Moonbeam

[Ray Wood 3Participant @raywood3]

Hi Mattias

That's fine I think that's how Dave Metcalf intended her to be, I've been into 1/24th scale Thames barge racing for the past 2 years which is addictive and tuning the rig is a large part of going faster, this has inspired me to race Victoria's at my club at Bluewater and Dragon Force 65 at Eastbourne this year. I bought my barge Veronica from Peter Simmonds from the Isle of Wight who is the master ! and very hard to beat on the water.

Regards Ray

[BanjomanParticipant @banjoman]

Hello Ray,

I absolutely see what you mean, and had racing in any form been on my mind, I think adjustable outhauls would been an obvious choice.

Thames barge racing seems quite fun, I must say, providing both scale appearance and the excitement of competition, and I can understand that it might be highly addictive.

Mattias

[BanjomanParticipant @banjoman]

After two coats of oak stain had gone on and dried, it was time to mask off the three remaining spars …

… add the white trimming …

… put on four coats of gloss varnish …

… and finally epoxy the eyebolts into the ends of the foresail and jib booms, whereby all the spar work (except for a small run of varnish on the underside of one of the booms that'll need to be sanded down slightly; that, however, will be left for a few days to allow the varnish to go off completely) was finally done.

To be continued …

Mattias

Edited By Banjoman on 27/02/2017 07:33:10

[Bob Abell 2Participant @bobabell2]

Hi Banjo

The white paint shows up very nicely against the dark oak stain

I`m sure we would all like to follow a Thames Barge build as a future model………As chance?

With plenty of scope for your attention to detail?

Bob

[BanjomanParticipant @banjoman]

While waiting for various coats to dry, I made up the various halyards for the running rigging from a 0.45" laid miniature rope that I'd gotten from the Syren Ship Model Company (**LINK**).

As these ropes are made from natural materials (a cotton/linen blend), I used a natural thread for the seizings as well, and secured these with watered-down wood glue instead of thin CA, as the latter would have made the seizings too stiff for running rigging purposes and have discoloured the rope.

While settig up the running rigging, I also noticed that I'd forgotten to add rings to the end of the jib halyard block pendant, and so got to test taking down the topmast …

… which worked a treat to slacken off the jib stay enough …

… that the pendant could be brought to the worktop without having to unreeve the stay.

It was then time to reeve all the halyards through their respective blocks, and to belay them around the foot of the mast.

The pin rails cannot be used to actually belay any ropes, unless one is prepared to cast them off every time the mast has to come down; however, they serve a definite purpose as a place to hang up the running end coils (here coiled rather carelessly), which I have on purpose made rather long.

Although this serves no practical purpose, as these ropes will never really be worked as they would on a full scale yacht, I have made up all the halyards to full length, i.e. so that they comfortably reach the deck even when whatever it is they work is lowered all the way down.

Here, for example, is the foresail halyard temporarily attached around the forestay at around the point where the head thimble would end up when the sail was taken down …

… with the halyard made long enough that it still reaches its belaying point (the cleat on the port side of the mast) with enough left over that it even then needs to be coiled up.

As may be guessed from this, too short ropes in the running rigging of model boats is a bit of a pet peeve of mine …

Anyway, all the spars and all standing and running rigging is now done, with the small exceptions of the kicking strap and a short strop to stop the foresail boom from sliding up along the forestay.

In other words, only two sets of jobs remain: the four deckhouses and the sails, and so I am fairly confident that I shall be able to have her ready to go on the water in maybe six weeks time or so, i.e. when (hopefully) mild and soothing spring breezes start to waft gently across the club pond …

In the meantime, I shall start to read up on the dark and mysterious arts of model sail making!

