Spray - Boston

[Gil]

Originally Posted by Leif Ohlsson

Oh, I remember this. Very good to see it evolve! What a difference in technology 8 years does bring... - L.

Imaging tools have improved a great deal as has my understanding of them. A lot of learning is still by trial and error. Next step in CPU technology is Floating Point Array Processor Accelerators. Jury's still out on how much this will improve render times though I'm fairly sure that it will have a positive impact. There'll be more news on this in Septemeber...,

Originally Posted by jimkrauzlis

Cool subject!

Looking forward to seeing this come to shape; the deck planking looks fantastic!

Cheers!
Jim

I've been researching this for around 10 years and have collected most of the printed material on the subject. Separating fact from fiction is the age old preoccupation of anyone doing model design on a subject that no longer exists. The design lives vicariously by old photo image substantiation. See the porthole windows on the posted deck and deckhouse render? They didn't exist on the around the World voyage. Note also the curvature of the deckhouse' roof line. Bad choice on my part taken from Russian drawings. Photographs prove that it was a simple radius - nothing fancy. Still looking for details on what I think was a Hyde Anchor Windlass, so if you have info please feed it to me...,

Originally Posted by bailey

Very interested in this; in the 1970s I made a sailing model of Spray from free plans in Model Boat magazine (published in the UK). She sailed pretty well! Slocums book "Sailing alone around the world" is a classic of long distance voyages, and full of good humour as well of good seamanship tips. As far as I remember Spray was first rigged as a yawl, but Slocum got rid of the mizzen mast at some stage of his journey. As far as I know there are no extant plans of Spray, even if there were any at all. Good luck with your unusual project! Bailey

No there aren't any outside of a kit sold by Bluejacket [nice kit by the way]. There's still a lot of argumentation about Spray's lines and it being an "Oyster Dredger" and all. That aside I think the story of an old washed up sea captain resurrecting a decaying boat in Fairhaven, Mass. and then sailing around the World in her is something even the best fiction writer can't come close to. Slocum was a no nonsense type who met life through the practiced eye of a blue water seaman, making adjustments for what he knew would be required for the voyage he had in mind.

Originally Posted by birder

Thank you Gil for informing us (me) of this wonderful little ship and it's professional captain. The book is free on Google
Sailing alone around the world - Google Books

Thanks Birder. Now all can join the fascinating tale and recreation of the legendary and plucky Spray.

On that note the image below shows bowsprit, keel and hull planks. After many tries I am still finding fault with published material. I've got the fantail and midship hull faired but the bow is still giving me fits. New England working boats had a tendency for "apple" style bows which are rather blunt. They differ from the sharper "cutter" bow lines but do not "dig" into the waves in rough weather and chop. Even with CAD it's still a tough swag though I think I'm getting close - maybe this time?

+Gil

[Gil]

After wrangling with the bow section it occurred to me that a different approach might not be a bad idea.

I reexamined the bow curve making changes to its profile and the affected bow keel. The technique simply utilizes Rhino's UV mesh for naturally and perfectly arranged strake lines. Simply put, it makes designing planked hulls an unbelievably simple task. I can now laugh at joggles and stealers...,

Note that the last two strakes look somewhat out of place. Slocum added them in his rebuild for an increased freeboard - a good thing.

The following renders show in-progress work.

+Gil

[jimkrauzlis]

Wow, Gil, that is just extraordinary work. Your rendering provides a wonderful view of the run of the planking, and lets us all see her nice lines even with the added freeboard strakes. I love the background you've added, quite an attractive picture all around!

This is going to be a beautiful little craft!

Looking forward to seeing more!

Cheers!
Jim

[Zathros]

Incredibly fantastic renderings. Looks better than real. Having sailed many years and helped in a few restorations, I thought I would attach some images to show you some of the generally accepted offsets of the Spray. The photograph of the Spray replica shows proper shaping of planks, quite beautiful, actually. Your render looks quite beautiful.

Some tweaking of the planks, and it will be a master piece. That will take care of the gaps and fair her hull. The thin strips on the bottom of a work boat like that just would never do.

While there may not be exact plans of Slocum's boat, there were enough of these boats made and enough boat builders and designers who could and have passed that knowledge forward.

Computers are great things and Rhino is right up there, especially for boat building. If you were to take the "Weston" drawings and use them as a template, proper lines would appear. This is one of the most famous boats in the world. There's a lot out there on it.

