Maine three masted schooner by Bedford - Radio - 1:54

[Bedford]

No progress pics but I am having to do something I have never had to do before. The planks are 900mm long and I am having to join them to reach from stem to stern.

 

That's not a bad thing as it turns out because it is getting warm here and the hull is so long that by the time I have applied glue to all the ribs and the edge of the plank then attach the plank clamping all the way by the time I get a bit over half way along the glue is skinning over.

[fnkershner]

And here we sit in the midst of a deep freeze while someone who will remain nameless shamelessly hints about warm weather.  So much for my rant you may carry on now!

[Bedford]

Well Floyd if you where in the WA that I am familiar with (Western Australia) you would be quite a bit warmer than I am at the moment. Still, you get that !

 

Consider this, by the time the Schooner is ready to launch it will be too damn cold here to do so therefore she will have to lie in dry dock waiting for warmer weather.

[fnkershner]

I am familiar with your WA. We have a GPS for the Car that has your choice of voices to give you verbal directions. My wife's favorite voice is an Aussie man. When he pronounces the name of our State Highways you can guess what he says. At first it was confusing now it is just a laugh.

 

I can solve your problem about unsuitable weather for launching. Send her to me! I will gladly pay postage.

[Bedford]

G'day mate, you've got a deal.

 

I have looked into shipping and handling and I reckon about 5 grand should cover it.

 

The planking continues, and continues................

 

I went and bought more clamps so I can do more than one plank at a time but have a look how many clamps I need to attach one plank.

Trouble is because she is going to be single planked and go to sea I need to keep the planks glued to each other and aligned to each other, without the clamps between ribs you tend to end up with a "klinker" style hull which can be sanded of course and have a nice thin veneer layed over to make nice but in this case there is none of that. I want to keep sanding to a minimum so I keep hull strength. I can of course use filler in this build as it will be epoxied and painted. I am thinking a mid green which the James Craig was when towed from her watery grave in Tasmania to Sydney.

 

 

 

 

[fnkershner]

$5000! Is that in Aussie dollars or US? Sounds like you intend to ship yourself along with the boat. Keep up the great work! On my R/C models when we are planking like this we add 1 or 2 coats of Epoxy to the finished hull for waterproofing.

[michael mott]

 

but have a look how many clamps I need to attach one plank.

Bedford welcome to the "you cannot have too many clamps club"  no matter how many clamps you own, no matter how many different types  and sizes you have, ask me how I know.... you will never have enough, there will always be that moment if I just had one more !

 

Your planking looks very nice.

 

Michael

[Jim Lad]

Hmmm.  I thought the Craig was more of a rust red when she was towed to Sydney, but mid green would look nice!

 

That planking's coming on really well, mate!

 

John

[Bedford]

Floyd, yes I want to see her sail so I will be coming along for the ride !!

If I could find a way I think I would submerge her in epoxy and then let her drain and set. I am thinking all the time about how I am going to get epoxy into all the gaps and think I will do the exterior first to seal it then do a thick coat on the interior to gap fill but yes epoxy is my new friend.

 

Michael, You are so right, even though I bought more clamps I still only have enough to do one side at a time at this stage because the planks are really trying to go "klinker" through these bends so one at a time for now and get it right. The planks are 5mm x 1.5mm so they are stiff enough to be easy to work and shape so they fit together well while still being easy enough to twist and bend to shape.

[Bedford]

John, I have a pic of her somewhere that shows she was green, I have just spent a bit of time googling her and came up with one pic of the hull under tow, she looks green but it is far too distant to bother posting.

 

That's all academic anyway, she is black now but I think a nice green would look better for my schooner. That's the thinking at this stage.

