Canoa de Rancho by JacquesCousteau - Scale 1:32 - Lake Chapala Fishing and Cabotage Vessel

[JacquesCousteau]

2 hours ago, Glen McGuire said:

Whether they are visible or not, you know what they look like and the high quality of work you put in.  To me that's what really matters.  It seems like half the details I put on my SIB ships are almost impossible to see one it gets in the bottle.  But I know they are there.  You are doing beautiful work here.  Keep it up, JC!

Thanks! I'm finding that it's ultimately more about the build experience than the finished product.

[wefalck]

For some people, building a model is mainly the means to consolidate in a tangible form the results or their research. So it is more about the way than the actual product at the end, although this can also be an aesthetic pleasure, of course.

 

Other people build models to exercise and demonstrate their skills and other just want something pretty on their shelves ...

[JacquesCousteau]

Still trying to figure out the sail material. On the other hand, I think I have the yard finished. I was able to most sand off the reddish stain, although some did stick to parts of the grain. I then added a very heavily thinned layer of gray stain (along the way managing to spill turpentine all over the office--quite a pain to clean up, I will definitely try sticking to stain pens in the future). As can be seen below, the yard looks pretty close to the mast color now:

 

There are still some slight differences, but at least some of it is because the mast and yard are made of different materials that seem to have taken up the stain slightly differently. The mast came from a dowel, presumably birch, while the yard is basswood. The yard looks like a pretty good match for the basswood deck planks, which received the same stain as the mast. 

 

So, all I have to do by now is to glue the furnishings in place, make the sail, and attach the (very simple) rigging.

 

 

In any case, I recently received some very welcome news back on a job application, so I'll be staying in Mexico for at least the next year abd a half. To celebrate, I figured I would start my next build log, for a Chilean coastal sloop (lancha chilota, link in signature). Given that material issues have held up the canoa for now, I don't think a new build will interfere with finishing this one, and I'd already made some progress. Size comparison between the Canoa and the Lancha's skeleton, below:

[JacquesCousteau]

A bit of slow, halting progress on at least some parts of the build. Some people have made quite nice sails from tissue paper, so I thought I'd give it a try, as it's very cheap (I picked up several sheets for a few cents). I felt that my first test sail had been a little too cream-colored, so I tried to make it a bit more gray. A tiny drop of black paint goes a long way! I felt the color was a little dark, but I continued anyway as I could at least use it to test the tissue paper. As can be seen below, it seemed very smooth on the tile, but removing it from the tile (which required a bit of water) left it very wrinkled.

 

 

I decided against adding separate panels or drawing on the panel lines, because I think they will be entirely invisible in the furled sail. I did, though, decide to try adding the reinforcing strips around the edges. Unfortunately, it was quite difficult to add these, or more accurately, to remove the sail once they were added. The attempt led to several rips and tears, and the reinforcements came off in several places. 

 

I realized that part of the issue is that the tile backing needs to be thoroughly cleaned after each use. Things stick too well if there's any residue. Having learned that lesson, I decided to keep using the gray sail as a test, while making a new sail in a better color with greater care:

 

I'll see how this goes. I have to say that the tissue paper is much flimsier than the coffee filter (which is an obvious point I suppose).

[wefalck]

I make my tissue-sails on a board covered tightly with cling-film. Paints and glues faintly stick on it and it can be peeled off instead of peeling the sail off, if needed.

[Glen McGuire]

On 10/23/2024 at 3:03 PM, JacquesCousteau said:

As can be seen below, the yard looks pretty close to the mast color now:

Really nice job on the color match.  That can be difficult, especially with two different types of wood.

[JacquesCousteau]

2 hours ago, wefalck said:

I make my tissue-sails on a board covered tightly with cling-film.

Thanks, I'll definitely give that a try!

 

1 hour ago, Glen McGuire said:

Really nice job on the color match.

Thanks!

 

I've also glued the fishing equipment into place, pretty much where I originally positioned it. I just moved one of the nets a bit forward so it would be more visible. This has been a straightforward process. The trickiest part has been that some ropes and other parts needed to be glued down so they weren't sticking up unrealistically.

 

 

One particular challenge was that the chinchorro net's floats couldn't really be pressed down any further and appeared to be floating a bit, as can be seen (not very well, admittedly) below, just next to the mast step:

 

So, I looped up some scrap rope and rolled up some scrap netting to add under it, so it looks more like the floats are just on top of a wadded-up net. I'm still deciding whether to do the rope and the net (first picture), or just the rope (second):

 

 

In any case, this is the longest I've had the rancho off since I added the rudder, oars, anchor, and other parts, and I don't think it looks half bad.