To be continued …

Mattias

Edited By Banjoman on 27/02/2017 08:34:48

[Ray Wood 3Participant @raywood3]

Hi Mattias

Yesterday I started making my first sail as a replacement for Veronica's main, in the quest for more speed I need to reduce the gap on the existing sail down to the hatch, I bought an ancient hand powered Singer sewing machine which I have used to hem around the new sail, I cut the dyed cloth 1/4" larger and PVA glued the edges to make them easier to fold over and iron, ran round the hem with the machine all ok, started hand sewing the bolt rope round the perimeter could take a month

Regards Ray

Edited By Ray Wood 2 on 27/02/2017 09:26:52

[BanjomanParticipant @banjoman]

Hi Ray,

That's interesting! I am currently very much in the planning stage of making the sails — this morning, for instance, I went to one of those copy/print shops that cater to architects and such-like, and had two full-size photo copies made of sheet 4 of the Moonbeam plans, i.e. the one with all the sail shapes, so that I can cut one set out for checking against the spars without damaging the original plans, and also have a copy that is completely flat (the one that came with the kit has of course been folded and thus also creased).

I have also read several times both the Nylet B20 guide on model sailmaking and Ralph Nellist's Guide To Vintage Sailmaking. The latter is perhaps of less use to me, as it mainly concerns itself with making up racing suits of sail, but the former is in the main very clear and helpful, I've found. The only point on which I do not understand its instructions is on how to do the false tabling for any edge cut on the bias (e.g. the luff).

If you (or anyone else on the forum) were able to hold forth on the subject of false tabling, and explain in some more detail how to do it, I'd be more than grateful! (I shall also write to Frank Parsons in the hope that he'd be willing to expand on the matter.)

I have likewise spent some time going through my 1938 copy of Terence North's Yacht Sails for some further knowledge on how real sails were made and looked like.

Mattias

[Ray Wood 3Participant @raywood3]

Hi Mattias

Veronica's new mainsail is coming along, Its a good job barge's are rough and tough craft my sewing on of the bolt rope 60% complete 2 evenings hand stitching so far, using a batten to tension the rope, hope to complete this weekend

Regards Ray

[BanjomanParticipant @banjoman]

Hello Ray,

That looks really nice! For my part, I haven't had much build time, one way or another, this week, so haven't made much progress.

I have, however, and as already mentioned, gone by a photo copying shop of the kind that caters to architects and suchlike, and had a couple of full-size photo copies maden of the sail plan …

… out of one of which I have now cut out a set of sail templates. Over the weekend, I plan to fit these to the spars in order to check their accuracy relative to the results of my build. As I have been very careful to respect all measurements given for the spars to within a millimeter or so, I have reasonable hopes that the templates will be usable as they are, without any adjustment or tweaking, but it does of course remain to be seen.

One thing on the templates that I already know will need modifying, though, is the simulated seam lines, which at 5 centimeters apart are out of scale. Real sail cloth canvas almost always came in bolts three yards wide, which at 1:24 corresponds to one and a half inch, or about 38 mm. This, however, is only a minor adjustment, and easily sorted …

I have also washed the cotton fabric (a replacement piece bought from Nylet, of even better quality than that which came with the kit) to pre-shrink it, and, after hanging it up to dry, have also ironed it nice and flat again in preparation for cutting out.

To be continued …

Mattias

Edited By Banjoman on 03/03/2017 13:07:54

[Bob Abell 2Participant @bobabell2]

Hello Banjo

I was lucky with all my sails……….My wife was a sewing machinist during her working life and she rattled them off

Knowing that you will a super job of the sails……..Can I respectfully mention……

Grannies sucking eggs again……..When you sew the ropes to the sail edges……..Don't do as I did…….Sewed them to the sail edges………..I suppose you know,they should be sewn to the side of the sail?

And on the correct side too?

Sorry………Bob

Ps……You being a proven master of colloquial english sayings………..Where does the "Granny sucking eggs" saying come from?

[BanjomanParticipant @banjoman]

Hello Bob,

Although wíth no professional experience, my wife, too, is very handy with a sewing machine, but that will not keep me from tackling them myself …

Concerning grandma's culinary habits, and knowledge thereof, I was of course well aware of what the expression means, but had to resort to the standard method of this day and age to find out whence the expression comes: **LINK**.

However, I did indeed know from my reading of James Lees' s The Masting and Rigging of English Ships of War (and other literature in the same vein) that on square sails, boltropes were sewn on to the aft side of the sail, while fore-and-aft sails usually had theirs on the port side of the sail; nevertheless, warmest thanks for your kind heads-up!

