Francis Pritt by Jim Lad - FINISHED - Scale 1:48 - Australian Mission Ship

[BANYAN]

Great to see this little beauty back John.

 

cheers

 

Pat

[Jim Lad]

Thanks for the welcome back, Druxey and Pat - also thank you all for the 'likes'.

 

john

[Mirabell61]

Hello John,

 

nice to see you back at "Francis Pritt" amidst the standing rigging lines. It`s a very authentic nice model with a well built hull, looks great !!  

 

Nils

[baskerbosse]

Looking excellent!

Cheers,

Peter

[Mark Pearse]

Hi John

 

I've got a couple of ideas on the spreaders: do you think it's possible they ran a line to the mast head & used a boom as an occasional crane for loading? Another possibility is to do with the gaff - the peak halyard would run from the masthead & load the mast to the side a lot of the time - probably all of the time given old canvas sails. It would almost never pull straight aft with much load because as soon as there's some wind the gaff would pivot around the mast, esp given the likely sails. If this hunch is correct, the tip of the mast wouldn't be loaded pulling aft, the real risk of breaking the tip off would be to the side....If the wind was so light that the gaff was sitting more or less straight aft then there would be no need to support the mast tip. 

 

best, Mark

Edited August 31, 2016 by Mark Pearse

[popeye the sailor]

so good to see you back at the table John     the beginning of the rigging looks great!

[Jim Lad]

Thanks for your comments, gents!

 

John

[Jim Lad]

Back from some time in England looking after my ailing mother-in-law and back at work on the 'Pritt'.  Not much more done at the moment, but at least the upper deadeyes have been seized in so I can really go ahead with the rigging now.

 

ne disappointment on returning to the museum was to discover that the staff had decided to clean the model makers' display cabinet and on moving the 'Pritt' out to clean the cabinet they managed to lose the boom crutch that had been completed and was sitting on the cabin top awaiting fitting.

 

The photos show the minor progress that has been made.

 

John

 

 

[popeye the sailor]

and by now,  it's most likely long gone.........sorry to hear that John.  hope it's not too much of a bugger to make.  it's good to see you back,  

 

best wished to your mother in law........hope she better.

[Jim Lad]

Thanks Popeye.

 

Mum-in-law has early stage dementia, so no hope of real improvement, I'm afraid.

 

As for the crutch, I made it early as it's a bit of a tricky fit into the tow rail, so I did it prior to fixing the mizzen mast while there was plenty of room to play with it.

 

John

[captainbob]

^{Nice you are back.  The Pritt still looks good.}

 

^Bob

[Jim Lad]

Thanks, Bob.

 

John

[druxey]

Ya'd think museum staff would have been more careful!!! How irritating. Sorry to read of your mother-in-law's problems. It's a worry at long distance. Anyway, glad to see you back at work on F. Pritt.

[Jim Lad]

Thanks, Druxey.  While most of the museum staff are very professional, I do sometimes wonder where some of them come from!

 

John

[BANYAN]

Great to see this little lady again John.  Pity the "helpful" staff weren't a little more careful.  

 

cheers

 

Pat

[Jim Lad]

Thanks, Pat.  Sometimes I think it's a pity that the careful staff aren't a bit more helpful!  

 

John

[michael mott]

A lock on the cabinet to keep out unwanted help.  Drastic but sends a message.

 

Michael

[Jim Lad]

There is a lock on the cabinet, Michael, but it only keeps out visitors - not 'helpful' staff.

 

John

[Cathead]

Many sympathies, but she's still looking great.

[Bedford]

Hi John, I was in on Thursday after sailing on James Craig to welcome the Chilean sail training ship Esmeralda into Sydney.

I never go to that part of town without calling in to the Museum and checking out the "Pritt"

 

She is just beautiful!

 

Steve

[Jim Lad]

Thanks for the comment, Steve!

 

John

[pete48]

Looks Fantastic John, Beautiful work 

 

Best Regards,

Pete 

[Jim Lad]

Thanks, Pete!

 

John

[Jim Lad]

The 'Pritt' continues to creep towards completion, but currently at the pace of an arthritic snail!  The standing rigging is now all fitted, but not finally secured until I do a bit of fine tuning on tensions.  The two lines that can be seen hanging loose from the main mast are the running backstay pennants, which had to be fitted over the mast before the upper rigging, although they will be about the last rigging to be finally run as they, together with the mzzen running forestays, are in the way of all the mainsail rigging.

 

The two white circles that can be seen lying on the starboard side of the deck are the partially made lifebuoys.

 

John

 

[russ]

John:

Lovely work. I am getting close to rigging deadeyes and lanyards myself. Yours are coming along really well.

 

Russ

[BANYAN]

She's taking on some of her final definition and looking the part now John - very nice.  That last shot really shows of her beautiful lines.

 

cheers

 

Pat

[Jim Lad]

Thanks for the encouraging comments, Russ and Pat.

 

When you look at the hulls of the T.I. pearlers, it's easy to see their descent from the racing yachts of the period.

 

John

[mtaylor]

Sweet, John...  just impeccably sweet.

[Jim Lad]

Thanks, Mark.

 

John

[captainbob]

She's really looking good. John.

 

Bob