Tag Archives: bowsprit

Truss and Rigging Progress

Keith has been completing the truss and it is now mounted onto the mast.

Laura has now started to fabricate and attach the truss and spreader guys.

Meanwhile, Laura and Herb have been studying photos of the Reliance bowsprit and are now completing all the little bowsprit details.

They have also completed the upper ends of the standing rigging and, as shown, have them tarred, varnished, and ready to go. We’re just a week or two away until the mast can be hoisted upright in our mast jig and the standing rigging can be completed at deck level.

We thought we could find tasks for Steve that would not involve power tools, but Sandy caught the ever creative Steve with a Dremel tool in his back pocket… we’re just trying to excite his inner crafts person, but the power tool guy always comes to the surface…

Busy Opening Weekend

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It’s been a very busy weekend…

Saturday was a whirlwind. Laura was splicing halyard pennants; these are wires spliced into a circle in an endless loop. She unravels a piece of wire 7x the length of the loop, then re-braids the wire as you would a grommet. Unfortunately, her day ended before I could take a picture.

Mike brought alot of hardware from Harrison Casting; you can see seven half-round angle irons on the gaff.

We’ve started to file and shape these to take eye-spliced ends of the peak halyard span wires. Another picture shows the angle irons to hold eye-spliced loops of the forestay, upper main shrouds, preventers, and throat halyard. We’ve started to grind, file, and persuade these into shape. You can also see that work continues the spreader.

Burr dropped off three new turnbuckles with incredible eyes. These and three other turnbuckles he delivered earlier have been shipped off to a local machining center to drill out slots typical of Herreshoff Manufacturing Co. turnbuckles. We can’t wait for this to be done so we can nickel plate them. They’re a critical path for rigging the bowsprit and mast!!!

Bill also stopped by and brought another 12′ of sail track for the boom. This has been provided by our friends: the Wrights at AMA Engineering.

Our Roger Williams University intern Zach created our new “Wonderfully Modern Herreshoff Manufacturing Co.” exhibit from lecture material given earlier this year by the team.

And of course Zach and Sandy spent a lot of time sprucing up Building 28 for opening day on Sunday. RELIANCE is really looking great and we’re hoping our new exhibits will excite you as well.

Bowsprit Cone and Spreader Updates

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Mike has been making wax molds for the angle iron cheeks on the mast. Now, he’s also making a new and improved bowsprit cone.

Meanwhile, Bill continues to work on the spreader. Keith used a mag drill to bore out the holes in the display base to which the keel blocks will be bolted.

On a side note, Keith and Bill took some time off to respond to an SOS from volunteers making Herreshoff Museum’s new steam engine exhibit. It looks like we’ll be making some display stands. You all really need to see this exhibit!

Another Weekend in the Books

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Keith put final touches on our spreaders; it really changes the whole boat! We can but imagine how large these were in real life.

Tim and Keith worked on tapping holes for eyes to go on the mast and we’ve screwed them in place temporarily to get everything aligned.

Soon we’ll remove them and send them to a nickel plating company along with some other fittings. Tim also finished up some leftover woodworking tasks while I was grinding and polishing new boom fittings that Mike delivered from our casting company.

Meanwhile, Laura, our rigger, has been doing a great job wire splicing as per usual, and even showed us how to make some tacks from wire grommets!

Everything’s Coming Together

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Keith made a jig to hold the spreaders in perfect alignment while the spreader socket pins set in high-tech glues. The bowsprit is starting to look awesome. You can really get the feeling of how massive it was!

Here are some of Mike’s delivery of castings; ready for final filing, polishing, and nickel plating.

Finally, here are the ladder rungs which will go on the top section of the mast.

Another Busy Day

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Mike and Sandy have been working on the angle iron “cheeks” on our mast. The forestay, preventer stays, throat halyard, and upper main shrouds will hang from these mechanisms. We’ve also got angle irons for mounting the spreader to the mast. Mike will make wax molds of these complex, compound curve angles.

In the meantime, our worm, parcel, and serve crew has been focusing on the bowsprit area and standing rigging. Our splicing and rigging crew have yet to catch up.

Burr delivered the bowsprit retaining bar and took a drawing with him to make chain links that fasten the topmast forestay to the bar; he did some final fitting in our shop. What a joy to watch him work, even gently bending the brass between his fingers, over a mandrel or with mallet! A true master craftsman…

Manila and Wiring

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Martin Combs from North Carolina sent us the last half of our “manila” cordage, so now we have our full allotment of scale 7/32″ and 1-1/2″ through 4″ manila. Except for the extra small stuff, manila was measured in circumference, unlike wire rope, which is measured in diameter. The big spool on the end is overwhelming, so we went back and checked. Research concluded: RELIANCE carried 3,000′ of 4″ manila line!

Thanks Martin!

We’ve also been worming, parceling, and serving wire rope; in this case, the bowsprit shrouds.

“Worm and parcel with the lay; serve the other way!”

Ever Closer to the Finish Line

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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.

Real RELIANCE Bowsprit

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We are so excited to share our new four foot section replica of real RELIANCE spars. It might not look like anything now, but here it is! A four foot section for the bowsprit. A log from the northwest coast is getting it ready for shipment. We’ll keep you posted as it travels from left to right coasts and we’ll fill you in on all the wonderful people who’ve made this happen.

How big?

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Following the completion of the bowsprit section mentioned in the last post, we began exploring other ideas to show the massive size of RELIANCE. We came up with a particularly interesting idea, and began bringing it to life. For hours on end, Herreshoff volunteers could be seen with spray cans, painting the floor of Building 28. Soon, long lines were painted on the floor, but for what exactly? Three distinct lines can be seen, each representing a true scale shadow of a different portion of RELIANCE. Accompanying the wooden section cut of the bowsprit is a shadow of the full 41-foot, 14 inch diameter bowsprit. Alongside this piece is a shadow of the full 115-foot, 21 inch diameter boom, and the 112-foot 6-inch, 26 inch diameter mast. To look at these artifacts laid out on the floor, it becomes clear how large RELIANCE was. Even looking at it now, I still cannot believe the sheer size of RELIANCE, and the incredible length and diameter of her spars. If you would like to see the work for yourself, the best days to visit Building 28 are Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday from 9am until 4pm. You can also check in at the Museum store on other days to see if the Building is available for viewing. So make your way down to Building 28 to see all of the work as it happens!

The shadow of the bowsprit is laid out in front of the model with the section cut showing a three-dimensional representation of the 41-foot shadow.

The shadow of the 21-inch boom is in white, while the shadow of the 26-inch mast is blue. At 115-feet, this artifact spans the entire length of Building 28, plus some!

-Aaron Towers