Today, I first ironed and then carefully fitted the paper templates to the spars with some masking tape …

… to check them for fit against the real-life results of my build.

On the whole, I must say that I am quite well pleased with result …

… as they seem to fit very well with no need for any adjustments or modifications.

In other words, I now feel sufficiently confident about making up the sails straight from the sail plan templates to get cracking with the sewing machine and associated accoutrements over the next few weeks.

It's a good thing, though, that we have fairly high ceilings in our home …

To be continued …

Mattias

Edited By Banjoman on 04/03/2017 15:13:10

[Bob Abell 2Participant @bobabell2]

Thanks Banjo, for the Sucking eggs link

The origins to the saying is not very conclusive and convincing?

Who sucks eggs, anyway?

The sails look very nice and good wind gatherers……I made that name up btw

Went to a local boat show today, but didn't spot any Moonbeams unfortunately

But it was a nice day out

Bob

[BanjomanParticipant @banjoman]

You're welcome, Bob

As I have no online access to the OED (nor own a hard copy for that matter) I cannot check it for the origins reference, but I would assume that the people who edit the OED know as much about the matter as there is to know.

Not that I have ever tried it, but as far as I've understood things, sucking eggs is/has been a not uncommon method for consuming raw eggs, particularly on the fly. I have seen references to the practice both in literature and in non-fiction texts, for example soldiers on the move stealing eggs and consuming them that way, or shipwrecked sailors eating sea bird eggs by sucking them.

One might furthermore imagine that it'd be a method of consumption that'd suit a toothless person of the grandmotherly persuasion …

The thing about it is that there is a trick to it that has to be taught; hence the saying, I suppose: what you must do is to make two pin-prick holes in the shell at opposite ends, after which you can suck the raw egg out of one hole while the other one ensures that no vacuum forms to hold back the contents.

Although as I said I haven't tried, I'm inclined to suspect that I would much prefer my eggs cooked, but were I hungry and in the possession of eggs buth not the means of cooking them, well … hello, Grandma! is all I say …

And thank you very much – I agree that even just the mock-up paper sail templates gives much more life to the model, and I rather look forward to bending the real ones!

Mattias

Edited By Banjoman on 05/03/2017 09:14:29

Edited By Banjoman on 05/03/2017 09:14:53

Edited By Banjoman on 05/03/2017 09:15:26

Edited By Banjoman on 05/03/2017 09:16:07

[BanjomanParticipant @banjoman]

Progress over the last week has been fairly slow and incremental, but there has been at least some. More about that in my next posting, though.

First I am absolutely delighted to report that Frank Parsons at Nylet not only most kindly replied to my inquiries about how to make up false tablings on any bias-cut edge of a sail, but, well beyond the call of any conceivable duty of service to a customer, offered to make up and send me a small piece of sail cloth with false tabling to visually demonstrate the stages of this process!

And indeed, once one has seen how it is done it is indeed, as Frank says himself, "so simple its silly"!

First a narrow strip of sail cloth is cut on the warp of the material, and sewn on to the opposite side of the sail to the one on which one is working and on which the tablings will appear. The line of stitching should be just outside (by maybe half a millimeter to a millimeter) the desired edge of the finished sail, while the actual sail should have about a third of the width of the strip sticking out beyond the stitching.

The false tabling strip is then folded along the stitching …

… folded back double on itself to meet the edge of the actual sail, and then folded back completely over the sail along the initial stitching line …

… and sewn down.

As Frank says: so simple its silly, once you*ve understood how its done!

I am immensly grateful to Frank Parsons for his most kind and generous help, and really cannot commend him highly enough!

To be continued …

Mattias

[BanjomanParticipant @banjoman]

Anyway, now feeling safe in the knowledge of how to go about the fasle tablings, it was time to put pattern to cloth, and mark out with some blue tailor's chalk the amount of fabric needed for each sail, of course taking care to always so align them that their leeches will be cut on the warp …

… resulting in four roughly sail-shaped pieces of cloth. With some more confidence in the rpocess, I dare say the fabric could have been cut a little tighter, but these being my first model boat sails since I was 15, I prefer to work with a decent margin.

