14 - Windlass

Back to the model after a holiday to the East Coast. Just missed the launch of the "new" Bluenose II in Lunenburg at the end of September. However, while it would have been a memorable experience to be present at the launch, the current state of fitment of the vessel would have afforded me little in the way of details for my model. Hopefully, will get to see the fully refurbished ship sometime in the future (although if and when I do, might be too late to be of benefit for this particular model!)

During our holiday, made an overnight stop in Saint Andrews-by-the-Sea. While checking out the shops on the main street, caught sight of a familiar-looking model in the front window of a Home Hardware store.

Bluenose model in the window. 

On taking a look from inside, it turned out to be an identical version of the model I'm currently reworking for this blog.

Same Bluenose model as mine.

Whoever assembled this one only went as far as the manufacturer intended. Doesn't look too bad from a distance but of course the details start to pale when you take a closer look; all the same deficiencies that I observed on my version are evident in this model as well. 

Close-up view of the model.

Close-up view of the model.

With this diversion out of the way, time to catch up with the deck furniture I've been working on. Since I had the bowsprit out of the way, figured I might as well carry on from the bow to the stern. This meant tackling the windlass but that presented another issue - what type to build?

Over the years, the original windlass on the Bluenose II had been swapped out for more modern versions, such that the latest is a small, compact electric one, which is what Jenson depicts in his book. 

Electric winch (windlass) on the Bluenose II.

While simple to replicate and faithful to the current Bluenose II, I felt it would detract from the look and feel of the original Bluenose, which is what this particular model is supposed to represent. (For those following this blog, my original intent at the start of this build was to undertake a conversion of the kit model to the Bluenose II, which is the configuration depicted in Jenson's book. However, I'm now revisiting that decision.)

For the record, here is the extent of what was on the original model.

Original model windlass.

Fortunately, Jenson includes drawings of the original version of the windlass that was used on fishing schooners of the day and which was the original fitment on the Bluenose II (and presumably the original Bluenose).     

Original Bluenose windlass - side view.

Original Bluenose windlass - detailed plan view.

Thus I've decided to go with the older windlass and in so doing, committed to replicating the original Bluenose, as opposed to the Bluenose II. This means I won't be building out all the deck furniture that Jenson depicts in his book but the upside is that it shouldn't take as long to finish this model!

Some other windlass detail from the instruction manual for Model Shipways Kit No. 2130 - Bluenose (Shipways Instruction Manual).

Model Shipways Kit instructions for the windlass.

I didn't take photos of the windlass construction but tried to adhere to Jenson's drawings as much as possible. Most of the construction was straightforward, with the exception of the gears. However, came across a web site that provides an on-line tool to generate gear shapes (http://woodgears.ca/gear/index.html). Using this app, generated a variety of gear shapes which I then applied to a thin sheet of boxwood. 

Various gear forms for use with the windlass.

With a little cutting and trimming, produced passable gears, at least for a non-functioning application. Here is the end result.

Gear cut from plywood using template.

Combining a range of gears with other components such as axles, a drive chain, windlass drums, drive clutches,a  reversing mechanism and support stands to mount all the items resulted in a reasonable rendering of Jenson's drawings. 

Bluenose windlass.

Bluenose windlass.

Bluenose windlass.

Bluenose windlass.

I think it compares quite favourably to the limited fitting provided with the model:

Original windlass fitment on the model.

For the time being, the windlass is being put aside, awaiting installation at a later date.

Next time, I'll address related items - the anchors.

13 - Bowsprit

Today I'll cover the fabrication of the bowsprit. This can pretty much be fully assembled and installed without relying on any other yet-to-be-fabricated elements of the boat, which makes it suitable for this juncture of the build.

As usual, Jenson's book provides excellent detail of the various fittings that make up the business end of the bowsprit.

Bowsprit detail from Jenson's book.

I started with the metal fittings used as attachment points for the bowsprit shrouds and upper and lower bobstays. (These also provide the attachment points for the jib and jib topsail stays, so they have a fair number of attaching options.) As with other metal fittings of this type, I fabricated them from metal strips of copper plate, with attaching points soldered on as necessary. Unfortunately, I neglected to take any shots of the fabrication steps but here are the two end fittings after installation.

Main bowsprit fittings.

