Oops -- Repairing broken bowsprit on Cutty Sark

[Lost and Confused]

Well, after she sat all of last year, I got my Cutty out and continued work on her. Had subassembled and rigged the foremast and stepped it. Was proceeding with standing and running rigging with the intention of working fore to aft.  I was pretty happy with my results until i installed the ratlines on the fore lower shrouds. I had made several errors ,each, not too bad yet accumulatively I was dissatisfied, so last evening I cut them away and started a do-over. It was going well when, checking to see if the new shrouds were in order, I looked too closely and hooked the bowsprit with my visor type magnifier/light. Oops, bummer, dagnabbit, and other comments that may not be appropriate. I broke off the dolphin striker?, and a few of the deadeye rigs securing the forestays. I had also broken off the starboard boomkin, which I was able to repair, but it had again been damaged. I been doing this long enough to know that if you're gonna make an omelet, you gotta break a few eggs. Pretty frustrating though. Looking at it, I know that when I did the bowsprit rigging I should have used hearts and lanyards as opposed to deadeyes. Looked cool though. I guess on the repair, I'll do it right. Am unsure how to repair the dolphin striker ( or whatever you call that object). Im looking at my round wooden toothpicks.

   Here's a kind of before and after photo, please forgive my photography, cant seem to do that right either. Will keep you advised if there is any interest. I look at this website every morning, part of my routine...happy holidays

 

[paul ron]

yea we all had those oops moments. in fact we had a 5 page thread on oops moments complete with some very creative ways to repair them.

 

i broke booms n bow sprits and many other parts by stupid accident so many times, i actually got good at fixing them. yup, reach over the ship and there goes the top mast and all its rigging you spent countless hours n days installing... snap in a blink of an eye! reach around the ship and off goes the bow sprit on the cuff of a sleeve... and its always at the same place.  poke inside the rigging and there goes a rail, belays or stays. its not so bad if the damage was only the part, but it takes a load of other stuff with it. thats the price of working inside a spider web. 

 

i feel your pain brother.

 

 

[Dr PR]

Been there, done that!

 

If it helps any, just think of it as fate giving you the opportunity to do the work better than before.

[Snug Harbor Johnny]

  'So sorry about the mishap, but it seems an Achilles Heel of the Revel Cutty (and Thermie) is the dolphin striker and the Cathead extensions ... and even the bowsprit itself.  Well, to be fair, ship models are by nature somewhat delicate - and many things can get broken (like if you drop it).  In the photos below, I put a piece of brass tubing (after squeezing into an oval shape when seen from the end, since the void in the Revell bowsprit is not fully cylindrical) into the bowsprit as reinforcement (some just glue in sprue to do the same thing).

  I decided to make a jib out of wood (scrounged from a 'parts kit') because the wood is far less flexible than the plastic one in the kit (but still breakable).  The best thing I thought of for the dolphin striker was to cut one out of brass sheet with a jeweler's coping saw ... 'outside the line' for a rough cut, but easily filed before fully cutoff - then the bottom twisted 90 degrees.  The plastic bowsprit end was drilled deeper to accept the brass striker.  A few other fittings were cut out for the jib, and I'm OK with the result.  I'll do something similar for the cathead extensions.

 

 

 

 

[Lost and Confused]

Thanks for the help guys. I have been working with sanding down a round wooden toothpick to the right diameter and drilling holes to accept  1mm eyebolts (from hismodel), and using fine steel wire to replicate the slots for the upper forestays on their journey to the head. Ive screrwed up 3 of them so far but, each is better than the one before. Am concerned about installation. Ill likely snip off  the remnants of the dolphin striker and attempt to drill a hole for install. That will be my biggest worry as I may have to set the ship on its side to do so. I can do it at this point as only the foremast is stepped, and no yards. The hull is very firmly attached to a 24" base. But i see all kinds of dire consequences if I dont do my work well.

    I like your suggestion on a brass replacement Johnny,  but that type of metal work is not practical for me at this time. I have already reinforced the bowsprit before assembly as you did, having done plenty of research beforehand. Lucky too, as it may have broke there, if I hadn't. Would have been more damage.  I just ordered a bunch of stuff from Radimir, including 3mm hearts. I had originally rigged the bowsprit area using 2.5mm deadeyes, pre-whipped. It turned out wonderful, even if not historically correct (artistic license?). I have no problem with redoing bowsprit rigging. This is by far, my best work on a tall ship model. The cathead extension (whiskers) are another thing... broke the stbd. one off early on...repaired it with a touch of wire underneath and some ca glue. Worked ok, but I hit it again, not long after. It didnt break, but it bent to an unsatisfactory position, and loosened the rigging a bit. As I said, I can address that should I redo the bowsprit rigging, (I know I will).

I attempted a couple of photos but I gotta get the book out on it. Photos forthcoming. Heres a couple of the earlier ones, before i mothballed her for a year

 

 

[Lost and Confused]

By the way, Snug Johnny, your scratch looking bowsprit is beautiful.