Pride of Baltimore by JerryTodd - 1:20 scale - RADIO - as she appeared in Fall 1981

[JerryTodd]

  Pride in the Pacific 1982

 

In late 1976 I got a job as a laborer on a construction site in Baltimore's Inner Harbor.  At the site they were building a Baltimore Clipper schooner named Pride of Baltimore.

Pride under construction in November 1976, just about when I started there.

 

Five years later, on my 21st birthday, I reported on board as Pride's newest crew member.  I spent two months aboard the boat in charge of her guns as she took part in the bicentennial reenactment of the battle of Yorktown.

    Yours truly is at the top right, in the cocked hat.

 

A summary history of the boat is available at my site, as is an album of the few photos taken during my time aboard.

 

In 1982 I acquired a copy of her plans from Thomas Gilmer with the intent to build a sailing model, but I was young, moved around a lot and it just never happened.

 

In November of 2011 I got to seriously thinking about actually building a model of Pride and figuring out what size to make her.  The upper limit was as large, overall, as Constellation, but there was a lower limit also.  I tried scaling her the same as Constellation (1:36), but looking at what she would need in terms of batteries, winches, servos, etc; I didn't see how I could fit the equipment needed to control so complicated a rig.  I decided to make her 1:20 scale, as large as I could and still stuff her into a van or SUV.

 

With her lines scanned and scaled up I printed her stations on paper.  There were glued to 3/8" CDX plywood, cut out, sanded, etc, and stood up on the old building board Constellation was built on.

A work in progress: every item I draw in scale gets added to this plan.

 

 

 

There they stood for nearly a year.  On November 19, 2011 I cut out the keel, mounted it on the forms and began planking.  I learned my lesson on Constellation and fully planked the hull, but I taped the edges of the forms so the planking wouldn't be glued to them, and they could be removed - leaving me with full access to the very limited space.

 

 

The hull was planked in pine strips 1/8 thick and 1/4" wide.  They were glued to each other, but only pinned to the forms.  The pins were akin to half-length straight pins and bent at the slightest look, making planking extremely tedious and hard on the fingers.  I wasn't doing the next one that way.  I also didn't spiel the planks, but just laid them on from the keel up, and the sheer down, leaving that football shaped hole to fill.  The hull being glassed and painted, it wasn't an issue visually, except that it bother's me constantly.  I'm not doing that again either.

 

By Halloween, the hull was planked.

 

The hull was filled, sanded, filled, and sanded some more.  The aft-most form with the counter and transom forms was given a tap with the handle of a screw-driver and came right out.  Soon the other forms followed, leaving the hull open.

 

 

 

The inside was sanded and then  painted with diluted Tightbond III to get into the nooks and crannies of the planking and glue everything up.  It was then given two coats of poly resin.

The stern post was too tall, a sign of advanced planning.  I cut it down with a rotary tool - you'll see why later.

 

The stern and then the sides were fiberglassed with 4 oz cloth.

 

 

  Pride's plan compared to Macedonian's

 

  The concept

 

I restarted the build logs for Constellation and Macedonian that were lost in the crash.  There never was a build log for this model on MSW, but, what the heck, there is now.

[Piet]

What a fantastic project Jerry!  A real working model of a great ship and with RC no less.  Way beyond my capabilities and pocketbook I'm afraid.  I have to stick with static models.

 

I'll be following your build my friend, she's looking great already!

 

Cheers,

[JerryTodd]

I don't think I have more than $200 invested in her yet.  Her keel was some scrap 3/8" CDX plywood, as were her forms.  Her planking was from some left over white pine 1-by-something "shelving board" my step-dad called it.  The sails were a couple of yards of Supplex for $10-15.  The radio was bought on ebay for about $100 and I have multiple receivers so I can run any one of the three models with the one transmitter.  The servos were the expensive part at about $100 for the set of them.  There's some glue, polyester resin and glass cloth - but no great quantities, and the single gallon of resin has served three models so far.  Paint, but again, not any great quantities.

 

I'm a Scottish Jew, pinching pennies is in my blood. 

