Model Bluenose

The Schooner Bluenose Building The Model

Designed By: William James Roué, Dartmouth, Nova Scotia Built By: Smith & Rhuland Shipyard, Lunenburg, Nova Scotia Launched: March 26, 1921, Lunenburg, Nova Scotia Ship's Master, 1921 to 1942: Captain Angus Walters, Lunenburg, Nova Scotia Materials entirely Nova Scotian except for masts. Frame of spruce and oak. Bottom planked with birch. Rails and top of oak. Pine decks. Spars of Oregon pine.

Primary Use: Grand Banks fishing schooner.

Auxiliary Use/s: Racing, competing in fishing schooner races between 1921 and 1938; and, Touring: Canada, the United States and Europe.

Race Record: In 16 races, Bluenose won 11 times, to earn four International Fishermen's Trophies.

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BLOG POST 01 – IN THE BEGINNING This blog has been created to document the trials and tribulations of building a ship model. In fact, this will be my first attempt at both blogging and building a ship model, so who knows how this will all turn out!

To be absolutely truthful, I am not starting from scratch. About a year ago (2010), I caught sight of a ready-built model of the Bluenose II at the local Costco warehouse and made a snap purchase decision. I had always wanted a model of this renowned Nova Scotia schooner and the price was certainly right - about $50, if memory serves me!

However, when I liberated the model from its box, I discovered - perhaps not surprisingly - that the model lacked considerable attention to detail - a museumquality model it was not! Inserting the masts and connecting numbered lines were the only assembly tasks required, as evidenced by the minimal assembly "instructions" provided:

Original kit assembly instructions - one page!

Appearance just after the masts were stood up. Note the Coke can for indication of scale.

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Step 1 of assembly - insert masts!

Completed assembly:

Assembly complete - such as it is!

While it might look reasonable from a distance, a closer inspection would reveal, for example, a reliance on brass screw-eyes and hooks to serve as fittings, detracting significantly from any resemblance to the full-size ship.

Other examples of poor execution were a lack of taper on the masts and the use of round bobbins as a substitute for rigging blocks. This is a picture of the original hardware I removed from the model:

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Original rigging hardware, representing blocks and dead-eyes.

And other details, such as the deck planking, were either not to scale or were just poorly executed, such as no cross trees on the masts or the use of plastic ratlines. Here is a close-up of the deck, showing that individual planks were represented merely by cutting groves in what is apparently a sheet of plywood.

(The marks are where I've removed the former deck furnishings in anticipation of installing new planking - seen just to the right in the picture.)

Original simulated decking. (Marks are where deck furniture pulled off.)

Somewhat disappointed, I relegated the model to a corner of my office for the better part of a year, only recently deciding to try my hand at enhancing the detail. Since I've already expended some time at fabricating bits and pieces, the first part of this blog will be devoted to reviewing efforts to date.

Once that is accomplished, we will get on with the current state of play.

However, that may be some time in the future, as I will be taking a hiatus to Page 3 of 144

Florida shortly and it won't be until April that I will be able to devote time to both this blog and the model.

Until I get back at it....

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BLOG POST 02 – TOOLS & SOURCES I have a little time before leaving for Florida, so will provide a bit of background information before delving into the actual model construction in a month or so.

First of all, I have access to my Taig model lathe (from Lee Valley Tools - more on this company later), which I have used in the past to machine model steam engines from casting kits. For those who may be interested, here is a web site I created to chronicle my early efforts at fabricating model steam engines using the Taig lathe: http://www3.sympatico.ca/tflydon/ .

\ Taig model lathe, configured for metal turning.

While not critical to working on this model, it does come in handy; thus far, I've used it to taper the masts. However, this could likely be accomplished using a drill fixed in a clamp, so the lathe is a "nice-to-have" when working with wood.

The tool that I DO find indispensable, though, is a "Dremel" tool, or its equivalent. To increase its utility, I made a very simple stand to enable its use as a table sander.

Here is the basic table, with an appropriate length of plastic pipe epoxied to it.

(I was fortunate to have a piece the right diameter hanging about.) After drilling a hole just slightly larger than the miniature drum sander that I was going to use, I enlarged the underside to accept the plastic pipe and epoxied it in.

Cutting out cooling slots and matching the case profile for things like the on/off switch completed the job.

Here is the result, and alongside it is the Craftsman-brand "Dremel" tool that I

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use.

Table adapter to use 'Dremel' tool as vertical sander.

Here the drill is inserted in the housing (a hose clamp provides the requisite holding force):

'Dremel' tool inserted in table adapter.

With a small drum sander inserted in the drill, you now have a model-sized drum sander. It lacks the up-and-down cycling of a commercial version but short of that, works just as well. You can adjust the height of the drum relative to the table surface by means of either the hose clamp or the drill's chuck/collet.

(The paper shield you see glued to the table was put there in an effort to stop small pieces from being kicked off, never to be seen again!)

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Mini drum sander mounted in table adapter.

Other than normal modeling knives, a pin vise and some numbered drills (in the #50 to #70 range) are the only essential tools I've used thus far. A good source for a reasonably priced pin vise is Lee Valley Tools (http://www.leevalley.com/en/home.aspx); this vice has the added benefit of including a set of 12 numbered drills. (If more sizes are needed, Lee Valley has sets for sale.)

Pin vise and numbered drills.

While I'm talking about Lee Valley Tools, I should point out that they are a source of materials as well. In particular, they sell a range of cherry veneer strips, which are invaluable for model ship builders. For my purposes, a tube of 24" X 3/16" strips (about 225 pieces) will more than meet my needs, although 1/8" and 1/4" wide strips are also available.

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Cherry wood strips - 1/8, 3/16 and 1/4 inch width.

Finally, an invaluable source of information on the actual Bluenose II is the illustrated manual by L.B. Jenson, which includes measured drawings. With luck, you may be able to find a copy at your local library (I was), but I was also fortunate enough to catch sight of a copy at Lee Valley - needless to say, I purchased it on the spot.

Book of measured drawings of the Bluenose II by LB Jenson.

Given the drawings in this book and access to a printer/copier, I was able to enlarge (by 182%) the drawings to exactly match the size of my model. Since Jenson provides plan and side views of the deck furnishings, it should be possible to quite accurately replicate the real ship.

Copies of drawings from LB Jenson book, enlarged to match the model's dimensions.

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Notice that there are some differences between the Bluenose II (as depicted in the drawings) and the original Bluenose (furnishings from the model sitting on top); in particular, the size of the deck house.

As it stands now, I plan to convert the model to the Bluenose II variant but that may change as the project proceeds.

Till the next time...

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BLOG POST 03 – SCALE DETERMINATION Before starting to fabricate any part of the model, it was necessary to determine the actual scale of the model I had acquired. There was no indication of scale on the packaging, so I used the measurements given by Jenson in his book for key aspects of the full-size Bluenose II and then calculated various scale dimensions for different scale ratios. It became apparent that not all dimensions of the model were consistent with a single scale ratio. The chart below shows my findings:

Comparison chart of full size, model and theoretical dimensions.

(Used to determine model scale ratio.)

The yellow column records the full-size measurement (from Jenson) and the red column details the corresponding measurements from the model. The next four columns are the theoretical scale measurements for the following ratios: 1:40, 1:44, 1:48 and 1:60. While no single ratio matched the model dimensions exactly, the scale ratio of 1:44 (green column) came closest, and that is what I have chosen for this model. Not a usual scale as far as I can determine but I'm sure no one will notice!

With this ratio established, I undertook to generate a spreadsheet to allow for easy determination of scale dimensions without the need to perform individual calculations each time I wanted to make a measurement. Here is the chart that I'm using - a real time saver. The chart is divided into two parts: the upper portion provides scale conversion for full-size measurements in inches from 1" to 60", and the lower portion provides conversion for full-size measurements in feet from 6' to 97'. Thus, any full-size dimension up to 102 feet (by combining data from both portions of the chart) can quickly be converted to a scale dimension in inches. Other than overall length of the boat, this will accommodate every possible measurement that will be encountered when modeling the Bluenose II.

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Scale conversion chart for scale ratio of 1 to 44.

Another scale requirement is the need to ascertain the correct size of ropes used in the standing and running rigging. Since the sizes of wire and cable of the appropriate dimensions for this model are usually differentiated by "gauge" number, it was also necessary to develop a scale conversion chart for this purpose. (Wire, manila and polypropylene ropes used on the Bluenose II range in diameter from 3/4 to 3-1/4 inches.) With information sourced on the Internet, felt this chart afforded the best display of the required information:

Wire gauge chart.

Note that the actual dimensions of the diameter of model-size rope and twine will be in the order of 0.018 to 0.074 inches, or 26 to 15 gauge.

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Next post, I will document my use of this information to fabricate my first model components - rigging blocks to replace the round "bobins" on the original model.

