Magnolia

[Bill Nelson]

I have some narrow gauge trains rolling in Texas. But when in TN. I'm mainly at the lake; and I don't have dedicated space for a layout there yet. I figured my project this summer would be to work on an R/C sailboat. My last two efforts were home designed; and both had insufficient displacement, So I got a plan from Sarik models in the UK for a model of a 1910 French fishing boat.
The plan has the keel made from a big bar of lead, with wood veneer on the outside. I lacked a big bar of lead, and wanted a more robust keel , as the model would have to be carried a long way down a steep winding trail from the cabin to the lake. .I made the keel, sternpost, and bow post about an inch thicker than the plans called for. The keel is also deeper than the plan calls for ; And is hollow, with adequate space for lead ballast . Since the keel was altered , I had to alter the shape of each bulkhead. That resulted in some irregulaties that had to be reduced with a belt sander . or in cases have material added




Note these photos were originally taken on my phone . Zealot likes photos from my ancient I pad better, so these are photos of my photos on my desk top . And that may get a little weird.

I laid the keel in early July . Planning to work quick and dirty. As often happens with my projects, the results have exceeded my expectations, and while progress has been exceptionally quick for this type of construction, I'm not expecting this to be operational until next year .

I'm a lot farther along , will make multiple posts till I'm caught up.

 

[ennder]

I have great respect for people who scratch build things. I have tried on several occasions and only succeeded on one. Beautiful work so far.

 

[zathros]

You could pour a lead keel easy enough. The hull framing is beautiful!! This will be the thread to follow. I look forward to more pictures.

 

[Bill Nelson]

As promised , here are more progress photos . In this first photo I'm attaching the first plank on each side , my bulkheads, frames , or whatever were a bit wonky , due to errors in transferring the shape from the plans , errors introduced adjusting the shapes to accommodate the fatter and deeper keel, and errors introduced by cutting the shapes with a jig saw blade as crooked as a dogs hind leg. I remembered to bring the jig saw up from Texas, but the spare blades didn't make the trip.

I have since found a decent hardware store in Tennessee Ridge, about 20 minutes away, but I had cut all the frames by then.





The belt sander , and shims to regularize the wonky frames



Planking is fun, a. Bit tedious if one is hoping to get it water tight.

This hull is built entirely from the scrap pile . I bought no wood for this build . The frames are cut from some surplus 1/2 inch plywood. The keel , bow and stern posts are laminated up out of yellow poplar. The planking is ripped from two or three different species of pine, as well as some aspen. And a little poplar. The deck beams are cut from some 130 year old poplar lath salvaged from a kitchen remodeling job some 18 years ago . And the deck is ripped out of some aspen I picked up at some point to play with . It's nicely flexible, Handy when planking the hull, but it can be fuzzy. And sanding it smooth can be a chore.

Getting the hull perfectly smooth was not a goal . If I don't want the planks to show , why build this way?



This hull is pretty, in spite of it's various imperfections .




Here you see sone of the weirdness from photographing pictures off the computer screen


I chose to alter the shape of the rudder , increasing it's size below the waterline, hoping to make it more effective to increase manouverabiliy

 

[Bill Nelson]

Here are the deck beams , cut out of plaster lath removed from the farmhouse's kitchen years ago.



This gives you an idea of the size of the model. The extra wide , extra deep hollow keel has lead chunks cut from a scuba diving weight belt weights. Some old automotive wheel weights. And lots of lead shot, all fixed in place with a epoxy pour. Epoxy was also painted all over the inside of the hull for extra waterproofing , and reinforcement.
I have installed a traditional servo to control the rudder, and a sail winch servo which has two spools , wound in opposite directions , allowing it to run a loop to a pulley in the bow. That allows 8.5 inches of travel between the full tightness and full looseness positions on the servo, connected to the throttle Control. Which doesn't has a spring centering mechanism on the transmitters stick, so theoretically ,I could set the sail tension , and then play with the rudder control.

We will see, I sailed some real sailboats in my youth . I'm hoping sailing a model will be almost as much fun. The diagram shows sheeting leads for the jib, staysail , and mainsail . I had four attachment points , so on the model I've added a controll line for a gaff top sail as well.

 

[Bill Nelson]

Much of the work is being done on my dad's old workbench . My grandfather was a Chicago area patent lawyer, and liked to buy top end stuff from firms he represented. I have been building stuff on this bench since the 1960's.

 

[Bill Nelson]

 

[Bill Nelson]

The previous post had photos of the progress with the deck some scratch built pulleys , and a photo showing off some of the fancy carpentry On the deck planks around the support posts for the Bullwarks.

At the bottom is a file showing the sailing room on white oak creek bay of Kentucky Lakeoff our dock . This is just a bay I have an areal picture that sows a portion of the lake, the largest man made lake east of the Mississpi. But I couldn't get it to load

 

[Chuffy70]

A fine-looking vessel - I would love to have a getaway with a workshop, mind you just a dedicated work room would be nice.

Loving the size of this too...

 

[micahrogers]

I missed the "Chiefs cruise" on USS Constitution, and took my "Chiefs rights" on CG 47, USS Ticonderoga. I truly would have loved to be able to say I put to sea on the last Sailing Schooner in the USN.

