Steam Schooner Wapama 1915 by Paul Le Wol - Scale 1/72 = From Plans Drawn By Don Birkholtz Sr.

[Paul Le Wol]

1 hour ago, KeithAug said:

All very precise Paul. Great workmanship.

Hi Keith, thank you so much!

[J Snyder]

Paul, you do beautiful work. Even the unseen is well done. I look forward to the rest of the build. One question I have is as our building to the displacement water line are you planning on setting a load of lumber on deck? It would be a shame to cover that beautiful deck.

[Paul Le Wol]

22 minutes ago, J Snyder said:

Paul, you do beautiful work. Even the unseen is well done. I look forward to the rest of the build. One question I have is as our building to the displacement water line are you planning on setting a load of lumber on deck? It would be a shame to cover that beautiful deck.

Hi J, thank you very much for your nice comment. I do like the the look of these boats fully loaded in the old photos. Gives you a sense of how hard they had to work for a living. So yes I would like to load up the deck. 

[steamschooner]

SS Saginaw, Operated by Hart/woods leaving Willapa bay loaded with lumber.

[kurtvd19]

I bet those aboard are hoping for clear weather.

[Keith Black]

 I wouldn't have wanted to be the guy that had to release the bindings once they reached their destination.  😱

[Paul Le Wol]

My back aches just looking at that photo. A lot of that lumber must have been hand -bombed.

[Keith Black]

1 hour ago, Paul Le Wol said:

A lot of that lumber must have been hand -bombed.

Absolutely, Paul. Both on and off. 

[Dr PR]

Kurt,

 

Willapa Bay is on the West Coast of Washington, just north of the Columbia River. There is no clear weather half the year. That lumber would have sat out in the rain at the mill for some time before being loaded (probably in the rain).

 

That's a good photo of a loaded lumber schooner. It always amazes me that they floated at all! It has a high center of gravity, and that means it will roll a lot in swells. And it will be heading south along the Pacific Coast to California for about 500 miles with swells parallel to the coast all the way. That's several days rolling in the troughs between swells. It would be a rough ride in clear weather! 

[kurtvd19]

I was referring to the lack of free-board.  A decent wave would have swamped the ship.  I have seen photos of lumber boats on the Great Lakes loaded even higher and there are a lot of them on the bottom to prove they loaded it too high this time.

[Jim Lad]

Kurt, provided the hatches were properly secured, a few waves coming on board wouldn't be a problem. many a sailing ship has sailed for days with the decks regularly filled to the top of the bulwarks with no ill effect.

 

John

[J Snyder]

There's a lot of ship and weight under water for stability when loaded. "Don't worry crew the load is wood and wood floats!"

As for the trip south. In good weather the swells usually are from the northwest by west the perfect conditions for long slow rolls. Are 40 footer would roll over 30° some times. In bad weather going around the points we had very confused seas coming from all directions. 

[wefalck]

There are stories of Scandinavian wood-traders, usually worn-out trading vessels from other regions, that were literally floating on their loads ...

[Paul Le Wol]

Hi Everyone, figured I would get one more update in before the end of the year. Thank you for all of your Comments and Likes. The covering boards were started probably in an attempt to delay working on the four ladders and three sets of steps. A  1/32" x 1/32"  strip of wood was glued to a 1/32" x 1/8" strip and painted before attaching.

 

 

 

 

 

Once I had gone as far as possible with the covering boards I started on the ladders that are made from 1/32" x 1/8" walnut. A jig was made to hold the stringers and then the riser planks which were cut to around 3/32" wide were attached using a 1/32" strip as a spacer. After they were assembled they were given a dark grey wash.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The iron casing for the stack was made and the deadlights were attached using a properly spaced template. The deadlights were cut from 1/8" styrene rod using the Slicer.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I was going to use brass tube for the stack but couldn't find anything to make the band. I decided to give Tinkercad a try. I found it to be a fun experience and ended up subbing out some STL files to a friend with a printer. I think they came out pretty good after some cleanup.

 

 

The wheelhouse was assembled using 1/32" plywood. The window openings are lined with 1/32" x 1/32" boxwood. Now the siding has begun.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The hand rails for the ladders up to the cabin deck had to be done in combination with the stanchions that support the boat deck. The stanchions have a fancy turned section in the middle. Mine are not going to be that fancy. A "micro lathe" was made out of a piece of 1/8" square brass tube with a corner filed off the length of the turned section. A piece of 3/32" x 3/32" AYC is slid into the tube and the corner is sanded off at the slot. Then taken out and repeated until all four edges are sanded. They then need a bit of finish sanding.

 

 

 

 

Like other people have found, the store bought brass handrail stanchions needed to be sanded down quite a bit. The next ones will be sanded even more.

 

 

 

 

Now the rest of the boat deck can be framed. Hope to see you in The New Year! 

 

[JacquesCousteau]

Great work! The ladder especially turned out really nicely, ingenious method.

[Jim Lad]

Coming along beautifully, Paul.

 

John

[Paul Le Wol]

8 minutes ago, JacquesCousteau said:

Great work! The ladder especially turned out really nicely, ingenious method.

Hi Jacques, thank you very much for. I certainly am glad that they are finished being made.

[Paul Le Wol]

1 minute ago, Jim Lad said:

Coming along beautifully, Paul.

 

John

Thank you so much John!

[Keith Black]

 Each new post is so doggone impressive, Paul. Your work is always beautifully done. 👍

[MAGIC's Craig]

Well done and wonderfully crisp execution, Paul.

Your photos show some fine ideas you are sharing with all of us (for our future projects!).

 

Craig

[Paul Le Wol]

28 minutes ago, Keith Black said:

 Each new post is so doggone impressive, Paul. Your work is always beautifully done. 👍

Hi Keith, thank you very much for. You are way kind!

 

6 minutes ago, MAGIC's Craig said:

Well done and wonderfully crisp execution, Paul.

Your photos show some fine ideas you are sharing with all of us (for our future projects!).

 

Craig

Hi Craig, thank you very much. I am looking forward to your future projects!

[Ian_Grant]

Very nice model!  And yes, TinkerCAD is fun (and under-rated). One can design fairly complex shapes without the months-long learning curve of Fusion and such.

[Glen McGuire]

Brilliant work, Paul.  Each new post is somehow more impressive than the previous one.  Wow.

[Paul Le Wol]

33 minutes ago, Ian_Grant said:

Very nice model!  And yes, TinkerCAD is fun (and under-rated). One can design fairly complex shapes without the months-long learning curve of Fusion and such.

Thank you very much Ian! I think I can see a 3d printer in my future 😀

 

19 minutes ago, Glen McGuire said:

Brilliant work, Paul.  Each new post is somehow more impressive than the previous one.  Wow.

Hi Glen, thank you so much! Good to hear from you.

[Dr PR]

Paul,

 

Very nice. Now have a merry holiday season!

[Paul Le Wol]

7 hours ago, Dr PR said:

Paul,

 

Very nice. Now have a merry holiday season!

Hi Phil, thank you very much and I hope your Christmas is also merry!