Young America 1853 by EdT - FINISHED - extreme clipper

[Jim Lad]

Beautiful work; clear explanation - thanks, Ed.

 

John

[Elia]

John,

 

So true. Excellent detailing and explanation, Ed.

 

Elia

[newbuilder101]

Just finished catching up and am looking forward to this build with great interest. Your keel and stem are nothing less than exceptional - not surprising after following your Naiad! 

[harvey1847]

What a beautiful work Ed!

 

Every single part is so well explain that in some way is like reading a book in fascicles delivered every single week…

 

I just could not resist to attached some pics from Charles G. David´s book (The Built-Up Ship Model). Has nothing to do with the YA but are quite inspirational pictures. The size of the ship is going to be amazing and fully framed!

 

Best wishes.

 

 

Daniel.

 

 

 

 

 

[EdT]

Thank you all for these comments. 

 

Thank you, Daniel, for posting the pictures.  I love old shipyard photos.  The clutter and seeming confusion reminds me a lot of my workshop.  I believe those framing platforms were often set up fore and aft of the first erected frames, then moved as the erection progressed.

 

I wanted to mention in the last post, that the four stem pieces were the second set to be made.  The first set were slightly undersized, something I did not notice until matching them to the drawing. The reason for this was that the pdf printing was set on "shrink to fit oversized pages" instead of "actual size" - a very slight difference.   I usually eliminate this issue by making sure the drawing does not need to be shrunk to fit, but on these early sheets I often don't get those checks made.     I am well versed in all of these Adobe software settings, having wrestled with them -  endlessly it seems - to get all of the Naiad CAD drawings published at the right scale and page size on pdfs.  However, eternal vigilance is required.  Settings carry over from the previous print job, so it is easy to print at the wrong scale.  I mention this as a reminder to always check through the print settings when printing patterns or drawings from pdfs.  Save yourself some work - and material.

 

Hope this helps someone out there.

 

Ed

[Mahuna]

Ed

 

I appreciate your thorough explanations, even covering Adobe settings and using your own errors as teaching points.  What a learning experience your build logs are!

 

Frank

[druxey]

Automatic scaling with either Adobe or with the resident software on one's printer is something to be eternally vigilant for!

[albert]

Beautiful work, excellent detailing, fantastic. 

[the learner]

Great start Ed! anouther fantastic build. I too have noticed when printing out pdf files one has to make sure they are using the same settings or there will be a slight diffrence in size and once printed one does not find out until fitting the parts.

[rwiederrich]

David MacGregor's book, *British and American Clippers* has a great wright up on the YA and shows hull line drawings along with deck details and a sail plan and some fine photographs.

 

Rob.

Edited September 20, 2013 by rwiederrich

[EdT]

Thanks for the comments and the tips.

 

Walt, the clamps are homemade.  There is some descrition in my Naiad build log and there are dimensioned drawings and a complte description inmy book - The Naiad Frigate, Vol I.  See the links below.

 

Ed

[rwiederrich]

Hey Ed..after doing some research on the Young America..it appears there is a discrepancy from several sources as to weather she had a raised poop deck aft of the mizzen. Crothers deck layout shows she does..but several pronounced Nautical paintings I have reviewed of her from Mystic Seaport Museum shows she only had two skylights aft of the mizzen.  Do you have a qualified deck layout plan you can share and its parentage?

I realize there are extremely limited resources on the subject..since most clipper plans are not with us any longer.

 

Most apprecaited.

 

Rob

[EdT]

Rob, I am away at the moment so will not be able to answer your question for a few days.

 

Ed

[michael mott]

Ed thank you for your clear and concise explanations about how you are building this model. I am enjoying following along and always learning.

