Wee Winn has been progressing a lot these past several weeks. Herb has been working diligently on the boom, while Steve had made a cradle for the boat.
Meanwhile, Zach and Sandy measured out and highlighted Wee Winn’s water-line with a laser light (which was running dry on its batteries, making the process much more tedious than it should have been).
Once everything was up to their liking, the paint job began!
Sven has been working on the boom…
…and Keith has been seizing the spreader chain plates with wire, just as it was shown in our drawings.
It still seems incredible that there was only one set of spreaders on this ~190′ tall rig; 34 feet tip to tip of 3-inch thick Douglas fir. Here’s some spreader progress:
Happy Easter to all those celebrating! We’ve got some updates that will hopefully make your holiday a bit brighter.
Steve spent a day making final arrangements on the boom; Herb is doing some micro-splicing on 1/16th-diameter wire for the boom footropes.
Mike came to the shop with his wax mold-making kit, making wax molds of two of the mast angle iron checks (three more to go) and seven similar cheeks for the gaff.
We spent this last Saturday working on the dry fittings for the boom. After some diligent work that left our eyes sore, we managed to get some accurate measurements and center all the pieces fairly well.
In other news, here’s a nice image of how the spreader is looking right now on the mast.
We’ve had snowstorm after snowstorm up here in New England, which has cancelled a number of volunteer days; luckily, we did manage to sneak in a Saturday and Tuesday along with some home work. Burr delivered 27 sail hoops that will be nickel-plated along with a number of the fittings and castings we’ve recently received.
He also delivered the capstan winch located on the boom near the gooseneck. Interestingly, it is the same size as the deck capstans, but with a slightly different base to fit the circumference of the boom. We then tasked Burr to make a scale bowsprit retaining bar; it has to be made just like is was by the HM Co blacksmiths.
A few hours later, Burr returned with a model to check fit the piece. Now he’s off making the whole thing, which we’re excited to see!
Zach, our Roger Williams University intern, has helped out in preparing Mike’s bronze castings for plating. Zach’s also working on some exhibits for our opening day.
Lastly, the boom and gaff have received final painting and are awaiting their fittings.
Burr made and delivered teak pads and their accompanying capstans a few days ago. Zach the intern admired them so much that we put him to manual labor; now, we’ve got the three capstans firmly in place!
The fourth of the capstans, complete with a crank handle, will be mounted starboard side, on the forward end of the boom. Imagine that: a deck winch attached to a boom!
Just returned from ten day trip to Santa Fe, Taos and the Canyons of NM, AZ, and UT. Must say that our RELIANCE is certainly the equal of the great art of Santa Fe and Taos (no bias all all!) but it is very hard to compete with the grandeur, scale, and beauty of nature. No contest, it is nature every time…. We flew home from Las Vegas: I am still struggling to wrap my head around the mirage of Las Vegas appearing out of the desert after visiting Grand, Glen, Bryce and Zion Canyons and Monument Valley…..
In my absence, work continued on RELIANCE with multiple efforts underway.
We are starting to splice wire. In the first photo Herb and Bill are developing splicing jigs. In the second photo, hands of our new “expert” are worming, parceling and serving – complete with miniature serving mallet – (see 1938 instruction manual in background)
Bill is also working on the spreaders (photo 3).
Keith is placing miniature rivets in pad eyes (photo 4). (These latest fittings bring RELIANCE into conformity with our “Configuration Date” (First AC race). From pictures we can see that fittings and components were added, moved and changed during the racing campaign.
Steve is working on the boom crotch (photo 5). Although our RELIANCE will ultimately be posed underway with sails, we anticipate that for a short interim period until the atrium is built, she’ll be displayed at a mooring with topmast housed, and gaff, boom and mainsail resting on the boom crotch.
Meanwhile Mike and Harrison Casting Co are making our gooseneck assembly, and Burr is completing the capstan assemblies.
The RELIANCE Project 