19 - Belaying Pins, Grates and Hatch Covers

Well, it has been quite some time since I've posted to this blog and my apologies to anyone who has been waiting patiently for an update on the build.

I did have the best of intentions but was put off when a few years back I opened the blog only to discover that most of the pictures that had accompanied the original posts had disappeared. I have yet to ascertain why this happened and interestingly, not all the pictures were missing but unfortunately, those still there were very much in the minority!

Suffice to say, I wasn't sure how much effort it would take to reconstitute the blog and if I didn't restore it, there would be no point in continuing. As a result, I carried on with the build in my usual hit-and-miss fashion without giving too much thought to documenting my efforts. OK - I didn't give it ANY thought!

However, the build is now essentially complete and I have decided to complete this blog as best I can. To that end, I have restored the missing pictures, which brings us to this post. From here, the sequence of events may not be in the chronological order in which they occurred but that should not prove too detrimental.

Belaying Pins

One of the smaller items of kit on-board the Bluenose are the belaying pins. I won't even trouble you with a picture of what was in the kit! First, I found a good picture of a belaying pin online:

Belaying pin.

Once I had printed the image to scale size, I realized that common round toothpicks would be ideal to fabricate these critical sailing implements. I figured that chucking a toothpick in my Dremel tool would permit me to emulate a sub-miniature lathe - which it did. Here is a picture of the set-up:

Common toothpick as basis for belaying pin.

Using the point of a cutting blade I was able to 'lathe' the basic shape.

Using sharp blade point to shape the pin.

A little sanding and ready to cut to length.

Finish sanding the belaying pin.

As with other items in this build, repeat as necessary. Here are some that didn't pass quality control but were stained anyway in case spares are required..

Here is a picture of a pin rail under construction during the Bluenose II rebuild.

And here are my belaying pins being put to use on the model's corresponding pin rail.

Belaying pins on fife rail.

Grates

Here is where I take a touch of literary licence with this build. I've not seen any grates on pictures of the Bluenose II but I don't think it's beyond the realm of possibility that the original Bluenose may well have incorporated this fixture. After all, it was a fishing vessel and one would think that ventilation might be a desirable feature below deck! Anyway, I like the look of wooden grates and they are an archetypal component of many sailing ships so I've incorporated them on this build.

As with the belaying pins, the first order of business was to find a suitable image online, which didn't prove too difficult.

Image of wooden grate.

Then it was a simple matter to copy this image to a word document, replicate as necessary and adjust to the size and scale I wanted. Here are some of my attempts.

Collages of images of wooden grates - different orientations and scales.

I then printed the selected groupings, mounted the images on wooden substrate and framed the result. Since I didn't have known locations for these grates, I merely selected a couple of open spots on the deck. Here's the results.  

Imitation wooden grate - forward.

Imitation wooden grate - aft.

Hatches.

The hatches were relatively straightforward. The original kit had included them and they appeared to be close to the right size but other than that, didn't look like much.

Original hatch - forward.

Original hatch - aft.

To refurbish them, I applied some framing, added wood stripping and replaced the brass grommets (?) with more prototypical wire fittings. Here's the result.

Forward hatch.

Aft hatch.

 That will have to suffice for this post. 'Till the next time..