But not until I'm back from Florida...

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BLOG POST 04 - ON VACATION As indicated before, nothing new to report on the Bluenose II rebuild, seeing as we're enjoying non-stop sun here in SW Florida. However, thought I'd share a couple of snapshots from what the locals like to remind you each morning is "another day in paradise"!

Can quibble with definition of 'paradise" but for many people there is no argument that the sugar sand of the beaches probably beats the dirty snow of late winter any time!

Fort Myers Beach.

Fort Myers Beach pier.

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Sunset, Fort Myers Beach.

Fort Myers Beach.

The end of another 'day in paradise'.

Till next time...

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BLOG POST 05 – REFURBISHING THE DECK PLANKING Well, I'm finally back at it. No, I didn't spend all of the last six months down in Florida - just five weeks or so! The rest of the time, I've been enjoying our summer. But now that we're officially into fall, time to pick up where I left off. In fact, I'm going to skip a few of the items that I've already done some work on - I'll get back to them in future posts - and bring you up to speed on the deck refurbishment in the meantime.

To start with, the original decking was very poorly executed. The manufacturer used a single piece of what looked like laminated particle board. This was then grooved to simulate planking. Unfortunately, the result was imitation planking that was much wider than the scale would indicate, and the router grooves were far too wide. In addition, the planking was parallel for the total length of the deck, whereas the real planking was curved at the aft section.

Original model decking. (Marks were made during removal of deck furniture.)

As noted in a previous post, I made use of cherry wood strips sourced at Lee Valley. I initially purchased 1/8 inch strips (which would have more closely matched the full-scale width of 5-6 inches) but decided that they would look a little small. So instead, I chose to use 3/16 inch, which equates to a full-scale plank width of 8-10 inches.

Various sizes of cherry wood strips (1/8, 3/16 & 1/4 inch x 24 inch).

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Having experimented a bit, I chose to stain the strips and blacken the edges to highlight the planking, once installed. The stain you use is a personal choice but I attempted to match the plank colouring of the Bluenose II. However, it is difficult to stain cherry to match oak, and in the absence of first hand observation, have no way of knowing how close I came. (And since the original decking of the Bluenose II no longer exists, it having been relegated to a wood chipper during the recent "renovation", we'll never know!)

To save time, I bundled 20-30 stained strips together and used spring clamps to hold them fast.

Cherry strips bundle and clamps.

Once clamped, I lightly sanded the bundled edges and them used a permanent marker to paint the edges black.

Using a permanent marker to blacken the edges of the strips.

Once the strips were dry, I glued a starting strip down the centreline and then worked outwards to either side of the ship. In the forward section, the planks are installed parallel to the centreline, whereas in the aft section, they are curved parallel to the sides.

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Installing cherry wood strips on forward deck.

Before and after sanding of cheery strips.

Once all the strips were installed, I elected to simulate end joints and peg-ends randomly over the deck. There was no indication of full-scale plank lengths in the Jensen book. (I could have cut strips to various lengths prior to gluing them to the deck but felt that this was an unnecessary complication and could be simulated just as effectively.) To aid in making the simulated peg ends, I fabricated a little template jig to locate the peg-end holes on either side of the simulated joint. The joint itself was made by using a metal awl to scribe a line across the strip wherever a simulated joint was to be created. The awl was then used to pierce the strip on either side of the scribe to simulate peg-ends.

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Jig for locating peg-end holes on either side of the simulated plank joint.

Once the deck covering was complete, a light sanding was in order. This necessitated another coat of stain to make the surface uniform in colour. I then sealed the deck with a coat of clear polyurethane; I've used gloss to date but suspect that semi-gloss, or even matte, might be more appropriate.

Completed deck. Note the curved planking on the aft section of the deck.

Next time, I'll try and cover some of the items I've already fabricated.

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BLOG POST 06 – MAKING THE RIGGING BLOCKS, PT 1 One of the first items that I undertook to try and reproduce to an appropriate scale appearance were the rigging blocks that were on the original model. In fact, to refer to them as "blocks" is an overstatement! They were merely round hardwood bobbins with a single hole and a groove around the circumference there was no way that the rigging lines could be run through them to represent proper blocks.

Original model blocks.

(Note: the two-hole versions were used to represent 'deadeyes'.)

The first thing I did was to ascertain how many blocks were used on the fullscale ship, as well as their sizes. Fortunately, Jenson concisely summarized the utilization of blocks on the Bluenose II (and their sizes) in the extract below. Notice that the size ranges from 6 inches to 13 inches, with the majority being single sheave but there are also a few double- and triple-sheave blocks as well.

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Listing of rigging blocks used on the Bluenose II. I was a little surprised at the range of sizes (6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 12 and 13 inches) and so the first decision was whether to try and replicate all the sizes in 1:44 scale.

Didn't take me long to figure that most people would be hard pressed to distinguish between 0.136" and 0.205" (the full scale dimensions of 6" and 9" respectively) or 0.227" and 0.295 (full scale dimension of 10" and 13" respectively), particularly if the items weren't located side-by-side. So I elected to go with two sizes only, representing blocks in the 6" to 9" range with one size and blocks in the 10" to 13" range with a second size.

Next, I had to determine what to use as the source material. Seeing as the fullscale block is made of hardwood (usually oak), I initially tried to make the model blocks out of this type of wood.

Actual Bluenose II oak block.

Unfortunately, hardwood proved to be too difficult to shape, especially when dealing with something this small - and my limited skill level! Research on the internet revealed that boxwood was a good candidate material, and fortunately the craft store Michael's was a good source. I selected strips 1/4 inch wide by Page 20 of 144

1/8" thick. These dimensions would allow me to make two sizes of blocks, depending on whether the long dimension of the block was across the strip or parallel to the long dimension.

Now I had to determine the proper shape for the blocks. Having visited the Fisheries Museum of the Atlantic in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia (http://museum.gov.ns.ca/fma/en/home/default.aspx) several years ago, I had a photograph of one of the original Bluenose I blocks at my disposal.

Bluenose 1 block.

(Note pen for size measurement - didn't have a ruler with me on the day!)

I then inserted the picture on a page in Microsoft Word and using the drawing tools, outlined the edge of the block.

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Outline shape in red using MS Word drawing tools.

Now I could scale this shape to whatever size I needed.

Block outline shape moved to the side.

Now it was a fairly simple matter to copy the shape to a blank MS Word page, draw several pairs of parallel lines a 1/4 inch apart and then size and position the block shapes accordingly.

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Lines drawn 1/4"apart in MS Word.

(Note: Page was scaled to 200% - hence the screen ruler reads 0.5 inch. versus 0.25 inch.)

Large and small block shapes added to the page.

(Some additional detail added to make the outline more representative.)

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Showing how the block shapes were inserted between the lines.

To make the production template, I merely copied and repeated each of the shapes on their own sets of parallel lines.

Production templates, ready to be cut and glued to boxwood strips.

Here is the template glued to one of the wooden strips and a stack of blocks cut from the strip and ready for shaping.

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Block template applied to wood strips, with some already cut off, ready for shaping.

In Part B, I'll continue with the fabrication of the blocks.

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BLOG POST 07 - MAKING THE RIGGING BLOCKS, PT 2 In the last post, I described how I scaled and designed a template for the blocks.

In this post, I'll describe the fabrication details for the two scale sizes that I eventually decided would be sufficient to represent the range of seven blocks on the full-size vessel. (Jenson listed 87 blocks, ranging in size from 6 inches to 13 inches.)

Having generated templates for the two sizes, these were then pasted on 1/4" X 1/8" strips of boxwood. For the smaller blocks, the long dimension was positioned across the strip; for the larger block, the long dimension was positioned lengthwise. The picture below shows some of the smaller blocks cut from the strip, ready for shaping.

Small block template applied to boxwood strip, ready for shaping.

Once separated, I used the Dremel tool with a mini-sanding drum to rough out the shape to the template.

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Deremel tool, table-mounted with sanding drum.

With a little manual sanding, the basic shape of the block was arrived at without too much difficulty.

Shaped boxwood block, ready for detailing.

At this point, another decision was required. On the Bluenose II, the modern-style blocks do not have external stropping. This is in contrast to older blocks, which had an external band (or strap) to both hold the block together as well as attach the eyes (used to secure other hardware such as hooks, shackles,and thimbles to the block). Since I wasn't prepared to make a "built-up" block with internal hardware, the external stropping approach seemed the obvious way to go.

Besides, I think the stropping adds to the visual effect - without it, the blocks look a little bland.

(After build note: Although at this point in the build I was still intending to configure the model as the Bluenose II, in the end, I decided to fit it out as the original Bluenose and so the stropped blocks look just right.)

After some experimentation, I settled on the following method to produce the blocks. First, drill a hole at one end of the block to represent the sheave, through which the rigging will run.

