Muscongus Bay Lobster Smack by JacquesCousteau - Model Shipways - 1:32 - Rescaled and Modified

[wefalck]

Somehow, this project had slipped below my radar until today ... 🫣

[JacquesCousteau]

After a bit more work with the sanding sticks, both sides are now faired. This hull has been much, much easier to fair than my Lancha Chilota build was. The only real issue has been that I think I didn't quite get bulkhead 2 seated properly so it ended up being less sanded than the other bulkheads.

 

I also realized that I needed to build up the area around and just aft of the opening for the rudder, as it was a bit low. I added some scrap and sanded it fair later.

 

Next up, attaching the outer pieces of the keel, stem, and sternpost.

 

The joint of the stem turned out nice and tight. It's good to see that my rescaling and conversion for laser cutting didn't ruin these parts!

 

 

Next up, I'll be starting planking. This will be my main modification from the kit design*, as I'll be doing lapstrake instead of carvel planking. This will definitely be a challenge, and I'm looking at other build logs for inspiration. Druxey's Greenwich Hospital Barge log has some great information for lapstrake planking in a relatively small build.

 

 

*I had almost tried to reshape the bow to do away with the beakhead and to be more vertical, but I realized that, besides causing difficulties in fairing the hull, it would also substantially reduce the area to affix the bowsprit. Modeling something like the Muscongus Bay sloop photos I've shared with plumb bows would probably be easier as a complete scratch build rather than a rescaled kit.

[wefalck]

Lapstrake/clinker planking isn't more difficult than carvel actually. One needs to carefully layout the strakes.

 

Chamfering the planks needs to be done carefully. It may be helpfully to looks up a couple of YouTube videos (e.g. on Scandinavian boatbuilding) to see how it is done in full-size practice.

 

As always, the garboard plank is the most challenging.

 

[JacquesCousteau]

Thanks, @wefalck! The chamfering shouldn't be too bad, I think. Working out the run of the planking around the overhanging stern is a little tricky, though, and I'll have to take some time on it.

 

I was curious to know whether the kit designed precut planks could be at all modified to serve as the basis for at least some of the lapstrake planks. This could in theory help a little with the complexity of the stern, and would also enable me to use the wood that's already been laser-cut. Looking around at images, it seems like most vessels had around 15-18 strakes of planking. (See below, for instance--granted, this is a deeper Friendship Sloop.)

Source

 

The kit design has 11 including an extra-wide sheer plank (which could be split in half or so to be about doubled). Both photos and kit are, of course, caravel planked. I'm assuming that a lapstrake planked vessel would probably use a similar number of planks, or perhaps very slightly fewer (as I'd imagine that it would be easier to use slightly wider planks rather than narrower ones, given the need to overlap planks. Taking a few preliminary measurements, it looks like the largest bulkhead measures around 2 inches. The precut planks are generally around 3/16-inch wide. So, if they were overlapped by, say, about 3/64‐inch, that would lead to around 15 strakes per side. Of course I need to do a lot more planning work, but I think I may be able to use the precut planks as the basis for at least some of the planks. I'll have to line off the hull and check how things look first, though.

 

I thought I would try to dry-fit a precut garboard strake just to see what it would look like. I found it extremely difficult to bend into shape, even when soaked and heated. There's a pretty drastic twist from the stern to amidships, then another at the bow, over a fairly short distance of a little under 6 inches. I then checked with my digital calipers and found that the 1/32-inch thick basswood I had bought was actually 3/64 inches thick! (Dimensions shown in millimeters. 3/64 in = 1.19mm; 1/32 in = 0.79mm).

 

I began planing it down to size with my mini-plane. This went pretty quickly, although I had to check repeatedly to make sure I wasn't angling the wood and creating an uneven thickness. Below: getting closer.

 

And finally there!

 

After being thinned, the plank bent easily into place even without being soaked or heated.

