Muscongus Bay Lobster Smack by Venti - Model Shipways - 1:24

[Venti]

Just finished the Pram which was a ton of fun but I am much more excited to start this one! This style of planking seems much more enjoyable to me and is what I've seen done the most on bigger ships.

 

I think I'm going to order some black synthetic rope and some sheave blocks as a little upgrade from what the kit has. 

 

For a few days I'll probably be reading instructions and build logs again to be better prepared but I might not be able to help myself and get started 😅

[ccoyle]

1 hour ago, Venti said:

I think I'm going to order some black synthetic rope and some sheave blocks as a little upgrade from what the kit has.

 

 A nice thing about a kit like this one is that smacks are still in use as pleasure craft, so they can essentially be modified however you like.

[Venti]

19 minutes ago, ccoyle said:

modified however you like

Yeah! I've seen a few really nice modifications people have done in their logs!

I was hoping to find plans for the smack but I haven't been able to find any yet. Would have been a huge help in the Pram and I assume will be for this as well.

[Kenchington]

57 minutes ago, Venti said:

plans for the smack

Chapelle's "American Small Sailing Craft", figure 99 -- though the book-published version is very small.

 

At least, I assume that that is what all kit manufacturers have used for their Muscongus Bay centreboard sloops. How closely the Model Shipways kit follows Chapelle's version, I will not know until I catch up to your progress!

 

Trevor

[JacquesCousteau]

Looking forward to following along! 

 

If you're looking for inspiration, I'd second the recommendation to have a look at the relevant section of Chapelle. Another potential source would be to look for old photos. While I haven't found many of the Muscongus Bay centerboard sloop, there are quite a few photos of Friendship Sloops, which were deeper-hulled but otherwise quite similar vessels. There are a lot of photos of these--mostly as yachts, but a few as fishing vessels--here, for example: https://penobscotmarinemuseum.historyit.com/search-interfaces/search/digital-collection/0/1/1/1?rq[0]=8639&ip=1

 

 

[Venti]

26 minutes ago, Kenchington said:

book-published version is very small

Interesting. Unfortunately, the libraries near me don't have it 😭 I wouldn't mind buying it but I'm afraid that the small picture wouldn't be of any real use...

[Venti]

Thank you Jacques, I will check it out as well!

[JacquesCousteau]

2 minutes ago, Venti said:

Interesting. Unfortunately, the libraries near me don't have it 😭 I wouldn't mind buying it but I'm afraid that the small picture wouldn't be of any real use...

It's also available for short-term loan online through the Internet Archive (a fantastic source for books, btw).

[Kenchington]

3 hours ago, Venti said:

I'm afraid that the small picture wouldn't be of any real use...

There was a tie when the Smithsonian sold larger copies of Chapelle's many ship and boat plans. I don't know whether they still do but worth checking out.

 

For more background (though a rather later period than the centreboard sloops), courtesy of your federal government as it was in 1890:

 

https://books.google.ca/books?hl=en&lr=&id=v98aAAAAYAAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PA235&dq=Maine+lobster+fishery+history+sloop+trap&ots=KQi-n948T4&sig=OFip4-NeAMJY7d3w689r3XwcPxo&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false

 

That link will take you to the Google Books version. You can likely find others on-line.

 

[Venti]

20 hours ago, JacquesCousteau said:

available for short-term loan

Unfortunately it says "Borrow Unavailable" at the moment. I assume someone else is borrowing it now and I'll keep checking on it. But I saw a picture on someone else's build log and I'm not sure it'll be all that helpful. 

 

I think I've decided to forgo the pre-shaped planks given in this kit. I want to get extra practice lining off the hull and bending/shaping the planks the "real" way. Is this a bad idea for this ship? Not sure if they give the pre-shaped planks because it's a learning kit and/or because it's small and difficult to plank. The garboard seems it might be a little difficult but otherwise I don't foresee anything too bad.

With this I need some help choosing the size of strips to use for this. The planks given in the kit are 1/32" thick so that seems like it should be the thickness. The width of the planks are kind of all over the place... around 3/16" wide with sheer strake at 3/8".

 

Once again my wood sheets are not labeled correctly and did not come with a parts sheet to identify parts so I will contact ModelExpo and try to get that.

[JacquesCousteau]

I think the Internet Archive's borrowing period is just for an hour, so it might be available again soon. Beyond the plan, the written description on the accompanying pages can be useful as well.

 

While you can certainly go for it, this may be a bit of a tricky hull to plank given the overhanging stern. I suspect that the kit planks are not quite to scale in terms of width--you may be able to count planks from a photo to figure out the proper width. If you're going the tapered strip route, instead of cutting spiled planks directly from a wider sheet, you'd probably need thinner strips than the kit includes anyway in order to better edge bend them. Looking forward to seeing how you decide to go about it!