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Drilling the sheave "hole".

Next, using a mini-rasp, add a grove along the edge of the block on both sides to further define the sheave.

Detailing the sheave.

Finally, cut a grove on each side of the block to hold the stropping.

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Cutting grove for stropping.

With these details done for all blocks, I started on the stropping. Twenty-seven gauge wire was used; anything smaller was unlikely to retain its shape when formed into eyes and subjected to the strains of rigging. Eyes were formed using a suitably size rod; in this case 1/16". A hole drilled into the building board held the rod and allowed me to form the eye. The following series of pictures are self-explanatory.

Rod and wire, ready to form an eye.

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Two loops to form the eye.

Wire stropping applied to the block.

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Securing the stropping.

With the stropping wire twisted secure and the excess cut off, the block is essentially finished. In those instances where an eye is needed at both ends, a loop of wire will be inserted at the other end.

Finished block. Tried an ink spot to simulate sheave axle. (Not applied to final versions.)

A dip in clear polyurethane was the final step.

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Complete blocks dipped in urethane hanging to dry.

For double and triple sheave blocks, wood strips were glued together prior to shaping.

Completed one, two and three sheave large blocks and single and three sheave small blocks.

The following pictures show a set of blocks assembled on one of the jibs for a test fit.

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Single sheave small block.

Double sheave small blocks.

Next post: the sails.

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BLOG POST 08 – MAST HOOPS This is another post to catch up on some of the build that I managed to get done some time ago.

One of the least faithful depictions (and there were many!) of the original model was the use of brass wire to represent the mast hoops - and then using only three of these for the main sail when the full size vessel has 15! As the mast hoops are a fairly prominent feature, I felt they warranted as much attention as the rigging blocks. Here is how I made them.

One of the references I found on-line described making the mast hoops from thin wood shavings. While this approach would obviously replicate very closely the structure of the full size hoops, I doubted that I would have the patience - or the skill - to produce satisfactory hoops in this manner.

Instead, I elected to form the hoops from rolled card stock. This simplified the basic procedure to one of rolling glued card stock around a suitably-sized form, and once dry, slicing rings (hoops) from the resultant tube to form the basis of the final item. Although I ended up painting the hoops after I had completed the assembly, I initially tried to reproduce a wood-grain pattern on the tube. While it looked OK on the tube, the pattern, such as it was, was not apparent once the slices were cut off and was a wasted step.

The following pictures show the sequence of steps. Again, having a lathe simplified the process but a similar approach could be taken using a power drill.

1. Dried and painted cardboard tube on the form and mounted on the lathe.

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2. Showing thickness of rolled cardboard, about three-four sheets thick.

3. Preparing to cut off a mast hoop.

4. A potential mast hoop.

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5. Formed wire, used to make the fastening ring.

5. Showing the fitting arrangement of the fastening ring and mast hoop.

6. Hole drilled in the mast hoop.

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7. Fastening ring inserted in the mast hoop, with the loop perpendicular to the edge.

8. To finish off the mast hoop, I epoxied the wire inside the hoop and once dry, I painted the assembly. Tried to get a colour that matched the full-size hoop, but that proved harder that I had initially envisaged, and not fully satisfied with end result. But will live with it.

Here are a set of completed hoops, attached to the fore sail. The diameter of each hoop is large enough to cope with the thickness of the wire epoxied to the inside and once installed on the mast, the wire will not be visible. Also note the orientation of the attaching ring, which will correctly link with the sail ring when the hoop is on the mast and positioned horizontally.

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On to the sails.

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BLOG POST 09 - SAILS Have managed to get the sails pretty well sorted out in the last few days.

Portions of this work have taken place at various times almost from the beginning, so this will be a summary of what has transpired to get to this point, which included removal of the original hardware, re-sewing the sails and the installation of more appropriate hardware, etc.

First of all, here is a shot of the original sails that came with the model. I've already removed the brass rings that had served to secure the sails to the masts.

The first order of business was to remove the brass eyelets. Here's a shot of the fore sail, showing how the eyelets detract from any scale appearance.

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Once the eyelets were removed, the edge treatment of the sails left quite a bit to be desired, including the black thread edging (not on the full scale sail) and the non-scale appearance of the sewn edge.

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Without going into detail, I fashioned metal rings for all corners of each sail, leaving enough length in each "arm" to allow it to be glued to the sail. A boltrope was also sewn into each edge that would be fastened to a spar (booms or gaffs), or to which metal rings would be secured, either for attaching mast hoops to the sail or for securing the sail directly to standing rigging, eg, the jib to the jib stay.

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I also removed the original reef lines from the main and fore sails - again, these were vastly out of scale and too few in number.

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As a bit of an aside, there is a need for quite a few metal rings on this model, in various sizes. After making a few individually, I devised a way of essentially mass-producing them. Start with a metal rod of the appropriate size to produce the desired ring diameter - a drill bit serves nicely. Then wrap metal wire around this rod.

Once wrapped, use a cut-off disk on a Dremel tool to slice off the rings.

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Repeat several times and you will have enough rings to meet your needs.

Here is a shot of a ring applied to a jib.

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The following shots show the results of my efforts to date. Note the changes that I made to the top sails to correctly match the configuration of the full size sails. This is needed in order for the sails to clear the junction of the bottom and top masts. Mast hoops have now been installed on all sails as needed.

The main and fore sails fastened to the respective booms. Note the revised reefing lines.

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As a last point, here are close-ups of the main and fore gaffs, again with the sails attached.

Next, I'll try and get the masts sorted.

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BLOG POST 10 – SAILS, AND A BIT OF RIGGING Without benefit of assembly instructions - or any prior experience in building model ships, for that matter - I have been thinking about how to commence the assembly phase of this build, particularly when it came to the rigging. One of the articles I've read recommended installing the standing (black) rigging first, and then the running (white) rigging - assuming, of course, that you've already installed the masts and other related hardware.

However, I was a little reluctant to permanently install the masts, only to encounter a mistake or an omission and then have to try and correct my error.

Also, anticipate that it's easier to work on the deck furniture without the added complication of booms and rigging in the way. Consequently, I've decided to mount the main and fore masts in a temporary "deck" (actually a short piece a 2x4) and install as many of the sails and associated rigging as possible before proceeding to other matters. Once I'm satisfied with the result, it will be a relatively simple matter (I hope) to move the completed mast assembly to the actual deck and continue with the rigging.

But before we get to that, a bit of a carry-over from my last post. Besides using the metal rings that I made for attaching the mast hoops to the sails, I also installed them on the three jibs.

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After running lengths of standing rigging through the rings, the jibs are ready for installation.

Putting the jibs aside, it was time to install a few blocks for the main and fore sails. It shortly became apparent that my enthusiasm at repeatedly trying to thread the "rope" through the small holes in the blocks would rapidly wane.

Fortunately, the holes were large enough that a piece of looped wire could snag the "rope" and pull it through.

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This served to speed up the process considerably and this tactic will be useful throughout the build - provided the holes encountered don't get much smaller!

As it turned out, deciding to "mock up" the mast assemblies before permanently installing them was the right choice. When re-working the sails that had come with the original model, I had assumed that their dimensions were accurate to scale and neglected to double-check. This oversight came back to haunt me when I fitted the fore sail to the mast and discovered that it was too long.

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the deck and the lifting blocks would end up touching - not exactly what I had in mind.

Several solutions involving re-sizing the sails were considered and discarded as either too time consuming, or possibly introducing other undesirable issues.

The solution arrived at was to merely lengthen the fore mast by about an inch.

A length of dowel, machined and bored, did the job, and one of the bands of the fore boom yoke will conceal the joint line. While this will result in a non-scale height for the mast, it will make the final assembly much more acceptable.

With that distraction out of the way, I could get on with mounting the sails and fitting hardware. Here are is where we are now; this is the fore sail.

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Repeat once more for the main sail and then it's on to the top sails.

Pictures in the next post.

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BLOG POST 11 – SOME INITIAL RIGGING Well, it's that time of year again - time to head to Florida, so there will be another hiatus (forced as opposed to idleness on my part!).

However, before I go, here is a bit more rigging, Similar to the last post but this time dealing with some specific aspects of the fore and main sails.

I briefly covered the details of the gaffs in a previous post so this is a bit of a review. Both main and fore gaffs are similar, in that they have "jaws" or "forks" that hold the gaff in position on the respective masts. However, the forks on the main gaff are bent or curved in order to maintain a purchase on the mast when the gaff is raised and angled fairly steeply upward. They also have a pivoting wood block ("clapper") - positioned in the throat between the jaws - that provides a larger bearing surface against the mast.

Here are a couple of shots of the main gaff, showing the bend in the forks, as well as the clapper positioned against the mast. Also in the pictures is the lifting cradle, to which the throat halyard is attached.

