USS Constitution by Glen McGuire - BlueJacket Bicentennial Edition - 1/96 - Repair and Completion of Construction

[BANYAN]

Nice job on those davits Glen.  I had to take a double look to check it was your model or the real deal (the blocks give it away ).

 

cheers

 

Pat

[Glen McGuire]

On 4/15/2025 at 7:37 PM, BANYAN said:

Nice job on those davits Glen.  I had to take a double look to check it was your model or the real deal (the blocks give it away ).

Thanks, Pat!  But I'm thinking it might be time for a visit to the ol' eye doctor!  😃

[BANYAN]

Been there mate, the doc says I'm two one-eyed   

cheers

Pat

[FriedClams]

Just catching up, Glen and wow!  Such fantastic work all around. Very nice,

 

On 3/27/2025 at 4:26 PM, Glen McGuire said:

I love this perspective from the bow showing off the symmetry and interplay of the running rigging.

 

Me too.

 

Gary

[Glen McGuire]

Seems like forever since I did any work on the Constitution.  But I got my Kenoshi-sen to a point where I'm comfortable I can meet my deadline with it, so now I can focus on getting the Constitution across the finish line.  I'm definitely on the home stretch here.

 

Next on the list was getting the US flags flying.  The original builder had mounted a small, paper flag on the bowsprit cap.  I had to remove it when I rebuilt the broken bowsprit, but now it's back in its original place waving proudly forward.  

 

 

 

Looking at a variety of finished Constitution models, I saw many that had a larger flag flying from a halyard rigging off the gaff.  I went to my favorite poaching box (Artesania Latina kit for the USS Constellation) and grabbed the flag from it.  I've poached so much stuff from that box that if I ever decide to build the ship, I will probably have to buy an entire new kit.  Or try and build it from scratch (YIKES!).  

 

 

 

I also found a beautiful piece of Patagonia rosewood that I'm going to use for the base.  I had a buddy of mine rout the edges and I applied a few coats of poly for the finish.

 

 

Next up is hanging the 3 whales boats from the davits.

[tmj]

27 minutes ago, Glen McGuire said:

Next on the list was getting the US flags flying.  The original builder had mounted a small, paper flag on the bowsprit cap.  I had to remove it when I rebuilt the broken bowsprit, but now it's back in its original place waving proudly forward. 

I don't know if this is true, but I read somewhere that while in port ships were often docked with their bow facing into the wind, if possible, for various reasons. If this is true your constitution is parked backwards, evidence via the direction that the flags are blowing. 😐

[Paul Le Wol]

Looking good Glen! Glad you could fly the original flag.

[SaltyScot]

1 hour ago, Glen McGuire said:

I had a buddy of mine rout the edges

 

Hey, I would have happily done that for you, Glen  She is looking truly beautiful, at least from what I could see oh master.

[Glen McGuire]

13 hours ago, SaltyScot said:

Hey, I would have happily done that for you, Glen  

I appreciate that, Mark!  I think the drive to my buddy's house is a little shorter than visiting you in Chesapeake Bay (may not be as scenic though!).   😃   To be honest, I do have a router myself.  But I'm not that great with it and did not trust myself on such a fine piece of wood. 

 

 

13 hours ago, tmj said:

I read somewhere that while in port ships were often docked with their bow facing into the wind, if possible, for various reasons. If this is true your constitution is parked backwards, evidence via the direction that the flags are blowing. 😐

Well, a blue norther came through and the wind changed directions after she docked!  Actually, the flags can easily be flipped.  So the family can decide how they would like them displayed.

Edited Thursday at 12:14 PM by Glen McGuire

[Keith Black]

Flags denoting wind direction on models is a bit disingenuous in my view, I'm not sure I've seen an honest example and that includes my own. The wind swirls, it's not inconceivable that flags thirty feet apart would vary and that on a large ship flags at bow and stern could be flying in opposite directions. Every model I've seen with flags flying have always been inline with the keel, I've never seen flags flying perpendicular to the hull. Having said that someone will of course post photos of such examples. 

Edited Thursday at 02:17 PM by Keith Black

[Knocklouder]

No matter which way the wind is blowing, that is one fantastic ship, Great job my friend.    

Knocklouder. 

[popeye2sea]

On 5/7/2025 at 6:19 PM, tmj said:

I don't know if this is true, but I read somewhere that while in port ships were often docked with their bow facing into the wind, if possible, for various reasons. If this is true your constitution is parked backwards, evidence via the direction that the flags are blowing. 😐

A couple of points: US Navy ships (or any Naval vessel) would rarely dock.  They would normally anchor off (reduced the potential for desertion).

When a ship did dock, the side chosen to be alongside the quay would be determined by the purpose or the job to be done while docked.

At anchor, the angle that a ship assumes to the wind is dependent on both the wind and the current, with the bow pointing generally up-wind and against the current.

 

Set your flags flying however floats your boat.

 

Regards,

 

Henry

Edited Friday at 05:55 PM by popeye2sea

[tmj]

5 hours ago, Knocklouder said:

No matter which way the wind is blowing, that is one fantastic ship, Great job my friend

My sentiments, exactly! Great job, Glen! 

[SaltyScot]

9 hours ago, Glen McGuire said:

But I'm not that great with it and did not trust myself on such a fine piece of wood. 

 

Good call, Glen. It would be a crying shame to mess up a fine piece of wood like that.

[Glen McGuire]

Thanks to all for the interesting and educational discussion on flag direction above.  With that issue resolved, time to rig the davits and hang the whale boats.  The Bluejacket instructions do not address the davit rigging, so I used @xken's superb build log for guidance.  The first thing I did was run a line connecting the eyehooks on the top end of each davit (circled in red below).  I ran the line through a bullseye which is seized to another line that goes to the deck and is used to raise and lower the davits.  

 

 

 

The line that is seized to the bullseye (green arrow below) runs up thru a double block which is tied into the shrouds and then runs down to a lanyard that will tie into the empty eyehooks seen in the deck.  At the time, I did not install the lanyard.  I just tensioned the assembly with a small clamp.  I would add the lanyard and tighten everything up after hanging the whale boats. 

 

 

Time to hang the whale boats.  I was pretty much clueless as to how to do the small rigging between the end of the davit and the boat.  I knew I had to rig a line through the double block mortised into the end of the davit and the double block hooked to the end of the whale boat, but I couldn't figure out how to do it.  Shout out to Henry (a.k.a. @popeye2sea) for coming to the rescue.  He sent me a sketch that cleared things up.  I post the sketch below in case anyone else is as clueless about the rigging as I was.

    

 

 

Here's the whale boat hung from the davits.

 

 

After that, I circled back to install the lanyards on the deck and tighten everything up.  The working end of the lanyard is tied off to the pinrail on the mizzen mast.

 

 

Here's a picture of the entire davit rigging with arrows highlighting the 3 separate lines required for the rigging assembly.

 

 

Edited yesterday at 09:26 PM by Glen McGuire

[tmj]

Simply 'Fantastic' craftsmanship! 

[SaltyScot]

I applaud you guys who manage to get the very complex (in my eyes anyway) rigging done on models like this, and still retain your sanity! Very nice work, Glen.

[Glen McGuire]

1 hour ago, SaltyScot said:

and still retain your sanity!

No way I would have been able to make it without @BANYAN's Bundy!  

[lraymo]

Wow!  Incredible work!!!