January | 2015 | The RELIANCE Project

It may only be 10 degrees (F) outside, but we’re keeping busy in our slightly warmer shed. We’re in the stage of fabricating and assembling piece parts for the next stage. RELIANCE seems to go together in periodic leaps, and to visitors, we seem to be in one of our dormant phases; but it really are these “back-shop” activities which make progress happen.

Tim has brought down our boom and gaff for final preparation and painting; they really look like the real metal spars!

In the meantime, Bill has been working with our friends Andrew and Paula Wright of AMA Engineering to fabricate sail track on our boom. In one of those serendipitous RELIANCE moments, one of their standard “H” channel products fit our bill perfectly. Grind away the smaller, thicker base and you have the out-haul car track; grind away the thicker top and you have the sail track, and the rivet/screw holes are correctly spaced according to scale. How neat is that!

We’re also at the point where we can show you all the pieces that go on the boom. From left to right, they are as follows:

Footrope straps, reef haul eye, boom guy strap, quarter lift straps, main sheet span straps, twisted main sheet block shackles, main sheet block shackles, sheet block attachments, main sheet strap attachments, out-haul at boom end, out-haul car and clue attachment, clue out-haul forward end, oak reef cleat and sheave, boom crotch tackle attachment, boom capstan (winch) barrel with crank handle and assembly.

The background shows sections of the sail track and boom.
The silver-colored fittings are mold masters. These will be cast in bronze and then nickel-plated to look like the real nickel steel parts.

Laura, our master rigger, has been splicing the two bobstays, and when our two apprentices get up to speed, we’ll be in full production mode. Her splices have been fantastic in tough 1/4″ 7×7 galvanized steel wire, just like the real thing. It’s tough work, and if you don’t believe me, come visit and try it yourself! She’s a tough lady, bundled up in the coldest section of the building, and you can see she’s wrapped her index finger with electrician’s tape over a wire cut.

Mike just delivered cast bronze rudder pintles and gudgeons; each set is matched to fit the scale taper of the rudder. Keith will soon have to get cracking on the rudder assembly. He also delivered a full set of cast eyes and a spinnaker boom socket for the mast.

Also, Burr delivered a beautiful set of bowsprit spreaders. What you can’t really see is that these rods are oval in cross-section and perfectly tapered to scale, just like the real ones. Both Mike and Burr have incredible attention to detail and fidelity to scale accuracy!

We’re back from the holidays and we can see the light at the end of the tunnel, no matter how dimly. Keith cut our mast to length: 17’8″ plus 14″ for the “bury” to our mast step. Keith put the newly cut mast upright to gauge whether we could also step the topmast in place. Alas, another 8′ 4″ is required and it won’t fit unless we move the whole rig under the cupola in the middle of the high bay, so there it’ll go! As a point of reference, the topmast and #1 topsail yard add another 13′ 8″ to the height of the mast, shown here; that’s almost another 75% of the length shown!

While Keith worries about the design of the new jig, Bill has been working on the spreader. You can see that the “I-beam” construction has been routed out and drain holes have been drilled in the “I’s.” He’s now fitting it to the mast before varnishing, adding all the fittings and cladding the section around the mast in metal.

Mike brought more wax mold master mast fittings to the shop. These were fitted to the mast and taken to our local metal casting company—Harrison Casting in Johnston, RI—to be made; we’ll be attaching these in place soon. All of this leaves us with actual wire splicing and wire rope standing rigging. The photos below show Herb and Larry plying their newly acquired specialty with help from Toss’s book, educational visits to thesquarerigger.com, and some instruction from Bob Dollar of R&W Rope.

We’ve also been noodling with how to do the actual rigging of our model and have concluded that unlike the original RELIANCE—which was rigged after launching—we’ll construct a special rigging jig so we can cut and splice all the standing rigging to actual length. This jig will be separate from our model, so work can continue on her without interruption, and the butt of the mast would rest on the floor. You’ll see construction of our jig over the next few months.

Lastly, we at the RELIANCE Project and Herreshoff Museum would like to formally recognize the loss of a great friend. New Year’s Day brought the passing on of Stanley Livingston, 96, an active supporter and family member in our cause. Fair winds and a following sea on the other side of the bar, Stanley; RIP

The RELIANCE Project

Monthly Archives: January 2015

Great Strides and New Toys

We’re Back and At Full Throttle!