Main gaff components.

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Main gaff in raised position.

Note the simulated metal reinforcing applied to both fore and main mast to protect them from wear when the booms are in the raised position.

With the main and fore sails fitted to their respective booms and gaffs, it was time to install the main and fore sail peak halyards.

Main sail peak halyard

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Fore sail peak halyard The only difference between the main and fore peak halyards is the number of bridles - three in the case of the main sail (shown above, top) and two in the case of the fore sail. Note that the bridles are considered standing rigging and hence are black. This stems from the fact that standing rigging was usually tarred for weather protection.

In conjunction with the peak halyards, the throat halyards were also installed.

The fore sail throat halyards are relatively straight forward, comprised of single three-sheave and two-sheave blocks, yielding a 4X mechanical advantage.

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Fore sail throat halyard.

Given the weight of the main sail and gaff, the block arrangement for the main throat halyard requires more mechanical advantage. For this reason, three double-sheave blocks plus a single-sheave block are employed, to yield a 6X mechanical advantage.

Main sail throat halyard.

(When determining the mechanical advantage of a pulley system, merely count the number of lines that are supporting the load. In the case of the fore sail, Page 55 of 144

there are four. The other two lines do not directly support the load and hence don't contribute anything other than to change the direction of the pull. Of course, there is no "free lunch"! While it will only take 1/6th the effort to raise the main sail - plus a bit more to overcome friction - you will need to haul in six times more line. In the case of the main sail, that amounts to about 360 feet of line!)

With both peak and throat halyards fitted, the rigging is starting to take shape.

Note that the spreaders had previously been fitted as well. (See also that I forgot to wax my lines. Close-up shots show some fuzz - need to get that sorted when I get back!)

That will have to suffice for now.

If I get the opportunity, will post a few pictures while in Florida.

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BLOG POST 12 - CHAINSTAYS Well, here we are at the end of the summer and I have failed to post anything since March! As usual, no excuses; just idleness on my part, although I have been doing a bit of work on the model in the interim.

Before we get on to that, though, we did get in our annual trip to Florida. Split our time between the Orlando and Fort Lauderdale areas this year. Pretty much standard fare in the Orlando area but the Fort Lauderdale harbour proved interesting. Also stopped over in Daytona Beach on the way home to check out driving on the beach. Not many places left that you can do that - and even at Daytona, you are restricted to certain stretches of the beach. However, with segments four or five miles in length, this is enough to give you a feel for the experience. Here are a few shots: Mansions in Fort Lauderdale harbour:

And their toys:

Hollywood Beach:

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Miami Beach:

And early morning on Daytona Beach before the crowds get there:

And now to the real subject of today's post - the chainstays. The chainstays are the metal straps affixed to the hull which secure the mast shrouds. In the picture below, their location on the hull can be seen in this shot of the Bluenose II, currently undergoing a major rebuild in Lunenburg, NS.

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The shrouds are secured to the chainstays by pairs of dead-eyes and landyards that permit adjusting the tension of the shrouds.

I had made the dead-eyes to be used with the chainstays at the same time as I produced the blocks, the only difference being that I used hardwood for the dead-eyes rather than boxwood, The reason for this is that I felt there might be more of a need to put stress on the dead-eyes and if so, the boxwood would not likely stand up to the demands placed on it.

I made the chainstays themselves out of strips of copper sheet. To permit affixing the dead-eyes, I merely curled one end over. With a few drilled holes for the securing bolts, the chainstays themselves were basically complete.

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Curled-over end:

Pre-drilled for attaching hardware: (Should have drilled the holes before painting!)

Next it was time to assemble the dead-eyes. Fortunately, Jenson has included a detailed description of the deadeyes in his book, including a 'lacing' diagram for the lanyards:

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In some of my research, there was a suggestion to rig the dead-eyes using a template but it was not clear how this was to be done. I decided I would preassemble the dead-eyes and then adjust the lanyards individually after installation of the chainstays on the hull and rigging the shrouds.

The first item of business was to fasten a dead-eye to each of the chainstays. I initially tried using thread but this wasn't stable enough; plus it probably didn't replicate the full-size version in any event. Instead, I threaded wire through the chainstay and then used the resulting loop to insert the dead-eye.

Pulling on opposite ends of the wire tightened the dead-eye to the chainstay:

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A few twists to fully tighten the wire around the dead-eye and a snip close to the chainstay and we're ready to start threading the upper dead-eyes.

Threading the dead-eyes was fairly straightforward - once I got the first two or three under my belt; easy to get it wrong if you don't pay attention. The only tool I devised was to use a piece of small wire to aid in getting the "lanyard" through the holes in the dead-eyes.

The first step was to knot one end of the lanyard. (In the full-scale version, there is a stopper as well, but that was a level of detail I felt I could do without,)

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The 22 upper dead-eyes ready to be threaded to the corresponding dead-eye fastened to the chaistay.

Then is was merely a simple matter of following Jenson's diagram to reeve (thread) the lanyard through each pair of dead-eyes.

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Repeat 21 more times and you're done!

Next post, I'll describe rigging the bowsprit. Cheers!

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BLOG POST 13 - BOWSPRIT Today I'll cover the fabrication of the bowsprit. This can pretty much be fully assembled and installed without relying on any other yet-to-be-fabricated elements of the boat, which makes it suitable for this juncture of the build.

As usual, Jenson's book provides excellent detail of the various fittings that make up the business end of the bowsprit.

Bowsprit detail from Jenson's book.

I started with the metal fittings used as attachment points for the bowsprit shrouds and upper and lower bobstays. (These also provide the attachment points for the jib and jib topsail stays, so they have a fair number of attaching options.) As with other metal fittings of this type, I fabricated them from metal strips of copper plate, with attaching points soldered on as necessary.

Unfortunately, I neglected to take any shots of the fabrication steps but here are the two end fittings after installation.

Main bowsprit fittings.

Next I fabricated two turnbuckles used in conjunction with the bobstays.

Needless to say, they are non-functioning but from a distance, they serve the purpose.

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Bobstay turnbuckles.

The other metal fittings were a few more hoops for the bowsprit itself and the small chainstays for the bowsprit back ropes.

Bobstay chainplates and attached back ropes.

After that, I decided to pre-fabricate the safety-net (correct term?) that is slung below the bowsprit. In hindsight, should have waited until I had twine of the appropriate size but instead went with what I had on-hand. The finished rope appears to be a bit on the large size and stiffer than the full-scale item, but again, think I can live with the result. To make the net, traced out the shape on paper and then wrapped the template around a cardboard tube formed into a cone shape. I then laid out the lines and applied white glue at the intersection points.

Bowsprit safety net formed over template.

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As can be seen, the end result is fairly rigid! (As an aside, I have not been looking forward to tying the ratlines on the mast shrouds, but this approach seems to yield an acceptable result so it may not be as much of a chore as I anticipated - just have to make sure the lines are the right scale!)

Bowsprit safety net ready for installation.

Now it was merely a matter of assembling all the bits and pieces to make up the bowsprit, including the back rope and the foot rope.

Model bowsprit fitted out.

A couple of notes on the bowsprit before I sign off.

First, according to Jenson, the two bobstays are different n size and both are quite large; the upper is 3-1/2" diameter steel bar and the lower is 4-1/2" steel bar. However, when I mocked up a section of steel wire at the scale size, it didn't look right so I opted to go with a smaller gauge wire, equivalent to roughly 2" diameter for both bobstays.

Secondly, Jenson specifies the four full-scale bobstay shrouds as steel wire rope, 2-1/2" diameter. (The same goes for the two foot-ropes.) While I had access to some small-scale wire rope, I didn't relish the thought of trying to splice the cable to form the loop at each end; in fact, doubt that I could do it in any event. As an alternative, used a suitably sized section of line.

I still doubt that the bobstays were the diameter that Jenson specified. In another diagram, he details the diameter of the end of the bowsprit as eight Page 67 of 144

inches. Here is a shot of the full-scale ship and the bobstays don't look to be twice the size of the shrouds and they certainly don't look to be half the size of the bowsprit!

Full-scale bowsprit - size comparison.

Here is a comparison of the full-scale bowsprit and my representation. Once the rest of the upper rigging is installed, think it will look just fine! If I really get keen, may try my hand at weaving a loop in my small scale wire rope. It it turns out, I may consider a retro-fit....

Comparison of full-size and model bowsprit fittings.

Now to figure out what to tackle next.... maybe some deck furniture for a change of pace!

Cheers.

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BLOG POST 14 - WINDLASS Back to the model after a holiday to the East Coast. Just missed the launch of the "new" Bluenose II in Lunenburg at the end of September. However, while it would have been a memorable experience to be present at the launch, the current state of fitment of the vessel would have afforded me little in the way of details for my model. Hopefully, will get to see the fully refurbished ship sometime in the future (although if and when I do, might be too late to be of benefit for this particular model!)

