Have finished planing the wooden blanks from square to a square and round mast, keeping the "foot" square and the tapering shaft to a decreasing round at the top of the blank to make a tapered mast!

All of this was done in minature just as a real mast would have been done using planes and most probably also an Adze to start the tapering at the top end.

An Adze is a wonderful tool and as a 16/17 year old my father who worked for the local council as an auditer got me a summer job working for a crew maintaining the integrity of the sea walls and wooden breakwaters on Fleetwood beach.

After a little training by the foreman of the crew, I learned and became very proficient in [believe it or not] adze cutting pointed ends on the 14' long 15" square Greenheart groins that are piled into the sand once a steal tip to the top AND bottom pointed ends of the groin was cut, heated into a ring and welded into a circular flange to take the pounding of the piler!

As a usual after a little practice, I could cut 2 points a day, but on just one occassion, I managed to cut 3 points on the tough hard Greenheart…………and I never cut myself once with an adze.

But no wonder my shoulders and back are knackered in my old age from swinging those viscious tools, lol.

Anyway, back from reminissing of my youth, back to the masts.

Once sanded, I cut slots in to the mast heads for the pulley wheels for hoisting the mast spars.

Then it was a case of making the mast rings for the rigging. In the past I have turned these from brass blanks, but decided that for these 3 masts, I wasn't going to waste my time on such a laborious tasK for two reasons, AS probably none of the boats they would be going on would carry a sail, [I learned the hard way with my Liverpool class last summer], and decided to make all four rings on each mast from brown 140 gm card at 5mm width glued and wound around the wooden masts.

Once set, varnished and sealed with cellulose laquer they will become hard enough to hold brass rings and belaying pins.

Tomorrow I'll varnish and laquer the masts before drilling fot the belay rings and the fixing rods for the tabernacles.

Time marches on, and so do I have too.

This afternoon I cut in to and modified the central rear grating so that the compass stand, binacle and rear back rests for the helm and coxs'n can rest against in rough weather. That went well, and so removed the cabin after dry fitting The front gratings in place, to make sure that everythiong would fit….

And so all the gratings were glued in place.And the raised platform was then also glued in place.

Once that had been achieved I cut the 2.4mm brazing rod that i was going to use for the steering shaft and marked one by one the possition of the holes to feed the rod through, enlarging each hole a little so that a grommit [used in leather working] could be inserted as a bearing for the shaft.

Once all lined up it was just a job of fitting all insequential position and super gluing in to place.

This was a two wheel steering shaft, where as the the William and Kate Johnston was just a single wheel at the aft end of the boat coming straight from the steering box.

Another job off the list……..

the fitting of the two Navigation lamp stands and boxes for the William and Kate Johnston and the support stanchions for the survivors jumping nets have been added to the engine casings of both boats.

And the jump net has been fitted to the first of the 60' Barnetts, the William and Kate Johnston.

In all photos that I have of these boats, the W & K J., the first of the breed has her jump net higher than the other threre boats, including the Princess Mary.

The two sisters are looking great together.

they were the only lifeboat class in this country that ever used them Richard, but apparently in the european countries, Holland, Germany, Denmark, Norway/Sweeden and such Baltic countries their SAR services did use them..

Also there are contemprary paintings of our own four boats actually using them with back up written descriptions of the rescues whilst coming along side a casualty.

One of my original photos shows the Princess Mary rigged with her jump net, so seems likely they kept it rigged as a permenant fixture.

This is a conteprary photo of the first of the Barnetts taken on her trials in 1923 after her launce.

Edited By neil howard-pritchard on 29/06/2023 09:51:07

Apparently they have been called that by lifeboat men for countless , Richard, and as a past narrow boat owner we canal folk also used to call them puddings.

When i had a wife, long ago, she would crochet covers for me to stuff, and then stitch up………but as i have no idea how to crochet, they now come as resin cast, lol.

OHHH how I love some pickled tabernacles and a side of life rings for my tea. The smell of that pure white boiling vinegar was too much, NOT TO forget

 

 

Remembering my old days teaching kids metalwork and the art of silver soldering larger pieces of brass rather than just brass or copper rod, it brought back the smells of "pickling" the verdigree left from the soldering, and no wonder I took up camping in the Lakes District on the week ends when my mother would get out her large pickling pan to make a batch of chutney……..was my excuse to sling my tent and gear on the back of my 650 cc Rocket Goldie and bugger off for the weekend.

 

 

However, pickling brass in white vinigar and boiling for 30 minutes or so, is the perfect way of cleaning off brass parts ready for painting, and whilst waiting for that process I painted my onion rings, ooops sorry, life rings.

 

 

I can now offer up the 3 masts to the tabernacles and drill the masts before painting the brass work.

 

 

 

Edited By neil howard-pritchard on 03/07/2023 19:01:30