Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length.

[rmaddock]

A few more. I may be violating somebody's copyright printing these...they were on display. I apologise if I am doing and would remove them if asked.


Here are some more pond yachts being played with  Relatively recently in this one.

Many Nobbies were used for tourist trips and I love this photo:

And finally, for the lifeboat enthusiasts amongst you, I present the William Priestly, a Morecambe Bay Prawner converted for service as a lifeboat! Ta da!

Sorry again, couldn't get a better angle that this 

[rmaddock]

Captain Jim has been for his first inspection visit. Don't ask me why he's called Jim...he just is. Something about the moustache I think.    He's just over 5'6" by my reckoning.

Anyway, here he is standing on the steering platform at the stern and also having a look a-mid-ships.

He's also having a really good look at the hull lines and rudder setup....as you would.


I hope he's happy with the build so far. He looks the strict, critical sort to me. 

[rmaddock]

And this is Jemima!  She's been "walking out" with Jim for some time. She's quite posh but was orphaned when her parents were nibbled to death by an Okapi.

She's wondering about marrying Jim but thought she should pop down into the cockpit and check out his king plank first. 



I think they've reached an agreement. I wonder where Jim's right hand is? 

[rmaddock]

Back to the serious stuff. Between oiling the bathroom floor and sinking anchor bolts into the garden walls, I've started to fettle the rudder mechanism.

As previously mentioned, I was concerned that the top of the rudder tube was rather low against the waterline.
So, I've extended it upwards a bit. First I cut the rudder shaft so that it was as long as possible, but I could still get the control horn over the top.  Then I cut a new piece of tube to the right length and slid it down. A larger sized tube collar has then been slipped over the top of the join.
It's been slavered with glue and I've also put a cross brace in to support the top of the tube.

[Brooks]

Neat Museum, thanks for the photos. You will have give them a photo of your boat on the water, which they can stick up next to their pond yacht

[rmaddock]

Thanks Brooks, for feeding my narcissism. 

Today.....brace yourselves......Today, we have steerage! 

Along with the hull, I asked Waverley Models to supply me with their Heath Robinson designed steering gear.  The traditional Nobby counter stern doesn't leave a lot of room for normal servo connections so Mike had come up with an alternative.

He supplied two special pulley wheels, one for the servo and one for the rudder and cords to connect them. The cords are then guided betwixt the two by copper tubing.  The plans have the servo in the middle of the boat but I decided that I'd try and tuck it away under one edge of the deck.  I'll put a bit of non authentic woodwork in there to screen it later on.



As you can probably see  I'm experimenting with lathering everything with P38 filler. It's an experimentally slipshod construction technique I'm pioneering!..although it looks disturbingly like the pink stuff the dentist used to use to take moulds of my mouth when I was a lad.    I have, of course, already fitted a receiver and tried it out. FABBY! It's almost finished! 

I was hoping to get to this stage before the week was out. I'm due to start my final teacher training placement next week and I think the boats might have to go away for the duration. Not that the college have managed to find me anywhere to go yet.   So please don't be alarmed if I stop talking to you any day now......

I'll be back! 

[tony23]

Mmm, not sure that's the best place for that servo how will you get to it if you have any problems

[rmaddock]

The cockpit's open, the servo'll basically be just out of view but still accessible.

[rmaddock]

I've mocked up a bit of the deck and cockpit.



The servo in question is behind Jim there.  Once there's a combing round the cockpit the servo wont be terribly visible.  Then I'll arrange some set-dressing over it too and it should be reasonably well hidden.  I'm only going for semi-scale here, but I want it to look good so I'm going to apply mock-planking to the inside of the hull within the length of the cockpit....there's a bulkhead at either end so no need to go overboard.  At the moment, I'm cutting out card planks and taping them, temporarily into the hull...as you can see in the picture.  I'll then put soft balsa ribs in down to floor level....represented by the metal rule.

FYI: this is the real interior (only shot I've got) and shows the look I'm aiming for.

[nhp651]

Robert, pm me your email address, I might have some photos that you might be interested in for your build project.

neil.

[rmaddock]

I need to put false ribs into the hull.  They need to be about 10mm thick and 15mm wide. They also need to take quite an extreme curve.  I don't have any line drawings for the hull so I can't cut them to shape....which leaves bending them in place.

I've tried with solid balsa but bending it enough doesn't seem do-able.  Laminations of thin balsa will go but the ribs'll end up looking like plywood.

So, the question is, what else could I use?  It doesn't have to have any strength but it does have to look solid and be paintable.  Would some sort of foam be workable?

All sensible suggestions considered.

[dreadnought72]

I'd vote for laminate thin balsa strips of the right width. If you're painting them, it'll look like wood. And you can always tack the laminations into place with superglue rather than something slower, like PVA. Should be speedy to do, and look good too.

Andy

[nhp651]

if you go to a good decorating shop, robert, you can buy a small tool that looks like a load of needles in a line held together by two strips of metal...it's a tool for taking templates around skirting boards and other such strange shapes......it can be used on the inside of your hull to take an accurate shape of the moulding, and then you can draw that shape onto a piece of ply or other timber for an accurate fit....ask for a "template guage" a very handy bit of kit to have.

neil.

[rmaddock]

if you go to a good decorating shop, robert, you can buy a small tool that looks like a load of needles in a line held together by two strips of metal...it's a tool for taking templates around skirting boards and other such strange shapes......it can be used on the inside of your hull to take an accurate shape of the moulding, and then you can draw that shape onto a piece of ply or other timber for an accurate fit....ask for a "template guage" a very handy bit of kit to have.

neil.