During our holiday, made an overnight stop in Saint Andrews-by-the-Sea. While checking out the shops on the main street, caught sight of a familiarlooking model in the front window of a Home Hardware store.

Bluenose model in the window.

On taking a look from inside, it turned out to be an identical version of the model I'm currently reworking for this blog.

Same Bluenose model as mine.

Whoever assembled this one only went as far as the manufacturer intended.

Doesn't look too bad from a distance but of course the details start to pale when you take a closer look; all the same deficiencies that I observed on my version are evident in this model as well.

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Close-up view of the model.

Close-up view of the model.

With this diversion out of the way, time to catch up with the deck furniture I've been working on. Since I had the bowsprit out of the way, figured I might as well carry on from the bow to the stern. This meant tackling the windlass but that presented another issue - what type to build?

Over the years, the original windlass on the Bluenose II had been swapped out for more modern versions, such that the latest is a small, compact electric one, which is what Jenson depicts in his book.

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Electric winch (windlass) on the Bluenose II.

While simple to replicate and faithful to the current Bluenose II, I felt it would detract from the look and feel of the original Bluenose, which is what this particular model is supposed to represent. (For those following this blog, my original intent at the start of this build was to undertake a conversion of the kit model to the Bluenose II, which is the configuration depicted in Jenson's book.

However, I'm now revisiting that decision.)

For the record, here is the extent of what was on the original model.

Original model windlass.

Fortunately, Jenson includes drawings of the original version of the windlass that was used on fishing schooners of the day and which was the original fitment on the Bluenose II (and presumably the original Bluenose).

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Original Bluenose windlass - side view.

Original Bluenose windlass - detailed plan view.

Thus I've decided to go with the older windlass and in so doing, committed to replicating the original Bluenose, as opposed to the Bluenose II. This means I won't be building out all the deck furniture that Jenson depicts in his book but the upside is that it shouldn't take as long to finish this model!

Some other windlass detail from the instruction manual for Model Shipways Kit No. 2130 - Bluenose (Shipways Instruction Manual).

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Model Shipways Kit instructions for the windlass.

I didn't take photos of the windlass construction but tried to adhere to Jenson's drawings as much as possible. Most of the construction was straightforward, with the exception of the gears. However, came across a web site that provides an on-line tool to generate gear shapes (http://woodgears.ca/gear/index.html).

Using this app, generated a variety of gear shapes which I then applied to a thin sheet of boxwood.

Various gear forms for use with the windlass.

With a little cutting and trimming, produced passable gears, at least for a nonfunctioning application. Here is the end result.

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Gear cut from plywood using template.

Combining a range of gears with other components such as axles, a drive chain, windlass drums, drive clutches,a reversing mechanism and support stands to mount all the items resulted in a reasonable rendering of Jenson's drawings.

Bluenose windlass.

Bluenose windlass.

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Bluenose windlass.

Bluenose windlass.

I think it compares quite favourably to the limited fitting provided with the model:

Original windlass fitment on the model.

For the time being, the windlass is being put aside, awaiting installation at a later date.

Next time, I'll address related items - the anchors.

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BLOG POST 15 – ANCHORS & CATHEADS Having gotten the windlass out of the way, figured it would be timely to take a look at the anchors. Certainly the plastic versions that came with the model, were, as with many other items on this model, a far cry from resembling anything like the real thing.

Plastic anchors included with the model.

From the plan view of the forward deck, Jenson depicts a different anchor on either side of the deck.

Anchor location.

Jenson doesn't provide a lot of detail but he does include a sketch of one type of anchor, as well as the overall dimensions. In this sketch, he refers to two different types: a 'Fisherman' anchor and a 'Kedge' anchor but only provides a detailed drawing of one type:

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Description of Bluenose anchor in Jenson's book.

Not knowing a lot about anchors, I did a little research on-line. According to Wikipedia, the Fisherman anchor is known by a number of names: " The Admiralty Pattern, "A.P.", or simply "Admiralty", and also known as "Fisherman", is the most familiar among non-sailors. It consists of a central shank with a ring or shackle for attaching the rode. At one end of the shank there are two arms, carrying the flukes, while the stock is mounted to the other end, at ninety degrees to the arms. When the anchor lands on the bottom, it will generally fall over with the arms parallel to the seabed. As a strain comes onto the rode, the stock will dig into the bottom, canting the anchor until one of the flukes catches and digs into the bottom.

The basic design remained unchanged for centuries, with the most significant changes being to the overall proportions, and a move from wooden stocks to those of iron. Since one fluke always protrudes up from the set anchor, there is a great tendency of the rode to foul the anchor as the vessel swings due to wind or current shifts. When this happens, the anchor may be pulled out of the bottom, and in some cases may need to be hauled up to be re-set. In the mid19th century, numerous modifications were attempted to alleviate these problems, as well as improve holding power, including one-armed mooring anchors. The most successful of these patent anchors, the Trotman Anchor, introduced a pivot where the arms join the shank, allowing the "idle" arm to fold against the shank."

The picture below illustrates the Fisherman anchor:

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Fisherman anchor with loose iron stock.

As this anchor didn't match Jenson's drawing, I looked a little further and found pictures of anchors that resembled his depiction. As near as I can interpret, he referred to this configuration as a 'Kledge' anchor.

Bower (or Kledge?) anchor.

The accompanying text offers the following description: "Ships had a variety of anchors. This is a bower anchor. A ring at the top, which was threaded through an eye, attached the anchor to its cable. The crosspiece, called a stock, has bands around it. The long, vertical bar is the shaft, at the end of which are the crown and two arms extending to either side.

The large triangular pieces are called palms or flukes and each has a pointed tip known as a bill. Bower anchors, carried on either bow of the vessel, were Page 78 of 144

the largest of the ship's anchors. The starboard bower was called the best bower, and the larboard bower, the small bower (even though it was usually the same size as the other one). This particular bower anchor probably came from a 74-gun ship of the line, possibly one of the Royal Navy vessels that blockaded Newport, Rhode Island."

Interestingly, Jenson provides several different names (Club, Fishing and Banks) for the anchors in his overview drawings, compared to the names he used elsewhere.

However, the important thing is to replicate the two types of anchors and not worry too much about terminology!

I didn't take any photos of the build process as it was fairly straightforward.

The only tricky part was creating a hole on the respective shanks to mount the stocks. A little bending of sections of the brass wire I was using for the shanks, combined with a bit of soldering, produced acceptable results.

Here is what I ended up with - think they compare quite favourably with the plastic originals! Note that I hadn't installed the rings at this point nor the reinforcing bands on the Kedge anchor.

Kedge and Fisherman anchors relative to plastic kit versions.

To complete this area of the deck, I fashioned the catheads (davits) used to assist in releasing and retrieving the anchors. From Jenson's description, there was only one cathead on-board and it was moved as required from one side of the deck to the other, using permanently installed sockets, as depicted here:

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Cathead mounted to port.

and the cathead moved to the other side:

Cathead mounted to starboard.

However, I decided to make two in order to rig both anchors simultaneously.

From the same Wikipedia article: " Handling and storage of these anchors requires special equipment and procedures. Once the anchor is hauled up to the hawsepipe, the ring end is hoisted up to the end of a timber projecting from the bow known as the cathead. The crown of the anchor is then hauled up with a heavy tackle until one fluke can be hooked over the rail. This is known as "catting and fishing" the anchor. Before dropping the anchor, the fishing process is reversed, and the anchor is dropped from the end of the cathead."

Again, Jenson doesn't provide a lot of detail but I came across a picture on-line, as well as a drawing in the Model Shipways Kit No 2130 Bluenose Instruction Manual. (Model Shipways Manual)

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Full scale catheads on the Bluenose II.

Model Shipways Kit #2130 instructions for catheads.

With these as guides, was able to fashion a couple of catheads, including the sockets, that should do the job.

Catheads mounted on both rails.

Note that the anchors now have rope-wrapped rings and the jewelry chain I picked up at Michaels looks to be just about the right scale size for the anchor chain! They even had a smaller chain that I can use for the hoist chain!

(Wonder where all the dust came from!)

That's it for now. Next time, I'll cover the wheel box.

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BLOG POST 16 – SHIP’S WHEEL This will be a short post, as it only involves the ship's wheel and the associated cabinet that houses the rudder steering mechanism.

In keeping with the other features of this model, the original ship's wheel that came with the model was woefully undersized and resembled the full-scale version only by virtue of being circular in shape!

Original kit version of ship's wheel.

Here is a shot of the full-size wheel on Bluenose II, which I assume would be roughly the same size as that on the original Bluenose.

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After determining the scale dimensions of the wheel, began construction by soldering four pieces of copper wire together to form the spokes. Then formed a circle with larger gauge wire and soldered this to the spokes. Sanding this flat achieved a reasonable representation of the rim.