 

Michael

[the learner]

Hi Ed,

A start to anouther fine Build with fantastic detail

Guy

[Menno]

Quote

 

"Crothers shows these in his book and it took me sometime to figure out how they worked.  It starts with the assumption that water will migrate into the scarph joints of the keel.  Given that these would be 20' or so below water, there would clearly be pressure pushing the water into the hull - bypassing the caulking of the garboard strake.  So, these are placed at the center of the rabbet at the bottom of the lip on the upper tier of the keel.  Caulking would rech their ends here, providing a seal across the joint.    The tight fit of the cylinder would block water in the joint.  Neat detail.  There are a few more in the stem and sternpost below the waterline,  serving the same purpose. "

 

 

 

Yes, there is no way where you can create an uninterupted caulk seam where two seams meet from a different angle simple because you can't reach all under that angle with a caulk chisel. That where you use a wooden nail with a higher expansion capacity then the surrounding wood when exposed to water. We use this method at a shipyard in Holland for restoring for instance botters and it turnes out to be very effective.

 

Keep up the good work. I'm following it with a lot of interest. (actually I'm jealous)

Edited September 24, 2013 by Menno

[EdT]

Thank you, Micheal Guy and Menno.

 

Still away, so no work is going on this week.

 

Ed

[rwiederrich]

Take your needed time off....when ready..we will be here.

 

Rob

[EdT]

Rob, with regard to your question on Young America's poop deck, Crothers plans show a 44 foot long poop at the level of the fancy rail with two skylights aft of the mizzen.  This is also shown on p. 416 of his book.  There are 4 references listed for this diagram - the original offsets (which may not be relevant to the poop itself), the two photos and Howe and Matthews, American Clipper Ships 1833-1858, orig pub 1926-1927.  The photo from the starboard quarter shows men standing at the level of the fancy rail on the poop.  I posted this photo in Part 1.  Howe and Matthews say she had a 42' long poor deck.  On his plans, Crothers has made this 44' (I believe correctly), probably because there is no supporting deck beam for the poop bulkhead at 42'.  Below the poop there is an intermediate deck that is stepped down from the main deck, which is at the level of the planksheer. The fancy rail runs generally about 4 feet above the planksheer.  I cannot discern any definitive poop detail from the images I have of some paintings. 

 

Lacking anything more definitive than the photos, Howe and Matthews writeup and Crothers work, I expect to follow his interpretation. 

 

Except for setting out the deck heights on the various sheer views, I have made no drawings, as yet, of these deck details.

 

Ed

[rwiederrich]

I concur.  My writen references mimic your own....I asked because I have several painting images that do not show any elevated poop.

[EdT]

Young America - extreme clipper 1853
Part 8 – Sternpost

A week’s vacation and some additional necessary research have interrupted the construction work.

The beach at Cape May, New Jersey faces south, looking out across the mouth of the Delaware Bay. It was interesting to contemplate Young America traversing that stretch of water on her last cruise in 1886. Victorian bathers on this beach may have been the last people to see her. My family was – not too surprisingly - unimpressed with this observation.

Before proceeding with the sternpost, I needed to do some additional drafting to confirm the correct height of this and the inner post. This required some speculation on the framing of her circular stern. Some of these decisions are subtle, but need to be made. I finally decided to go with a transomless stern. This will be covered much later – after the aft cant framing.

The first picture shows the sternpost and inner post cut out based on the latest patterns.



The sternpost is 18” wide at the top – tapering to the 16” wide keel breadth at the bottom – same for the inner post.

The aft face of the sternpost is beveled at 21 degrees on each side with the plane of the angles passing through the centers of the pintle bearings. I bearded this angle using the tilting table of the disk sander set at 21 degrees –bringing the bevels to a point on the centerline of the post. The first sanding step is shown in the next picture.



The aft face was then planed back to leave room for the pintles with the outside corners appropriately beveled. The final siding of the post (fore and aft) was then sized on the circular saw.

The post was then tapered slightly – and very carefully - on both sides to keel breadth at the bottom on the belt sander as shown below.



After forming a tenon on the bottom of the post, the mortise for it in the keel was then cut as shown below using a small mortise chisel.



The pieces were then fit. The next picture shows the joint during this process.



The post rakes aft at a slight angle. I left the post slightly over-length at this stage. The next picture shows the post temporarily fitted.



