Bluenose by rvchima - Amati - 1:100

[GGibson]

The bowsprit blocks do look better, Rod!  And, yes... a ton of clove hitches!  Great job!

 

Getting the flying backstays on the ship will help solidify the main mast, as well.  Your Bluenose is looking awesome.

[rvchima]

Thank you everyone for all the compliments. After looking at several of the Model Shipways builds on MSW I am realizing that Amati left off a lot of details on this model. It still looks nice, but I do wish that I had gone with the Model Shipways kit.

 

Question

I am about ready to add sails. I suspect that the gaffs and booms should all be pinned to their respective masts. Is that right, or can I actually rig them in place?

[GGibson]

Do as much of the gaff & boom rigging and block preparation as you can off ship.  When it got to that point, I used my tall "helping hand" alligator clip holder apparatus to hold the gaffs in place while doing the final rigging and securing the gaff to the mast with parrel beads.

 

I decided not to do sails on my Bluenose, so I wish you the best with the sail installations! 

[rvchima]

18 hours ago, GGibson said:

Do as much of the gaff & boom rigging and block preparation as you can off ship.

Gregg,

I've read that elsewhere but never really thought about it until you mentioned it. It suddenly makes a lot of sense. I can attach the booms, gaffs, and blocks to the sails off the ship, and then drop them in place. Thanks for the advice.

[rvchima]

Paper Sails

Yesterday I scanned and printed all my sail patterns. It took a little origami to fit each sail in my 8.5 x 11 printer, and I had to print the main sail in two pieces.

Today I washed and ironed the cotton fabric that came with the kit, then laid out the sails on it. Two sides of the fabric unravels - that's the weft. The warp goes in the other direction. The seam lines on the sails follow the warp, and I laid out the sails that way. It probably doesn't matter.

After reading Gregg's advice above I decided to test fit the paper sails. I'm really glad that I did because

1. Now I know where the sails go.

2. The foremast boom is too long.

3. The foremast staysail pattern is too big.

After a couple of quick modifications I'll be ready to start cutting cloth.

Edited August 16 by rvchima

[Kenchington]

1 hour ago, rvchima said:

The seam lines on the sails follow the warp, and I laid out the sails that way. It probably doesn't matter.

I agree: I probably won't matter.

 

But a sail that has to stand up to the wind needs its free edges (i.e. ones not supported by a spar or stay) aligned to either warp or weft. (Otherwise the bias stretch would ruin the shape.) As you have them printed on paper, the two jibs are "mitre cut", with the warp aligned to both foot and leech. (Or should be, though the one labelled just "jib" has one part with cloths aligned to the luff: Bad mistake by the kit manufacturer!)  Each jib has a mitre seam from clew to luff, where the two directions of the cloths meet. You might want to try replicating that by making each jib of two triangles of cloth, then joining them along the mitre seam.

 

Or not. As you say, it probably won't matter.

 

 

Trevor

Edited August 16 by Kenchington

[rvchima]

Trevor,

Thank you so much for your comments about the alignment of the fabric on a sail. I know more about weaving than I do about sailing, so I really appreciate the help.  As soon as I read

15 hours ago, Kenchington said:

But a sail that has to stand up to the wind needs its free edges (i.e. ones not supported by a spar or stay) aligned to either warp or weft.

it made immediate sense. And good catch that the upper part of the "jib" sail has the cloth aligned incorrectly.

15 hours ago, Kenchington said:

the one labelled just "jib" has one part with cloths aligned to the luff: Bad mistake by the kit manufacturer!

I am trying to be polite to Amati, but I am not too impressed with this kit.

I will experiment with the mitre joint on the two jib sails. I'm mot sure if I can sew it at this small scale but I will see what I can do.

[rvchima]

Every Project Deserves a New Tool - Or Does It?

I was ready to start sewing sails, so I collected all my tools and materials from my basement workshop and carried everything to my wife's sewing room three flights up in the attic. We have an old Viking-Husqvarna sewing machine that we inherited from my mother-in-law 40 years ago. It used to do fancy stitches using various cams. The cam mechanism jammed years ago but it still did beautiful straight and zig-zag stitches, until earlier this summer when it started to smoke. We took it to a local repair shop where the repairman cleaned it and assured us that it was accumulated dust that was smoking. 

 

I set up to sew my mainsail but when I went to wind a bobbin, the bobbin shaft disappeared inside the case. I spent all day disassembling the machine and managed to fix the bobbin shaft. I sewed two seams before the whole machine jammed up. I gave up and ordered a new Brother computerized sewing machine from Amazon. It cost less than what I paid the repairman for the other machine. It doesn't fit inside our old sewing machine cabinet but I think I can make it fit.

45+ year-old Viking-Husqvarna machine.

New Brother computerized machine. After a little practice on some scraps I stitched my mainsail.

At first the sail matched my plan almost exactly. But after stitching all the scale seams between the individual pieces of fabric, the sail was much shorter than the pattern. (The purple stitch lines are supposed to disappear automatically after a few days.)

After stitching a zig-zaged reefing band the sail was also narrower than before. My wife said "Yeah, sewing can take up a lot of fabric."

 

By the way, I really like the computerized Brother machine. My only complaint is that there are a few settings that are made by shutting the machine off, holding a button down, and then turning the machine back on. But when you turn the machine off it resets the stitch pattern, width, and length back to the default. It's easy to get confused and end up with the wrong stitch. That never happened with the mechanical machine.

 

I don't know if I can use the sail or not. I'll have to try it on the ship and see how it looks. Amati was very stingy with their sail cloth and I don't have enough scraps to try over. Fabric is not so easy to find around here since JoAnn Fabrics went out of business. If I can find something appropriate, I could try sewing the fake seams on an extra large piece first, then cutting the sail slightly oversized and hemming the edges to fit the plan.

 

In a private conversation David Lester sent me information about making sails out of silkspan, a strong tissue that I used years ago for covering model airplanes. The seams can be drawn on it with pencil and the hems can be glued down. Maybe I should have listened to him in the first place.

 

 

[Snug Harbor Johnny]

  I inherited a similar old Husqvarna, and it is HEAVY ... being made of a lot of Swedish steel.  Once lubed and adjusted for timing, it sews pretty good - although the buttonhole routine is still a little wonky.