[Piet]

Jerry, it's the electronics my friend - - - just out of reach.  I fully understand the frugal part, Dutch, Jewish and English blood.  It's said that the Dutch are even more "frugal" then the Scotts   My kids call me cheap, cheap, CHEAP.  

I would love to build a RC airplane but all that expensive electronic stuff, and time, keeps me from it.

 

I'll just watch your build and sail her from here and continue with my dad's sub and the VOC ship.

 

Cheers,

[JerryTodd]

I do need to build a pram to chase them around in. 

[fnkershner]

Jerry - I am so glad you are uploading this build log. I am particularly interested in the Baltimore Clippers. They were such a fine ship and hold a special place in history. I am also envious of your time on her as a crew member.

Edited September 12, 2013 by Floyd Kershner

[JerryTodd]

With the hull glassed, I began to install the deck clamps.  These were of the same pine used to plank the hull, only 3/8" wide and 1/8" thick.  One later was epoxied to the hull.

The placement of the deck beams was determined based oh hatch locations, mast partners, etc.

While my friend Mark was building his skiff outside the shop, I put some of his leftover epoxy into the bilge of Pride's hull to fill crevasses, seal, and strengthen the garboard area.

   

 

There are things that should be done to the keel while it's still just a flat piece of wood, and before it's a permanent part of the hull.  Cutting the cut-out for the propeller is one such thing.

 

I wasn't sure how I was going to attach the external ballast until I saw some Newfie schooner models as big as Pride that used a simple fin with about 15-20 pounds of lead in a bulb.  Going with the idea, I started building a dagger-board box for the fin to slip in to.  The sides are 3/16 luan plywood, glassed on the inside faces, with a pine separator epoxied on fore and aft.

The remaining portion of the aluminum sheet I cut Constellation's yard trusses from will be the fin.

 

 

This oscillating tool I got from Harbor Freight for $10 made quick work of cutting the hole for the trunk to fit in to.  This, of course, is another thing that should be done to the keel before it's part of the hull.

 

 

Portions of the form at that station became internal braces for the dagger-board trunk.  They would be epoxied in.

 

The trunk was itself epoxied in.  After sanding, some glass cloth was laid over it to fair it into the hull and the keel.  Anything not covered with cloth was painted with resin.

 

The trunk got a cap from a bit of cherry I had around and a motor mount was fashioned from one of the forms.

 

A hole was drilled at the center of the trunk along the keel and a brass tube was epoxied into it.  When it set, I cut the tub flush inside and outside.  A matching hole was drilled in the fin, where a brass machine screw and nut would hold the fin to the boat.  The tube protects and seals the end grain of the trunks plywood where the screw will go through.

 

 

I began to fit the deck beams, but these seem thicker than they need to be.  They're like this on Constellation, but there's a lot more head-room inside Constellation compared to Pride where space is at a premium.

[JerryTodd]

Fortunately when I got the plans from Gilmer, I got the full set with structural details,  especially a cross section of the structure; because it's not at all easy to tell where the top of the deck is.  This apparently was a problem found by some company doing flooding analysis on her, they were given a profile and not knowing where the deck was, calculated to the top of the rail.

 

As it is, the top of the deck is level with the top of the wale, which was the next piece to be installed.

 

I had a length of screen molding we used as a batten, or spline, when laying out Mark's skiff on the plywood.  It was precisely the width of the model's wales.

 

 

With the wales on, the prop notch cut, and the dagger board trunk installed, hull was ready to get some paint.

First, a coat of primer.

 

Then I found some spray paint that pretty closely matched the color of Pride's bottom paint

 

 

I thought I had a picture of Pride out of the water where the color of her bottom could be seen, but nearly all my shots of her hauled out are black & white newspaper photos.  This image is from 1980 and you can see a little of her bottom color.

 

I hand painted some flat black above the waterline.

 

The wale widens forward at the hawse pipes, this was installed next, but I'm not drilling the hawse holes yet.

 

 

Again, referring to the cross-section, the top of the deck extends to the top of the wale.  This is capped with a waterway log, which itself has a cap.  There's light planking above this to the cap rail.  The portion of the waterway cap that's exposed outboard forms something of a channel down the boat's side, and this part of the cap is painted red.

