanship, even after several attempts. The superstructure as a whole was a real pain to assemble and the alignment is a little wonky. In hindsight, I should have thought to use pins to mount the wings on the cap rail and to attach the upper transom to the wings. CA glue is getting the job done, but there are some blemishes. Hopefully my carelessness will be a good reminder for others building the ship! 

Finally, a close-up of the antenne. After shaping the two yards to fit snugly into each other, I glued them together. Then, I attached bindings using common whipping knots. The yards are supposed to overlap to a much longer extent, but I'm not sure that I actually received enough 3mm wood dowels. I ended up using one from the kit and one that I had in my woodstock. The long binding rests against the mast.

Next steps: apply finish to everything I've built so far; finish the bolt ropes on the sails; finish working out my rigging plan. The rigging plan in the instructions seems mostly fine, but I am reversing it, since I'm planning to display my ship going the opposite direction. In addition, I've been studying how tkay11 did the rigging on his Allège d'Arles and I'm starting to get ideas again...

[HakeZou]

A bit more progress to report. Most importantly, I have now finished the sails! Before this week, all that I had left to do was sew on the bolt ropes. After a bit of research, it seemed like the best way to do this was a whip stitch, hand-sewn rather than with the machine. I'm not quite sure how long it took to do this...it really helped to get into a zen kind of space in which I completely lost track of time. The whip stitch is very simple, but it was really repetitive—a stitch every 2.5-3mm around two sails whose perimeters add up to about 140cm. However, I'm really pleased with how these turned out, especially since they're the first sails that I've made from scratch! I've hand-washed them, crumpled them, and then let them air dry.

My other big accomplishment has been to assemble the mast. After studying tkay11's Allège d'Arles build and the Ancre plans, I decided to kitbash this a bit. I cut a couple grooves for the shrouds. Then, I added a calcet, mounted to the top of the mast and reinforced with the shaft of a brass pin whose head I had removed. Finally, I installed the flagstaff. In the kit, the flagstaff is simply attached to the flat top of the mast. But in all of the paintings and other plans that I've seen, the flagstaff is mounted on the side of the calcet. After considering some options, I decided to use a couple spare pieces of brass strip to mount the flagstaff onto the calcet. The eyebolt at the top will be for the flag's halyard.  

 

Next steps: attach the mainsail to the antenne, step the mast, and start on the rigging.

[HakeZou]

I probably spent a bit more time on the Martegaou today than I should have, but it made for a relaxing morning and evening. After lashing the mainsail to the antenne, I installed the mast. Then this evening, I ran the shrouds. 

 

As I worked out my rigging plans, I made a number of changes from the plans that come with the kit. Most significantly, the kit calls for a number of belaying pins and blocks to be mounted on the cap rail. This is different from what I've seen in a number of sources, especially Pâris's Souvenirs de marine conservés and the ANCRE monograph on the Allège d'Arles. So instead, I'll be using a combination of eyebolts mounted on the deck and rails mounted on the bulwarks.

 

The shrouds give some sense of what I've planned. First, I'm using some leftover brown cotton thread for the fixed parts of the rigging. The white thread came with the kit and will be used for the running rigging and the adjustable parts of the standing rigging. The "small stuff" used for seizing blocks is just white sewing thread. The rope coils are genuinely the excess rope from the adjustable parts of the shrouds; I wrapped them around the handle of my Exacto knife, dabbed on some Dritz FrayCheck, then adjusted it until I was satisfied.

Next steps: rig and hang the mainsail.

[HakeZou]

After a lot of hours in the basement today (in between mowing, walking the dog, and chauffeuring the kids), I've hung the mainsail! I made a point to seize all of the ropes at all fixed attachment points, using two seizing knots for each. This detail is a step up from what I've done in previous kits and I'm glad I did it! All of those attachment points look much better than when I had used simple overhand and square knots on my other ships. It took a LOT of patience, but I really got in the zone and was able to work through everything...and only had to tear out about three or four of the seizing knots.

 

I get a real sense of satisfaction out of creating rigging that actually works. So, along the way, I stopped for a couple tests and photos. First up was a shot of the mainsail halyard before the antenne had been hoisted. You can see the working portion of the halyard dangling onto the table. If you look carefully, you may also notice that I added some parrel beads...that might have been a case of me getting carried away, but I had a bunch of beads left over from my Endurance build and this seemed like a good place to use them. I also repositioned the cleats for the mainsail and staysail halyards; in the plans, they are mounted on one side of the mast, but I moved them to the block just forward of the mast.