 

[zathros]

You know boats don't scale up. I would consider, if you plan to sail this with R/C equipment, you consider adding a clear plastic extension to the rudder for or in case of a weather helm. Looking at the boat, full size, yes, the rudder looks adequate, but with all the mass you will be adding, the rudder starts to look small. Try it out first, I could be wrong, I have been before. the Titanics rudder looked right but was far too small for a ship of it's size and displacement. Yout boat will displace much water. This also means, since water doesn't scale, that top side has to be really battened down, as the boat will go through waves, not over them. IMHO

Superb planking, by the way, some of the best I've seen.

 

[Bill Nelson]

A fine-looking vessel - I would love to have a getaway with a workshop, mind you just a dedicated work room would be nice.

Loving the size of this too...

The plan was for this to be a getaway, and for us to split our time between our farm, and hour away, and the lake. My Wife had to relocate to Texas to care for her folks, and we got a place there. We have both retired since then . It seems we are living primarily at the lake house in the spring summer and fall, and in Texas in the winter.

All our plans have been on hold , as an unscrupulous neighbor was operating a VRBO against deed restrictions next door , causing noise, nuisance , and security concerns; but a lawsuit has convinced them to sell.

Now they are gone , and we feel comfortable , and secure here, we will consider building a railroad room, work shop,and boat storage in a separated outbuilding, with it's own screen porch ; so I can clear a lot of my messy stuff out of the basement garage , and have room to build a model railroad big enough to use all the cool stuff I have built in the past. (See the logging Minning and industrial subsection of the model railroading section. )

 

[Bill Nelson]

You know boats don't scale up. I would consider, if you plan to sail this with R/C equipment, you consider adding a clear plastic extension to the rudder for or in case of a weather helm. Looking at the boat, full size, yes, the rudder looks adequate, but with all the mass you will be adding, the rudder starts to look small. Try it out first, I could be wrong, I have been before. the Titanics rudder looked right but was far too small for a ship of it's size and displacement. Yout boat will displace much water. This also means, since water doesn't scale, that top side has to be really battened down, as the boat will go through waves, not over them. IMHO

Superb planking, by the way, some of the best I've seen.

My last effort had a removable extension for the rudder . This rudder has about 160% the effective surface of the one in the scale plans . I will evaluate it's sailing , many Model sailboats are ridiculously manouverable. Necessary, if one has limited sailing area , I'll sail this with My redesigned rudder, and see if an extension is needed. A fishing boat wouldn't necessarily be as nimble as a dingy.

 

[Chuffy70]

The plan was for this to be a getaway, and for us to split our time between our farm, and hour away, and the lake. My Wife had to relocate to Texas to care for her folks, and we got a place there. We have both retired since then . It seems we are living primarily at the lake house in the spring summer and fall, and in Texas in the winter.

All our plans have been on hold , as an unscrupulous neighbor was operating a VRBO against deed restrictions next door , causing noise, nuisance , and security concerns; but a lawsuit has convinced them to sell.

Now they are gone , and we feel comfortable , and secure here, we will consider building a railroad room, work shop,and boat storage in a separated outbuilding, with it's own screen porch ; so I can clear a lot of my messy stuff out of the basement garage , and have room to build a model railroad big enough to use all the cool stuff I have built in the past. (See the logging Minning and industrial subsection of the model railroading section. )

All sound great... I will indeed check out your railway items with interest

 

[Bill Nelson]

You know boats don't scale up. I would consider, if you plan to sail this with R/C equipment, you consider adding a clear plastic extension to the rudder for or in case of a weather helm. Looking at the boat, full size, yes, the rudder looks adequate, but with all the mass you will be adding, the rudder starts to look small. Try it out first, I could be wrong, I have been before. the Titanics rudder looked right but was far too small for a ship of it's size and displacement. Yout boat will displace much water. This also means, since water doesn't scale, that top side has to be really battened down, as the boat will go through waves, not over them. IMHO
Superb planking, by the way, some of the best I've seen.

 

[Bill Nelson]

Last night I masked the bulwark posts , the transom, bow post , control line tubes , and upper hull.



This morning I sprayed the deck with several coats of a clear satin finish , sanding in between. The aspen deck sanded in a much more civilized manner after a couple coats of clear finish .



After sealing the deck I built this ring around the base of the mast.




The ring locks the mast in place so it can't rotate.



I'm in the process of making these blocks to fill I'm between the bulwark sop port posts there will be planks on the outside of the entire bulwarks , and on the inside of this area to either side of the mast . So that extra support is built into the bulwarks where the mast stays attach



The lake is beyond the trees outside the garage door

 

[zathros]

That is really beautiful. It's such a stout looking ship. This ship is a "he". He looks like he can handle a lot!

 

[Bill Nelson]

I'm four months into this build, making exceptional progress for This kind of work




I have the bulwarks in position , and got the scuppers in quire satisfactorily.



I have some leftover mahogany I can use for the railing, that should really pop. Below are the chain plates , that will secure the mast's stays to the hull. I fabricated these out of brass


Below is the mounting hardware for the Bowsprit. One of the screw eyes on the bow post will anchor the mast's forward stay , another will anchor the front corner of the stay sail.

The remaining two are guides for the line that will control the tension on the jib.

 

[Revell-Fan]

This is a lovely model!

 

[micahrogers]

As Bill and Ted would say "Excellent"