 

I cut some 1/16" square strips and sanded them 1/2 round.  This was applied to the outside of the hull to represent the outboard portion of the waterway cap rail.

 

At the top of this channel between the wale and the waterway cap, snugged up under the cap are the channels.  This were more white pine, thicker at the hull and tapered to about half their thickness outboard.  One was installed.  Looking back, I'm not sure why I only did one, but

 

Some black paint touched up the faux waterway rail and the channel below it.  Then put a coat of white on the bulwarks, and cut the gunports.

 

 

The wing transoms and fashion pieces were fabricated and installed, and the facny piece and moldings on the transom..

 

 

Something didn't look right with the deck clamp, and upon investigation, I found it was off at the bow and stern.  It was too well attached to just detach and move, so I pulled it out completely.  Had I installed the wale first, I could have more accurately gauged where to install the deck clamp (minus the thickness of the plywood sub-deck and decking).

 

Finding a small container of red paint turned out to be a challenge.  I wound up with a $2 can of spray paint and proceeded to paint the waterway cap.

 

 

Finally, the rest of the channels were installed.

 

And everything painted

 

Edited September 11, 2013 by JerryTodd

[JerryTodd]

So, once more in go the clamps.  This time, making sure I measure from the right point, I used a different approach.  I laid in two layers of 1/8" thick strips, then installed the deck beams - now recut thinner - butted to the clamp.  Another layer of 1/8" strip was installed between each beam.  Mast partners were installed, then framing for the main cabin and the access hatch.  The access hatch doesn't correspond to any hatch actually on the boat - none of them was large enough at this scale to give me the access inside I needed.

 

 

   

 

The inner cabin trunk is framed from 1/8" plywood that came from a cigar box, or something like that.  This isn't the cabin you'll see, but an inner sleve the outer cabin trunk will slide over, like a box lid.  This will help keep out water.

 

Card stock was used to lay out the deck and make a pattern.  The sub deck was cut from 3/16" luan plywood.  It was kerfed underneath to help it flex in two directions; sheer and camber.

   

 

After giving the top strake a coat of black, I started marking the spar plan with 1:20 scale dimensions in preparation of making the spars.

 

I made a mounting plate for the motor from an electrical box cover plate.  The motor came from an old cordless drill.

 

 

I was getting concerned that a section of bulwark might get broken off by some big clumsy oaf, like me, so I put a rail on to connect it all.  This isn't the finish cap rail, but more of a structural member.  This rail will actually be in two parts.  This part is the inner part mounted flush with the outboard side of the hull.  It's glued and trenailed (wooden toothpicks) into the top of the planking.  An outer part will be applied later, bring the rail to it's correct width.

 

 

 

And some more paint.

[JerryTodd]

The subdeck's underside will get painted with epoxy which will seal it as well as glue it to the deck beams.  A layer of 1/32" bass strips about 1/4" wide will serve as the deck planking.  It will be died a combination of stains to approximate the color of Prides original decking.  These will be set in slow-cure epoxy when the time comes.

   

 

All that's a ways off yet, as there's still things to be done in the hull before the deck can go on...

 

For instance, the access hatch has to be framed and cut out.  A pair of posts were put in near the mast partners between the deck beams and the keel - these are compression posts and should help prevent deformation of the deck, just in case.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The motor mount frame was painted and the mounting plate was painted with the red spray paint from earlier.  It was then epoxied into the hull.

 

I was volunteering at the Naval Academy Museum model shop and once night one of the other fellas brought in a handful of splinters.  Seems the Pride had her fore-top-mast replaced at Richardson's Yard in Maryland and these pieces came from the old spar.  That means they were on the boat when I was.  Now to figure out how to incorporate them into the model.

 

The bitts were made from some dunnage found on a dock that looks like it may be some sort of mahogany.  It's hard and it matches the color of the originals pretty well.

Note the subdeck is marked with locations of deck objects, such as hatches.  On the access hatch is the scale main hatchway - which obviouslt wouldn't have been large enough for the model.  On the right of the photo is the engine room hatch.  The small rectangle on the left of the deck in a box that the galley stack pokes out of.  The fellow standing there is me, in 1:20 scale.  It's a picture of me from about a year before my time on Pride and serves to show scale in the photos.