All that remained was to slide eight small pieces of wood on the end of each spoke to form the handles and solder a small disk to the centre for the hub. The result is probably OK from a distance; close-up, it's not all that great - but better than the original!

Scratch-built ship's wheel vs kit original.

The wheel box was also straightforward. I used narrower deck strips to replicate the cladding.

And a side-by-side comparison:

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Original versus scratch-built ship's wheel and steering box

Next time, I'll show what I've done for the shrouds.

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BLOG POST 17 – SHROUDS Back in Post 12 , I undertook to rig the deadeyes and chainstays with lanyards, forming the kit that would eventually be used to tension the mast shrouds. I guess I had been procrastinating since I hadn't figured out how I would eventually fit them to the hull and rig the shrouds. Besides, it looked like it might be a fair bit of work!

Previously fabricated chainstays and deadeyes.

Finally I could put it off no longer so took a look at the full size items to see what was involved.

Deadeyes at deck level.

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Shrouds connected to deadeyes.

I noted that each shroud was white-coated where it looped around the deadeye and up to the end of the seizing. For future reference, I also noted that the ratlines were not stretched taut between the shrouds but rather sagged quite significantly.

I had also happened to catch sight of a video of the stepping of the masts on the recently refurbished Bluenose II and saw that the shrouds were already fixed to the masts and the upper deadeyes were already in place (and white coated as per the picture above). I considered following a similar approach with my model but on reflection, I felt that that would be difficult to implement. Even if I were able to get the shrouds properly tensioned, fitting the ratlines (which involved gluing) would be problematic, not to mention tedious.

Although the shrouds on the full size vessel do not terminate at the top of the mast but continue unbroken down to the other side, I figured I could cheat a bit on this aspect. In other words, I would fabricate complete shroud assemblies for each side of the ship (four groupings in total), using a template board. This would allow me to pre-position all the pieces in their correct locations, attach the ratlines and then easily(?) mount the finished assemblies to the hull and mast.

With that resolved, I first experimented with the shrouds and deadeyes. It was apparent that painting the shroud after looping it around the deadeye was a nonstarter. Also, I needed to make sure that the length of the seized portion was equal for all shrouds. By applying paint to selected portions of the shroud, I was able to pre-whiten the length that went around the deadeye and a smaller spot of paint would indicate where the seizing needed to terminate.

I also thought that a jig might be useful in positioning both deadeyes so that each shroud would be similar. Here is my attempt at such a jig.

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Experimental jig for making deadeye sets.

However, this proved to be difficult to work with. In fact, I found I was able to adjust the scale deadeyes in exactly the same manner as the full-size versions, so I shortly dispensed with this jig, although in the following pictures I was still trying to work with it.

Here is the end of a shroud, painted in two locations: (a) where the shroud will loop around the deadeye; and (b) a small spot indicating where to terminate the seized end. I didn't want to paint the full section as I intended to glue the ends together and was concerned that the paint might impair adhesion.

Shroud marked for looping around deadeye.

Here is the shroud initially looped around the deadeye.

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Shroud looped around deadeye.

Once the loop was formed, used a clamp to hold it in position.

Clamping shroud in preparation for gluing.

A dab of cyanoacrylate ("crazy glue") completed the first part of the job.

Shroud glued in place around deadeye.

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When I took a closer look at the resulting assembly in preparation for rigging the shrouds and ratlines, I decided that the twine I'd previously used for the lanyards was too small - and not the right colour. Since rigging the deadeyes, I had subsequently used a larger scale thread for the bowsprit shrouds and felt that this would better serve as the lanyard for the deadeyes. Plus it was black!

Nothing to do but snip the threads in all 18 deadeye sets and start over! But this time, it was a little easier, since the end of the thicker thread could be stiffened with a bit of glue and once dry, allowed for easy reeving (threading).

Threading the lanyard through the deadeyes.

And a few loops later, pretty much back to where we were at the end of Post 12!

Complete looping of lanyards.

Having got that sorted, still needed to finish off the seizing. Using the same size thread, started at the deadeye and worked my way out. (As an aside, the line used for seizing should theoretically be about 1/8th the diameter of the line being seized but I didn't have the patience to go to that detail! Also note the thicker lanyards are in place by this time.)

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Preparing to apply sizing.

Wind out to the mark and we're ready for trimming and some white paint to finish the job. Also used a dab of cyanoacrylate to secure the ends of the seizing.

Sizing complete, ready to trim and apply white paint.

As before, merely repeat 18 times and we're ready to tackle the ratlines.

'Til the next time.

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BLOG POST 18 – RATLINES Fabricating the bowsprit shrouds provided me with some insight into how I might go about installing the ratlines on the mast shrouds. Fortunately, the white glue that I was using for most of the construction dried clear and thus made it suitable for securing the ratlines to the shrouds. Now the purist might suggest that the ratlines should be tied off, but with the number that I was facing, that was not going to be an option. In fact, once the glue drys, the result looks quite acceptable, IMO, even close up.

Next, I had to determine how many ratlines I was looking at. I had a couple of good photographs of Bluenose II that clearly depicted the ratlines, to the extent that I was able to count the numbers involved. I could even determine when the ratlines changed from spanning three shrouds to spanning four (near the mast head where the shrouds taper close together). As a double check, I also calculated the numbers based on the vertical separation, which according to Jenson, is about 15 inches. The results agreed within one or two lines, which was fine by me.

I then produced a paper template based on these numbers and marked off the critical dimensions of mast height and locations of the chainplates/deadeyes at deck level.

Template for affixing ratlines to the shrouds.

Here I've set up the shrouds for the port side forward mast. (The template has not yet been placed on the board, underneath the shrouds.)

Positioning the shrouds in preparation to affixing ratlines.

From here, it was merely a matter of cutting suitable lengths of thread to form the ratlines. In the case of the forward mast shrouds that was 36; for the main Page 92 of 144

mast shrouds, it was 41. In the photo below, the board is set up for the port main mast shrouds and the first run of glue points has been run up the centre shroud. Two more runs would be required for the shrouds on either side - and near the top where the shrouds taper close together, the ratlines span four shrouds.

Gluing ratlines to the shrouds using the template.

It is to be noted that the orientation of the shrouds differs from side to side, i.e., there is a port and starboard configuration. This is due to two issues. First, the shrouds are not centred on the masts but actually are secured to the deck rails slightly aft of the masts. Secondly, the deck rail itself, particularly at the foremast location, angles upward. Consequently, these variations must be taken into account when orienting and applying the ratlines, otherwise the ratlines will not be horizontal when the shrouds are eventually installed.

Once the ratlines had been secured, it was time to add the shear pole that is positioned across the row of top deadeyes. I used white glue to initially set the rod in place, then followed that up with thread to replicate Jenson's drawings.

(Note also that the shrouds have been painted since the last post.)

Shear pole in position.

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Shear pole in process of being lashed to the shrouds.

Lastly, I needed to adjust the deadeyes and secure the lanyards. Once again, Jenson's drawings provided a clear description of what the end result should look like. (The more astute among you may notice that my top deadeyes aren't quite the pear shape he illustrates - something I didn't notice until it was too late!)

Overview of shroud deadeyes.

Details for tying off the lanyards.

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Following Jenson's drawings, I positioned each deadeye set identically and tightened each lanyard accordingly. However, I have not tied the lanyards off as I may have to do some adjusting once the shrouds are in place on the ship.

Here are the four sets of shrouds.

Four completed sets of shrouds, ratlines and chainplates.

A close-up of the deadeyes and chain plates.

Closeup of chainplates, deadeyes and shearpoles.

And during a trial fit to see how they will look once installed.

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Mock-up of shroud installation.

Must admit that I'm glad to have this out of the way. It took some time to complete but I think the detail achieved will add to the overall appearance of the model when installed.

This brings me right up to date with the project. Not sure what is on tap next so you'll just have to watch this space!

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BLOG POST 19 – BELAYING PINS, GRATES & HATCHES Well, it has been quite some time since I've posted to this blog and my apologies to anyone who has been waiting patiently for an update on the build.

I did have the best of intentions but was put off when a few years back I opened the blog only to discover that most of the pictures that had accompanied the original posts had disappeared. I have yet to ascertain why this happened and interestingly, not all the pictures were missing but unfortunately, those still there were very much in the minority!

Suffice to say, I wasn't sure how much effort it would take to reconstitute the blog and if I didn't restore it, there would be no point in continuing. As a result, I carried on with the build in my usual hit-and-miss fashion without giving too much thought to documenting my efforts. OK - I didn't give it ANY thought!

However, the build is now essentially complete and I have decided to complete this blog as best I can. To that end, I have restored the missing pictures, which brings us to this post. From here, the sequence of events may not be in the chronological order in which they occurred but that should not prove too detrimental.

