Monthly Archives: May 2014

On Saturday the 17th, we had our benefactor’s nephews in for a visit and promptly put them to work helping us lay the port and starboard middle sections of canvas. Since it was an all-hands evolution I have no photos but hope they’ll forward some photos we can post.
Then Tuesday we laid our final canvas, the outboard sections. Steve held the canvas in place while Bill used his wallpaper brush to apply the canvas. Herb from Falmouth and I held the canvas clear and aligned from the other end. As you can see quality control is important. We even had Keith and his lovely wife Mary Jo do a fly-by from MN to ensure we were hard at work during their vacation. Wednesday and Thursday were trim and paint days. Mike brought a large bollard, which you can see on the foredeck, and we began to cut and shape strips into toe rails. RELIANCE is really starting to take shape!

1. Bill laying canvas

2. Smoothing out wrinkles

4. The QC finger

5. In from MN

6. Last section of deck trimmed & painted. New bollard

We had another good day on Tuesday! A lot of work and good times. Our Washington State Douglas Fir log arrived. It is huge and really gives us a firm idea of how massive RELIANCE’s 41′ bowsprit really was. Freshly cut, it is still dripping wet and will need to dry out to our ambient humidity levels before we shape it into a 14″ cylinder. (Photos 1, 2 and 3)

We’ve also been making display stands, to dress up accompanying exhibits in our shop and give you additional reasons to visit us – we tell about the big metal-hulled schooners and all the America’s Cup boats built by HMCo, HMCo and the other boats in our barn . (Photo 4)

Mike Mirman brought the Anchor Windlass from the foundry. (Photo 5) The mold had been made by a team from the Met School in Newport using CAD/ 3-D Printing. We’ll do the final polishing and fitting in our shop. Sven has already found a new resting spot out of sight of Capt. Barr. (Photo 6) Mike also brought news that we can expect the bollards, main sheet sheave holders, topmast backstay pad eyes and other key castings in the near future!!

Bill, Keith and Steve laid the after center strip of canvas (Photos 7, 8, 9, and 10) Later this week, we’ll finish painting this strip and then cut out the next courses of canvas to either side of the center strips. After these middle strips are laid, we’ll lay the outer strips in place and be done with laying canvas! While waiting the glue to dry on the canvas, we cut out 220′ of 11/32″ x 3/16″ toe rail strips and 24′ of 1/2″ x 5/32″ hand rail strips (Photo 11). By the end of the day, the glue on the canvas had dried and the canvas decking was then primed. (Photo 12). We placed some of the toe rails and hand rail on deck so we could imagine what it’ll look like. (photo 13)

Meanwhile we cut and glued in place the wooden sides of our first hatch cover (Photo 14) and built a nest of cleats for the sheets and halyards that on the real Reliance would be lead to below-deck winches. (Photo 15)

Photo 1. Bowsprit log #1

Photo 2. Bowsprit log #2

Photo 3. Bowsprit log #3

Photo 4. Anchor Windlass

Photo 5. Anchor Windlass

Photo 6. Display Stand

Photo 7. Laying Canvas

Photo 8. Laying canvas #1

Photo 9. Laying canvas #2

Photo 10. Laying canvas #3

Photo 11. Primer on canvas

Photo 12. bundle of toe rails and hand rails

Photo 13. some toe rails place on deck

Photo 14. Hatch cover with trim

Photo 15. Inside #2 hatch

Big Progress in Building 28! Pin Rails & Capt Trivia

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Last week was big in Building 28! Keep getting closer to the day when everything on deck will be finished.
It was a major milestone to get everything completed inside the hull so we could button RELIANCE up.

Steve completed his pin rails and we glued and screwed these in place (Photos 1,2, and 3). Keith then made his last trip inside to secure these last fittings in place (Photo 4.) There was some thought of sealing him inside as internal animation but we concluded we’d just let him leave his graffiti (Photo 5.)

Bill, Keith and Steve then inserted two deck frames inside the hull and screwed them in place. (Photos 6,7,8, and 9) These have “donut hole” blocks on their bottom side to hold the steel display rods in place (See blogs from last December where we drilled three rods through the keel. These rods become the internal supporting structure for the display cradle. The middle rod is shorter and only goes through the keel and is not attached at the deck) With these frames in place, we put the top back on. It fits very nicely and we’ll spend the balance of the week ‘bondo-ing” the seems to perfection. Next week the deck canvas goes on!!

As we were doing this, Herb completed assembly of the #2 club and started to shape the front face of the #2 topsail yard. These will be placed on deck where they were carried as spares. (Photo 10)