Bernard Kelly

Got the fixed rigging done. Now to the front movable stays and sail rigs.

A lot depends on the type, size and scale of the SIB, but I tend to try and give the impression of bending the sails to to the yards, etc, as they would be for real. For yards, I stab pinholes through the sail below the edge, the holes can be hardened with a spot of glue on the pin and then use thin thread with the end hardened with glue to 'sew' the sails on to the yard. Some dilute PVA holds everything in place. For staysails, I do the same, but around a length of brass wire of suitable thickness. The thread is stiffened in place with dilute PVA and then slid off when dry. The stays are threaded through these loops, this allows the sails to move on the stay until rigging is complete and can then be glued to the final position. For gaff rigged, I make the mast rings out of suitable stryene  tube, paint it and tie the sails to the rings with thread. The photos just manage to show these. Try it on a piece of dowel and paper first.
Stay safe
Alan

I like to use a cow hitch on the hard arm and us the loose ends to tie it to the mast.  I find drilling holes weakens the mast so I try to avoid drilling holes where I can. 

Not much progress this weekend- cleaned up the trestle and did the first round of rigging. The bowsprite was quite easy. I have some doubts about the frizzy thread. Tried to reduce it with some wax, white glue and varnish, but with doubtful results. What do you think is good to reduce the frizz on polyether thread? Otherwise the thread looks good- color and tightness are great. Thanks for the comments!

Yay!! Finally, got 'er in there and sailing along. I plan on carving a stand for it that is a sea turtle, upside down with the bottle resting on it's belly. I "turned turtle the first time I ever sailed one of these. I was by myself, had no clue what I was doing (left the main sheet cleated), and it turned into an 8 hour nightmare of lessons learned. Thus the "turned turtle" stand idea.

Sometimes it’s just good to walk away for awhile. Very frustrating. That sailor should go to Captain’s Mast...Moab

Well this is proving difficult. This rascal has been in and out of the bottle 4 times! This morning I thought I had it, until this sailor jumped over board and I hopelessly tangled every line around trying to get him back on board. I'm just going to take a deep breath, count to 10 and figure it out.

Your hull really looks excellent...Moab

Wow, she looks beautiful!

Very nice!  Excellent!

Basic hull is naow complete. I’ve used a 0.8mm drill overall. Still need to do the holes on the side bumbpers. Then the dreaded rigging... 
plasticine sea was still malleable even after 30 years. I am still deciding if i go qith murky north sea grean or dark blue as a high atlantic sea colors.

Worth the effort you've put into it,looks great.

I’ve CADded the original cardboard sheet and reprinted the parts in 180g paper (allegedly the thickest stock the laser printer woul pull). I sprayed the bottom hull with tamiya hill red and the insides of the side panels dark grey. The side panels were then cut o size, the front groove cut to match the contour of the forward pole and glued to the hull using pva glue- micro crystal clear.

Boy just when you think you know something... I spent all day today and managed to get the first of the two catamarans in the bottle. I had to use a small roll of putty to squish the hulls into to keep them straight. 
 

My dads ship cap on top in bed of wax maybe. Name on stern is Zacky. He was  born 1928 so I assume built in central Florida in 30’s

My ships name is Zacky. Probably made in Florida in 30’s as father was born in 1928. Value priceless any info or thoughts appreciated

My dads ship in bottle
made 1930’s in central Florida. 
many information appreciated. 
thoughts of re setting of fallen sail. 
Bottle in octagon 7” tall with 1” openings. 

Houston, ...we have a problem. It did not go as expected and I have pulled the one I tried to rig up, back out. I have only minor damage and I think I have figured out a better way to get them in there. Stay tuned, it has only strengthened my resolve to get them in there. 

I completely ruined my original bottle by messing around trying to save it from angry epoxy seas. I got goo on the inside and slop for a base so... I got a new bottle. This time instead of epoxy, I rolled up some plastalina in the shape of my "sea base", slid it in and unrolled it. It was a bit hard to unroll so I put it on a heating pad for a while and that helped.

 
Once I had the Plastalina clay tamped down, I rolled up the "sea base" and slid it in.
 
Once in the bottle I flipped the "sea base" over, put some glue on it then flipped it on top of the Plastalina clay.

I pushed down on the "sea base" into the clay as best I could. Then I held the bottle over the gas burner on my stove for a minute to soften the clay and accept the "sea base". I put a little white silicon on the bottom of my starting buoy and placed it in the far end of the bottle.


 I started a dry practice run to put the catamarans in the bottle and I broke a peg that goes from the trampoline deck into the hull.  I've glued that up, but I have used up my daily supply of patience. Tomorrow looms hopeful.

All these hulls never made it into a bottle, for one reason or another. I'm getting quite a collection now! Anybody else have any failed ship stories that never got off the drawing board and into a bottle?

"Fram" designed and built by Colin Archer and used by Roald Amundsen for his Antarctic expedition.
 

So I ran into a bit of trouble. I mixed a two part epoxy to go into the bottle as a base for my "sea". I'm not sure where I went wrong but it wasn't getting hard, so I put a bit more of the hardener in and swirled it with a stick. It helped some but as you can see there is still a little fluid on the top of what has hardened.

In doing all this, it rose the sea level to high tide and messed up my plans a bit. The way I originally had the cats oriented, when flying a hull it would hit the roof of the bottle. So, I have been experimenting with a different orientation so now when the cats are flying a hull, the mast top will be tipped over lengthwise into the bottle instead of sideways. Hope that made sense.


 
I buried a couple of "pegs" for each cat hull in the acrylic so when slid on, they assume the correct posture. True to form, I typically do things 3 or 4 times before it is acceptable. It's working out well in my mind at this point, so hopefully that translates to minimal issues on bottle day.