Charles Notman by Jond - FINISHED - radio - 1:48 scale Downeast Schooner 4 mast built by Percy Small 1894

[Jond]

Here is an update as I am using available time before summer to work away on the rigging of the Schooner. As I stated in the last post, I started on the port side as I was learning how to complete turnbuckles shrouds and ratlines. That side will be the back side.

 

•  Here we are with all the lower ratlines in place on the port side. the foremast gets double width. Note in the picture bright light on the foresail and jibs and a bit dark aft.

 

•  This is how the peak came out with the ratlines including more shrouds at the top. I know most experts know that , but I had to learn by doing it twice.

 

•  Now the crew can get up here, I need to complete the running rigging and upper ratlines.  The upper area are not slats but lines.

I struggled with lighting as this area of the shop does not have natural light.  I had been using Halogen lights.  After study and walking around Lowes, I came home with small replacement day light LED bulbs and wow what a difference.

 

•  Here I have turned the boat around to the final display side and added the new LED lighting.  I strongly recommend this upgrade for those doing rigging work away from large windows.

 

•  Here we are cleaned up a bit with work beginning on completing the detailed running rigging that was left off for RC sailing. Adding the shrouds and ratlines makes a lot of difference. next up is three new top stay sails to mount off the top mast stays yet to be installed.

 

 

[markjay]

Just found this build, what an enjoyable build and wonderful to see in the water. Good Job!!!

[Jond]

Mark

 

thanks.  I planned it for several years as I got ready to retire.  then off i went building through winter and sailing her last summer.   I was tipped off early in the process that she would not sail well.  She was beautiful to watch but could not head up enough to tack...that means come back to the dock

 

I retired her and now I am learning more about finishing working rigging for these vintage schooners and focusing on my other build ....BHOD racing sloop for sailing this summer.

 

 

cheers

[Jond]

Robin

 

you are right is was truly a joy.  My son came with his family from the deserts of Arizona and we were able to share.

 

•  This is now my screen background

note we are towing her back up wind

 

 

cheers 

 

 

[Jond]

wow  In only a few more weeks summer is coming to a close, and it is time to figure out projects for next winter.

 

I want to share a few photos of the work i did last spring getting Charlie to a fun place before resting this summer.  There are tons to do however before we say done.  I will continue from time to time to get back on this project and update.  I have a few other of these bigger boats I want to get further along with, so when the snow comes, I can move into new territory.

 

As spring was ending and summer beckoned, I had sorted out [ that means figured out mistakes and redid] ratlines on the port side...the intended display back side. I put on running lines that i thought were on the port side and then turned the model around.  This was to be a milestone.

•  Here we have all the ratlines on and various running lines intended for this side all in place.

 

 

•  Here we are turned around, new LED lighting is in place and we are ready.  she is not done but this is where she will live.    wait for oops we are not done turning

 

•  here I sent the crew up because it was time to figure out how to bend the top stay sails.

 

•  Alright  three cheers   all CN sails are now on   The next thing I carefully did was to install the clew lines  just like I did on the top sails.

 

•  If you look at the top sail behind you can see the small block and the clew line that lives on the starboard side and goes down to be made off.   I then , thinking I wanted all the lines on the exposed side, installed the similar clew lines for the top stay sails.   oops  they are supposed to be on the port side, so here in the photo they are removed. a job for next winter.

 

•  Finally after a bit of study I figured out the top stay sail trip lines and show one off in this photo.  I finally interpreted the detailed Cora Cressy sail plan to have the block tied off to the top mast stay, so that point of purchase is higher than the jack stays and can thus pull the sheets over when tacking.  

So this is how she sits and I hope as summer activities run down through the next month or so we can get back to this fun build.

 

cheers

 

 

 

 

 

[Omega1234]

Hi Jond

 

It's lovely to see you getting back to finishing this big beauty of a boat.

 

Without a doubt your attention to detail is top notch and the inclusion of a crewman scrambling around the rigging is wonderful.

 

Will you be building a glass case to protect her from dust and other gremlins?

 

Cheers

 

Patrick

Edited September 3, 2016 by Omega1234

[mrcc]

Hi Jon,

Just reviewed your log and I am very impressed!

What a great job and very cool that you are able to get it into the water...

 

Cheers!

Julian

[Jond]

Julian

 

thanks.  Charlie sits as shown in the last posting patiently waiting for me to get back to her.  I have a another two months of intense work on Bluenose and then will start splitting my time to include more progress on both as well as a few other projects.  I want to get past making sawdust and into rigging so i can do a good pre winter clean up.  I also want to continue to get better making fittings, so I can fix a few weak points on Charlie

 

cheers 

[Tim Curtis]

I just loved this build log.

