Sloup by HakeZou - Corel - 1:25

[HakeZou]

I never intended to have two builds going on simultaneously, but...well...here I am. Life has been pretty wild for several months now, including a bad stretch of work-related burnout. During that time, my Terror build languished, while I procrastinated on the lifeboats and the shrouds. So, in order to get my hands active again, I decided to pull my "next kit" off the shelf and just get started on it.

 

After working on the Terror for so long, I was ready to get back to a small working boat with simple rigging. I had been eyeing Corel's Sloup for a long time, so I picked up a kit when it was on sale a while back. My goals are three-fold here: to continue working on my planking skills; to better understand how to shape the stem, keel, and rudder; and to continue working on my rigging skills. I'm grateful to CaptGino and Dee_Dee, who have also done some great build logs that are serving as vital resources for me.

 

Right off the bat, this kit has presented me with unexpected challenges. I have only dry-fit the frames and the decks (and installed the bow filler pieces); the transom is just dangling for now, since it isn't yet glued into place.

 

But even this little bit has been a fair amount of work. The challenges:

 

1. Frame 3 was positioned 3mm too far aft. I made this assessment based on the deck pieces. I cut the slot in the correct spot, then ended up gluing that one frame into place, along with a shim to fill the gap that I left. This has implications for the mast, since the hole in the deck does not line up with the slot in the false keel; I haven't decided exactly what to do about this yet, but I'll work that out soon.
2. The bow fillers are oddly shaped and either line up with the slot for frame 1 or with the stem post. Not a big deal, but it took a bit to figure out how best to position them—and then required some trimming and sanding, both on the fillers and on frame 1.
3. The fore deck and the main deck needed much more shaping then expected to sit comfortably in place. (And the main and aft decks still need a little more attention.)

 

All of that said, things are off and rolling, and it felt good to have my tools in my hands again.

 

PS: My son and I got tools into our hands last month, too. It was time for his final Pinewood Derby. He wanted to go all out and, after some brainstorming, we ended up teaching ourselves a bunch of new metalworking skills so he could have a brass-plated car! Some pretty amateur-looking work, but we were both thrilled with how it turned out. The car also ended up being ridiculously fast (averaged 233 scale mph) and easily took 1st place—winning every heat by more than a tenth of a second. Watching him grin throughout all of the races made for a nice way to wrap up Cub Scouting!

 

 

[JacquesCousteau]

I'm looking forward to following along, especially as I have the same kit on my shelf. Good luck dealing with the challenges and thanks for the heads-up, I'll keep an eye out when I get to mine. Do you think you'll be modifying the kit much? It seems like they present it with some sort of reduced winter rig (which does look quute nice), but the actual vessels could have a larger sail plan.

 

Great car, too!

[HakeZou]

Thanks for following along, Jacques! I'm not intending to do too many modifications. That said, the instructions and plans with the kit are limited enough that there's a lot of room for experimenting in each step along the way (something the instructions do encourage!). As far as the rig, I'm not planning to overthink that. The kit comes with a gaff and a single staysail. I've seen plenty of photos of sloups coquillers under full sail (with a top sail and two staysails); they look great, but I'm not sure that I want to invest time in making my own sails this time around.

 

On to the progress report. With a bit of travel and lots of noodling time, my progress has been slow. The key challenge is that I've been thinking ahead to some of the challenges of getting deck and bulkhead planking to fit right once the hull is planked. So, I'm trying an experiment in doing some of the work out of the usual order. To that end, I've mostly planked the main and fore decks. I've also planked the short forward bulkhead and the inside of the transom. (Obviously, there's a bit of clean up to do on the bulkhead and transom!)

I've adjusted the planking on the main and fore decks from the plans. After watching videos and studying photos of actual sloups coquillers, I thought that the recommended proportions of the sections on the main deck seemed a bit off. I laid two king planks down the center. Forward and aft, the planks are laid parallel to the king planks. In the middle, however, I've laid some perpendicular planks to simulate the hatches down into the hull. I'm not planning to make functional hatches, just to simulate them. As for the foredeck, there are again two king planks, but the rest are laid at a 60º angle. It's aesthetically pleasing to me, but that angle was also a practicality.

 

Working with the decks off of the frames, I've shaped all of the fore and main deck planks. Those along the edges were taped into place, then I trimmed and sanded the edges. (This is where the 60º angles on the foredeck planking were helpful.) Now, once I've planked the hull and removed the futtocks, I can simply lay in perfectly shaped pieces. Laid out like this, the imperfections seem glaringly obvious, but so far, they seem less obvious to me when everything is dry-fit in place.

Next steps: Clean up the bulwark and transom planking; drill out holes for mast and tiller; plank the aft deck and aft bulkhead.