Lancha Chilota by JacquesCousteau – Scale 1:32 – Chilean Coasting Sloop

[wefalck]

When there are eye-bolts, blocks would be shackled or hooked to them. The blocks would be either internally stropped in metal, or there would be an external strop in rope with an eye for the shackle/hook. The splice or the whole strop could be served and there would be a seizing between the block and the eyelet.

I suspect that on a boat like this there may be a few windings of wire replacing the shackle …

[Thukydides]

3 hours ago, JacquesCousteau said:

Also, how much of a strop would be served?

Now this is much earlier than your time period, but according to the Art of Rigging in 1806, strapping of 4 in diameter and above are wormed parceled and served and less than that just served. They discuss how the serving is done on shore and the lengths just cut off as needed. It is not clear if the splice to join the two ends of the strop (which they state is in the **** of the block :)) was then served over, but I would guess not.

 

p44:

https://books.google.ca/books?id=Cq1WAAAAcAAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false

 

3 hours ago, JacquesCousteau said:

Specifically, I'm stuck on how blocks were joined to eyebolts and the like. If I'm going with rope-stropped blocks, would it make more sense for a block to be tied directly to the eyebolt, or to an eye in the strop on one side of the block and then to use a separate line to join the block eye to the eyebolt?

I am not sure exactly what you are asking here, but in general I would expect that the lower down and more permanent the block, the more likely it is to be directly attached to the structure / eyebolt. The higher up and less permanent it is the more likely it is to use a lashing to attach two ends of a loop or to use hooks. I don’t have any sources for this assertion, just what I have observed the tendency in the examples I have seen and logic (I would assume that it was much harder to do this on the top of the mast as opposed to on deck).

 

The mast is looking good. Nice job on the fix.

[JacquesCousteau]

Thanks, @wefalck and @Thukydides! Your responses are very helpful and make a lot of sense. I decided against serving the strops themselves, as while it may be accurate, it would substantially increase the amount of work to do and would make the stropping thread much harder to work with. 

 

I also decided to use hooks to attach blocks to eyebolts, following the examples in photos of the gaff. This required making hooks, which was a bit of a process. Hats off to the many of you who work in smaller scales, making tiny fittings is tricky work! Last year when Crafty Sailor was having its going-out-of-business sale, I picked up two sets of photo-etch hooks in 5mm and 2mm. Looking at them alongside the blocks I have for this build, though, they seemed alternately too big and too small. I tried making a couple hooks from the thinnest brass rod that I have, but found it too difficult to make hooks smaller than 5mm or so due to the thickness of the material. I then tried with 24-gauge wire and was able to get a smaller size, but the coating got very ripped up and they didn't look very good. At that point, I remembered that I had a small bag of eyebolts made of thin brass wire, which worked much better and after a false start resulting in a very oversized hook, I was soon able to make hooks of about 4mm. The hooks are not particularly consistent in shape, but I figure that they're widely spaced enough on the model that it won't be all that noticeable. Below, between the photo-etch hook sets, there are, from left to right, the brass rod hooks, the 24-gauge wire hooks, and then the brass eyebolt hooks, with a 4mm and 5mm block below (and my finger for scale). Of course I only notice now that some of the hooks will need the eye parallel to the hook instead of perpendicular, but that's not a difficult fix before painting.

 

I also did a bit of prep on some blocks. The "beautiful blocks" from ModelExpo look very good to my eyes, but I went to soften some hard edges with fine sandpaper and found that their wood is actually a lighter color than they appear (presumably they look darker because of laser char or some other effect of the manufacturing process). So, I sanded one lightly on all sides, and then stained with minwax golden oak. Below, the 4mm single block has been left untouched, while the 5mm double block was sanded and stained. I think it's a subtle difference, but a nice one. 

 

I also did a bit more work on the rigging, this time focusing on the forestay. I began by serving a length of black line. Once I reached the desired length, I secured the end of the serving, but didn't snip it off. Instead, I did a false slice through the opposite end of the served area, forming a served loop, as seen below. The idea was to then continue serving around the splice and a bit down the stay.

 

Unfortunately it didn't work out. My set of helping hands seems to be getting a little loser, despite tightening the screws, and while I've been able to serve straight lengths of line ok, it was impossible to serve around the splice. The rope, which was doubled on the loop side, kept wrapping around itself instead of letting the serving wrap around it, and it became very difficult to maintain tension. I had to stop. So instead, I decided to go for a simpler method of using a couple of seizings to make the loop in served black rope, as seen below.

 

Finally, I did the jib halyard block in the way that Wefalck suggested several posts ago. I used a 4mm block (sanded and stained) as several photos seem to show a smaller block, relative to the gaff halyards, in this location. To strop it, I followed the instructions that Chuck Passaro recently posted on Syren's blocks page, finding it to be clear and easy to follow. The only change was that I ended up using a few half-hitches instead of just wrapping the seizing thread, as I found it hard to maintain pressure otherwise. After stropping the block into place, I did a false splice at the other end to create a loop to fit around the forestay.

