Tag Archives: keel

Finally: The Painting Has Begun!

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.

New Feats and Footies

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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…

Prepping for Paint and Sails

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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!

The Rudder Saga Continues

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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:

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!