I've seen those, yes. Perhaps I should finally acquire one.  I can feel a trip to sunny Barrow-in-Furness coming on in the morning.

[rmaddock]

As it's now less than a month 'till my Birthday, I thought I owed myself a present 



Three lovely new winches.  I realised that I was busy fitting out the inside having given little thought to where all the gubbins would go.  So I bought said gubbins and can now figure out where to put three winches and associated closed loops without its looking a terrible mess in the open cockpit. Under the floor perhaps?

I've made a bit of progress on the false ribs too. They'll need a bit of filling but should look fine once it's all white-washed.

[tony23]

not sure you will need three winches possibly would got away only using one.

[rmaddock]

not sure you will need three winches possibly would got away only using one.

Oh, I know I could "get away" with one......

[rmaddock]

I'm glad that I hung fire on the interior.
Last weekend we managed to visit her and see inside! 



A modeller's delight! Well, mine anyway. Where I'd been anticipating bear boards and little else, as you can she she's all ply sheet inside. Not pretty but, as I'm trying to build her as she is now, very, very convenient  There are plenty of things to hide my servos and the floor's higher that anticipated too. In addition to that, there are benches down the side forward of the engine. They might make nice battery compartments.  And, with luck, I should be able to fit a motor into the motor box.



This is the bows....occupied by Thing Two. I could quite imagine spending a weekend in there and we were surprised by how much light came in through the little glass lights in the deck above.

I can't promise much progress in the near future.  I'm on the final block placement of my teacher training now. Three weeks down, five to go. I'm exhausted and seem to have no spare time at all.  Still, my choice. I must be balmy 

[NottsRog]

Hi There
Interesting to come across some models of morecombe bay prawners.

This reminds of our visits to a Classic Sail event that used to take place usually in July each year during the late 1980s and 1990s.

This was organised by the East Coast Old Gaffers Association and comprosed a week of sailing and racing and evening entertainment.

One of the most successful yachts competition wise was a morecombe bay prawner, named 'Deva' which usually carried a distinctive red jib sail,  not to mention the skippers secret weapon of a watersail rigged under the boom.

Definitely fun days

[rmaddock]

Hi There
Interesting to come across some models of morecombe bay prawners.

This reminds of our visits to a Classic Sail event that used to take place usually in July each year during the late 1980s and 1990s.

This was organised by the East Coast Old Gaffers Association and comprosed a week of sailing and racing and evening entertainment.

One of the most successful yachts competition wise was a morecombe bay prawner, named 'Deva' which usually carried a distinctive red jib sail,  not to mention the skippers secret weapon of a watersail rigged under the boom.

Definitely fun days

Cool! I'm hoping to get a sail on the Hearts of Oak next year...fingers crossed. According to my research, the fore and mail sails were traditionally red. For some reason though, the top gaff sail (don't know the proper name) was natural colour.

The end of my course is in sight and I'm starting to think about the model again. Of course, I'll probably go and do something silly like get a job in the New Year. That'd put a spanner in the works.

[NottsRog]

[Cool! I'm hoping to get a sail on the Hearts of Oak next year...fingers crossed. According to my research, the fore and mail sails were traditionally red. For some reason though, the top gaff sail (don't know the proper name) was natural colour.

The end of my course is in sight and I'm starting to think about the model again. Of course, I'll probably go and do something silly like get a job in the New Year. That'd put a spanner in the works.

The sail above the Main sail is in fact called the Topsail, usually abbreviated as  Tops'l

They were a common sight and used on many gaff rigged vessels,  in particular the Thames Barges,  who often sailed with just the Tops'l set so as to catch the wind blowing above the land ,  when sailing up a river where the wind down at waterlevel might be rather light

[tigertiger]

... According to my research, the fore and mail sails were traditionally red. For some reason though, the top gaff sail (don't know the proper name) was natural colour.

Thinking out of the box, and turning things upside-down to see them from a different perspective.
For some reason the fore and mains were red.

I think the red is due to the treatment of the sails with a witches brew to keep out the worst of the weathering from water and salt. It would also add a lot to the weight of the sail. The tops would not get as much water and salt and would be less in need of treatment.
Just a thought, out of the box.

[tigertiger]

... the Thames Barges,  who often sailed with just the Tops'l set so as to catch the wind blowing above the land ,  when sailing up a river where the wind down at waterlevel might be rather light

Thinking out of the box again. In addition to the above:
Thought 1/ Most ships would be pictured/drawn/photographed where there were more ships (man thinks, I want to draw ships, where shall I go? Lots of ships at Tilbury, I'll go there). Lots of ships equals difficult navigation and a need to see 360 degrees, if the main and fore are not essential stow them.
Thought 2/ On a short haul, and when being anywhere near ready to load/unload (dock vicinity) get the non-essential sails stowed early.
Thought 3/ I think the sprit or booms may also have been used as derricks.

[rmaddock]

Steady on there Tigertiger! You'll wear your brain out with all that thinking! 

The Nick Miller books says that the sails were treated with tar, followed by boiled oil and then ochre.

[rmaddock]

Okay, I'm back!
14 in-laws nearly did for me over the last few days but I have made it through and started on the Nobby again.
First off, Father Xmas was good to me:

Next, as an upshot to my casting sand queries elsewhere, I've ordered a kilo of bentonite clay to make my own green sand. I seems worth a go to say a chunk of money and I'm not after anything wonderful results wise.
Next, I've sketched out a new floor plan based on my measurements of the H.o.F. I've mocked it up in card and begun to glue in some new floor beams. I know it's not a "floor" but I'm distinguishing it from the upper deck.