Hello, I have not posted recently as this is my first planking and I am not proud of the results. As I have progressed in modeling I will redo things if I am not happy with the results...

Now debating whether to start over or continue. I always want to be proud of my results and craftsmanship, so the dilemma🙈😋🙄🐶🚤. My tendency is to start over, comments?
Joe

Colin,
I hear you, I was a Fleet Admiral, but my fleet was a couple of sailboats and two tugs! Joe

Question, is this intended to be a scale static model or are you building a sailing RC model?
Joe

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Back to posting again....I decided to added an auxiliary motor since I had several laying around and it will come in handy when I am tweaking the sailing setup in case I get stuck in the middle of the pond. Made a stuffing tube just like I did on my rescue tug build. Made a shaft from some 3/16" steel rod, threaded it and polished it up, works great.

Photo of the aft section shows continued hull framing and upside down mount of the rudder servo. I will enclose the servo with the small pilot house as is typical on the barge. This will make maintenance and adjustment access easy.

Yes, the build is wandering away from the true "Pearl" which I used the hull plans from. it will maintain the same sail plan, but I will modify some items for ease of RC use.

Bowsprit will be retractable, bitts are shown in progress. The bowsprit will be made from a carbon fiber "arrow shaft". Mast will be wood and I am shaping out of maple that I have.

Staring to plank the hull as well. More to come shortly,
Joe

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Hello,
Airboats are not something I have real experience with, but your one comment got my attention: SuperGlue, or CA, an abbreviation, as it is commonly referred to.

It does not withstand constant exposure to water. it is not waterproof. Now there is likely to be a storm of comments against this, but this is based upon experience over 20 years.

CA is great and I do use it for some applications on my boats. However if it's below the waterline make certain to adequately sealed or properly painted over it.

This is a good rule for most glues that sit below the water, with the exception of truely waterproof glues like epoxy.

Good luck with your projects. Cheers Joe

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I have the same issue...cost / budget. I enjoy mechanical devices and have though about steam for years. But cost is high and I do not have machinist quality tools to scratch build. Are there low cost solutions out there!
Joe

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Ed / Donnieboy,
Thank you for the compliments, I appreciate it. it's the first quick build, most of mine take 1-2 years. it's making me think about how to improve on build times. Thanks again.
Joe

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I like the detailed photos, looks good, I have been looking for some witches so thanks for the info. Overall I enjoyed seeing the build as it is something very different from what I normally do. Congratulations on a nice build. Cheers, Joe

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Martin,
Your Subs are very nice, beautiful workmanship! Your skill at tin work is inspiring.
Joe

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Looking at the proper rudder location, I added some 1/4 triangular hardwood blocking to both sides of the centerboard. Needed blocking to drill through. Was able to pickup the work board and all fit under my drill press to keep the hole plumb. Rudder post will be a 1/4 brass rod with brass tube as a bushing. See photo, brass tube in hull.

Next, I built a rudder substructure assembly which will be covered later with a wood or styrene full size rudder to fit the era. Took some very thin brass and formed it around the post, some brass plate and soldered as seen in photos. Brass heats up and solders well using my soldering station.

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Steve,
You are quite right, I intend to flip it over, build some jigs, when it's time to do the hull "planking". My methods are to experiment along the way on a Build, try different ideas along the way. Decided that I first wanted to build a very straight, rigid keel with stern and bow ribs first. That's why the build board is just a lightweight flat straight surface, I figure out how to clamp it best as I go. Your interest and comments are appreciated, it made me think more about the planking, thanks! Joe

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Hello, Photos attached show my quick inexpensive building board. All I needed was a lightweight, movable board that I could clamp to.
I had a scrap of tempered hardboard about 35" x 16, so I cut two strips from it at about 2" wide from it and used them as legs to keep the thin top flat and straight. Then took some scrap wood pieces as a method to glue and secure. Result was a little table that I could clamp to. Hope this makes sense, but point is work with what you have, I considered a trip to the lumber company for wood, glad I didn't.
Joe

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Hello,
Finally put some finishing touches on my Rescue Vessel BUILD. Added rubber bumpers to assist in rescuing at bow and stern. Removed the smoker unit as these was complicating the build and was against one of my original objectives....Keep it Simple!

