Galley WASHINGTON 1776 by Justin P. - Scale 1:48 - from NRG plans

[Justin P.]

To say it’s been a while would be an understatement. After completing my TRITON build, quite a lot has happened to pull me away from the shop—only recently have things begun to settle down. I embarked on an entirely new career, teaching high school full-time, completed my teaching preparation courses (endorsed in Art, ELA, Social Studies and Middle Level Humanities), earned a second master’s degree, and took our high school chess team to the state competition three years in a row. It’s been a wild ride, but I’m happy to report that I can finally get back to work.

As I neared the end of my TRITON project, I knew I wanted to take on a full-scale build. However, I also wanted to be careful not to become overly ambitious. With that in mind, I moved away from the Swan series and the Hayling Hoy—both excellent and well-documented options—but ones I feel I should save until my skill set matches the level of preparation that has gone into those designs.

 

In the interim, I dabbled with a couple of smaller projects that were more manageable given my limited time. I built several Tosti clamps (both parallel and plank clamps), brought the NRG Capstan project to about 90% completion, and started the Masting and Rigging project. The latter two, developed by Toni Levine, are fantastic exercises and absolutely worth finishing—I’ve been selfishly using them to scratch the itch whenever I could dip into the shipyard.

During this time, I’ve also been slowly preparing everything for my WASHINGTON build. Initially, I ordered one set of plans, but after some consideration, I decided it would be more practical to buy a second. This allowed me to keep one set for markups and notes while using the other for cutting. I highly recommend this approach—it has saved me the hassle of dealing with copiers and printers. I also created a timber list, settled on wood choices, placed a substantial order through Modelers Sawmill (which I highly recommend), and gathered a few additional materials based on what I found useful during my last scratch build.

 

 

Once I sourced a build board according to the recommended specifications and set everything up, I jumped into keel construction.

The truth is, I actually started this project back in May, but I held off on creating a build log until I was sure I was making steady progress and had fewer outside commitments. Unfortunately, there are many unfinished WASHINGTON build logs out there, and I didn’t want to add to that list. While they remain valuable resources on MSW, it always pains me a little to see them end without a conclusion.

 

Having spent so much time away from the shipyard definitely showed in the early stages—I ended up building my keel three times. It was a frustrating and humbling experience, especially considering it’s just a few long, straight sticks! Getting the scarf joints right was a relearning process, and I also experimented with using paper to simulate oakum. I tried lightweight black construction paper, but it was too thick to bond well, so I switched to black tissue paper, which worked much better.

 

Once I had a keel I was satisfied with, I moved on to the stern details, which also took a few attempts before I started seeing success. Fortunately, assembling and final routing for the frames went smoothly. Once they were attached to the keel, I started to feel that excitement again, confirming I had made the right project choice.

The stem proved to be another challenge—I think I built three of them before finally accepting my limits and committing to one. Getting all the curves and joints to fit together while maintaining the correct proportions was another lesson in humility. I wrapped up this stage by adding the bow and stern support fixtures, which will remain fixed to the building board for the foreseeable future.

Next up is frame construction—thankfully, my TRITON build prepared me well for this stage, so I feel confident I can tackle it with relative success.  Thanks all for bearing with the long story, and wish me luck as I dip my toes back in the pool....

 

[ccoyle]

Great introduction and start!

[Pirate adam]

Washington galley is a great project. I think you will like it. 
 

Adam

[CiscoH]

i went through the same struggle making the joints on my AVS stem.  Every time i sanded the joint it changed the angles of the parts.  You could have tight-ish joints but the stem off the lines on the plans, or the opposite, but not both.

your job looks great