Belaying Pins One of the smaller items of kit on-board the Bluenose are the belaying pins. I won't even trouble you with a picture of what was in the kit! First, I found a good picture of a belaying pin online:

Belaying pin.

Once I had printed the image to scale size, I realized that common round toothpicks would be ideal to fabricate these critical sailing implements. I figured that chucking a toothpick in my Dremel tool would permit me to emulate a sub-miniature lathe - which it did. Here is a picture of the set-up:

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Common toothpick as basis for belaying pin.

Using the point of a cutting blade I was able to 'lathe' the basic shape.

Using sharp blade point to shape the pin.

A little sanding and ready to cut to length.

Finish sanding the belaying pin.

As with other items in this build, repeat as necessary. Here are some that didn't pass quality control but were stained anyway in case spares are required..

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Here is a picture of a pin rail under construction during the Bluenose II rebuild.

And here are my belaying pins being put to use on the model's corresponding pin rail.

Belaying pins on fife rail.

Grates Here is where I take a touch of literary licence with this build. I've not seen any grates on pictures of the Bluenose II but I don't think it's beyond the realm of Page 99 of 144

possibility that the original Bluenose may well have incorporated this fixture.

After all, it was a fishing vessel and one would think that ventilation might be a desirable feature below deck! Anyway, I like the look of wooden grates and they are an archetypal component of many sailing ships so I've incorporated them on this build.

As with the belaying pins, the first order of business was to find a suitable image online, which didn't prove too difficult.

Image of wooden grate.

Then it was a simple matter to copy this image to a word document, replicate as necessary and adjust to the size and scale I wanted. Here are some of my attempts.

Collages of images of wooden grates - different orientations and scales.

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I then printed the selected groupings, mounted the images on wooden substrate and framed the result. Since I didn't have known locations for these grates, I merely selected a couple of open spots on the deck. Here's the results.

Imitation wooden grate - forward.

Imitation wooden grate - aft.

Hatches.

The hatches were relatively straightforward. The original kit had included them and they appeared to be close to the right size but other than that, didn't look like much.

Original hatch - forward.

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Original hatch - aft.

To refurbish them, I applied some framing, added wood stripping and replaced the brass grommets (?) with more prototypical wire fittings. Here's the result.

Forward hatch.

Aft hatch.

That will have to suffice for this post. 'Till the next time..

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BLOG POST 20 – FITTING OUT THE DECK By this juncture, I felt I was about ready to step the masts and commence rigging.

However this also meant that I would have to bite the bullet and start gluing things to the deck, In other words, this was pretty much the point of no return; any mistakes here and I would likely have to live with the results.

Having decided some time ago to replicate the original Bluenose, the task of preparing the deck fittings was made a little easier by virtue of being able to use several of the original kit items. I've covered some of the 'fine tuning' of these items in previous posts and suffice to say that a similar approach was used on other items, for example, the deck house. Since most of this fabrication or modification was minimal and relatively straightforward, little would be gained by documenting it Thus I will merely provide pictures of the installed end items, which consisted of:          

bowsprit bitts and samson post windlass, including engine cover boxes hatches grates fore boom sheet buffer main mast fife rail companionways deck house wheel box quarter bits

Where possible, I've included images of the Bluenose II rebuild. However, one must bear in mind that there are significant differences between the deck furniture that would have been on the original Bluenose (which, after all, was a working fishing schooner) and Bluenose II, which was configured more as a personal yacht. I did read,though, that an effort was being made to render the Bluenose II rebuild closer to the original but I don't know to what extent that was achieved.

I've also included applicable diagrams from Model Shipways Kit No. 2130 - The Bluenose.

Bowsprit Bitts & Samson Post

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Full-scale bitts and samson post - Bluenose II rebuild.

Model Shipways Kit 2130 instructions.

Bowsprit bitts and samson post - installed.

Windlass and Engine Cover Boxes

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Windlass.

Windlass engine boxes.

Hatches

Aft hatch and some buckets.

Fore hatch.

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Hatches in the sun.

Grates

Forward grate.

Aft grate.

Fore Boom Sheet Buffer

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Model Shipways Model 2130 instructions.

Fore boom sheet buffer.

Main mast fife rail

Model Shipways Kit 2130 instructions.

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Main mast fife rail.

Main mast fife rail.

Companionways

Full-scale companionway - Bluenose II rebuild.

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Installed companionway.

Forward chain well.

Deck House

Full-scale deck house - Bluenose II rebuild.

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Deck house.

Deck house.

Deck house.

View forward from the deck house.

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Wheel box.

Wheel box

Wheel box

Quarter Bitts

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Quarter bitts.

Quarter bitt.

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BLOG POST 21 – CORRECTING THE SAILS Having affixed most of the deck fixtures, it was finally time to step the masts.

To this point in the build, I had temporarily mounted the masts on a stabilized piece of 2x4 which afforded me the opportunity to dry-fit the booms and sails.

It was during this process that I discovered that the sails that came with the kit were a very poor fit once I had corrected all the hardware to the 1:44 scale that I had adopted for this build. This should not have come as a surprise, since I had known from the beginning that all the booms and masts were only an approximation to the correct size. Nothing to do but modify the sails accordingly,

The original sails in their relative positions.

Unfortunately, only a few of the sails could be salvaged and in six cases, new sails had to be crafted The fore sail and the main sail could be made to fit; the remaining sails had to be scrapped. Fortunately, I was able to source suitable material at a sewing shop. In fact, making the sails from scratch proved to be much easier than modifying the ones that came with the kit and I shortly had a full set of sails at my disposal.

For the record, here are pictures of the extent of the errors encountered. The paper template is the revised sail size,

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Jib Topsail

Jib

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Jumbo

Fore Gaff-Topsail

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Fisherman's Staysail

Main Gaff-Topsail

Once the new sails were sewn and lines marked appropriately, I threaded the jibs and the jumbo onto the lines I intended to use for the corresponding stays in preparation for eventual rigging, once the masts were stepped.

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Jibs attached to the stays.

Which I'll talk about in the next post.

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BLOG POST 22 – PREPARING TO STEP THE MASTS Having put the sail issue to bed, it was time to start putting the pieces together.

The first step was to fix the mast hoops to all the applicable sails and then slide the fore and main sails on to the fore and main mast respectively. (Note that the main and fore top masts will be installed at a later stage,)

Mast hoops.

I then roped the fore sail to the fore boom and fore gaff and the main sail to the main boom and main gaff. The main difference between the rope lacing for boom and gaff is that on the boom, the rope loops are perpendicular whereas on the gaff they are spiral.

Perpendicular sail wrap on main and fore boom.

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Perpendicular sail wrap on jumbo boom.

Spiral wrap on main and fore gaff.

Before stepping the masts, though, there are a few associated items not previously covered: these are the Boom Jaw Rest, the Mast Collars and the gaff jaw rollers.

Boom Jaw Rest.

Producing the mast collars was one time when the lathe came in particularly handy. Not sure how I would have turned them if not for the lathe.

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Fore mast collar. (Similar one on main mast under fife rail.)

This view shows the curve of the main gaff jaws as well as the retaining rollers, used on both the main gaff and main boom. On the foremast, only the fore gaff is fitted with rollers.

Main gaff jaw rollers.

Main boom jaw rollers.

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The last major items to complete the bottom masts were the cross trees, the bands to provide attachment points for the peak halyard and other blocks,and the top band to connect the lower masts to the top masts. I have no build pictures for the bands but they were constructed of sheet copper strips formed in loops and soldered together with attaching rings. This was fairly straightforward in the case of the halyard bands, which only had to be adjusted to fit the ever decreasing diameter as you moved up.the mast.

However, the top connecting bands took a bit more time and effort. This was because they were essentially two hoops soldered together with short straps, designed to connect the top of the main mast to the bottom portion of the top mast. And since I was using soft solder, any adjustment or adding of attaching rings risked melting the whole assembly, which happened on a number of occasions as getting the right fit for masts was largely a trial-and-error undertaking.

For the cross trees, Jenson provides measured drawings for both sets as well as for the trestle trees on which they were mounted, (Note that in order to put the mast hoops on the masts after the cross trees were affixed, their diameter had to be large enough to fit over the large end of the mast. Fortunately, I had thought that far ahead!)

Jenson's cross tree drawings.

My rendition of the cross trees.

As mentioned, the bands for the peak halyard and other blocks blocks were Page 121 of 144

fairly simple.

Peak halyard bands - main mast. (Fore mast is similar)

After a number of iterations, I eventually was able to to produce an assembly that fit snugly to the very top of the main mast while at the same time fitting the top-mast equally snugly at the appropriate insertion spot. Note that because of the taper on all masts, the top mast had to be slid into the connecting ring from the bottom and then the complete assembly lowered over the main mast and the foot of the top sail fitted into the cross tress.