Such a beautiful ship. 

So amazing that she actually sails.

Loved the shots of Maine woods and lakes.

I used to go on vacation from the UK to a little place called Holbrook Pond near Bangor every summer. Your photos reminded me of happy days.

THANK YOU! 

[Jond]

It's time to bring Charlie out again. I plan to record this as the final chapter in Charlies build and use. Maybe then I will say...completely finished

 

This summer I plan to give a few lectures on the four masted schooners of Boothbay.  Although Charlie was built in Bath in 1894 she is right there as to the size of the last several large schooners built here.  The boom years were 1919-1921.   During that spell, 10 Schooners were built right here.

 

Next fall and winter I plan for trying to organize a diorama showing one of the yards and two of the schooners. We shall be celebrating 100 years since the launching. That yard has been a great lobster wharf for many years.  i will start that as a new post later this year and hope to get other folks to build buildings and the lay out.

 

Here I will update the repairs and completion activities to get Charles Notman ready to show off, and some of the highlights of the history of these schooners here in the harbor.   If you go back to the first few posts in this log, i built Charlie to be a prototype.  I had hoped to build two sailing versions and get them to sail in the harbor.  The problem is they really do not sail well as RC.    Therefore I will move on and try to get some normal two masted schooners to sail as there are many examples of the success they have in RC. Boothbay had many pinky schooners and a large sardine and off shore fishing fleet to chose from

 

My punch list consists of the need to:

1. complete the starboard side shrouds.here i am splicing the first two of six to go.
2. complete starboard ratlines..ugh lots of them
3. repair yawl boat and its broken support
4. clean and clean.. wow the dust 
5. try to coil and hang lines.
6. add a few missing windows and cabin details
7. repair several lose lines and broken chains
8. figure out transport.  
9. complete some graphics for the display

10. complete power point lecture

    In conclusion I will include a few visuals of a few schooners i am fixing up for the new museum store. 

     

    I believe just a little each day and it will be OK . I need to complete all by May

     

    cheers 

     

    jon 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited March 16, 2019 by Jond
typo

[Tim Curtis]

Jon. So pleased you are finishing this ship.

She is a beauty. Deserves to be finished

Not enoughDowneasters on this site.

I have just purchased AOTS Bertha Downs. 

Plan to build her at some point.

This log is an inspiration

 

Tim

 

[Jond]

Thanks Tim

 

Bertha Downs is incredible . Please consider buying the very complete book on the anatomy of that wonderful schooner

One might note that more than 10 days to reply shows I have too many irons in the fire.  

 

here I am trying to keep a pace of slats per day. i will get there but 15 a day is tough as there are to many o days.  I am also fixing up two schooners, and completing the Bowdoin diorama all for may.  then I started another ship!  i must be nuts...spring clean up is around the corner and we need to get so much done

 

cheers

 

jon 

[Jond]

Post .................rebuild a yawl boat

 

Ok I thought it is about time to record what has been going on as I only have a month to finish and give a few talks. I have been dividing my time between completing the Bowdoin diorama and getting it to the store museum....done.  Fixing two schooners Bluenose and Herman Zwicker for the store....done.   Aphrodite the first ship built here in Boothbay....mostly research and night reading of blogs with a little mast work on the side,  and here. 

 

So far, the ratlines are sort of done.

Cn19 5  I need to tie off the sides every 5th slat going up and the third tie offs for the center shroud on the fore mast. 

 

the yawl boat

 

Up through the radio sailing effort on the original build, I made a plug with a fake canvas cover acting as the yawl boat.  I have never seen a photo of a cover on a yawl boat, so now that Charlie is retired from sailing and supposed to focus on more detail, I have no excuse not to have a real yawl boat. A colleague at the local Downeast Shipmodeler’s Guild showed us one day a plug for a small Whitehall where he had routed out the interior of the plug so he could use normal clamps on the bent frames and then the freeboard portion of the planking. He also used hard wood for the frames and steam to bend them and maple planking…  wow.  that was a brainstorm for me.   

 

 

Cn19 6 here I tried taking some hard wood and steaming it in a can.  really a failure and everything snapped. After three unsuccessful attempts to bend frame that tight using hardwood and boiling and such, I needed a solution to get going.  Many great builders talk about how easy it is to bend maple and other hard woods.  I am not there yet but am determined to get their soon.

 

let’s follow my learner’s approach

7 first off what plans.  There are a few to choose from and this one matches up with many of the photos. I put it into turbo cad and scaled it. I plotted the offsets for each 1\4 inch, then traced and mirrored lines so i could cut out 4 small sheets of plywood 

8 here we see I made the plug using build up plywood so I could use the jig saw to cut the interior. It's covered with floor wax and I am using styrene strips that I will remove later for setting the planks away for the plug and be able to remove it.  I will figure out how to bend the ribs in after I remove the plug. the transom is mahogany and the keel and stem for the last time in my career are bass wood.

