HMS Vanguard by RMC - FINISHED - Amati/Victory Models - scale 1:72

[RMC]

The foretopsail yard is now mounted and with it the dreaded parrals. The yard tye is more or less done - a block is still to be attached to the line.  The tye has been done according to Petersson which is very close to the method described by Anton for the New Endeavour.

 

Here are the parrals ...

 

 

 

and here are the tyes.

 

 

 

 

 

and thank you Nils for your encouragement.

 

 

 

[RMC]

The main topsail yard is now on. The method of constructing the  parral (pat. pending) works quite well.  This is how things look at the moment.

 

 Here is the parral for the main topsail...

 

and how things look overall ...

 

 

 

I've been doing a bit of tidying up - finally making off some of the lines draped around the deck. Doing rope coils often awkward and shown below is about the only way I could think of in this instance to coil the thread.  Well at least it's tidy.

 

 

 

[RMC]

The main topsail yard tye (tie?) is now a problem - or more accurately - plan 9 is a problem.  The plan shows both the shifting backstay and the yard tye hooked on to the same eyelet.

 

Here is the back stay....

 

and here is the yard tye.

 

My eyelets on the channel are correctly positioned according to the plans.  The eyelet circled has been used for the back stay.  The eyelet marked in green does not have any use that I can find elsewhere on any of the plans, so I propose to anchor the tye to this.  Has anyone else come across this problem, and if so how did you deal with it?

 

 

 

 

 

 

[RMC]

The crossjack is now on.  Just to make life interesting, the plans show both a thimble for a sling (plan 6) and a block (plan 9). I had already provided for the sling (as does Petersson) so I went with that.  Adding further interest is the question of where to fix the lines for the truss pendant (I never was able to find where the tackle from the block is supposed to go) and the yard tie. Again, following Petersson I will use the eyelet for the yard tie for the truss pendant - the upper eyelet marked in green - and the tie will go on the lower eyelet. As far as I can see, the latter is not used elsewhere.

 

 

Here are Petersson's illustrations.

 

 

How it looks - there are a few stray bits of thread to trim .....

 

 

 

 

[RMC]

The yards are slowly being attached. The Easter break with a three- and a four-year old pair of anarchists tended to slow things a little. This is how things look at the moment.

 

 

 

It finally occurred to me that I had forgotten the figurehead and with the various lines around him, he was a little awkward to get on. He does look rather uncomfortable, which, given where he has to sit, is hardly surprising.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[RMC]

There are certainly some idiosyncracies (sp?) in the new site Arthur.  You've cleared up one of them for me.  Just at the moment I'm having trouble printing photos.  The photo is distorted and superimposed over text.

[RMC]

I have just discovered another oversight in the plans.  The lifts for the fore and main topgallant yards (not the mizzen) originate from the blocks shown below (Plan 10).

 

Unfortunately the plan (5) shows no provision for the necessary eyes to tie off the line.

 

 

 These blocks were attached (without the eyes) to the masts ages ago, and when it came to doing the lifts today this came as a rather unpleasant surprise.  The obvious thing to do is to simply replace them.  Unfortunately that is far from simple, and the likelihood of disaster is very high indeed. I tried a couple of things without too much success at the risk of a heart attack, so I had a look at Arthur's log to see if he had had the same problem.  Of course he had, and had a solution. Tie a slip knot around the blocks. It would never have occurred to me.

 

I don't know quite how he did it, but the following rather primitive drawing is an attempt to show my method and it appears to have worked.

 

 

[RMC]

And of course the answer is the same.  The cheque's in the mail.

[RMC]

The fore topgallant is now mounted and the topgallant for the main will be done in the next day or so.  I am inclined to finish as much of the rigging for the fore and main yards as I can , leaving the rigging for mizzen yards - the driver boom and the driver gaff until last. Looking at the mizzen, it looks as if, with all the bits and pieces sticking out, it is best to leave as long as possible to postpone possible damage. Advice is invited.

 

Here is the fore topgallant yard.

 

 

 

 

[RMC]

The spritsail yard is the source of my latest whinge about the plan.  There a couple of others on the horizon, but first things first. Here is the yard shown. The eyelets are shown at the back of the yard (in plan), and in the front in the elevation (which I missed). I went ahead with the former.

