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.
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.
Here is the mast jig that Keith built. When we’re ready with the mast and standing rigging, we’ll put the mast into it and then measure all the standing rigging at deck level to make sure we have the correct lengths.
This way, all the main shrouds will be at similar levels when attached to turnbuckles, and the forestay at measured length will ensure the correct 1.5 degree rake aft.
In the meantime, we’ve been practicing our attachment process and with our high-test strain meter calculating how much strain the fittings will hold. Not quite the destructive testing NGH did, but we hope it’ll do! Rigging hanging from the stump mast is ready to go: all seized in eyes to place at the top of the mast.
PS: The mat is for Lucy, our shy shop dog.
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.
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
Never turn your back on our “morale officer”, Keith. He always has something up his sleeve; he probably lies awake at night thinking about puns, tricks, and displays. Last week, he took one of our GI Joes on liberty to Cape Cod, only to return with it donned in Santa garments. We’d like to thank Keith’s wife Mary Jo for making the Santa outfit.
Speaking of dressing: would anyone be willing to make an outfit for Mrs. Iselin? We have a description of her sailor’s dress.
Meanwhile, we’ve reach another major milestone on the project. On Tuesday, we fitted the last of our deck fittings in place; our deck is essentially complete, we just some touch-up to go, which we’ll do as part of the final wrap-up. These topmast running backstay staples were some of the several items plated by R. E. Sturdy and Co. They’ve been glued, riveted, and bolted into place to ensure they can carry the load.
Now we’re working at fittings for the boom and mast, the first of which has been fitted to the boom and temporarily to our stump mast. We still have some work to do on the goose neck assembly.
As many of you know, RELIANCE was launched 177 days from receipt of order and delivered to the Iselin syndicate 194 days after masting, rigging, and sail testing. So, we’re about 150 scale man-days complete!
The RELIANCE Project 