The pictures are of basic rigging made from fishing traces, they are made of stainless steel multI strand wire covered in plastic, ends are made off with crimped steel sleeves.

Turnbuckles are machined brass rod but with only M3 threads, these are a bit delicate, so I intend to change these to aluminium with larger threads. As I only have RH taps I use fishing swivels on one end to allow the barrel to rotate.

I will upload photos in another entry.

Pics of rigging and attachments.

I have at last finished the main boom and goose neck/kicker.

Boom is fabricated from 2 mm ply and has taken a long time after trouble with paint. Goose neck and kicker is made from usual source of old water fittings some of which are soldered together, it has come out a bit heavier than I would have liked but will do for a start, it may look better if it was painted but I think that a coat of varnish will be the method.

After another long break back to the subject of the VALSHEDA.

I have decided to change the model from a sailing one back to display only, as I realise that putting boats into and out of water is not as easy as it was, in addition my younger son has moved in the USA and now resides in Marblehead MA where he has a big shelf over a fireplace that was made for a model yacht, particularly an English one in this year of a new challenge for the America cup.

I have for some time been searching the web for detail pictures of the VALSHEDA but there are some but much of the detail is not easy to see. Whilst looking for the position of the boat I found that she was in the UK and had moved from Falmouth to Southampton last week. So on Saturday 11 July I got up early and made the trip there from Bristol.

I was hoping to be able to get near to take some photos but initially found that the berth was up against a major reconstruction of the wharf and was enclosed by security fencing. it was a good job that it was a Saturday and there was no work in progress or any " jobs worth " H & S security and I managed to find a way through the fencing, there was only one small opening. From the wharf above the boat I managed to get a good range of shots of the details of, in particular the deck fittings.

I am at present starting to paint the hull and it is surprising the number of spray cans required. My deck planking detail is not very good as the planks should be much thinner and not mahogany coloured, but it would be a lot of work to re do this and in any case, as it will be displayed above eye level not many people will notice.

However the mast and rigging will all require re making but I think I can save the boom and I am still trying to make some good sails.

I would like to make the new mast from carbon fibre on a timber core using a woven tube of fibre, I would be grateful of any advice on the method of doing this from those that have tried.

The actual deck details on the real boat look like they are all manufactured from stainless steel and the cost must have be astronomical, but they are beautifull bits of engineering to compliment a beautiful boat. I intend to make as many as possible in brass and then have them chrome plated.

This is my second attempt to day to do this blog, but last time I attached some photos and it may have overloaded the system so I am sending text only on this with a follow up with pics.

Here are a few pics.

If there are any other VALSHEDA builders out there, if you send me an SD card min 100 mb and an sae I will downoad all my pics, ther are too many to send via the net at my upload speed.

I did not think it was possible to fit the deck detail with the old main hatch in place and the colour and plank widths were wrong. So made the big decision to take off old mahagony deck and repace with 3 mm lime. I had put the mahagony strip on with the non solvent version of evo stick so it was not a very tight bond and could be stripped without any significant damage to the main plywood deck.

It is a bit of a long job but have done port side see pic. now for the other side I can only do about 4 strips at a time otherwise glue goes off.

As usual it is a long interval since last up date but some progress has been made on the Valsheda and I attached some pics that had to be done indoors as it is a bit wet from the sky outside.

I have finished the decking and basic painting of hull also started lime planking of deck fittings to bring into line with decking.

Have worked out positions of winches on deck and obtained stock of brass rod at a sensible price from a local scrap yard. I have to produce some drawings of winches and get into production and have found someone who can plate them with a bright finish near to stainless steel.

The Management of the Bristol Aero Collection has recently sacked me as a volunteer for being too critical of them so I will have more time to get on with the boat and with rising temperatures the garage is a bit more comfortable.

With the warmer weather coming I will soon have to think about the manucture of the carbon fibre mast, has anyone else made one and can give me some guidance ? I am thinking of a timber core with a woven fibre tube covering. Also thinking of how to attach main sail to mast.

After another long delay with the Lock In in progress and the Aero Collection in a state of failure I at last got up enough enthusiasm to start the manufacture of the 21 winches required for the VALSHEDA, the warm weater in my cold garage helped. In three days I have done the majority of the hard work in making them from solid brass. Later I intend to work out the final details of the tops and to have them either nickel or chrome plated.

Another job I did not want to do was to lengthen the boom as the conversion from toy boat to display model required changing the rigging and mast position.

I still have some detail work to do on the deck houses, the next big job is the new mast and where possible incorporation of the wire work supporting the mast.

Attached is a picture as it is today with winches temporarily fitted, they all screw on with M6 threads into bushes in the deck.

I have not got very far with the detail of how to make a carbon fibre encased timber mast.

I was going to try and enclose the timber core with a tubular sleeve of carbon fibre but I have not had any luck in finding it in this form and it would be very expensive that way.

Now thinking of either just sticking a woven strip down each side of a basically rectangular section or trying to have a wider strip of carbon fibre tape and folding round the leading edge of the mast and sticking the folded back parts to the sides.

I have never had any experience with woven carbon and I do not know how well it folds. The most available material available is at 200 gms, per meter sq.

Is there any advice out there.