Anyway, the next step was to mark out the imitation cloth seam lines on all the sails. As already mentioned, I have decided to base these on information in Frank Parsons booklet on model sailmaking, that full size cotton yacht sail cloth was usually three feet wide, while as far as I've been able to find out the general standard in the UK for tall ship flax sail cloth was 24 inches (of course originally based on Royal Navy standards).

In any case, I decided to go with the three feet, which at 1:24 is approximately 38 mm, and proceeded to line the port side of the sail patterns, as I shall produce the sails port side up, i.e. with all tabling, bolt ropes etc. to port (as would, I believe, have been normal full size practice).

Before pencilling in the new lines, I also trimmed the outer edges of the patterns to make sure (a) that all lines that should be straight are just that, and (b) to remove the couple of mm of pattern that corresponds to the bolt ropes, to guard against making the sails a few mm overlarge.

As the jib was the only sail on the sail plan that had been drawn port side up, I used a red pencil to draw in the new lines here to avoid confusion with the preprinted seam lines at 50 mm apart.

Each sail blank was then laid out smooth and flat, the pattern held in place with some masking tape, and the seam line ends marked out on the sail in soft pencil.

The pattern was then removed, and the lines lightly filled in with the same soft (4B) pencil …

… to produce four sail blanks that are now ready to be sewn.

To be continued …

Mattias

[BanjomanParticipant @banjoman]

So! This weekend, it was at last time to get sewing! For this job I have invaded our dining room, where both light and available space will be more conducive to the job at hand than what's available down in my workshop; also the space is considerably cleaner and thus less likely to soil the sails …

Anyway, the ironing board and iron were moved from their usual place to be at hand …

… and my ca 1960 vintage Husqvarna sewing machine set up, ready to get cracking. It was given my parents as a wedding present by my father's brother, who at the time was an engineer at the Husqvarna works …

… but alas! After a few seams had been sewn, I left the table to get a cup of coffee when behind me I heard a fairly loud bang, and turned to see the machine emitting the dreaded magic grey smoke!

I of course immediately pulled the plug on it, and once the smoke had cleared, I took off the bottom plate to investigate and found that what looks like a (now ex) capacitor had decided that more then 65 years of duty was enough, and duly blown itself up!

I dare say the machine is eminently reparable, and as there is a top notch sewing machine repair shop handy from where I live, I'll eventually take it there; in the meanwhile, though, I've had to switch to my wife's somewhat more recent model …

… on which I first proceeded to make up a series of test pieces, both to warm up my stitching,, as it were, and to test various ideas …

… not least for the corner patches.

In the end, I decided to stick with the simplest and most straigthforward approach for these, namely to just insert a double-layered triangle of cloth under the tablings in each corner.

I also experimented with different colour threads, and will go with a blue thread (Gütermann #315) for the false cloth seams acroos each sail, and a natural (i.e. non-contrasting) one (Gütermann #169) for the tabling and other structural seams.

To be continued …

Mattias

 

Edited By Banjoman on 13/03/2017 07:45:57

[BanjomanParticipant @banjoman]

I was now ready to crack on with my first actual sail, and opted for the smallest one, i.e. the foresail. Once the blue panel-line stitching was in place, the template was refitted …

… and the sail cut to final size, including allowance for the tabling seams.

Some strips of sail cloth were then cut on the warp …

… pinned in place …

… sewn on …

… and then removed again, when I found I'd made them too narrow.

New, slightly wider ones were quickly made up, though, and the sail finished …

… as far as the machine work is concerned. I still have to sew on the bolt ropes by hand, and also add eyelets and rings to hold the sail to the stay, but the first basic sail is now done; just three more to go!

This'll have to wait , though, as I had an accident while stitching on the panel lines on the mainsail: when cutting off the threads of one such seam, I was a tad too eager with my (very sharp) scissors, and managed to snip a small hole in the middle of the sail, which thus had to be discarded.

