Monthly Archives: December 2015

Merry Christmas From Our Crew to Yours!

Laura made boom lift pennants and a peak halyard pennant. These doubled-over wires are made similarly to grommets: an endless loop of wire seized together at the thimbles at each end. Thimbles at the mast are directly attached to the mast eyes with no shackles, so Laura makes up the wire on the mast.

Sandy has been fabricating blocks; shown here are the eight 14″ blocks on RELIANCE, six including a double block for the main sheet (the other two are for the peak and throat jigs at the base of the mast).

Bern routed out grooves for the straps and the strippers in the base of the block.

Finally, here’s RELIANCE fully painted after Buck and Don’s hard work!

Merry Christmas, happy holidays, and thanks to everyone who has supported us thus far!!

Evolution of the Newly Painted Model

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After erecting a new tent fitted with a ventilation system, the group got to giving the model its sleek paint job. Buck and Don painted the topsides.

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They painted the bottom a golden bronze just like the polished bronze plates on the original.

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The finished product:

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An Interesting Side Story

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Perry Ercolino and his wife visited about two years ago. Not only is he a sailor, but he also makes custom shoes in New York City on Madison Ave/53rd St.

Several days after their wonderful visit, we received a UPS package with a gift of leather from them to use on the gaff saddle! We’ve just recently attached it.

He also enclosed an off-cut of 18th-century reindeer leather which came off a Russian trading ship that sank in the Plymouth, England estuary late in that century. The leather was found in the remains of the ship when the harbor was dredged. By some odd circumstances, Perry managed to get his hands on it while on the road one day! How cool is that?

Finally Past the Priming

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Well, we can finally say that sanding, fairing, and priming the hull are finished!

We laid out the waterline with a laser transit. All reference marks are within 1/32nd-inch true! Thank you to Buck of Itchiban and Vinnie of Goetz Composites who brought a laser and great knowledge of getting RELIANCE on her fore and aft to lay out the laser lines.

Tracer lamp black solution has been applied to the hull. Sandy and Herb then sanded away the “orange peel” and tracer.

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Keith took down the tent and deck covering to clean up the boat using air, water, and sponge; for a finishing touch, a wash of denatured alcohol.

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So far, there was an initial priming of four coats and then sanding fair with 150 grit. This effort brought patches of bare hull and Bondo to light, so another five coats of primer were applied and another round of 150-grit “blocking”/ long boarding. Then, seven coats of white primer and 400-grit sanding to bring to near perfection.

RELIANCE is now ready for masking the waterline and painting the topsides. Only three more coats of paint on each of the topsides, bottom, and lead keel and an application of clear!

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While all this effort was going on, Bill has been working on the truck, Tim on the boom, and Yoda (Steve), shown here, on the shackle pins.

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