The hatchway marked in the right photo is the focs'le hatch.

 

Edited September 12, 2013 by JerryTodd

[michael mott]

I am enjoying your build Jerry.

 

Michael

[JerryTodd]

The counter frames went in, showing why I had to trim down the stern post a while back.  An oak block was glued in where the rudder tube would go in, to strengthen this area, and a slightly over sized hole drilled through it and the counter.

 

A brass tube was epoxied in with JB Weld.  A brass rrod taped to the sternpost behind a spacer made sure everything set up in proper alignment.

 

 

 

The rudder was cut from polycarbonate (Plexiglas) and given a brass rod rudder post that was glued and drifted to it with smaller brass rods.

 

A copper plate was cut to size with 4 holes; two for mounting, and two that are tapped for mounting the gudgeon plate.  This plate was inset into the boats heel, epoxied and screwed in place.  This way water can't seep into the plywood keel because every hole in the hull is lined with epoxy.

 

 

The gudgeon plate is attached with brass machine screws and is removable.

 

 

The rudder post slide up through the rudder tube at the counter.  The tiller collar will hold it from falling out, the tube keeps it from sliding further up.  The gudgeon plate holds the heel of the rudder to the hull and serves as the lower hinge point against the forces the rudder will encounter.  Removing the rudder entails removing the gudgeon plate and the tiller, then the rudder drops right out.

 

 

The visible area around the rudder hole was painted black and the counter planked up with bass sheet.  All the wood framing here was painted in epoxy, and each plank was painted with epoxy onit's under side to make sure moisture inside here wouldn't get into the wood.   Later this was primed and transom knees were installed.

 

 

Using bass sheet again, I built the cabin trunk, the visible part that is in essence, a lid.  It's details, molding, skylight, compass box, hatch, etc; were all made from the wood of the Pride's top mast I was given earlier.  Looking at one of my pictures where the cabin can be seen, I think this wood worked out fairly well for this application.  It wasn't strong enough for anything else, like the tiller.

 

 

 

I used that "might-be-mahogany" wood used on the bits to make the hatch coamings.

 

 

I also used it to make the tiller.  You may have noticed there is no space to speak of inside the counter where I could hide control linkages for the steering.  Instead I'll actually be using the tiller to steer the model, so it will have to have some strength.

 

[JerryTodd]

A set of beams was installed forward of the fin trunk, to hold the battery.  It will lie flat, as low as possible, and be held by Velcro tabs.

 

The focs'le hatch on the real boat was different than the plans, it was much taller with a hinged lid.  I used the same wood used in the other hatch coamings and built it up in three layers, log cabin style.  I had some notion of putting something up here, like an on/off switch, but I doubt that'll happen.  None-the-less, I made a hinged lid and a hole in the subdeck.

 

 

 

In side the cabin hatch, I put in brackets to carry an aircraft plywood shelf for the rudder servo to mount in.  It's held by screws and will be removable for servicing.

 

 

The parts for the prop shaft and motor couplings came in

 

 

Which meant drilling a hole in the stern post for it.  This was done with a long 3/16" bit, over sized so the brass tube "stuffing box" can be adjusted and surrounded by epoxy.  This is yet another thing that ought to have been done to the keel while it could lie flat, before it was placed on the forms.  JB Weld was added inside to ooze into any nooks and crannies the epoxy missed.

 

 

   

 

Another ordered part arrived - a rheostat type speed controller, with forward and reverse.  This is operated by a micro servo, so I made up a mount to handle it.

 

 

It was fitted inside the cabin hatch on a beam that also serves as a stuffing box support,  painted with that red spray paint, and fixed in place.

 

 

 

 

[rwiederrich]

Awesome...build.  Can't wait for her to sail.

 

Rob

[JerryTodd]

I cut paper patterns for the sails and pinned them up on the shop wall above the profile to see how things would look.  It looked pretty darned good to me,  Let's make some masts!

 

I made the masts using the "Bird's Mouth" method.  There's a lot of math and geometry available on DuckWorks if you're interested in trying this system.  My friend Mark, who was building a 12' skiff at my place, made the skiff's 12' mast using this method.  Made from 12 foot 2x4's, it turned out a mast that was extremely light, and incredibly strong.