As the piece of sail cloth left over from cutting out is not large enough for a new mainsail with the leech on the warp, I have had to send off for some more cloth from Nylet, but while waiting for that to arrive, I can always get on with the foresail boltrope …

To be continued …

Mattias

Edited By Banjoman on 13/03/2017 08:12:18

[BanjomanParticipant @banjoman]

Well, while waiting for more sailcloth to arrive from Nylet, I've got started on the bolt ropes on the foresail …

So far I've only done 20 odd centimeters plus the cringle-and-thimble for the head halyard – and that was maybe 2 hours of work! So I've a few more hours of work to put in before all the sails are done …

I've yet to decide, too, whether to take the bolt rope all the way around each sail, or finish it off with tails at the upper and lower ends of each leech … Food for thought, that, but at least I've started this one with a rope long enough, and began stitching in a position that will allow for either option.

Initially, I went almost completely bonkers because each time I pulled the thread through the rope, it twisted horribly and began tying itself into knots. I then came upon the idea to create a sort of third hand in the shape of one of those name tag lanyards that they hand out at conferences nd such like; by first passing the treads through the carabiner at its end, I was able to hold the thread straight until it had been almost completely pulled through, thus saving oodles of time and oodleplexes of frustration …

To be continued …

Mattias

Edited By Banjoman on 13/03/2017 21:49:46

[Ray Wood 3Participant @raywood3]

Hi Mattias

I've now finished hand stitching the bolt rope round Veronica's new main sail, I copied a Kim Holland of AMBO's way of sewing barge sails and put the bolt rope under a little tension on a jig and sewed the sail to it, the proof of the pudding will be when I put the new sail on the spars

Regards Ray

[BanjomanParticipant @banjoman]

Hello Ray,

I too considered doing it that way, i.e. setting up the boltrope under some light tension, but decided to at least get started using the freehand method. We'll see once I get on to the larger sails, though …

Did you sew yours on all the way around, or with tails on the leech?

Mattias

[Dave MilbournParticipant @davemilbourn48782]

"Tails on the leech"??

Is there a glossary somewhere of 'rag-and-stick' terms? Most of this stuff is absolutely fascinating but the names go right over the top of my head. Sometimes I wonder if you guys aren't inventing them as you go along…

"Ah, well – I've got 15 flingles to cribble to the clun of my throkes this afternoon…..wish me luck".

Keep on doing the old-fashioned wonderstuff, yachties. I still have a lot to learn.

DM

[BanjomanParticipant @banjoman]

Arrr, me hearties … as it were …

On a fore-and-aft sail, the leech is the aftermost edge, the bottom one is the foot, the top one (on a four-sided sail) is the head while the forrard edge is the luff.

If a boltrope does not go all the way around a sail it is, from what I've understood from Terence North's 1938 book Yacht Sails and other literature of a similar ilk, common practice when approaching the end point (usually on the leech or on the foot) to put a small seizing around the rope and then from that point until its end open up the strands and even the yarns, thin them out progressively, and then lay them anew, so that the relaid end of the rope gets thinner and thinner towards its end, thus ressembling and being called a tail.

Oh, and your cribbled flingles make me think of a wonderfully funny but, alas!, completely untranslatable sea song parody in Swedish by a chap called Povel Ramel, Balladen om Eugen Cork (The Ballad of Eugen Cork) where almost an entire chorus consists of invented nonsense "sea terminology" that nevertheless sounds just like the real article …

Mattias

[Colin BishopModerator @colinbishop34627]

I'm sure you know how to splice the mainbrace Dave even if it does lead to much cribbling before bedtime.

Colin

[Dave MilbournParticipant @davemilbourn48782]

Colin

That would be dribbling….
This is my favourite sea-song parody/pastiche, written by Miles Wooton and sung by the late, great Fred Wedlock….nyarr! **LINK**

DM

[Ray Wood 3Participant @raywood3]

Hi Mattias

The sail Leach is just left as the hem to aid the airflow off the back of the sail, my old sewing machine with an inexperienced operator is rough in comparison with your fine work, but my excuse is the Thames sailing barge is working craft unlike your Yacht, and I wish I'd put the bolt rope in the washing machine with the Terracotta Dylon I used on the sail cloth. I will know better next time

Regards Ray

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