Next were the brailing lines. Although I've made a couple lateen rigs before, none of the prior kits included brailing lines. So, this test was about better understanding how they work. The plans aren't all that clear on how to install these lines, so here's how I ended up doing it. Like the plans, I only installed two brailing lines, though in hindsight I think it probably should have three. First, I mounted blocks on either side of the antenne, lining up with about the half- and three-quarters levels of the sail's leech. I lashed these on, but also used a bit of CA glue for a bit of extra strength. Then, I ran the line through the small gap between the sail's leech and the bolt rope, aligning the center point of the line here. From the leech, each line runs along both faces of the sail to the blocks on the antenne; from there, it drops to the deck on both sides and is tied off on the rail that I installed. (I think the plans drop the lines down to a single belaying pin mounted on the cap rail.) In this photo, the brailing lines are still dangling on the table, gator clipped together on the port side of the ship.

  

After that, it was time to start running the various lines that control the antenne. I also hoisted the flag, since its halyard would be hard to access if I waited any longer. It was a long day's work, but I really wanted to get all of these lines set and not have to stop halfway through. In the second photo here, you'll notice a lot of rope coils; since there are no measurements given for any of the ropes, I was guessing at lengths. After cutting a couple too short, I made a point to cut things very generously. Each of those rope coils is actually the excess once I pulled the line taut.  

 

Next (final!) step: rig and hang the staysail, which will be a MUCH simpler task than the mainsail.

[BobG]

This model is really looking good, Hake!

[HakeZou]

Et voilà! My work on the staysail went smoothly and fairly quickly, so the build is done! 

 

When I set out to build this kit, I wrote that I had three goals:

1. Focus primarily on improving my skills, particularly in regard to planking the hull and the deck. I'm really pleased with how the hull turned out! I learned how to prepare a rabbet line and was much more careful while shaping the planks. It's not perfectly symmetrical, but it's smooth and beautiful. And there isn't any wood filler on the hull, which is a first for me! Generally speaking, I like how the deck looks. I laid black string between the planks to simulate caulking, which was a new technique for me. I have very mixed feelings about how that turned out and it created a number of extra hassles....I'm not sure whether I'll do that again, but I'll also spend some time studying other builds that use that technique so I can learn how to do it better. Beyond the hull and the deck, it was a completely new experience for me to make my own sails and flag.
2. Make a good enough build that I don't have to use paint to cover up mistakes. A definite success here! I got some nice variation in color by using several different types of wood. I used satin varnish, but no paint or wood stain.
3. Try some kitbashing and upgrading. I did a lot more of this than I originally planned to do and am very pleased about how those upgrades look.

All in all, this feels like a big success for me, though in a different way from building the Endurance, which is the largest and most complicated build I've attempted yet. This build focused much more on getting the small details right and I think I did a good job of that. I let my imagination run free, too, which gave me some creative solutions for the upgrades.

 

A quick review of the kit for others considering the Martegaou: Although this is a smaller model with relatively simple rigging and not too many detailed bits to build, it's not a great choice for a raw beginner. Billing labels it as "advanced beginner," which feels about right to me. It's a good challenge for somebody who has built a couple kits and who is looking to improve their skills. For more experienced builders, it's a blank canvas in a lot of ways, creating a lot of opportunities for kitbashing. Just with the rigging, there are a lot of opportunities to create different sail and mast configurations to match the various images of the allèges that I shared in my first post; I can imagine a striking version of this kit riding a tailwind, with the mainsail thrown all the out to the side and with the staysail mounted on a boom thrown out to the opposite side—along the lines of Baugean's woodcut of the Allège d'Arles descendant le Rhône. Although I had some frustrations along the way (especially with the warping of the thin plywood sheet that includes the deck pieces), it was a satisfying and enjoyable build.

 

And now, the glamour shots, taken out on the back deck with the sails catching a gentle breeze!

 

 

[BobG]

Wonderful model, Hake! Congratulations on yet another great build.

[HakeZou]

2 hours ago, BobG said:

Wonderful model, Hake! Congratulations on yet another great build.

Thanks, Bob! And thanks for cheering me on again!

[clearway]

[ccoyle]

Very striking! I enjoyed the sequence of photos showing the yard being hoisted.

 

Cheers!

[HakeZou]

3 hours ago, ccoyle said:

Very striking! I enjoyed the sequence of photos showing the yard being hoisted.

 

Cheers!

Thanks, Chris! As somebody who has only sailed once (and then only with an under-experienced friend who couldn't handle the high winds that day), it's really satisfying to create functional rigging that helps me better understand how it all works! 

[GrandpaPhil]

Congratulations!  Well done!

[RDDP]

Beautiful work Hake !

[Calico Jack]

Congratulations on a great build. I am new to the forum and just getting set to start my own attempt at the Le Martegaou. Well done.