9 here I remain the amateur using basswood for planking.  During this process I was milling my first ever pear for the fairlead planks on the mast tops of Aphrodite.  Wow so different.  I also milled down some maple and will use it in the finishing.  I think I might put a thickness sander on my Santa  list.    I know I need mahogany for the engine house, gunnels, seats and transom, so maybe this is a transition for me.  This hull is painted and smooth outside and painted gray inside, so I am still with basswood.

10 here is the top plank. Looks like putty again but my spilling worked out better than before. Maybe three of four more boats and some better wood and I’ll get it    .

11 this top view shows the challenge to get the plug out.  There was some convincing and scalpel work, but nothing broke

12 hurray we are separated

13 here we see the inside after separation. the styrene ribs come out and wood goes in.

 

14and here we have ribs in. and yes, I used ammonia water and bass wood and they are not perfect.  I have a few larger frames as they hold the motor box.   That was a guess on my part. It is the problem of being a retired engineer.  There will be a floor covering the bottom too.  The dot on the triangle was a bad attempt to layout the hole foe the shaft.  When drilled for the outside it was a bit lower.  

15 here we are with gray prime coat all over. I just wanted to see if we fit.   Now it's time to start building the interior and cleaning up the exterior hull.

 

 

Cheers

 

[Jond]

People sizing post

 

A little more progress has been made on the yawl boat and a need to settle on figures, that is size of figures. I also need to give credit for the drawing in the last posting.  The yawl boat design comes from the book Anatomy of the Bertha Downs.  A great book for scratch schooner building.

 

16 when I was restoring my 78 year old real BHOD sailboat in 2015, I learned a trick of boat builders to match up the different mahogany wood colors.   Mahogany bought in 1941[ likely from the Philippines for the combing is not necessarily the same as the piece I bought from Honduras [ via Rocklers] for new work.    Intelux makes an “ Interstain” that brings out a rich color so we all look closer together.   This can has been parked in my shop slowing drying out for nearly 5 years.    I am Using cue tips  to go to the scrap left over blocks form some old kit for the transom, to ripped planks from  planks bought a few years ago for the model of my BHOD sailboat.

 

 

• 17 here we see a richness added to the planks that should help when the different mahogany blocks are added for the engine house

Now to the figures.

• 18 Here we see two of my five-man crew that are used all through this build.  I bought them online as O gauge railroad workers to be the same scale…1:48.    Well funny story if you google O gauge it says they are 1:48……well hold that thought.... also these guys could row that yawl boat.
• 19 My son put me onto Shapeways the 3d printing folks to get crew for my 1:24 scale Bluenose.    I went back to buy 1:48 figures from them to use in the Bowdoin Diorama.    They are noticeably smaller than these O gauge guys, so I thought they may have shipped the wrong size.    When I measured them, sure enough they were right on; standing up straight they get to 1.5 inches.
• 20 let’s line them up and see what we get.     The O gauge guys are all 7 feet tall!!!!  So check it out if you are using o gauge figures. Mine are all roughly 1.75 tall. I have been using them for years and oops many false images…oh well live and learn.
• 21   up in the rigging it looks like father and son
• 22  these properly sized figures change the whole concept of the yawl boats size.    Fyi the seat clamp is maple…my first hard wood milled from scratch.

 

Cheers

[Jond]

Complete the yawl boat

 

 

Sometimes we have to say enough and stop working on something. Today that was the yawl boat.

 

23 I went back to my friends at Bluejacket and bought a bunch of stuff.  Most was to build up supplies for the Aphrodite ship, but I got a few of their smallest propellers.  Here I have ground it down to fit on the yawl boat.

24 here is the stopping point.  I need to transport the schooner to a few sites this summer and there is no way to keep the yawl boat in place.   Moving the schooner, the other day I broke off the strong backs.    Yesterday I needed to remove a davit and broke it. Today I started rigging the blocks but if I do, I cannot remove the yawl boat. You can see the block engine cover and boxed shaft cover. I made up yokes and the little copper wire to hook the blocks to.  

25 here we see where the davit lines and hull lashing will eventually be made off the taft rail pins. 

26 here  it seems obvious that the block and tackle make a difference, so I will rig them and have them at least in place.  Lashing will wait till we are back home.

27  here we have the overview of the after deck and I feel this is better to have than the silly block and fake canvas i used last year. 

28 I end with the view showing her sail away. It reminds me that I don’t have the name on the transom yet.    We never really finish do we

 

Cheers