 

 

In short, Using the formulas for the size mast you want, you cut strips of whatever wood; in my case white cedar scraps left over from making Constellation's masts and spars.  The bird's mouth is cut into the correct face.  I used a V groove bit in a router set up in a table with finger boards everywhere to hold the work down, and against the fence.  It took a little experimentation and playing around, but I eventually got the grove at the right depth.

screen shot from the noisy video of cutting grooves in strips.

 

These strips do not need to be the length of the mast as you can butt them to get the right length.  Just remember to stagger the butts, and not put any beside each other.  The strips are then glued together.  It's best to lay them out in some order of assembly as you do this.  I used Tightbond III liberally, to glue things up.  Take strips from your layout starting at one end of the mast and work toward the other end.  Use rubber bands to hold things together as you go.  You have to work fast because once it's all together you need to make sure it's straight, and you may need to adjust it, which you can't do once the glue sets.

 

 

Once the mast is made up, check it for alignment, fix it, and let it set up.

 

 

The spar is made 8 sided by planing off the corners.  I then made an 8 sided dowel of pine to slide inside the mast at either end.  The bottom one extends about 2" above where the boom jaws will sit, and extends out of the bottom for the step tenon.  The top one about 2" below where the gaff jaws will land and extends out of the top about 1/2" for the cap tenon.  These pieces primarily stiffen the spar from the step to above the deck, and at the doublings.  The mast is shaved to 16 sides, then a rough 32, and sanded, a lot, to get it round where it's supposed to be.

     

 

I made cross-trees and trestle-trees from the wood I used for the bitts and every joint is pinned with brass rod CAed in place.  The mast head at the doublings was squared and hounds glued and pinned with brass rod.  The mast caps were cut from 3/8" plywood.  I figure there's going to be a lot of stress on this area when she's sailing, so made it as strong and light as I could.

 

 

Pride's mast head furniture was all painted flat black, so, so is the model's.  The rest of the mast was stained and then given a coat of matte clear.  The bottom of the masts were painted a cream color, which I hadn't gotten yet.

Edited August 11, 2014 by JerryTodd

[sonicmcdude]

Nice build Jerry! And is a RC too...   pretty fun

[JerryTodd]

Next up, I started on the bowsprit.  It was made from white pine.  I wanted the masts as strong and light as I could make them, the bowsprit I wasn't quite as concerned about in that way.

 

The bulwark had to be opened where the bowsprit came through.  the bowsprit is square where it passes through the bulwark and it's top tapers as it goes aft almost down to half it's height. The bowsprit doesn't actually sit on the stem-knee, so I taped some card to pad it out and use it to guide the saw at the correct angle.

 

Forward of the bulwark, it's 8-sided,  Just forward of the stem knee, it goes from 8-sided to round.

 

 

The cap was made from the same plywood as the mast caps, strapped with copper tape as was used to do Constellation's bottom.  It's glued and pinned with brass rod onto the bowsprit.

 

 

The bees are red oak, glued and pinned with brass nails, the nails are CAed just before seated.  Spreaders and dolphin striker are also oak.  The striker is glued and pinned.  Brass rod was used for the two U bolts, but they're just for show and aren't structural.  The heel block for the jib boom is morticed slightly into the bowsprit.

 

 

The jib-boom is made from the same white pine.  Started off square, was tapered, 8-sided, roughly 16-sided, then shave generally round, and finally sanded, stained and painted

 

While working on the bowsprit, I actually got around to making the pumps.  When I was on board, you could barely see these things, surround by water barrels, and we never used them, so I had no memory of how they were constructed, especially the ironwork the connected the handle to them.  I actually found a video of the boat on her maiden voyage that had a glimpse of them I could use, and this is the result.

 

The fellow with the sextant is Melbourne Smith who Baltimore City hired to build Pride.  I personally have nothing good to say about the man, so I won't say anything.