Edited December 8, 2013 by Bedford

[jud]

Epoxying  both sides might be fine for a static model, I wonder if it would be wise on a hull you intend to sail. You seem concerned that the outer coating may not seal the hull, reason for the insurance of coating the inside. If you seal both inside and outside and there is a leak on the wet side, water will penetrate into the planking and be trapped, causing blisters and rot. With an unsealed interior, any water that penetrated could escape from the planks and ribs. 

jud

[fnkershner]

Jud - As I mention above. It is a very common activity in my R/C sailing club to seal both inside and out with Epoxy. We race our boats every other weekend. I know of a guy who has been racing his boat for more than 6 years and has never had the problem you describe. In fact it has been my experience that if the model is well built very little water gets inside. If you plank the hull properly and then seal with Epoxy I really doubt there will be any problems.

 

one of the approaches that some of our club have discussed is that they seal all of the wood first with Epoxy on both sides. This leaves only the edges to join during assembly. Also on my T37 I used Epoxy exclusively as a filler, sealer and adhesive.

 

Jud I noticed that you live in my favorite state. Did you know there is a very good Modeling club in Portland?

 

PS I grew up in Eugene. And I am a proud Duck, Class of 81.

[jud]

No Floyd, didn't know about the Portland club.Thanks for the heads up.

jud

[Bedford]

Epoxy can be a glue as you mention but it is all manner of things with all manner of uses, two parts mix to make it and it is what is applied to fibreglass sheet to make it set into whatever you are making, it can be painted onto a surface to protect, strengthen and waterproof it. The list goes on.

[augie]

And it is usually very easily cleaned up, before it sets, with rubbing alcohol.

[fnkershner]

And Hard a granite once it does set. And yes it can be messy. Consider this - Many of us have Marble or Granite counter tops in our kitchens. These counter tops are actually ground up pieces of marble or granite suspended in a type of Epoxy.

[captainbob]

When I was into RC, I used to worry about getting epoxy into all the cracks and crevices, then I read about mixing the epoxy 30% with alcohol.  It thins out the epoxy and lets it get into the wood.  I’ve even used a 50% mix with no change to the epoxy after the alcohol evaporates and no change in cure time.  I always epoxied both inside and out, usually with glass on the outside.  Instead of glass some of the modelers used their wife’s old nylons.  They seemed to work fine and were easier to mold to the hull.

 

Bob

[Shazmira]

Steve, I am very impressed with your planking job, yes, it may be painstakingly slow...but I am betting the extra time will pay its dividends when you put her in the water. Beautiful work my friend!

[Bedford]

Shaz, she is my fifth ship so I have a bit more experience than you but you'll get there. 

 

I am not following someone else's instructions on how to build it so I can do it the way that suits me and make it up as I go. The best part is the rabbet I created, especially for the bow, it makes the job so much easier because all I have to do for that end of the plank is cut the end of an off cut plank to the correct angle to lie in properly which can take a couple of attempts to get just right, then I use it as the template for all the planks that intersect with the bow rabbet at that angle. When the angle changes I re-cut the template to suit. There are a few messy bits but they will come good as I put all the filler pieces in.

 

The big thing is dry fitting. First I lay an off cut across each frame to see if it will lie against the previous plank properly. If not it is because a bit of glue has squeezed out when the previous plank was clamped so I use a knife and trim that away until it sits properly. I also mark where the plank will lie while doing this so I can pre-drill for the planking screws. I only do this in the area in which I know where the plank will lie, ie hold it against the hull and see where it is happy to lie. 

 

Since the planks are only a little bit short I can use the bow plank to see the lie of the entire plank, all the way to the stern but I cut the bow plank around frame 7 or 8 and start the stern plank there before the big twist back to the stern starts so there is no join in this stressed area and the plank flows properly.

 

I cut the bow angle on the plank and attach it with clamps and planking screws marking exactly where I want to lay it which is generally a trade off between where I want it to go and it wants to go. I tend to let the plank lie where it wants to more or less because then it is less stressed and less likely to give that "klinker" finish. On a hull like this there is no need to steam and bend the planks because all the bends are gentle and in this case quite long and lazy.