Next I fabricated two turnbuckles used in conjunction with the bobstays. Needless to say, they are non-functioning but from a distance, they serve the purpose.

Bobstay turnbuckles.

The other metal fittings were a few more hoops for the bowsprit itself and the small chainstays for the bowsprit back ropes.

Bobstay chainplates and attached back ropes.

After that, I decided to pre-fabricate the safety-net (correct term?) that is slung below the bowsprit. In hindsight, should have waited until I had twine of the appropriate size but instead went with what I had on-hand. The finished rope appears to be a bit on the large size and stiffer than the full-scale item, but again, think I can live with the result. To make the net, traced out the shape on paper and then wrapped the template around a cardboard tube formed into a cone shape. I  then laid out the lines and applied white glue at the intersection points.

Bowsprit safety net formed over template.

As can be seen, the end result is fairly rigid! (As an aside, I have not been looking forward to tying the ratlines on the mast shrouds, but this approach seems to yield an acceptable result so it may not be as much of a chore as I anticipated - just have to make sure the lines are the right scale!)

Bowsprit safety net ready for installation.

Now it was merely a matter of assembling all the bits and pieces to make up the bowsprit, including the back rope and the foot rope.

Model bowsprit fitted out.

A couple of notes on the bowsprit before I sign off.

First, according to Jenson, the two bobstays are different n size and both are quite large; the upper is 3-1/2" diameter steel bar and the lower is 4-1/2" steel bar. However, when I mocked up a section of steel wire at the scale size, it didn't look right so I opted to go with a smaller gauge wire, equivalent to roughly 2" diameter for both bobstays.

Secondly, Jenson specifies the four full-scale bobstay shrouds as steel wire rope, 2-1/2" diameter. (The same goes for the two foot-ropes.) While I had access to some small-scale wire rope, I didn't relish the thought of trying to splice the cable to form the loop at each end; in fact, doubt that I could do it in any event. As an alternative, used a suitably sized section of line.

I still doubt that the bobstays were the diameter that Jenson specified. In another diagram, he details the diameter of the end of the bowsprit as eight inches. Here is a shot of the full-scale ship and the bobstays don't look to be twice the size of the shrouds and they certainly don't look to be half the size of the bowsprit! 

Full-scale bowsprit - size comparison.

Here is a comparison of the full-scale bowsprit and my representation. Once the rest of the upper rigging is installed, think it will look just fine! If I really get keen, may try my hand at weaving a loop in my small scale wire rope. It it turns out, I may consider a retro-fit....

Comparison of full-size and model bowsprit fittings.

Now to figure out what to tackle next.... maybe some deck furniture for a change of pace!

Cheers.

12 - Chainstays

12 - Chainstays

Well, here we are at the end of the summer and I have failed to post anything since March! As usual, no excuses; just idleness on my part, although I have been doing a bit of work on the model in the interim.

Before we get on to that, though, we did get in our annual trip to Florida. Split our time between the Orlando and Fort Lauderdale areas this year. Pretty much standard fare in the Orlando area but the Fort Lauderdale harbour proved interesting. Also stopped over in Daytona Beach on the way home to check out driving on the beach. Not many places left that you can do that - and even at Daytona, you are restricted to certain stretches of the beach. However, with segments four or five miles in length, this is enough to give you a feel for the experience. Here are a few shots:

Mansions in Fort Lauderdale harbour:

And their toys:

Hollywood Beach:

Miami Beach:

And early morning on Daytona Beach before the crowds get there: 

And now to the real subject of today's post - the chainstays. The chainstays are the metal straps affixed to the hull which secure the mast shrouds. In the picture below, their location on the hull can be seen in this shot of the Bluenose II, currently undergoing a major rebuild in Lunenburg, NS.

The shrouds are secured to the chainstays by pairs of dead-eyes and landyards that permit adjusting the tension of the shrouds.

 I had made the dead-eyes to be used with the chainstays at the same time as I produced the blocks, the only difference being that I used hardwood for the dead-eyes rather than boxwood, The reason for this is that I felt there might be more of a need to put stress on the dead-eyes and if so, the boxwood would not likely stand up to the demands placed on it.

I made the chainstays themselves out of strips of copper sheet. To permit affixing the dead-eyes, I merely curled one end over. With a few drilled holes for the securing bolts, the chainstays themselves were basically complete.