Close-up of main to top-mast band.

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Close-up of main to top-mast band.

Having got the main and fore mast fitted with their respective sails, booms and gaffs, it was time to install the top masts. Once this was done and the top masts secured, the mast hoops were affixed to the fore and main gaff top-sails and the sails mounted on the respective top masts. Only this time, the mast hoops merely had to be slid on from the top.

The assembled main and fore masts, with their sails, will now be installed on the deck.

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BLOG POST 23 - RIGGING Having stepped the main and fore mast, it was time to commence rigging my model. I had some concerns as to how difficult this might be and looked online for info. After seeing the amount of rigging involved in some models, say, a ship-of-the-line, I decided that the Bluenose shouldn't be all that hard after all.

The main recommendation seemed to be to start at the front and work aft. And of course, the standing rigging has to be installed before anything else.

With that in mind, therefore, here is Jenson's diagram of the standing rigging on the Bluenose. It is to be noted that standing rigging generally refers to lines, wires, or rods which are more or less fixed in position while the boat is under sail and which support the mast and other spars. Since it was tarred for protection from weather, it was darker or even black in color. Standing rigging also includes the shrouds.

Bluenose standing rigging.

Bluenose shroud rigging.

The main difference in my approach to the shrouds was that they are already fitted with the ratlines and thus I wouldn't be looping individual shrouds about the mast as depicted here. However, given where they converge between the mast and the top-mast, it will be impossible to detect the difference.

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Earlier in the build, I cut the openings in the rail to allow the chainplates to sit flush to the hull. Now it was time to put them to use.

Rail access holes for chainplates.

Chainplates in position.

Chainplates prior to touch-up painting.

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The chainplates installed with deadeyes and shrouds in place.

There was one detail that to this point had eluded me and that was how to replicate the 'baggy wrinkles' found on the main boom end lift and the middle and forward main boom lifts.I had tried wrapping twine, ordinary yarn and other materials around the lifts but none had the right look. Then I happened across a specialty yarn that appeared to be formed in the shape of a tube. This allowed me to thread the lift lines through strands of this yarn and with a bit of fluffing, a reasonable representation of a baggy wrinkle was achieved.

Baggy wrinkle.

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Baggy wrinkles installed on lifts.

With the standing rigging complete, it was on to the running rigging, which is the rigging that is used for raising, lowering and controlling the sails. This obviously was going to be much more time consuming but I fully intended to faithfully replicate the full-scale Bluenose. Again, Jenson afforded excellent guidance in this regard down to the smallest detail. Almost every line was individually documented as to the applicable sail, blocks and belaying point.

Here are the two pages of the detail.

Page one of rigging detail - Jenson's.

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Page two of rigging detail - Jenson's.

And there were overviews that showed even more detail with regards to sail positioning, etc. Here is an example that provides detail on the jibs, jumbo and fore sail.

Example overview - Jenson's.

Once again, there is little in the way of pictorial documentation of the rigging process but here are a few taken at the very outset.

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Rigging early days.

Rigging early days.

Rigging early days.

After quite a few hours of work, I judged the rigging to be complete. The end was in sight, One of the last details to take care of were the stacked dories, which were now required in light of the original Bluenose configuration. Will cover that in the next post.

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BLOG POST 24 – DORIES The end is definitely in sight! In fact, if this were a model of the Bluenose II, we could probably declare mission accomplished - assuming, of course, that the deck was configured appropriately. However, this is a rendition of the original Bluenose, a working schooner, so it would not be complete without at least a couple of dories lashed to the deck in preparation for an outing on the Grand Banks The original kit came with a couple of boats glued to the deck that presumably were meant to represent dories but there must have been something lost in translation by whoever built this kit. (Maybe in China?) Here is a picture taken during the early stages of the rebuild when I was trial fitting some of my initial hardware and the deck furniture was still aboard.

Original dories fitted to the model.

Since these were obviously not going to suffice, I resorted once again to the Web and was not disappointed. Dories are still being built and used to this day, although perhaps not in the same role as at the beginning of the last century.

Dory races - near Lunenburg?

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Regardless, there is plenty of information to be had and if you want a full scale dory built, a shop in Lunenburg will happily oblige, with a range of sizes to suit (http://www.doryshop.com/).

But for my purposes, I was looking for plans that I could scale and came across a web site that had exactly what I was looking for. ( http://www.shearwaterboats.com/doryinst.html) And best of all, the plans were free and were accompanied by detailed build instructions.

Dory plans - assembly.

Dory plans - components.

Not surprisingly, these plans closely resembled the detail that Jenson included in his book.

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Dory detail from Jenson's book.

Having availed myself of some thin (35 thou, 3-ply) plywood at a Michaels arts and crafts store, I was ready to build a couple of dories. I first scaled the plans to the required 1:44 scale, cut out the main components on heavy card stock and then traced the outlines onto the plywood.

Major components copied to card stock prior to tracing on plywood.

Once the pieces were cut from the plywood, I used gel 'super glue' to assemble them into a dory. In my initial attempt, I tried to form the curves as I glued, which did not quite work as anticipated. The resultant shape, whilst an improvement over the original version, nevertheless failed to suitably capture the curved sides.

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Initial attempt at a dory - unsuccessful.

The solution to this problem was to steam the plywood and bend it into the final shape prior to gluing. This worked much better, but as with other builds in these latter stages, I did not take any pictures so you are only left with the end result. However, the steps were not difficult and once the main pieces were assembled, the rest was simply adding detail, including a set of oars.

Grand Banks dories.

Using very thin plywood allows for scaling the size up or down as desired.

After my first failed attempt, I scaled the plans down to test my theory that steaming and bending the plywood was the solution and was able to produce a model about two-thirds the final size.

Small feasibility model.

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One issue that I had not addressed to this point were the scuppers. This was another instance where the original kit neglected to faithfully replicate the fullscale vessel. If building the hull from scratch, openings for the scuppers would merely be factored into the design, as it has been for the Bluenose II rebuild.

Scuppers - Bluenose II rebuild.

However, in my case, it was not feasible to cut roughly 80 scuppers in the rails with any degree of fidelity. particularly given the questionable material that comprised the hull. My only option was to simulate the scuppers in much the same way that I had replicated the wooden grates. So it was back to MS Word for a solution. Using Jenson's drawing as a guide, produced the diagram below.

After printing and cutting out the strips, glued them to the model.

Drawing of simulated scuppers.

To blend the paper into the background, will have to cover with clear lacquer which I've yet to do.

Simulated scuppers.

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(As an aside, I noted in the picture of the Bluenose II scuppers that the cutouts for the chainplates closely matched what I did for this model.)

It also strikes me that the kit builders perhaps added the thin white stripe to represent the scuppers. Regardless, there is no corresponding stripe on the rebuilt Bluenose II so I think a bit of touch-up is in order. And I doubt the original Bluenose had a gold stripe on the rail, so I'll not be adding that detail either.

And that about wraps it up. I intend to add a few work-related items to dress up the deck, such as buckets, barrels, nets and other paraphernalia, but for all intents and purposes I am satisfied with the end result as it stands now. In the next post, I will publish a set of photographs of the completed model.

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BLOG POST 25 – DPRY ADDENDUM Although I indicated in the last post that I was finished with the model, I decided to make one last addition. Jenson includes a diagram of the dory burtons, the arrangement of blocks used to launch and recover the dories when the Bluenose was on the fishing grounds.

Dory burtons (Jenson).

As I was not familiar with the term 'burton', I referred to "JIM STEIN’S NAUTICAL TERMS" for enlightenment. According to Mr Stein: Burton. A tackle, rove in a particular manner. 

A single Spanish burton has three single blocks, or two single blocks and a hook in the bight of one of the running parts.



A double Spanish burton has three double blocks.

Since this is a model of the original Bluenose, I felt it only appropriate that this launch set-up be replicated on the model. As I had built two dories to nest on the deck, it was a simple matter to remove one and secure it to the launch rigging, which is supported from the main and fore cross tress.

I think Jenson took some liberties with his drawing, as in reality, the dory hooks will not remain vertical but rather assume an angle oriented towards their respective cross tree. In order to replicate Jenson's depiction, I added a Page 136 of 144

restraining line to keep the hooks vertical and improve the look of the block layout.

Here are a couple of shots of the end result.

And finally, I fabricated a few barrels and buckets to add to the deck layout, as well as another set of oars and a wrapped sail for the dory that is now in the launch position.

Miscellaneous items.

And that should be a wrap. Waiting for a nice sunny day - winter doesn't want to fade away, it seems - to get some natural light shots of the finished model.

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BLOG POST 26 – FINAL PICTURES Have been quite remiss in not posting photos of the finished model. To remedy that oversight, here are a selection of shots.

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BLOG POST 27

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