Young America 1853 by EdT - FINISHED - extreme clipper

[AnobiumPunctatum]

Wow,

 

your model becomes nicer and nicer. I like your precise work very much.

[Jack12477]

Fabulous work Ed. How long is the model? I'm guessing close to 4 feet ?

[EdT]

Jack, stem to stern she is about 44".

 

Ed

[amateur]

I was wondering the other dimension: when she is fully rigged how long will her main mast be?

 

Jan

[EdT]

Jan, that will takes some checking.  Look in later.

 

Ed

[EdT]

Young America - extreme clipper 1853
Part 96 – Planksheer continued

 

In the first picture the starboard planksheer rail is being fitted at the bow.

 

 

Pins were needed here to hold the position when clamping due to the outward flare of the sides.  This part of the rail also had to be beveled on the back side to keep the top face level.

 

In the next picture the inside rail on the port side is being glued.

 

 

While the glue on that rail was drying the starboard outer rail was glued. 

 

 

As you can see it was all hands on deck for the clamps.  Anything that resembled a clamp was drafted into service to keep every part of the rail tight to the side.  The next picture is a close-up of the forward rail on the starboard side.

 

 

In the next picture a dummy bowsprit has been fitted and planking has begun above the rail on this side.

 

 

I am using hard maple for the external planking.  It will be painted.  The last picture shows the port side ready for the outer rail.  The inner rails and spacers between top-timbers are now completely installed on both sides.

 

 

Getting these rails finished – including around the elliptical stern – and planking up to the main rail is the next order of business.

 

Ed

[dgbot]

At work we had a saying you never have enough clamps when you need them.

David B

[SawdustDave]

I do not think I have ever seen anything so perfect. Just amazing.

 

Dave

[Erebus and Terror]

I continue to learn so much from your posts. Thanks for the care you put into them.

[EdT]

Thank you all.  I am glad to be finished with the major deck framing effort and to be getting into some different interesting work.

 

Jan, to answer your question from a few posts back, the 1:72 model will be about 36" high from keel to the top of the mainmast - almost 220' on the real ship.

 

Ed

[dgbot]

Thank you all.  I am glad to be finished with the major deck framing effort and to be getting into some different interesting work.

 

Jan, to answer your question from a few posts back, the 1:72 model will be about 36" high from keel to the top of the mainmast - almost 220' on the real ship.

 

Where do you find the room?

David B

[EdT]

Young America - extreme clipper 1853
Part 97 – Planksheer / Main Rail

 

In the first picture the a portion of the port outer planksheer rail is being fitted.

 

 

The height gauge is being used here to check the height along the rail before inserting pins to hold the correct line.  This part of the rail needs to be beveled to fit against the flare of the bow.  In the next picture the rail is being glued with the pins holding the line.

 

 

I spent a lot of time checking heights this week.  In the next picture the height of the lower edge of the main rail is being marked out to set the top of the band of planking between the rails.

 

 

The distance between the height of the planksheer and the main rail varies over the length of the hull.  This became apparent when setting these points.  It seemed wrong, but the drawings verified this.  This made me suspect my drawings but the original table of offsets confirmed the variation.  The planking of this band between the two rails is further complicated by the flare out at the bow.   This makes the true projection of the band wider than shown on the vertical section.  These differences are small, but critical if the planking is going to converge at the top of the frames.  I was doing a lot of height checking this week.

 

A part of the inside of the main rail and fillers between frames have been installed in the next picture.

 

 

The “look” of the inside of the bulwarks is starting to emerge.  An outside view of this work at the bow is shown in the next picture.

 

 

The bottom of the inside of the main rail must match the height of the top of the outer band of planking.  The next picture shows why.

 

 

In this picture the outer main rail is being fitted. Its top is flush with the tops of the filling pieces between frames.  All these rails are horizontal.  The last picture shows the inside of the bow at this stage before fitting the main rail in this area.  I say "fitting" because the outer main rail will not be installed until later - for painting reasons.

 

 

The next step is to install the thin planking above the main rail up to the tops of the frames leaving a tight space for the outer main rail.  This will be installed after the surrounding planking and the rail itself are painted - black and white respectively.  It is also time to fit the rails and planking around the elliptical stern.  Can’t wait.

 

Time for a holiday break.  Happy Thanksgiving everyone – well at least everyone in America.  My British friends used to tell me they celebrated thanksgiving on July 4th.

 

Cheers,

 

Ed

[SJSoane]

 

Beautiful, beautiful, Ed. A joy to watch.

 

I heard the same thing from British friends about Thanksgiving when I lived in London. But I couldn't find the fixings for a Thanksgiving dinner either in November or July. Guy Fawkes bonfires more than made up for it! ;-)

 

Mark

[dvm27]

Sorry, but the like button just doesn't cut it for work like this.  Your updates are highly anticipated by all of us. Take a few days off for Thanksgiving then get back to work!

[PeterK]

Ed,

I concur with Greg.

Stuff a good turkey, have a cool beer or a jug of red wine ... and relax, in order that you get back to your admirable undertaking.

From Hamburg with admiration

Peter

[druxey]

All that height checking and re-checking is obviously paying off handsomely, Ed. Well done! A happy Thanksgiving to you. North of the border we jumped the gun on that celebration - as usual.

[Maury S]

Ed, Along with everything else, you're teaching us about patience.  I can't wait for the next installment.  Happy Thanksgiving to all.

Maury

[EdT]

Thanks, everyone - on Thanksgiving morning - that means I have chores to do.

 

Druxey, I will not hide the fact that it was only a lot of checking.  There was some remedial rework - and as always with rework, some lessons learned.  One is that (if I do this again)  I will always leave generous excess in the lengths of the top timbers - as they did in the shipyards.

