I’m aware another member of this forum is also building a Bristol Pilot Cutter “Katie”, so I hope members don’t mind if I share my progress with the same model. The drawings that come with the hull moulding show some information but leave plenty for the builder to work out for themselves. I did buy the reprint (1999) of "The Sailing Pilots of the Bristol Channel" written by Peter Stuckey and first published in 1977. There are also lots of photos on the internet, which can help. The aim is to a make model that sails but also looks reasonably accurate. To help judge the scale, which is 1/12 th, I bought a dolls house figure to the same scale.

I added a length of 7/16th brass sq. section to the keel. Adds strength, weight low down and also increases the lateral resistance. The final ballast will be lead shot, testing in the bath. The plan is to use two winches, one for the main and the other for the jibs. In this way these can be sheeted in as on a full size boat, moving across as the boat tacks, although I don’t expect great windward performance.

There is a blog https://building-katie.blogspot.com/ - which shows some more photos.

This is the mainsail winch in place for testing. The mainsheet will come through the deck via a brass sleeve and up to the boom, where it will run along the boom and out to the transom. The 450mm travel on the winch slider should just give enough movement for the boom to travel out.

I may consider some form of cover to the winch drum to help prevent "tangles"

Hopefully the photos will show where things are. The next stage is to get the rudder working. Initially I'd hoped to use rods from the servo but this won't work, so it will be two cables. On full size boats, the shroud plates were bent over the rubbing strake. This would be a bit of a fiddle, so a cut out has been made. The shroud plates still need to be made, as well as the method of attaching the rigging blocks.

The rudder is now fitted and works fine. One of the challenges is to make it easy to remove. Once the cables are detached from the servo, they will slide through the tubes in the transom. The rudder can then be removed.

The reefing doesn't actually work but could be made to. However, as its not really a practical solution for when it gets windy. The only solution in this situation is to remove the top sail and may be one of the jibs. This doesn't work then its into the clubhouse for a cup of tea.

The sails are not permanently attached to the spars. This exercise was to check how everything would come together and where various lines would run etc.

Is the gooseneck in the correct place, does the jack spar work and is the mast rack correct etc? The lower mast step was designed to be adjustable, which has now been fixed in place.

The block/pulley fixed next to the lower mast step is for the mainsheet, which will go vertically up to the deck just behind the mast, before running on the underside of the boom and then down to the stern.

There is a false deck made from 1.5mm ply. It was a bit like making a jigsaw. The copper tubes are for the jib sheets, which run round the block which will be attached to the post, one each side.

On the full size/real Pilot Cutters the scuppers go along most of the length of the boat. Decided to make 4 each side, to maintain the integrity of the hull. Have made the rails for the belay pins, which in real life would be about a foot long, so on the model that's an inch. Not quite certain how to make them yet - they will need to be functional.

Have started the planking, a practice in the centre area - which is easy. Not done this before but followed other's practice of gluing thin black card to the edge of the wood. The question is - what happens when you get to the curved edge? Do you trim/shape the planks to fit and then add some strips of black card - or do you try and glue thin strips of the card direct to the margin plank - and then there is the "nibbed" ends ! - any advice before I go further is welcome.

I do intend to paint the margin plank, scuppers, frame tops etc white before I go any further. The capping rail will be the last thing to add and have bought some 4mm mahogany, which will be cut to shape/fit.

The first few planks were added to a small area but with a little investigation it soon became clear these were slightly off centre. By using two 1 metre lengths of the planking material it was possible to line everything up, it also showed up that two edges of the deck openings were slightly "off". A couple of thin tapered pieces of wood brought the openings in line.

Decided to give "joggling" ago and are making steady progress, one line of planking at a time. Have included caulking as well - there seems to be a variety of approaches on different boats, so hopefully this will look satisfactory once finished. The planks are 10mm wide - which at 1/12 scale equals around 4 inches - which may be a touch wide but hopefully won't be to much of a distraction.

Thanks for the positive comments
Much appreciated
Have continued but found as the planking gets nearer the centre of the boat, the angles that need to be cut become more shallow and hence more difficult to keep straight. Also a cut finger didn’t help, a small amount of blood seems to go along way!