The inner post was then jointed in the same way. The keel is still slightly over-length at this stage. After the posts were fit, the large sternpost knee was cut out, fitted and glued to the keel.



Installing this knee first assures that the sternpost will be raked at the correct angle. The two posts were next glued together, then glued to the knee and the keel as shown below.



The next step will be to finish the sides, cut the rabbets on the sternpost and join it to the rabbet on the keel.


Ed

[Erebus and Terror]

Beautiful and precise work, based on excellent research. Thank you for posting your research and plans and for describing every step.

[AnobiumPunctatum]

Hi Ed,

 

I found your new log today. It's a very interesting read about a ship and a time whre I don't have any knowledge.

I will follow your log with grat interest.

[EdT]

Young America - extreme clipper 1853
Part 9 – Sternpost Rabbet – Shipway Fixtures

 

Progress continues – if slowly.  A lot of drawing checking and refining of the lines at the stem has taken some time – final adjustments to the waterline intersections to the stem and consequent re-plotting of the rabbet and bearding lines.  I learned from Naiad that its best to get all this correct at the start.

 

In the first picture the straight rabbet on the sternpost is being formed with the scraper used on the keel, but with a holder to set it at the correct line for the post.

 

 

The intersections of the keel and sternpost rabbets were the cut with a v-gouge.

 

 

The corners were then trimmed with a straight paring chisel.

 

 

The area of the deadwood within the rabbet will eventually be pared out.  I would prefer to do some of this work at this stage up to the bearding line while the piece can be laid flat, but unfortunately most of the deadwood is installed over the keelsons in these ships and they cannot be installed until the aft frames are set.

 

They next picture shows the last piece at the stern that can be installed before the frames – this is a filler over the keel between the last square frame and the stern knee.

 

 

Some of the aforementioned bearding line is just visible on the drawing in this picture, just above the center of the knee.

 

Before going much further, the shipway needed to be fitted with fixtures to hold and align the keel assembly.  In the spirit of continuous improvement, these are different from those used on Naiad.  In the first picture a Plexiglas strip is being screwed down to hold the starboard side of the keel. 

 

 

Plexiglas has the advantage of transparency, but it is flexible, so it is being aligned against the straightedge.  The second strip was aligned using the keel and is being screwed down in the next picture.

 

 

The lateral supports for the stem and sternpost are also different.  They are made to allow screw adjustment of the vertical position.  A good idea I picked up from other posts on the forum.  The 6-32  rods are screwed through holes tapped in 3/8" thick Plexiglas.

 

 

 

These end supports will eventually be in the way and will need to be replaced with something else, but that is a long way off and these should work well to keep the hull aligned during framing.

 

 

In the next part I will discuss some design issues that needed to be resolved on the stem before installing the apron.  I am beginning to feel that the erection of the midship frame bend is not far off.

 

 

 

Ed

Edited October 8, 2013 by EdT

[patrickmil]

Ed, I really enjoy watching your builds in progress. Your explanation on all of your steps brings to life the processes you use and makes it feel as though your skill in this hobby is within reach of everyone. 

 

I didn't have an appreciation of how large this model is going to be until that very last photo.

[EdT]

Thank you, Patrick.  I am glad you find these "how to" overviews interesting.  Unfortunately, in this format they are pretty sketchy and not fully descriptive.

 

The  hull will be about 42" long - a large model by my standards - small relative to some others on MSW.  Rigged - if I go that far - it will be quite large.

 

Ed

[rwiederrich]

Awesome Ed.......looking nice.

 

Rob

[newbuilder101]

Starting with perfection....again.

The adjustments for the stem and sternpost are wonderful, and I'm definitely tucking that idea away for future use.

[rwiederrich]

Ed I though my model hulls were big at 28".......42" is stunning.  A hull model is nice at this scale and a finished rigged ships is awesome to say the least.  I need to step up my game.

 

Rob

Edited October 9, 2013 by rwiederrich

[Jim Lad]

She grows, Ed, she grows.  That's going to one very impressive clipper ship!

 

John