the hull, from Delftship: http://s65.photobucket.com/albums/h237/kotori87/?action=view¤t=BitondoCorvette_Linesplan.jpg I have not yet decided on mast locations and sail plan yet.
Ok, try this. plans Aft view Fore view As you can see, it is a very simple hull shape, but still more accurate than the footie you discovered. After printing off the plans and seeing how big it's really gonna be at 2 feet, I have vetoed Gascan's plan to build two of them. We'll do one, and maybe a second if the first is easy to do.
Okay. I'm hideously under the weather (been a heck of a couple of months for health here), and it's raining and cold-ish outside. So instead of dragging myself out to the shop this morning, I'm cutting out my paper frames and glueing them to the 1/4" sand pine plywood (7.99 for a 2' x 4' sheet) so that when the omens are auspicious, I can cut the big buggers out and start on a proof-of-concept hull. For everyone waiting with baited breath on Edgar Quinet, I'm posting a couple of lessons later today, minus a few pics that I will add later.
Another question, what rigs are legal? Only square-riggers, or are brigandines and other more modern rigs allowed, a la Gorch Foch/USCGS Eagle?
I got home from work a couple days ago and there was a big box sitting in my room. It had a pretty picture on the front, and the label said "Revell USS Constitution 1:96 scale". Huh. I wonder where that came from... I think that, for now at least, we should try to stick with period-accurate sail plans for the Napoleonic era. I also think that the emphasis should be on primarily square-rigged vessels. Perhaps reducing the number of guns for every solely fore-and-aft rigged mast? Just a thought, but I'd much rather see full-rigged ships out there than bunches of schooners and other fore-and-aft only vessels.
I prefer the squre-rigger look as well. Doing some historical reading on when the stay'sl's came into vogue, but I think that it was post-napoleonic era.
From some looking at the various images/paintings of Trafalgar, many ships carried 1 or 2 jibs, some had spankers aft (no puns intended), including Victory. They ran 3 sails per mast, the topsails and topgallants not being broken into smaller half-height sails as happened later. So, 3 sails per mast, not counting the jibs and the spanker.
Got the Artemis ribs laid out and the keel drawn onto 1/4" sand pine ply (cheap stuff but okay). It's been cold as heck this week, so I started work on a Footy (Razor3 design) to work out my sailing skills. Not a square rigger, but it'll teach me some about shiphandling and wind. Sloop rigged with a midsize jib. Going to run it on my old 27MHz 2-channel with a couple of sub-micro servos that were laying around. Also saw a pic of the Constitution... she ran a spanker sail, too, guess that's okay to use.
Wow, the Razor3 is a tough build, but I got the hull together. When the directions say 'balsa must be pre-bent' they weren't kidding! NO frames, just a deck, a transom, and 4 long pieces of balsa to make several compound curves.
I ran an interesting experiment at the gunnery/maneuvering event on Sunday. I rigged some plastic sails on my VU's two tall masts, and set her loose. She made nearly as much headway as she made leeway. wow. That, and she kept on turning upwind because of her hull shape. I expect much better performance from USS Constitution when she is complete, but the basic idea is proven, and I have a much better idea what I'm doing.
We will have to meet up; HMS Artemis (technically, a French Magicienne-class frigate) is roughly equivalent to Old Ironsides (under the proposed rules, 2 decks of 4 guns each, with 3 masts).
His Piratical Axis Mightyness's Ship HMS Moby Duck set forth on a voyage of discovery today. Thar she blows! A Leviathan from the deep spouts: Passing a barren desert island: A view of the mysterious Eastern Waterspouts, while another sea monster lies in wait for the Moby Duck. Unfortunately this cameraman was unable to capture the most interesting parts of the voyage because he was hanging onto the controls for dear life. Poor Moby Duck ran aground several times, got knocked onto her beam ends many times, and at least twice had her fo'c'sle completely buried during gusts. She even sailed right through one of the smaller fountains. Fortunately, while it may take a genius to get this ship to go where you want it, it'd take more than this fumble-fingered blunderbuss to sink it. Being filled to the scuppers with foam may have something to do with that... After sailing just about everywhere on the pond, I finally found a place that was really fun to sail in. It was so fun that I was too busy sailing to take pictures! It was a large fountain sculpture, with a big pool around it. Sailing in and around the various monolithic stone blocks and gushing fountains was very interesting, and the winds were far less squirrely than on the larger pond below. Best of all, the waterfall leading down to the pond was too shallow for the Duck to sail over, so she was in no danger of total destruction. A few observations after my first few voyages: an extended keel and oversized, extra-deep rudder are critical to operating a square-rigged vessel in this scale. I propose we allow unlimited keel, so long as the basic hull is correct. Obviously we need some sort of limit on rudders. Keep in mind that Moby Duck's rudder is currently at about 500%-600% oversize, much of which was used to reach deeper down. Another thing I noticed was that square-rigged ships are slow. It was hard to get a proper estimate of her fastest speed, but it was definitely in the Big Gun speed range, not Fast Gun. Overall, I would estimate my cruising speed ranged from 6 knots to 25 knots on the Big Gun chart, with the occasional burst of 30+ knots. These bursts were utterly terrifying, however, as the ship would usually have her lee rail under and water spilling in through the gun ports. We should seriously consider simply painting on gunports, except for the armed ones. Even those would require some sort of sealing. We should also seriously consider using a small electric motor to provide steering way (about 6 to 10 knots on the chart), with sails to provide a speed boost. I have a few more modifications, tune-ups, and repairs to make on this ship before I take her out again. Hopefully next time will have more consistent winds. Today was mostly gusts from several directions, so the ship went from coasting to roller-coasting to backing in seconds. I can't wait for the next voyage. Yo ho, yo ho, a square-rigger's the ship for me.