 

Turns out this is wrong.  The iron V portion between the wooden pump heads is attached to the cabin trunk and not to the pump heads at all.  The post the handle pivots on sits on deck.  I found this out from a Baltimore Sun Papers photo of Fred, the yard foreman, working on the pumps during her construction.  So, with a removable cabin trunk on the model, figuring this out should be interesting, but it looks like the pumps will be attached, all of them, the the cabin trunk and will come off with it when it's removed. 

 

So, by the third week of May, 2012, the model was very definitely looking like her namesake, even if I no longer looked like I did then. 

Edited September 18, 2013 by JerryTodd

[JerryTodd]

As shown above, there's no space in the counter to install linkages for steering the model remotely that wouldn't be glaringly noticeable and intrusive, so, another way to steer the model had to be devised.  The real boat was steered by a tiller.  Some 8 feet long and a foot square at it's largest, tapering down to about 6" diameter, and standing about as high as your hip.  Under way, you could feel everything the boat was doing which made steering Pride often feel like sailing a yacht.  But, if that tiller wanted to go somewhere, it was going no matter who had hold of it.  It either pulled away from you, or took you along for the ride, usually depositing you in a heap in the waterways.

 

To tame the beast, a block and tackle were hooked into an eye-bolt in the waterway and attached to a pendant on the tiller.  Typically, only one relieving tackle was used opposite the weather helm, but on occasion, two were attached.  Maneuvering around the harbor, in and out of the dock, etc, no tackle was attached, but the pendants became a permanent fixture of tarred line turks-headed onto the tiller.

 

Not having a way to hide hard linkages between servo and rudder, I've opted to steer the boat using lines from the servo to the tiller and rig them so they look like relieving tackles.  This isn't unheard of but it will require the tiller to be something more than a varnished bit of wood.  Actually, I started with a varnished bit of wood...

 

 

The real tiller though would be of metal, with the wooden part hiding that fact.  A steel collar was sweated to a copper tiller and the rudder post hole drilled out.  The collar was attached so the set-screw was angled off in a way it could be reached with an allen wrench.

 

 

The wooden tiller was epoxied and screwed to the metal tiller.

 

 

The rudder post rod was cut down so the tiller would be at the right height, and a false rudder head was built up to hide the collar.

 

 

The steering cable will run, port & starboard, from the tiller to a block in the waterway, over to the lazerette hatch where it will go below and to the rudder servo under the cabin hatch.

 

Two brass tube come through the lazerette hatch coaming to guide the steering cable below.  A couple of wood blocks glued to the underside of the sub-deck anchor the tubes in place.  The tubing was cut flush with the hatch coaming and is hardly visible.

   

 

A pair of top masts was made from white pine.  I look at a lot of photos, especially in Greg Pease's book, Sailing With Pride, to get their shape and finish correct for 1981 as they changed, and were even replaced, through the boat's life.  The fid holes are lined with brass tube epoxied in place.

     

Edited September 18, 2013 by JerryTodd

[JerryTodd]

BTW folks:  Don't forget you can click on the images in these posts to see them full sized.

 

I took Pease's book to the local hardware megastore and had thier paint department use their color gizmo to create a sample jar of the cream color Pride's inboard things were painted; the sides of the cabin, hatch coamings, base of the masts, and eventually, inside of the bulwarks.  This ran about $3 US and I should be able to get the color matched easily if I need more.  It's funny actually, both the real boat and my model of her will have their inboard surfaces painted with latex house paint. 

 

I wondered about what to make mast hoops from.  I liked bamboo, but I didn't have any that wouldn't require a lot of work just to get into the right sized strips.  Just for giggles, I tried 3/32" sheet bass.  Cut it into a strip the right width; shaved the ends down so they tapered to nothing; wet it in warm water; and wrapped it around a 1" dowel.

 

 

That worked so well I tried another and made a few.

 

 

Then I precut all the rest of the strips plus a few, cause a couple snapped while wrapping them around the dowel.

 

Once made and glued up, I dipped them in oak stain.

 

I made the cleats that go at the base of the foremast.  They were glued and pinned on - after loading the mast with it's requisite number of hoops.

   

 

Two weeks before, a couple of yards of Supplex arrived for the sails.  When I cut out Constellation's sails, it was a pain.  To seal the edge of the after cutting it I would run it along a hot soldering iron.  It didn't take much, just the slightest pause, to burn a scallop in the edge.

