Change of Direction

At the time of the last post my intention was to install the RC servos etc then build the deck over them leaving access through hatches and finally complete the rigging before launching the boat. It seemed sensible to install the RC stuff while there was nothing above it and this set the order of things. At the last meeting of the local Wooden Boat Association I met a member of another local club called the Triple "S" Model Boat Club, The SSS stands for Sail, Scale and Steam. He has traditional sailing boats and has shown me a couple of them on the water. He advised me to get my boat sailing with rudder control only as a first step to get a feel for how she sails and to get a better idea of what sail control is needed. To do this there needs to be a temporary deck sealed with duct tape or similar plus a jury rig to hold up the sails. This means that the work involved in completing the deck structure, stanchions and bulwarks and the deck planking can be done later.

Before these conversations I had been working on the deck beams and framing for the deck houses. Here is what it looked like as I glued up the various structures, note that they are not actually glued into the hull. From left to right forward companionway, main deck house, aft companionway and cockpit. The deck will eventually be build around the raised sides of the openings and the "houses" fitted as "lids" over the openings.

That's about where the plan changed. I went back to casting lead for the internal ballast. I made a wooden mould to cast trapezoidal bars that could be cut into section to fit between the frames. Here are the two lead bars with a finished piece of ballast at the top left.The lead cuts easily on the badndsaw and the blocks are cleaned up on the sander.

Here a two of the blocks in place. Altogether there are 13 kg of them.

The next step was to make the metal fittings needed for the boat. Even with my small CNC mill this to quite some time to draw and machine them. here they are. From top left in two rows: rudder pintles, gooseneck, mast step, mast ring for cap shrouds, chainplates, support for inboard end of bowsprit, gammon iron, rings for the jib tacks, cranse iron, stemhead fitting and bobstay fitting.I have still to make some turnbuckles.

Here are the rudder pintles in place, temporarily.

And the bowsprit supports.

From the photos it id hard to get a feel for the size of the model. so here is a view of the hull with the mast, bowsprit and boom laid on it with a one metre steel rule. The mast is about 1.5 metres and the boom just over a metre. Click on the image to get it enlarged. The spares are made up of four quarters glued together and then planed to circular sections.

My daughter is going to make up the sails for me so I have been making paper patterns. Here's the main sail with the 1 metre rule laid on it.

I'm struggling a bit over the question of screws, bolts, etc, blocks, shackles, thimbles and cord for rigging. To get these components to look right at 1/10 scale isn't easy and the jury rigged model will probably use inappropriate screws and stuff from the fishing tackle shop. In the long run I might have to make stuff myself for the finished model.