Overal all I am pleased with is build, it was fun, quick and built mostly with scraps and parts on hand. The Springer Tug design is a great starter design and can be easily modified to personal tastes. I recommend this to those out there to get some initial or just more experience at building. it's fun!
Joe

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Thanks for posting the jig with the cam action, nice simple and looks pretty effective. I will have to try that soon on some current work. Cheers, Joe

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Hello, it's been a slow week as I started out having some teeth pulled, put me off track so I missed getting some photos. I will get some better shots of what the keel board looks like once I get some clamps out of the way. I will photo how I do the last four ribs as well. Photos show my makeshift board with clamps everywhere. Joe

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Ed,
This is probably my favorite part of a build, deciding what to build! So many great boats out there, how many tugs do you currently have? Just curious..

Do you ever build sailboats? That's how I got started, with sails, like the history and quiet running of course.

Glad to see you are jumping on to the next build, I liked your detailed blog on the Brooklyn, very well done.
Cheers, Joe

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Printed out the frames /ribs drawings and outlined each in orange so I could easily see the correct lines. Cut those out and pasted to some plywood. The plywood is Baltic Birch 1/4" -5 ply, very nice quality that I get from a local woodworking supply store. it's a bit nicer than from the local warehouse hardware lumber yard, but that would work also. Used some spray rubber cement, sprayed only the paper back and stuck on the plywood. Spraying just one surface allows quick removal of the paper once cut.

I don't have a bandsaw of scroll saw, so I use a sabresaw/hand jigsaw mounted upside down on a surface that secures to my drill press. Works pretty good. My shop is so tiny that I just don't have a space for larger tools. Maybe someday.

Keel board was glued up, will show more tomorrow on that.
Joe

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Spent the last two days studying the barge design and planning the build. First I scanned the small book-page size images, then with my laptop I cropped them into separate smaller images to my chosen scale. I cut, align and tape them, assemble an image that is to the size of the build. in the past I would use the local print shop and just enlarged on their large roll printer. it added up to a lot of money as they are about $7 a shot, with mistakes made it cost too much. Now that I am retired I pinch those pennies much tighter. This was more time consuming but is very accurate.

Next I sketched out the keel board shape, colored up as seen in the photos. Sketch out an idea to accommodate the bulb keel that I intend to add. This one is to sail on Sunday's at the pond, so I will do my best to engineer to sail well.
Cheers Joe

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Do a search and see if you can find the length oh the original boat was. Then I can show you the math.

Example:

90' boat / 45" model

45 divided by 90 equals .5 or 1/2"

So 1/2" = 1'-0" or 1/24th scale

You get scale ... 12" divided by 1/2" equals 24
Good luck, Joe

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Collin, What a great project... I have recently been taking small images and blowing them up by selecting smaller areas, say the cabin roof only, then printing that on A4. Usually these files have high enough resolution to make some very readable files.

if you have a computer, they usually come with some basic drawing tools like "Paint" or use paint.net.... Take the image and open with Paint, then just use the rectangular select tool to pick what you want to enlarge. Then just crop it and you have a nice separate image to save. Be sure you save under a different name so as not to loose the original file. I may be giving you information that you already know, don't mean to insult..

See my photo of some I did last night, pasted about six together to see the 1M boat sections. These are rough as they come from an image only 16cm wide, but good enough for me to build from given some drafting.

Good luck with the build, I will be watching. Joe

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Michael, Thanks for the interest, I hope I can keep up with your high quality of work. Joe

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To clarify this build, it will be a RC Sailing Boat with full functioning rudder and sails. I say this as I am using the PEARL for its design overall, but as to detailed historical details it will have some, but be simplified.

Boat's Dimnsions were shown in Imperial, 21' width x 85'-6" length. The bowsprit adds about another 25% in length. To determine what scale I wanted to build in I thought most about storage, weight to lift and how to transport to the pond. I like to keep things simple, I prefer to rig it and transport while assembled, with the topsail mast dropping and the bowsprit retracted. Have done this before and it has worked well for me.