 

Now of course this isn't exactly the end of the world, but it turns out that with the eyelets at the back of the yard the lines going through them foul the spritsail topsail yard. Later (plan 10)the eyelets are shown on top of the yard. Taking the eyelets out and repositioning them in situ was rather fraught. It did make an improvement but there is still a slight foul. 

 

This is how it has turned out.

 

 

 

This give some idea of the complexity of the rigging. There are quite a few more lines that are apparently made off to the timberhead. Just how they will all fit is a bit of a mystery at the moment.  With hindsight, I probably wouldn't have finally tied off any of the lines until I knew where everything went.

Finally, the main topgallant yard is now on.

 

 

PS.  Jose. I counted my remaining parrel beads and there seem to be enough to finish.

 

[RMC]

Have a look at the plan gain Arthur - in my view the bottom drawin..  It shows a cross section of the mast (ie: from above) and the two little gizmos (I don't know the term) which would contain the parrel are (in plan) horizontal.  The foot ropes are then shown as projecting horizontally towards the front.  If you then look at the elevation (the top) the two little gizmos are facing you (the mast would be vertically behind them) and the eyelets are facing you - ie: towards the front. The two sets of gizmos on the ends of the yard also seem out of place.  They should be vertical on what I think is the plan (the lower drawing) and horizontal on the upper drawing. It seems to me the two drawings are a confused missmash of plan and elevation.

[RMC]

AaaaaagH! you're right. Mea culpa.  I plead some small mitigation - in every other technical drawing I've seen, the plan is on the bottom, the elevations on the top.

[AON]

ahhh

first versus third angle projection

occassionally these stump me also

[AON]

I was taught 3rd angle projection, views unfold like the sides of a box.

When I get views made opposite to what my brain thinks makes sense it takes a moment to recognizre it and then a bit longer to plug into thinking backwards... like driving on the wrong side of the road even though the steering wheel is right there in front of me as a constant reminder. 

[RMC]

Having been suitably chastened by my own goal, further progress has been made. The mizzen topgallant yard is now on and the lifts are done for the top yards, though none have been finally made off. This leaves the driver boom and gaff still to do. 

 

Here is the mizzen topgallant yard. There is a slight droop in the mizzen and main topgallant stays. This is a bit of a mystery.  Some days it's there, others it's not. I will wait until the rigging is almost complete and if necessary, tighten up a couple of backstays which will fix the problem.

 

 

 

The lifts are still to be done for the topgallant yards, but without them they line up fairly well.

 

Alan: driving on the wrong side of the road - have you sat in the passenger seat and reached for the steering wheel? You get some very strange looks.

 

[Tim Curtis]

The occasional droop in the stays will be due to variations in temperature and humidity. On warm humid days, they will expand a bit. Thats my experience at least. Love your model.

[RMC]

Thanks Tim. I thought that maybe the likely cause.  Sydney weather has been all over the place this year.

[RMC]

Some thing I should have done a long time ago:  put together the positions specified for the lines to be made off to the timberheads. The specifications  are spread across three plans, and it turns out that there is a total of 22 lines to be belayed.  Crowded is an understatement. I will have to now untie a number of lines I had 'finally' tied off.

 

In the following drawing I have tried to indicate where each line is supposed to go. The timberheads are numbered 1 to 8 from port the starboard. The numbers indicate the lines and where they are positioned. Those below the line and near the 'holes' go through those holes in the respective timberheads. Those with the numbers pointing to the top of the timberheads (eg, 29) are, I assume are to be tied there. The lines above those are apparently tied to the horizontal timber where the arrows are pointed.  The lines highlighted in green go through the fairlead.

 

The following shows it all a little more clearly.

 

 

 

[RMC]

After all this, there is an error . I am away at the moment, but from memory 56a should be between the 2nd and third timberhead.  I will post an amendment when I return on Monday (SYdney time).

[RMC]

Here is an amended plan of the belaying points on the timberhead.  Computer problems have delayed things.