 

 

Still definitely going to keep the rancho, though!

[wefalck]

Not sure, it would work at this scale, but I coerce ropes into a 'natural' shape by wetting them with a fast-drying varnish and holding them down until the solvent has evaporated:

[JacquesCousteau]

3 hours ago, wefalck said:

Not sure, it would work at this scale, but I coerce ropes into a 'natural' shape by wetting them with a fast-drying varnish and holding them down until the solvent has evaporated:

Thanks! I was able to do that with the ropes tying the oars to the oarlocks, but I had a hard time getting enough pressure into the bottom of the hull around the crossbeams and other parts and so went with glue for some ropes.

[JacquesCousteau]

A bit more progress. Now that the fishing equipment is in place, I attached the mast and finally glued the rancho in place. The mast isn't glued, but (besides being firmly held to the mast step with a wooden peg) is firmly lashed to the crossbeam with 0.7mm rope. After knotting it, I was able to slowly tug on lines to move the knot under the crossbeam and mostly out of sight.

 

I also added the halyard with 0.7mm rope, using a knot as this seems like it would be easiest to remove, and placed the backstay. Neither is tied into position yet, but I wanted to see what things would look like.

 

 

I've also started on the parrel, which is proving to be very tricky. 

 

On the Cargo Canoa, based on some very blurry photos, I made the parrel as basically a single line with a loop at each end, one to fit around the mast and one to fit around the yard. I've now found clearer photos that possibly show a very different parrel, as seen below:

Source: https://memoricamexico.gob.mx/swb/memorica/Cedula?oId=vvts2osBVs6S4R6nk8il

 

I see two ways of interpreting this. One, based on the way the parrel lines come closer to each other as they approach the yard, is that my original idea was basically right, but the parrel loop around the mast is simply quite wide. The other possibility I see is that the parrel is a single line with a loop at each end, but each loop goes around the yard, with the "body" of the parrel passing around the mast. Both options comport with other photos that show the parrel only loops around the mast once. It's also worth noting that the parrel is not very tight to the mast. At the moment, I'm torn about the best way to approach the parrel, both in terms of which option given above makes the most sense and in terms of which knots to use. 

 

As both options involve at least one loop around the yard, I initially began with a simplified splice in 0.6mm rope. 

 

But, I began to wonder whether a simple knot would make more sense. From what I've seen in photos, the yards were regularly removed from the mast, and this would be much easier to do with a knot than with a spliced and served loop (the latter of which would require the long yard to be awkwardly slid out of the loop). So, I started redoing the parrel with knots. I began with a clove hitch, but this seems very bulky, especially if there will be a second parrel loop around the yard.

 

So, if anyone has any suggestions about how to handle the parrel, I'm all ears.

[wefalck]

I don't have a picture to hand, but there seem to be ways of rigging, where the parrel has an eye spliced in the end and the rope goes around the mast, the yard then down through its own eye. In this way it can be hauled close or loosened from the deck.

[JacquesCousteau]

On 10/30/2024 at 3:11 PM, wefalck said:

I don't have a picture to hand, but there seem to be ways of rigging, where the parrel has an eye spliced in the end and the rope goes around the mast, the yard then down through its own eye. In this way it can be hauled close or loosened from the deck.

Thanks! That would make sense, and if I remember correctly a lot of Spanish fishing boats had something like this. But, as far as I can tell they didn't do this on Canoas. Every photo I've seen is pretty clear that the only lines running down from near the top of the mast are the backstays and the halyard. Some photos also show the yard hanging quite a ways off the mast, suggesting a rather loose parrel.

 

I'll have to think about it more. In any case, I'll be away from the build for a bit. I'm visiting my in-laws for Day of the Dead, and will be trying my hardest to eat my weight in tamales, mole, and pan de muerto over the next several days.

[JacquesCousteau]

While traveling, I brought along the second test sail to try out. Unlike the first one, it's made of tissue paper instead of a coffee filter, and has reinforcement strips glued around the edge and panel lines drawn on (I didn't bother getting them fully even, as this is just a test).

 

After wetting it and furling it (flattening one half to mimic how it will look resting on top of the rancho), I have to say that I think I like the look of the coffee filter better. In too many places, this sail took on sharp creases that don't look so much like fabric. Maybe I didn't soak it enough, but I did run it under the sink which seems like it should have been enough. The reinforcement strips are also nearly invisible and started peeling off in a couple places.

 

So, for the final version, I think I will 1) make it out of a big coffee filter, and 2) not bother with panel lines or reinforcement strips (although it will get bolt ropes). This is taking some time, but I'm looking forward to having a result I like.