 

I then trimmed it and tried to serve around the splice, which was a bit difficult and didn't turn out very smooth. I still found the result acceptable, though.

 

Below, in an unfortunately blurry photo, the forestay has been temporarily put in place, as has the jib halyard block, which will look better once the halyard puts a bit of pressure on it so it doesn't try to pop upward.

 

I think I'll make the gaff throat halyard in the same way, just larger so it loops around the masthead. I'm debating whether I should serve the masthead loop, though--I think I should--and whether that serving should be black or brown. Probably black to match the shroud and forestay serving, although those are meant to be wire while the throat halyard block stropping will be rope.

[Jim Lad]

Just catching up. You're making very nice progress.

 

John

 

[Paul Le Wol]

Hi Jacques, your rigging is really looking good. If you are making hooks and eyes with the coated annealed wire and it gets scratched you can burn the coating off with a mini torch or a lighter. It will turn a dark grey colour and won’t need to be painted.

[JacquesCousteau]

4 hours ago, Paul Le Wol said:

Hi Jacques, your rigging is really looking good. If you are making hooks and eyes with the coated annealed wire and it gets scratched you can burn the coating off with a mini torch or a lighter. It will turn a dark grey colour and won’t need to be painted.

Thanks Paul! Unfortunately I don't have annealed steel wire, the 24 gauge wire I have has a black plastic coating. I need to pick up some annealed wire soon, it would be a lot stronger and wouldn't require painting.

 

10 hours ago, Jim Lad said:

Just catching up. You're making very nice progress.

 

John

 

Thanks John!

 

I've now primed the metal parts that I've made so far, after first bending the chainplates into shape. This proved a bit frustrating, as I first tried sticking the hooks and thimbles (the latter of which will go on the ends of the shrouds and forestay) onto a bit of double-sided tape for priming. I didn't realize just how sticky our double-sided tape was, though, and it left a ton of residue. After soaking in alcohol overnight, it still took quite a bit of work to scrape it all off. I ended up instead placing the small parts, like the larger parts, on a loop of 28-gauge wire for priming instead.

 

 

I also finally added the cleats to the hull, although I still need to add a couple eyebolts with rings and a pair of the blocky double-cleats (not sure if there's an actual term for them) as well to finish up the deck furnishings.

[JacquesCousteau]

After having primed the metal parts, I was able to paint them dark grey with acrylic paint and to add a dash of dry-brushed rust coloration and some pencil marks to highlight certain areas, although the varnish seems to have darkened things slightly.

 

 

I added the horse rail, making sure to leave room for the tiller. Unfortunately the wood split on the right side while I was test fitting, but I was able to glue it back into place and re-drill the hole (this time using a slightly bigger bit so that the horse wouldn't get stuck).

 

It was then time to try stropping a block with a hook--in this case, the peak halyard block, as I already had a double block stained and ready. Once again, I followed Chuck Passaro's stropping instructions, which I'm finding to be very clear and relatively easy to do, with the modification of doing a few half hitches instead of just wrapping the seizing. I also had some difficulty getting the super glue (which you mostly wipe off immediately) right, as it was very easy to either wipe off too much and have nothing stick, or to not wipe off enough and end up with a shiny spot (which I'll try to take down with a bit of matte varnish). The false splice turned out pretty neat. I'm using .45mm rope from Ropes of Scale for the blocks, and 140-size fly tying thread for the seizings.

 

Sharp-eyed viewers may note that I accidentally used the wrong hook for this--I should have used one with a perpendicular eye instead of twisting the eye of the stropping 90 degrees. Oh well, I think it's hard to notice unless specifically looked for.

 

Now that I finally have the necessary hooks, I'm finding block stropping to be pretty fun. I know this is all pretty basic information to be documenting here, but it's new for me.

 

I'm quickly reaching the point, though, where I'll need to do a bit more woodworking to make the gaff and boom.

[wefalck]

I had discovered decades ago that making half-hitches eases the seizing of blocks etc. a lot and keeps the rounds in place. The only issue is that one can see this on one side, so strategic placing of the 'hitch' to become mostly not visible is a good idea.

 

If you are averse to using an organic solvent-based varnish (e.g. diluted clear nail varnish) for securing rigging, you may want to try the cement they use in nail-studios to stick artificial nails to ladies' real nails. I recently discovered that this is a mixture of CA and metacrylic monomers: it sticks quite fast, but you have several minutes to adjust things before it fully cures. It is not as 'nasty' as pure CA and forms strong bonds. It should be readily available in your part of the world.