 

This time I resolved to use a hot knife.  Oddly, I had a very hard time finding one for my iron, so I made one.

I happened to have a couple of copper machine screws in my loose fastener bucket that had the right threads to fit my soldering iron.  I drilled a hole, then cut a slot and inserted a portion of an XActo blade.  I pressed the slot closed onto the blade and peened a bit of brass rod in the hole to rivet it all together.

 

 

The first sail I cut with it was the mains'l, and it worked like a charm.  There's a little technique to it, but you pick it up fast.  When I was researching making one online, everyone said it's best to cut on glass so as to not wick the heat off the blade, so I used an old picture with glass in the frame as my cutting board.

 

I had the knife made on June 2nd, and laid out and cut the rest of the sails by June 3rd.  I even made Pride's pennant and that ugly Lord Baltimore eblem they had on the t'gallant sail.

   

 

The panels were marked on the cloth with a very fine point black marker, just as I had done on Constellation.  Other parts of the sails were cut with the knife; reef bands, tabling, corner reenforcing, that ugly emblem, etc.  These were applied to the sail with fabric adhesive.

   

Edited September 19, 2013 by JerryTodd

[fnkershner]

Jerry - I wish I lived closer to you. I would love to see the Pride under sail. Beautiful work!

[JerryTodd]

Spars

 

All the spars were made of white pine, since it's been working so well so far.

Rough cut to size, square stock was made 8-sided, etc, etc, to round.

 

 

Gaffs and boom were fitted with jaws made from aircraft plywood and tried for size.

   

 

The boom has a shoulder cut in the end for the ring-tail iron and a bolster that keeps the mains'l clew out-haul held off the boom.

 

 

The main mast was fitted with a saddle and knees for the boom to rest on, after the mast's hoops were loaded on.

 

All the spars got stain and paint, and all the brass was blackened and painted.  The coarse yard got stuns'l boom irons, stuns'l booms, and jack stays.

   

 

Cleats and holes for sheets and the like...

 

and a clew iron for the main boom

 

The yards and boom

Edited November 6, 2014 by JerryTodd

[Anja]

Hello Jerry,

 

Have a great day.

 

Anja

[JerryTodd]

Wow, is it that time already?  Thank you

[JerryTodd]

I was asked to bring the model to the Fell's Point Maritime Museum in Baltimore on July 22nd, 2012, for a one day display to commemorate the anniversary of the first 7 letter of marque vessels to sail out of Fell's Point for the War of 1812.  It wasn't possible for me to fully complete the model in time, or even get it sailable, but I resolved to do as much as I could to make her presentable for display.  The Pride of Baltimore II would be there, and I had sailed on Pride with her captain, Jon Miles, ie: someone intimately familiar with the boat I was modeling would see it, but hey, no pressure.

 

In preparation though, I bolt-roped all the sails, worked out a chart of what rigging blocks she would need, and began making them.

 

The sails are roped with a three-stranded nylon cord.  The bolt rope is glued to the sail with fabric glue as well as sewn in an abbreviated version of the way real ones are sewn on.  A bolt rope isn't sewn the the edge of a sail, but rather to one side of it right at the edge.  Each stitch passes between two strands of the line, through the third, and into the sail, where it takes a turn back around and repeats in the next strand.  Each turn is in the direction of the lay of the line sew the stitching disappears into the lay of the bolt rope.  In stead of every strand, I stitched through every three or four strands.  The stitching is somewhat visible at this scale, especially on the "back-side" of the sail from the bolt rope, but the glue makes up for the reduced structure.

 

 

Eyes, cringles, garnets, etc, along the edge of the sail were made with the bolt rope.  grommets in the sail are burned with the pointed tip of a soldiering iron.  This is a nice feature of using Supplex, holes can be made for reef-points, for example, that are heat sealed and require no further reenforcing.  Eyes are formed around a round toothpick to maintain constant size and keep the from closing while sewing's in progress.  Grommets are burned in near each eye for and the bolt rope is seized on either side, just as a real sail is constructed.  Well, this IS a real sail, just a small one.  By-the-way, did I mention I used to work at Ulmer Kolius sail makers near Annapolis?  I didn't usually sew on bolt ropes there, that I learned working on boats such as Pride; at Ulmer I did things like putting ducks on Flashers (a genoa/spinnaker hybrid).