 

Just to give some idea of the complexity of all this rigging, this is how things stand so far in rigging the bowsprit and related bits and pieces. Just how the sailors dealt with all of this and the skills they must have needed is quite extraordinary. My more immediate problem is how the make the belaying of all these lines look civilised.

 

 

 

The following photo shows one of the boomkins.  It's not clear to me how the supporting lines are to be attached to the hull, nor how the tension on the  lines could be adjusted, if at all. I chose to use hooks for the eyelets on the hull (though I suspect this is not strictly correct) and simply tied off the two lines at the end of the boomskins.

 

[Jdieck]

Beautiful work Bob.

[Blue Ensign]

Impressive rigging Bob, and great photo's.

B.E.

[RMC]

 Thanks Jason (if I remember correctly).  It's almost 10pm here so I'll look at your suggestion tomorrow. Incidentally, your post (above) and the email I received differ - the email has your suggestion for the rigging (which sounds like an excellent idea) and the post doesn't. Is there a reason that you know of?

[RMC]

After my belated realisation that finally tying off lines was not a good idea for the timberhead, it then made sense to superimpose the belaying points for all of the rigging.  Here is progress and it's quite daunting.  I first photo-copied the belaying plan from plan 9, then transcribed the plans from plans 10 and 11. Also included are the belaying points originally omitted from the plans.   

 

In the following photos, I rotated the photos in the Nikon software, but despite showing correctly there, when downloaded here the rotation disappears.

 

For those who may be interested, I hope you can read without discomfort with your heads tilted to the side.

 

 

[Mirabell61]

Excellent built model, awesome work RMC,

 

Nils

[RMC]

Thanks Nils.

 

Alan - I've had a look at the plan for the main topmast braces.  They are a little different to your suggestion, though awkward nevertheless.  I will show you tomorrow all going well. I'm still  fighting with my new computer at the moment (Windows 10) and so far it's winning on points.

[RMC]

Alan: here is the plan of the main topmast  braces ....

 

 

... and here is my mizzen and the two blocks.  As you may see, I have made life difficult for myself by mounting the blocks on quite short thread. I will certainly keep in mind your comment before I lose easy access to them.  Thanks for you thoughtfulness.

[RMC]

They were certainly cheap with the blocks.  I have almost run out too, together with a few other bits and pieces.

[RMC]

Progress is slow.  Superimposing all the belaying points on the timberhead showed up a couple of silly mistakes I had made, and that one or two of the belaying points that I had thought were finished with, turned out to be far from....  All of this resulted in redoing the lot.  Here is the result.

 

Well it turns out that the photos don't want to download and I don't know whether the problem is the website (it has been very slow) , the Nikon software or Windows 10.  I shall try again tomorrow.  In the meantime it IS time for a very large drink.

 

Morning.  I have apparently been successful in downloading one (now two - I have no idea what's going on) of the photos I had intended to submit - though not those of the timberhead.  (My camera ran out of battery!) Anyway... this is part of the foreyard.  There are a number of small blocks which are located on this yard and the main yard orientated towards the stern. One of them is shown second from the left in the photo below. I can find no reference to them other than on Plan 7 (now below) which shows the construction of the yards. 

 

Does anyone know what their function may be?

 

[RMC]

This is the timberhead after a couple of my mistakes have been corrected. Superimposing all of the belaying points from each of plans 9, 10 and 11 made all the difference (see above) though it meant redoing most of the belaying completely.  Only one more line now needs to be belayed later in the rigging.  It will not disturb any of the other belaying points on the timberhead.

 

 

 

 

I would appreciate some feedback on my previous post concerning the stern-facing blocks. 

 

As well, the uploading of photos seems to be VERY slow (3 or 4 minutes).  Moreover, the bar which shows progress in the upload remains a blank. I don't know if it is this website, the Nikon software I am using (I am now unable to load the photo files into it directly and have do it in a rather time-consuming and convoluted way) or Windows 10 which seems to have been having a hissy-fit since an upgrade a week or so ago. Suggestions are very welcome indeed.

 

I have stumbled on to a method doing adequate rope coils which is easier on my vocabulary than some superior alternatives (eg. Arthur's and Jose's). I am rather sick of rope coils and after this effort, hope I never see another one. I shall post photos provided technology doesn't have its revenge on me in the meantime.