WOW!! Nice work! I was leaning towards painting the 'surplus' gunports as well. Several of the scale sailers' pages that I read suggested a deep keel like a foot below the keel. Your minimum speed would go up if you could fit mainsails below the two pairs you have now. A spanker and a jib (or 2) would help also. But DAMN that's cool.
Hey Carl, out of curiosity, how much does Moby Duck weigh? Also, if you run mainsl's vice topgallants, your heeling moment will be a lot less for the same breeze. While it's true that in RL, the wind is stronger higher up, a 20cm difference in height won't reach an appreciably stronger wind, but it WILL dramatically lower the heeling tendency. I need to get Artemis off the plywood and onto the water to gather more data. What material are you using for sails? I'm going to be testing parachute silk from a 40mm flare, light but strong. Edit: I concur with unlimited keel as long as the ship looks right while sailing; operational realities will limit the practical length of a keel, so no max depth should be mandated. I was doing some reading (Alexander Kent, good man'o'war stuff set around the time of the American Revolution), and I got to thinking about a small electric motor for times of dead calm. In the old days, the captain could deploy the rowboats with lines attached to pull the ship along. So really, we'd be recreating that I don't want it to get rediculous but I think a small motor and prop would be good. And it'd help with steerage like you say, not necessarily a bad thing. Edit 2: I think that sealing the gunports is a good idea; maybe spooge some RTV around the barrels to make a rubber seal from the barrel to the 'window' of the gunport...
Moby Duck weighs 4lbs 10oz to scale waterline as marked on the plastic hull. She has 2lbs 4 oz of lead weight on the bottom of her keel. I've been busy as a bee making a wider variety of sails. I now have all the basics: courses, topsails, topgallants, royals, two jibs, and a spanker. They can also be taken off if need be. I took the Duck out for another spin today. Wind conditions were same as last time, gusting from multiple directions. Last time topsails and topgallants proved too much, so I rigged courses and topsails plus the fore-and-aft sails. The fore-and-afts are currently fixed, but I plan to control them soon. The new rig made a huge difference on performance. She didn't get knocked down, and she didn't get driven under. With the new fore-and-aft sails, she seemed to sail into the wind better, as well. I'd write more but it's late and I'm tired.
Glad to hear that courses were useful for improving the ship's handling. From the start, I have been envisioning a lead bulb keel about a foot under the hull. Today I spent 7:30 to noon-ish helping an older gentleman sell the contents of his wood shop (he's gotten to where he can't safely use it); as a thank-you, he cut me a deal on a NICE Delta bandsaw and a shaper, and a million hand tools, and some nice wood, amongst which were the 3 masts for Artemis, and some mahogany for rails and detailing The bandsaw's first project will be cutting Artemis' ribs. Arty will be running courses, topsails, 2 jibs, and a spanker. Maybe fore-and-aft sails, but we'll see how she does without them. I will have room on the masts for topgallants, but not planning on fitting them until I see how she handles without them.
I wanted a lead bulb a foot under the keel, but my local pond (not the club battle pond) is too shallow. With an 8-inch keel, I still scrape the bottom occasionally. Not to mention run-ins with giant koi, fountain pipes, and giant monolithic stones. I hope to try out a number of different keel/rudder combinations, to see what works best. I would recommend that you include topgallants and royals. You'll probably take them off when the wind picks up, but they do help a lot in light wind conditions. Plus the ship looks soooo cool with all sails set: I have not yet taken any more pictures of her sailing because I usually need both hands to keep her sailing. She sure looks pretty with all sails set on a broad reach. My next big goal is a major re-rigging. I want to replace the tape holding the sails with line, and I need to hook up the controls for the jibs and spanker.
Guys this is awesome. I really want to do this.. but you know that it might only be you two.. right... who else is going to be able to sail this ship with all the complicated sailing maneuvers and then shoot at another ship... with all the tipping around when you try to get close for a shot your masts will become inter-twined together... I think sailing for fun is great but for battles it might be better to drop the sails and run on motor. The level of sophistication and complexity that you guys are adding is IMHO going to make this available to only a handful of current participants - if they even want to do it. I want to do this.. but its way over my head. I can drop sails and drive a ship with a motor though! I just think it should be battling first, sailing second. Keep in mind that most likely the only one to put a shot into another boat would be the better sailor... so 1 or 2 guys at a battle will be able to make holes.. the rest will probably lose interest as they want to battle and they cant. The guys most interested in sailing probably wont want you to shoot their ship. Please keep us other guys in mind, as you move forward and forge a new group. That way we can join you!