   

 

The yards got foot-ropes and I made some unsheaved blocks to cover for this display.

 

 

 

 

 

The sails were attached to their spars, the main and fores'l to the mast hoops,  Halyards rove, and bit by but, Pride was dressed. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I was ready.  I even cobbled together a slide show of the models construction and loaded it onto an e-frame, and made up some hand-outs with specs on the model and the real Pride.

 

Unfortunately, the events schedule was changed to a day I would be out of town for something else - so Pride didn't get publicly displayed.

 

Later, I made and attached fairleads to the fore tops'l for the bunt-lines which I made from a bamboo chopstick.  I found the new information on the pump heads mentioned previously.  And noted a sort of rub rail under the hawse pipes of the original boat and a difference in how the wale finished at the bow.

 

I took a shot at turning a gun barrel, one in pine, one in cherry - neither of which I'm satisfied with.  The carriage was better, but I had to draw scaled plans as Gilmer's drawings of the guns were a bit cartoonish.

 

 

The model's been moved to my new residence, as I move out of my house.  With no consistent income since being fired in January 2012, after 18 years, the house is being foreclosed on.

For the moment, Pride sits on top of a cabinet in the living room waiting for the new shop to come online.

Edited May 29, 2014 by JerryTodd

[JerryTodd]

Pride got out of the house for a bit, being displayed at the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum's Model Expo.

 

This got me wanting to get something done on her so maybe next time she can actually sail.  One job is finally figuring out how to handle all those over-lapping sails.  For the expo I installed a test set-up in Constellation which, though it needs some adjustment, looks like it'll work.

 

I'm using a large "sail-arm" servo for the main sheet, which will be rigged as shown below to look more prototypical.

 

 

This arm will also move a pair of sheet arms that will handle the rest of the fore-n-aft sails.  When the sail-arm is centered, every thing is sheeted out.  Moving port or starboard will sheet in the main either way, but will only move one sheet-arm, sheeting those sails to that side while leaving the other sheets slack.

 

 

Here's the test rig installed in Constellation

 

 

 

I haven't decided if I'll use an arm or winch servo to handle the squares, but I'm leaning towards a winch, mainly because I have a couple of spares.  I'm also considering putting the main sheet on a separate servo for better balance and control.  I may put all the running stays on that servo as well.

Edited June 6, 2014 by JerryTodd

[thowen]

What a beautiful ship. Very nice build.

[JerryTodd]

So, in another thread the subject of signal flags came up, renewing my hunt to figure out a signal in a painting of Constellation.  I never got an answer, but I did find a resolution and I drew up all the flags I've be using on the model in scale.  Well, what I do there I obviously must do here, so...

 

Here, in 1:20 scale are the flags that will go on the Pride of Baltimore

 

The image may have been resized by the forum, but there it is just the same.

 

BTW: if you look back in the thread a bit you'll see that hideous black and yellow ovally thing is the Lord Baltimore badge Pride had pasted on her t'gallant.  I wouldn't have put it there, but it was there when I sailed on her, so the model get one too.  Scaled down to 1:20 didn't help it any.

Edited September 28, 2014 by JerryTodd

[janet bode]

Buetiful piece of work she looks strongly built,love to see her in full sail.

 

Regards Janet B

[thibaultron]

Nice model! I moved to Baltimore in 1977, and followed the Pride's journeys and visited her many times, when she was in port.

[JerryTodd]

Pride went to the Baltimore Port Expo this last Sunday (May 17) and was on display.  I finally got to show her to the director of Historic Ships Baltimore, who I sailed with on Pride in '81 - the period the model depicts.

 

First she was stuffed into the van with Constellation.

 

 

She spent the day on display under the tent.

 

 

 

At the end of the day, the boats were moved so they could start breaking things down.

 

 

She hasn't been in the water since she was floated in the tub way back in 2012...

 

 

So, although she didn't have her fin, and only 10 pounds of ballast in her, I let her swim a bit before we left.