At Warwick 2013 my colleague presented his radio controlled rowing boat, complete with dog. Those that witnessed it were quite amazed as almost all the rowing actions were possible by remote control. At the time we thought "what can we do next", then someone suggested a Gondola, and a new project was born.

The idea is to try and program a suitably converted 'Action Man' into a working gondolier, again fully remote controlled. We decided to split the project, I am to provide the boat, hence the scale of 1:6 to match the figure, Jason will attempt the man, though I'm getting up to speed on the programmable chip side as well.

Gondolas are 36 feet long and about 4 feet in the beam, so this model is big, bigger than I thought anyway, and it would not look authentic to make smaller with the scale figure (and we need his size to fit the probable gear). Jason has since had his rowing boat highlighted in the USA and via that we have located some suppliers of very sophisticated servo items made just for figure movements. More later.

I tracked down authentic plans from Gilberto Penzo, St Marks Square, Venice and acquired a full set (at 1:10) and a free set @ (1:15) from him. These are used to build the real thing at the Cantiere Tramontin, Venice.

I have just completed stage one, the construction of the building slipway/frame, which is three dimensional and quite a delight to see. This is called a cantier, and is fundamental to any gondola construction, it has not changed for many decades, and is a fixture in all the gondola cantieres aroung the Venetian lagoon. I struggled due to a lack of Italian, and poor translation of the plan's texts via the web..

So my first plea, does anyone reading this know Italian phraseology as used for technical drawings and such, or can translate certain Italian terms relating to boat building in general. I am well aware that many of the component parts of a gondola will have their own specific name which may be impossible to translate, but i have, for instance, found some measurements given using the 'once' term, example:

nerve rovere (Oak) 2 cm 16 x 5 once (14.5 cm). What does once refer to?

I do have a general arrangement plan that helpfully labels all the main parts, in italian, but due to italian grammar they have differing spellings when in descriptive text, as to when used alongside an arrow.

I have U-tube videos showing some of the build, but again all in Italian, made by Gilberto. He does not have an english version and our local italians actually come from Sicily and cannot identify some of the words or meanings either as they are not boat builders.

So if anyone can offer any help I can send them some excel files and lists I've made direct from the plans of words and notes that as yet do not translate into english when entered into an on-line system.

Try this for instance, aste, there are two of them made of elm or oak, 25 mm planed 20mm, and now made in two pieces

Enter aste and up comes auctions? And they are not on the parts plan either? I assume they might be the bow and stern posts but????

Thanks in advance, I'll keep this flowing, Kimmo.

Hi Paul,

aye, there are a lot of parts to make and it all fits together on that curved slipway about the two asta (rods) and 3 main frames (maestro). All the plans are drawings, there is no table of offsets nor any lines drawings as such, so I cannot loft from them to the scale. There is a template, one of several, for a builders device from which the frames are drawn, but again the explanation of its use is in italian.

Spent yesterday morning scanning in the frames @ 1/10, then used the computer to size them up to 1/6, all 29 of them. At least I can set them up as per the drawings, most are constructed from three pieces, but, of course, the frame is not symmetrical. I'll pop up the body plan soon. With the frames at the scale size I can now go back to the device and set how it works, a bit like a slide rule, but the marks indicate edges and lengths etc.

It's fun though, today I'll start mounting them and see what it looks like compared to the body plan.

Enjoy Russia?

Aye Kim

Hi Bob,

yes, challenge alright, we now understand that there are about 16 different rowing motions, hence the strange shape of the oar post, the forcola. The hull shape is a nightmare at present, trying to establish a 3D curved centre line to include a 6' pitch to starboard at both ends! Then the plan indicates that the centre master frame is 1' off horizontal, as if you could measure that – or could you?

Only you would suggest a secret motor drive (clip on submarine type would do nicely) only this beast will end up 6 feet long!

Aye, Kim

Bob,

we have (that's my colleague Jason has) mastered the rowing man, and we have now discovered a website where we can get all sorts of specialised body parts, servos and extras for "Action Man" figures (or what ever they are called in the US). This gondolier will function!

Here's the first plan

and here is the body plan, in two halves through the middle crosswise, with viewing from each end, so a bit unusual for our normal way of displaying such drawings, which are through the middle length wise, from the centre frame.

And to make it awkward for you, it's sideways on too.  I should also state before you ask, the bow is the bottom, shorter stem, without the line of the bow post (asta di prua) shown at a jaunty 6' from the vertical.

Aye, Kim

Edited By Kimosubby Shipyards on 24/02/2015 12:14:59

Gosh, time flies when you're having fun….

Some progress – all the frames completed and have decided that any re-makes/alterations will be done once I've trial fitted them on the slip with the two master strakes.

Looks remarkably like a modern design of fruit bowl – at least I can make use of them if I give up!

Next, having to up scale the given "approximate" main strake shapes from the plans. Here the translation was very helpful in that it stated that all bow and stern shapes are bespoke to individual boats, hence a general shape is given but the builder has the critical task of cutting the strake to fit the bow and stern post so that it creates the hull shape to take the frames. I think that's what it translated as.

With just three frames on the slip and the two ends flapping this was not going to be easy. Instead of doing it their way, I will try mine. So I drilled all the frames and positioned them using fine ss horse shoe nails (50mm) which I had been given and they proved their worth. Two can be seen on the 'maestro papa" frame above.

So here's all the frames in-between the two main strakes, and a much better shape and line can be followed. The view is from behind the stern post looking forwards. Now I need to buy more clamps to hold the other side in as well.

The really tricky part is cutting the strake curve to the stern post. I made 4 attempts at this port side, that's four new strakes as I cut too much off each time, or cut the wrong curve. I did manage to get this one right after the photo was taken. Will not glue anything till both sides are clamped and done. Then its the 'mirror dinghy' method drilling holes and using twisted wire to glue and clamp and hold.

At least the shape looks about right, the banana curve, tilt and no twist. They say that after this it gets simpler? we'll see……

Good job I'm your side of the pond this week to get some more clamps.

Aye Kim

Edited By Kimosubby Shipyards on 15/03/2015 16:17:30

Edited By Kimosubby Shipyards on 15/03/2015 16:18:29