Schooner America by Mjohn - BlueJacket Shipcrafters - 1/96

[Mjohn]

20 or so years ago my wife and I were in New England visiting (we had lived there before moving to the west coast) and we stopped in at Bluejacket.   I think we stayed at a motel next door.    I bought this kit but I never built it.      The scale is pretty small and I'm not sure I can work at this scale any longer, but I'm going to give it a try.

 

The plans look pretty straightforward.     Instructions are clear.   The kit seems well made and well stocked.    Should be fun.

 

I am planning to plank and paint the hull rather than build it in the dockyard style.

 

In the first picture the frames are glued to the subdeck and keel.   If you build this kit, and if the parts are still cut the same way on the mahogany sheet, be aware that frame 3 is pretty fragile.   I broke the frame twice along the grain while I was fitting and before gluing.     One other note is that I changed the mast step at frame 3 by cutting it square and eliminating the alignment hole.  I did this so I would have more freedom to align the masts fore/aft and port/starboard when I install them.   

Edited January 12 by ccoyle
corrected log title

[Mjohn]

 

Rough templates for the boom saddles.  I probably changed the values a bit after I  took this picture, but this gives the basic idea.

 

 

 

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I remade a transom because I want to try to duplicate the transom from a picture I have.   Also, whether my error or a plans error, I could not get the transom in the kit to fit properly.    I'll assume it was my error. I intend to trim this transom to shape once I finish planking and figure out where the after bullworks will land.   I will probably paint the transom to match the boat color.   I haven't decided on paint colors yet.

 

Edited 4 hours ago by Mjohn

[Mjohn]

Planking is now complete.   I used a "magic plank" method I once read about (but I can't find the reference) in which I tried to position a starter plank right at the point at the turn of the bilge which would allow me to maximize the number of mostly straight planks.   I then fit planks down from the sheer, up from the keel, and up and down from the magic plank.   I had some luck with this method in that most of the plank fitting I had to do turned into fitting one flat side of a new plank to a flat side of a prior plank above or below and only having to fit the other side of the new plank to one curved edge.    

 

 

Below is the aft end of the boat and transom I am trying to duplicate.   I have tried and failed at this before, but maybe this time I have the process thought through

Edited 4 hours ago by Mjohn

[Mjohn]

Other progress has been the sanding and shaping of the spars and beginning of building the deck furniture.  I'm going to coat the spar with amber shellac and then paint them white where appropriate over the shellac.

 

Next significant task is fairing the hull.   There is one place on the boat I may want to fill with a little putty, but basically the plan is sand, fill with MH spackle paste, sand, repeat until fair.  Eventually I'll put a coat of primer on the hull to look for unfair spots.    Fairing is the place I am most concerned about working at this scale because the planks are only 1/32 thick, which won't leave much wood to sand off to fair the hull.      Won't know til I try.