 

Looking at it, my sense was that it looked a little too wide, especially aft. However, I soon realized that it would actually look narrower due to the overlap of the plank above. If I set the overlap for around 3/64 inch, it should look pretty good. It's also worth noting that, based on the photo below showing the stern of a Maine lapstrake sailing vessel, the Whistler, with a similar overhanging stern (although it's rather smaller than the vessel I'm modeling), it looks like having a wide garboard plank aft was entirely possible. In this case it's combined with a triangular deadwood piece, which is interesting to see although I don't think I'll be adding that.

Source

 

Anyway, I clearly have a lot more work to do on this, especially with lining out the hull and planning the chamfers, but even just fiddling around with the precut planks is helping me get a sense of how the strakes should run, especially at the stern.

Edited September 24 by JacquesCousteau
Added images

[JacquesCousteau]

I've finally gotten the garboard on. This ended up being a more complex process than I initially thought it would be. Looking at the kit designed garboard, I couldn't shake the feeling that, while it would work perfectly for a caravel-planked hull, it didn't quite have the right lines for lapstrake planking. It was a little wide in parts, had some bulges, and nosedived a bit toward the bow--which, besides giving a slightly awkward run, also made it very difficult to properly twist the plank there as it narrowed so much that there was almost no leverage. I also found that the thinned plank looked a little too thin next to the keel.

 

So, I reshaped the plank quite a bit, narrowing it and removing bulges to get a nice, smooth line. Once I was satisfied with the run, I marked its edge on the bulkheads and marked out a slightly higher forrward tip. I then transferred the markings to semi-opaque Tamiya masking tape, so as to cut a new garboard. I decided to thin these planks to 1mm instead of.79mm. I also decided to make the garboard in two parts so as to better handle the sharp twists. Below, the aft garboards are drying in place. They still need some final shaping along the upper edge, but given the pronounced twist, it's easier to leave them slightly wide for now, and shape them to the line once they've had the twist added.

 

While working on the garboard, I also painted the interior of where the wells will be located. I'm considering leaving one well partially opened, and thought it would be easiest to paint everything I could now before the hull is closed up (although of course I'll still need to paint the inside of the planking). This isn't an original idea, @Desertanimal did the same on his kitbash (and it looked great) so I'm copying him on this.

 

Here we can see the full garboard strake. I think it has a nice smooth run that should provide a good basis for the other planks, without going too high at the stem. (As can be seen, the centerboard has gotten a bit banged up, and was briefly stuck in the raised position due to excess glue. The paint needs some touch-up.)

 

 

 

Now that the garboard is on, I need to line out the remaining planking.

[JacquesCousteau]

I've been working on trying to line out the hull planking. It looks like a lower band of 3 strakes, and two upper bands of 4 strakes each, should work well and will end the lower band right at the top of the sternpost.

 

That said, I've been having some trouble lining off the hull. Close to the stern, the chart tape has to be basically "edge bent," which it doesn't at all want to do, leading to a lot of buckling that makes it tricky to see whether the lines are fair and even to bring the tape in line with the sternpost.

 

[druxey]

Use thread instead of tape.

[JacquesCousteau]

3 hours ago, druxey said:

Use thread instead of tape.

Thanks! I've tried using thread soaked in glue and dampened before, but I never got it to stick. This time, I decided to just secure it at each bulkhead with a small dab of white glue, which I could then dampen to loosen when I needed to adjust the run a bit. The thread is much more precise than the chart tape, which is nice. For instance, in the photo below, the run is very slightly off at the bulkhead just aft of the black-painted portion, being slightly too close to the keel. I hadn't been able to see that before with the chart tape, but thanks to the thread, I was able to adjust.

 

The runs of the planking bands look pretty good now (the slight wonkiness at the sternpost is because I had trouble gluing the thread down there, so one side glued in at a slightly different angle than the other).

 

 

I'll let it sit overnight to look over with a fresh eye tomorrow, and then it will be time to mark everything out and begin planking.

Edited 15 hours ago by JacquesCousteau