Curled-over end:

Pre-drilled for attaching hardware: (Should have drilled the holes before painting!)

Next it was time to assemble the dead-eyes. Fortunately, Jenson has included a detailed description of the deadeyes in his book, including a 'lacing' diagram for the lanyards: 

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In some of my research, there was a suggestion to rig the dead-eyes using a template but it was not clear how this was to be done. I decided I would pre-assemble the dead-eyes and then adjust the lanyards individually after installation of the chainstays on the hull and rigging the shrouds. 

The first item of business was to fasten a dead-eye to each of the chainstays. I initially tried using thread but this wasn't stable enough; plus it probably didn't replicate the full-size version in any event. Instead, I threaded wire through the chainstay and then used the resulting loop to insert the dead-eye. 

Pulling on opposite ends of the wire tightened the dead-eye to the chainstay: 

A few twists to fully tighten the wire around the dead-eye and a snip close to the chainstay and we're ready to start threading the upper dead-eyes.

Threading the dead-eyes was fairly straightforward - once I got the first two or three under my belt; easy to get it wrong if you don't pay attention. The only tool I devised was to use a piece of small wire to aid in getting the "lanyard" through the holes in the dead-eyes.

The first step was to knot one end of the lanyard. (In the full-scale version, there is a stopper as well, but that was a level of detail I felt I could do without,)

The 22 upper dead-eyes ready to be threaded to the corresponding dead-eye fastened to the chaistay.

Then is was merely a simple matter of following Jenson's diagram to reeve (thread) the lanyard through each pair of dead-eyes.

Repeat 21 more times and you're done!

Next post, I'll describe rigging the bowsprit.  Cheers!

11 - Some Initial Rigging

Well, it's that time of year again - time to head to Florida, so there will be another hiatus (forced as opposed to idleness on my part!).

However, before I go, here is a bit more rigging, Similar to the last post but this time dealing with some specific aspects of the fore and main sails.

I briefly covered the details of the gaffs in a previous post so this is a bit of a review. Both main and fore gaffs are similar, in that they have "jaws" or "forks" that hold the gaff in position on the respective masts. However, the forks on the main gaff are bent or curved in order to maintain a purchase on the mast when the gaff is raised and angled fairly steeply upward. They also have a pivoting wood block ("clapper") - positioned in the throat between the jaws - that provides a larger bearing surface against the mast.

Here are a couple of shots of the main gaff, showing the bend in the forks, as well as the clapper positioned against the mast. Also in the pictures is the lifting cradle, to which the throat halyard is attached.

Main gaff components.

Main gaff in raised position.

Note the simulated metal reinforcing applied to both fore and main mast to protect them from wear when the booms are in the raised position.

With the main and fore sails fitted to their respective booms and gaffs, it was time to install the main and fore sail peak halyards.

Main sail peak halyard

Fore sail peak halyard

The only difference between the main and fore peak halyards is the number of bridles - three in the case of the main sail (shown above, top) and two in the case of the fore sail. Note that the bridles are considered standing rigging and hence are black. This stems from the fact that standing rigging was usually tarred for weather protection.

In conjunction with the peak halyards, the throat halyards were also installed. The fore sail throat halyards are relatively straight forward, comprised of single three-sheave and two-sheave blocks, yielding a 4X mechanical advantage. 

Fore sail throat halyard.

Given the weight of the main sail and gaff, the block arrangement for the main throat halyard requires more mechanical advantage. For this reason, three double-sheave blocks plus a single-sheave block are employed, to yield a 6X mechanical advantage.

Main sail throat halyard.

(When determining the mechanical advantage of a pulley system, merely count the number of lines that are supporting the load. In the case of the fore sail, there are four. The other two lines do not directly support the load and hence don't contribute anything other than to change the direction of the pull. Of course, there is no "free lunch"! While it will only take 1/6th the effort to raise the main sail - plus a bit more to overcome friction - you will need to haul in six times more line. In the case of the main sail, that amounts to about 360 feet of line!) 

With both peak and throat halyards fitted, the rigging is starting to take shape. Note that the spreaders had previously been fitted as well. (See also that I forgot to wax my lines. Close-up shots show some fuzz - need to get that sorted when I get back!)

That will have to suffice for now. 

If I get the opportunity, will post a few pictures while in Florida.

TFL