Hello there, Bob.

A few answersfor you. (no apologies required!) The lack of formers will become obvious in due course, as the entire hull can be faired up from the one former.The model will be RC, useing (with my apologies) another car radio, and the sail winch will be a larger version of the 'threaded rod' servo that I used on the paddle wheeler, cheap, simple and powerful. It will operate all 3 sheets. The keel box runs from the deck to the keel, and the drop keel will slide vertically like a dagger board, it will also be ballested. You input is, as allways, welcome

Amy jane

Hello again.

Thanks for the link. Larry, I shall enjoy looking it over.

A little more progress. The frame work is filled in with blocks of polystyrene, and carved to shape. Useing the midship to set the hull shape, I carved the hull as hard chine form. By useing the chine shape, all the other sections are faired in automatically. The "correct" chine profile for a displacement hull is for the chine to cross the stem at, or just below the waterline, then slope down and aft in a straight line for 1/3 its length before curving gently back up and crossing the waterline well forward of the transom and ending on the transom (or stern post) well a bove the waterline. The water line is then used to check the hull's fairness. These hulls have no hollow in the forward waterlines, and a fair amount of hollow in the aft waterlines. The buttocks are long and easy, Combined with a hollow garboard and high bildge, this should produce a fast sailer.

Once happy I shaped the other side, useing card templates placed in vertical cuts on the station lines.

The chines will then be faceted to a multi chine , then rounded off to end up with a round bildge hull.

Thanks Bob, But you're too kind really, pehaps rank beginner to mere novice? (Mind you, 10 years of full size boat building certainly helps!)

The cards in the slots is just lazyness on my part, I'm afraid-easier to just slip them in and draw around them ,than cut and try external ones.

No apologies needed, Bob!

Once, in my younger years, I built a 18' rowing and sailing boat, and cut every bit by hand, including ripping all the stringers, oars and spars from 4"x2". Hard work! Now days it's power tools all the way!

Well I'm actually a little embrassed to give this next installment, two steps forward and one backwards I'm afraid. The shaping was finnished on the hull, photos taken, then accidentally deleted! On my other two models the hull was skined by sliding it inside the leg of one of my old pantyhose, then coating with expoxy. This wasn't going to work this time, as 1) to many hollows in the sections, 2) my legs aren't that big! Instead I cut a bit of old bed sheet, on the bias, to make it drape properly. This would have been just fine if I had used epoxy.

I need to digress just a little here. I have a good freind, Lynn, who is a bit of a tinkerer, (and general nut case ). She is for ever coming up with experiments, many of which don't work, and the odd one that does. These polystyrene models produce a lot of waste, so I gave Lynn a bag full back when I was building Annalisa, to see what she could do with it. She came back with a jar of syrup which she assured me was strong, water proof glue, (it was) and a jar of paste (filler). I tried the glue and found that it set up as hard as epoxy, and as I had run out of epoxy, it got me thinking. I figured if I could protect the polystyrene from being dissolved by the glue, I could use it to glue the cloth on. So I covered the hull with two layers of newspaper glued on with acrylic paint. The glue she provided was a little too thick, so I asked her what solvent the polystrene was disolved in. It turned out to be a combination of acetone and petrol! (It needs both to disolve properly, the more the acetone the better the glue, 5:1 works best, though 1:1 is ok) So I thinned the glue down and glued on my cloth. Well… obviously I thinned it down too much, and it got through to the polystyrene and my once fair hull was fair no more! Not a complete disaster, though a fair bit of filling required. I mixed a fresh, thicker batch for the other side, and that worked out much better! Here are some photos of the hull prior to finnal filling and sanding

Hello all

Bob, I didn't think to plank the polystyrene in timber, would have been a good way to go, and saved me alot of filling and sanding too! Next time.

The hull is very nearly there now, just a final sand and paint, progress! Between filling sesions I made a start on the sails. I've opted to use polyester thermal curtain linening. Sounds strange I confess, but the polyster weave is strong and low stretch, and the (latex?) backing fills the weave and makes it air tight. I once made a set of sails for a full sized (20' cabin yacht from a much heavier grade of the same stuff, they worked out very well indeed.

Here's my sail making process, fairly traditional. Because one side of the cloth I'm using is noticably different to the other, I decided to make the sail up from 4" strips, alternating sides. I laid the strips up and drew on the 'strike up' marks, every 11/2" or so.

By sewing up the strips, linning the marks up exactly the pannels are joinned up with out shape or tight spots. The seems were made over width and sewn down one edge, 'one on one off'. The seam is then trimmed down and the other side stitched

The tancook had a tall pole main mast and no tops'l, but carried a large fisherman stays'l for light airs. Since such a sail is not practical on the model, I've made the mains'l with a tops'l built in, Lake Errie style. The shape will be put in the sail by using luff and foot and curves. Here is the mains'l, ready for the tablings.

more soon…

Amy jane

Edited By Amy jane September on 07/07/2013 08:12:00

Hello again.

Well, slow progress, I'm afraid, lucky to get a couple of hours a week on the boat. The joys of a young family, and all that.

The mains'l and fores'l are done, and the cabin and deck carved out, ready for skinning.

I was chatting to Lynn about a sail winch, I had planned to use the toy car drive motor , turning a length of threaded rod, with a carriage running along it, but she delved into her junk box and came up with this.

It's a worm drive gear box from a discarded vanetian blind. The sheet drum will go on the steel shaft (with some sort of end suport) and the toy car drive motor and gear box will conect to the white plastic drum. Hmmm, should work.. You think? (whould certainly be a lot more compact)

Amy jane

Hello Ian

Thanks for your comments, always welcome! I was not aware of Poly-C, and am not sure if we can get it here, although at 9 pounds, about NZ$18, would be much the same price as epoxy, which is fine on the polystyrene. You are right about expense, whilst I'm not entirely broke, there are more important things to spend my money on! by keeping every thing low budget I can justify this hobby, in my own mind at least. I don't have any proper radio gear, hence the toy car radios. (I should get some proper gear, redundant 40meg sets are turning up quite cheap now, $30 or less) I've found that my somewhat primitive servo set up works well on the other two models, I've gotten used to 'pulsing' the sticks back and forth, to avoid jamming everything up at each end of the travel.

Like you, I love the whole concept of the early American small sailling craft, that Chapple so enthused about. The idea that these guys would set sail on the North Atlantic in any weather, in a small,open and heavily ballested boat! So foreign to todays way of thinking!

I haven't floated the model yet, so would only be guessing at the displacement, but am thinking around 7-8 pounds, will let you know when I get there.

Rgards

Amy jane

Hello again.

Well, it's wet and windy, and I'm stuck in bed with a cold, so now seems a good time for an update!

Rudder gudgeons bent up from 1mm s/s rod. these will be glued into cut outs in the rudder and rudder post, and a length of rod slipped in as a long pin.

The sail winch and steering servo is in

(plenty of room in there)

Hello Gareth

Yes, we can get celotex here, though not easily it would seem!

Thanks.