 

Thanks, Maury.  The only thing I know about patience is that I haven't got a lot of it.

 

Again, Happy Thanksgiving, all.

[michael mott]

 

The only thing I know about patience is that I haven't got a lot of it.

Well Ed, you could have fooled me.

I agree with Greg the like button have to give way for a comment regarding the quality of this build more often than not.

 

Yes and enjoy the thanksgiving time, we all harvest what we sow.

 

Michael

[EdT]

Young America - extreme clipper 1853
Part 98 – Planksheer / Main Rail continued

 

The planksheer rail around the stern was made from hard maple.  Although the remainder of the rail is Castelo, my stock was too old and dry to bend around to the required curve.  No problem with the maple.  All the maple will be painted.  In the first picture the section around the stern has been formed and is being beveled to fit against the slanting frame timbers.

 

 

In the next picture the rail is being positioned and pinned at the proper heights using the height gauge.

 

 

This fitting took some time.  The bevel of the rail is most pronounced at the very stern and is vertical at the forward ends of the piece.  With the pins setting the heights, the rail was glued into place as shown below.

 

 

Lots of clamps required for this.

 

There was a lot of waiting during the forming and gluing of the stern rail, so work continued concurrently at the bow.  In the next picture, planking above the main rail is proceeding.

 

 

Space has been left for the main rail itself.  This will be installed after it and the surrounding planking are painted – as described earlier.  In the next picture all of this planking has been treenailed.

 

 

Once the planksheer rail around the stern was installed, the rail was continued forward on the port side.  In the next picture it is held in position with pins and is being glued.

 

 

Planking of the upper sides will now continue up to the top rail – the fancy rail.

  

Ed

[NHDave]

I can't help but compare the lines of Young America's stern to that of a modern ship. One gets the feeling that a fold in the plans was reached in the latter, and the stern was terminated right then and there with no further ceremony.

 

Dave

[dgbot]

Ed you have the patience of a saint and the hands of an artist.  

David B

[EdT]

Dave,

 

The clipper sterns were kept small - just large enough to accommodate the helm and the rudder mechanism.  They were light and raised up to reduce drag when heeled.  Gone were the wide wing transoms and full buttocks of earlier years.

 

Ed

[Erebus and Terror]

I marvel at your speed and precision. I simply cannot work that fast and do anything credible! I'm sure experience and technique goes a long way, but talent must certainly be part of your amazing progress.  

[EdT]

Thank you, E&T. Very kind words.  Right now I am a bit stressed over both progress and precision - and of course the two are sometimes in conflict as you must well know.  The work on the upper bulwarks and rails - especially around the stern - is going slower than my impatience would like, but with the long sleek lines of the ship there is little room for error because every bump or imbalance stands out.  The work has taken me back through the drafting process and even to the original table of offsets on a few occasions.   I sometimes long for the complex breaks in line and the clutter of external features of the earlier ships. But the challenge is part of the deal - so who's complaining?

 

Ed 

[dgbot]

That to me has always been a sore spot. On fishing schooners and other vessels with those kind of lines you have to be careful not to interrupt the flow.  This was paramount when I started on my latham.  I did a solid hull and every time I thought I was done with the hull I found a mistake very easily.  I love the look of vessels like yours but dread building them because you can drive yourself nuts trying to keep the flow of the lines constant.  I went through 4 hulls before I was satisfied.  But I also had several judges looking over my shoulder and giving me advice e at the same time.

David B

[michael mott]

Ed looking at that third photograph with all the clamps, brings to mind how that area of the full size ship must have been the site of many shipwrights working together to accomplish such a complex part of the hull. Getting that shape right 72 times larger it would have also been very heavy to lift at fit, no doubt a lot of sweat was lost during that task.

 

I continue to enjoy your attention to the details and the very fine workmanship.

 

Michael

[EdT]

I know what you mean, Micheal.  I have some 12' lengths of 4 x 6 Douglas Fir in my workshop - about the size of YA's stern planking in fact.  Whenever I look at it these days I think of the effort it must have taken to wrap one these around a 15' radius at an angle through its cross-section some 30 odd feet in the air.  One can only admire what it took to build one of these monsters in those days.

 

Ed 

[dgbot]

Many people tend to forget that though our life span is longer which is do to dietary and medical breakthroughs most of the work was done by bute force and leverage.  I remember on  MSW1 someone posted a youtube link to video of a chain making facility and when you see the workers handling those links you say where are the labor laws.  And I do not wish to arm wrestle any of them.  Construction and mining demanded strong muscles because you were dealing ith heavy material all day and the employer would try to save money by not getting a forklift etc. because that is what you were there for.  A show on PBS called Prairie House took several families and dropped them off in the Wyoming prairie like the original homesteaders.  Body mass and fat were measured.  Back in those days there was little fat in food. and since most work was physical by nature you had a good deal of muscle mass and very little body fat.  Case in point.  I remember seeing old photos of my grandfather when he was clearing his fields when he still worked his farm.  Hoisting rocks and stones the size of basketballs over his head and putting them in the trailer.  At the age of 67 he could still change a heavy damaged part on his equipment with little help. I tried and was winded.  I use to help with hay bailing.  He could lift those bails along with the rest of us if he wanted to , but I am glad he did not.  He was in his late 60s and I did not want him to get hurt.

David B

[GMO2]

I have always wondered about the tolerances the oldtime shiprights had to maintain if the ship was not to work itself loose and not come apart in heavy seas.Getting a piece out of a baulk of oak weighing several hundred pounds,curving in two directions and with a constantly changing bevel,and being precisely notched to fit other equally complex pieces with adzes and other hand tools would be amazing to watch.