 

Only when I have done all this and then re-fitted the plank with clamps etc to make sure it sits where I have selected to fit it do I open the glue bottle. I apply glue to the side of the previous plank and the the frames then start attaching the plank from the bow back using lots of clamps and planking screws.

 

It takes up to an hour to fit a plank but as you can see it is coming together very nicely and neatly. I am not quite so fussy with a static model unless it is single planked like the Schooner for Port Jackson was.

 

Bob, you're not talking about thinning the epoxy with scotch are you??

That's a good bit of info and I assume you are talking isopropyl alcohol.

I can see me thinning the epoxy and using it inside and out to get it into the timber properly and make the whole thing stronger and more impervious to water. Then using normal consistency epoxy for a couple of coats with a thickenned epoxy for filling internally.

As for the wife's nylons.....................I'm divorced and don't think she would be very happy if I asked

[Bedford]

I am waiting for a replacement prop shaft assembly to arrive from the UK, it should be here soon. I won't be looking at mounting anything internally until i have the hull fully planked and both prop shafts mounted. I have to work out the size of servo spools I need to perform the operations I require so I can work out where the servos will mount.

 

I was going to mount all the servos in the deck houses but I think a few may need to go below decks because of the diameter that I think may be required

[Bedford]

A few progress pics, Robbyn you can see the planking looks great at the bow but is a real mess at the stern, that's the way the planks flow. Once all the long planks are in place the stern filler pieces will be fitted slowly but surely and it will look almost as good as the bow.

 

I am weighing her now and then and the frame was 900 gramms, at this stage she is 1.15Kg.

With masts and bowsprit she is 1.4Kg.

 

I am going to have to build lightness into her somewhere because I want as much weight in the keel as she can carry.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited March 29, 2014 by Bedford

[fnkershner]

Our T37 Sloops weigh in at 4.5 to 5 lbs. This includes Ballast. So I think you are fine. You may need a heavy keel.

[Bedford]

Apparently 4.5 pounds is about 2 Kg so hopefully I will have plenty of ballast to play with.

 

Anyone want to guess the finished weight to get her to float at the waterline?

[fnkershner]

I am going to suggest that you will need even more ballast than I do. My T37 is a sloop with one mast and the mast is approx. 5 ft high. she carries 635 sq inches of sail. She has a long fin keel with approx. 2 lb of lead ballast on that keel. The hull is just shy of 1 meter in length.

 

I am guessing your boat will be bigger and carry more sail. Therefore I am also guessing you will need more ballast than I do. I know it doesn't look good but I am afraid you will also need a fin keel. I know that my T37 will turn turtle in a split second if the ballast was in the hull. It would be a shame for such beautiful work to end up upside down.

[Bedford]

I think we all know how good it feels to be at this point.

 

 

I am pretty happy with the way the planks have come together but just to show it's not all like that, here is a better shot of the stern planking. It looks awful at this point but bear in mind the planks were just long enough to reach so short filler pieces will need to be added, some have already been done. I find the stern is never as easy as the bow, especially when it is a modern style bow, but it will all come good in the end.

 

Edited March 29, 2014 by Bedford

[Sailor1234567890]

Sweet lines on that hull.

[Bedford]

At last, the planking is finished !

 

Now to fill the gaps and seal the hull inside and out. I am not going to be too keen to get a smooth perfect finish because these schooners were made of timber and therefore imperfect and I think a few irregularities make a hull look better than glass smooth, they give it character.

 

 

 

 

I am happy with the stern, it looks about right given pics I have seen

 

 

 

When I finished the planking and turnd her over I was surprised at how much bigger she looks from the inside that the outside, I may have to call her "The Tardis"

 

 

 

Edited March 29, 2014 by Bedford

[michael mott]

Looks good I am looking forward to seeing how you fit the contrl gear into the hull.

 

Michael

[Shazmira]

Steve, well done on finishing off that planking. I would be proud of that! Now I am looking forward to what you do next...still trying to visualize the finished product in my mind. I find this entire project quite fascinating.

[fnkershner]

Well done!