Looking at potential scales and finished sizes.
* 3/4" or 1/18 scale would be 16" x 64"
* 1/2" or 1/24 scale equals 10.5" x 42.75"
* 3/8" equals 8" x 32"
I prefer a larger bout in length as it is easier to get to sail correctly, at least in my experience. Anything under 32" get tricky. I like the 64" size, but with bowsprit will be about 88" LOA. This will be a little too large for my vehicle. I decided to go with 1/2" scale as it will still be a good length hull.

Ribs - I took the hull line drawings from the book, which were very small, just about an inch wide. I scanned the image and using the app "paint" on my laptop. I cropped it close around the hull rib drawing, I then enlarged it to 1/2" scale. Then I printed on standard letter sized paper, then mirrored the image cut them in two, pasted up as seen in the photos to show the completed rib sections.

Next I will put together a building board / hull jig. I want to build bottom up for planking. DO any of you have any good ideas for the best one to build? I have never done this except for tiny boats.

Ideas, Help would be appreciated. Joe

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Chris,
That's very interesting - your Pearl, I assume you meant the real, full scale one..? What kind of barge was it?

Thank you for your interest, Joe

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Hello,
As I have mentioned before, I like the workboats from the age of sailing. The sailing barges caught my interest some time ago on one of my stays in the UK and I recently purchased a number of books on them. interesting history, more to it than I realized. Finally decided to build a Ketch Barge that is categorized as a Boomie as well. Several reasons; I wanted to model one of the larger ones, this one is 85', and I like gaff rigged boats with booms. Topsails a must as well and I like ketches. This one fits the bill and who could resist the chance to set 7 to 8 sails!

Frank Carr's book tells the story of the barge Pearl and included plan, elevation, lines and sail plans. Nice bit of information, I can build with that. See attached photos. This will probably be a lengthy build, my Falmouth Gaff-rigged Cutter took me two years. I built that one while on assignment in Grand Cayman using only my small kit OD hand tools. More to come, hope to start this week. Cheers, Joe

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Ed,
Good to see you found what you need. I like to use the 6 volts in my tugs as well. My original thinking was that I like to keep my 550 motors running at a lower rpm. The tugs should be slow and powerful, not a speedboat! Good luck completing the work.
Joe

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That's a nice looking kit, I like fishing boats, all work boats in general. Should be a fun challenge, but looks very doable in RC. Good luck!
Joe

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Additional photos

Today I did a full test of current smoker build, it went very well, nice consistent smoke, very visible. I used just straight a mineral Oil, type sold in Pharmacies. I chose not to use the baby oil again because it had too much of an odor. See video attached.

I ran it for one hour, it stays consistent and there was no build up of heat, tin stayed cool. Check of the heating element and wick showed no damage, no build up of any kind, very clean.

When I get a chance, I will put a multimeter on it and test the draw so I can fuse it properly. Thanks for you interest.
Joe

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Michael,
Thank you for your interest and the questions, I appreciate it.

1. With regard to the rubber stopper, good question. I have not done a lengthy test as yet, but will do. My thinking was that it would not effect the rubber as heat generated seems to be concentrated on the oil. I like the idea of a a metal cap, you have given me an idea, I have some small plumbing pieces that may work. it would be good to eliminate all flammable materials!

2. Varying the smoker with the engine speed has not been one of my goals, here is my thinking. I plan to use this unit on a steam tug, steam boilers seem to put out a constant smoke as the burning does not vary on a steam engine, the steam is just regulated. Hence, I have not done this, many commercial units offer this.

I recently purchased a commercial unit for over $100 USD and was not happy with the output, that is why I started this build.

From my video you can see how the smoke shoots out. I wanted to slow it down so it just puffs. I have experimented with lowering the fan voltage, but it cuts out below 3 volts. The attached sketch shows my experimenting with allowing some of the air from the fan to npbe redirected out. The tin that I soldered up is shown, took a lot of effort, did not work as planned. I did like the fact that it looked like a whiskey still.

3. Yes, there are smaller fans available on line. I was just using some salvage ones I had - 28mm square. I may experiment with some small fans if budget allows. I am now retired and counting pennies...

More on the puffing aspect to come...
Joe

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Third update today, make sure you see the two prior to this one.

Mounted fan and built a styrene plastic enclosure around it. Sealed the edge with some silicone.

Shown now with stopper inserted. it's ready for a test but I need to add some support legs to keep it vertical as it just rolls over right now.
Joe

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