Amaryllis, a catamaran built by Herreshoff, is being taken down from the rafters to be cleaned and re-hung for better viewing pleasure. Upon bringing it down for inspection, we were surprised to see a speedometer and underwater speed measurement device in the hull!
Here’s an old photo of the Amaryllis, for perspective.
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.
They painted the bottom a golden bronze just like the polished bronze plates on the original.
The finished product:
Early last week, Keith, Herb, Steve, and Sandy erected a tent frame to put the RELIANCE model under. Buck from the world-renowned Itchiban Yacht Painters stopped by to form the actual tent.
On Thursday, Buck returned and put the first five coats of primer on the boat. Buck says he’ll come back on Monday with another person to block down the shear and keel, though he thinks it is “good enough.” I sense he’s really bought into our boat and it is now his boat! On Monday, the plan is that he’ll “block” long board the hull with 150 grit and then put another 3 coats of primer on. We will then sand to 400 grit and he’ll return for finishing coats.
We’ve started assembling the jib halyard. Burr made all the links, while Bruce threaded he shackle pins. Bern tapped said shackles to receive the pins.
Meanwhile, the endless toil of filling and fairing both the rudder and the boat continues. Bruce, Bern , Zach spend plenty of their time working on this; just look how much dust we can make!
Chris Broman visited the museum this past weekend, flush from victory with his “footie” yacht at the World Marine Trade Conference in Providence. He’d also attended a breakfast presentation Sandy gave there on the wonderfully modern Herreshoff Manufacturing Company.
We have our own “footie” champion, Mike, so the challenge has been issued!! Note, Chris has a split mainsail and boom; an airfoil shape but also goes wing and wing downwind! Just a little G2…
The crew has been working diligently so that the RELIANCE model can be finished for the museum’s opening this coming spring.
We have put hanks onto the rigging for both the jib top sail and the stay sail; these pieces will be used to sew the sails directly into the rigging.
Meanwhile, Laura is working hard to finalize the overall rigging within the mast system.
While this has been going on, the struggle to perfectly fair the hull and keel has continued. Sandy spent a good portion of time on this duty, while Zach sanded the rudder down so that it would form well into place. He managed to take a short enough break to get a quick photoshoot!
Over the past couple of weeks, we have been working towards finalizing the rudder addition. In the last blog post, you all saw Keith’s work at setting up the the set of pintles to the keel. Since then, the crew has added metal borders to each side of this pintle set. These borders were meant to keep the RELIANCE hydrodynamic when using the rudder.
Afterwards, Bern got to work drilling and filing a hole into the bottom of the hull for the rudder’s stock to fit into.
While this was being set up, Sandy and Zach spent time sanding the rudder’s stock in order for it to fit perfectly.
The result and almost finished product:
We’ve now got the topmast lodged onto the rest of the mast’s body, with Herb working on some rigging details. While slaving away in his lonely corner of Building 28, Herb noticed an error on the spreader’s rigging: one of the wires was too short. Fortunately, he was swift to correct the wiring, and has since progressed on the spreader/mast system.
Keith is beginning the process of attaching the rudder to the model. He’s screwed a long metal piece–a set of gudgeons–to the back of the keel; the rudder will be pinned to this piece by a series of pintles.
An interesting fact we discovered is that the RELIANCE’s rudder was actually held up by a bearing attached to the lower part of the ship’s hull. Still figuring out how we’re going to work that into the design.
Meanwhile, Steve is working on setting up turnbuckles to be plugged and added to the overall structure.
As we near (what we hope to be) the beginning of the end of this project, the job of painting the RELIANCE model becomes ever-present.
Bern–with a little help from Sandy–added several coats of Marine Premium Filler to the upper hull in order to fill any indentations and spot any errors we’ve made along the way. The filler hardened extremely fast, so Bern really had to utilize his youthful energy for this task.
The crew then transitioned to the fairing phase, taking shifts sanding down the coats in preparation for priming, which should be happening within the next couple weeks.
We’re leaving the actual painting of the RELIANCE to the pro’s. By the end of October, our dear readers should expect a beautifully painted model–and maybe, if Keith gets his way, some flame magnets!
Bill built a wooden cradle to hold our 1,500 pound steel display cradle. As you can see in the pictures, it has been tilted at 15 degrees so the boat will be level while we paint her hull and complete our work on deck and attach deck-level rigging (when on display, the steel plate will lie on the floor and RELIANCE will heel over.)
Finally, after more than a decade on its work cradle, RELIANCE will be lifted off and bolted onto its display cradle. We send you the last pictures of RELIANCE in her work cradle and all movable fittings removed in preparation.
We continued with our drilling of three holes through the keel these last few days. Through these holes we’ll insert three rods which form the internal cradle support. The rods will be braced in “donuts” attached to new thwart-ship beams just below the deck.
We started on Tuesday last week by ensuring everything was aligned and ready to go. By the end of the day we had drilled the forward hole and had started the middle hole. By end of work session on Saturday we’d completed the middle hole and were 6″ into the aft hole. Last Tuesday we completed drilling and cut out the deck and cleared internal structures so the rods could be inserted to their full length.
Over the next few weeks, we’ll construct the deck-level thwart-ship beams and donuts and lock the rods in place. Once that is accomplished, RELIANCE will go back into her builder’s cradle and we’ll complete all the under-deck tasks such as:
– Installing the mast step
– Installing sheaves and cleats for through-deck halyards and sheets
– Fastening key deck fittings and chain plates as required
Hopefully, she’ll be back in her working cradle before Thanksgiving!
Engineer Steve works on new technique
Keith takes over on Tuesday
Cushy job. Engineer Keith takes Steve’s technique to a new level
Drilled!
Drilled!
Deck is marked in prep for cutting access hole
Clearing away plywood impediments to mounting rods
Work continues late into the afternoon
View from inside – all lined up!
First rod goes in
All three rods are dry-fitted to be equidistant from waterline
Core samples from cutting operation
Core samples showing thickness of the fiberglass
The RELIANCE Project 