I remember seeing a "Spray reproduction (interpretation?)" out of the water at Captain's Cove, in Bridgeport Connecticut. That was a long time ago. In the late '80's and I don't remember the registration number, but being a "Spray" replica, she drew a crowd around her.

[Gil]

Originally Posted by jimkrauzlis

Wow, Gil, that is just extraordinary work. Your rendering provides a wonderful view of the run of the planking, and lets us all see her nice lines even with the added freeboard strakes. I love the background you've added, quite an attractive picture all around!

This is going to be a beautiful little craft!

Looking forward to seeing more!

Cheers!
Jim

Thanks Jim. One thing that's of interest is the things you discover as you progress in a design like Spray. You come across items, which at first don't seem to fit, until you work on them awhile. At some point, what was once a collection of unsorted items, suddenly and for unknown reasons reassembles as a known entity. It's nice when this happens but may take a period of years to occur...,

Originally Posted by Zathros

Incredibly fantastic renderings. Looks better than real. Having sailed many years and helped in a few restorations, I thought I would attach some images to show you some of the generally accepted offsets of the Spray. The photograph of the Spray replica shows proper shaping of planks, quite beautiful, actually. Your render looks quite beautiful.

Some tweaking of the planks, and it will be a master piece. That will take care of the gaps and fair her hull. The thin strips on the bottom of a work boat like that just would never do.

While there may not be exact plans of Slocum's boat, there were enough of these boats made and enough boat builders and designers who could and have passed that knowledge forward.

Computers are great things and Rhino is right up there, especially for boat building. If you were to take the "Weston" drawings and use them as a template, proper lines would appear. This is one of the most famous boats in the world. There's a lot out there on it.

I remember seeing a "Spray reproduction (interpretation?)" out of the water at Captain's Cove, in Bridgeport Connecticut. That was a long time ago. In the late '80's and I don't remember the registration number, but being a "Spray" replica, she drew a crowd around her.

The Weston drawings contain errors but for the time, place and tools available they're excellent.

I have to keep reminding myself that it's a model, the original no longer exists and as long as it looks like the photographs no one will be the wiser. The bow section shown above has the "look" and "feel" of the original. This is good.

Boats and Rhino are two peas in a pod. In fact the Loftsman's Spline is the origin of what later became the mathematical basis for Rhino. First publicized by Pierre Étienne Bézier in 1962 who developed the mathematical algorithms [and named in his honor] for use in the design of car bodies. They stormed the world of computer graphics for nearly two decades before finally settling down. NURBS is and acronym which stands for "Non-Uniform Rational Bézier Splines"...,

They are accurate to any precision desired and form the basis of CAD systems devoted to CAM.

Rhino is just now coming into its own as a rapid prototype software environment with many extremely useful plugins now appearing making it an even more attractive software package. Checkout T-Splines for Rhino for organic shapesj...,

Everyone who has ever drawn a curve in Photoshop or other 2D drawing packages has used a Bézier Spline. They are ubiquitous...,


+Gil

[Zathros]

I tell you that your ability to Render just blows me away. You wouldn't believe what we went through making the programs for bulkheads for CH53 and Blackhawk Helicopters. The ESS fittings on the Blackhawk were a night mare to make. Since my specialty was fixture design, trying to hold these parts on Datum points located on castings that did not sit still was most difficult. I wish I would have had Rhino to calculate the points instead of taking castings and using a 4 axis CNC machine to "locate' the data planes, then writing down the XYZ and B (Rotary) positions. Can't get into too much detail, but I know you already now what I am talking about. Rapid prototyping is a necessity. I think some people would be rather surprised to see what some ships are sailing around the world with, as far as machining and production capabilities.

I would be interested if you tried calculating the displacement of the Spray in Rhino.

I used to captain a 10 meter Pearson, with a 50 foot mast and a 150 Genoa, and a full battened main sail, sloop rig (obviously). We had a Blooper too. It had a 6 foot lead fin keel so you had to steer her constantly, but her 12' 6" beam made her comfortable, and she could sail closed hauled rather well, which made coming home not so laborious, but she took off on a reach. Her name was Cadence.

I really appreciate the history lesson on Rhino, I will be quoting that to some engineer friends, who are still not so up on NURBS modeling, which I do not understand.

[paperairforce]

those are amazing pictures! Looks very artistic really, with the background, lighting and viewing angles - could almost be framed! Looking forward to seeing this unfold

[NStarkel]

I agree with paperairforce those pictures could be framed! and they would look good too!

[Gil]

Hello All,

Thanks for all your kind comments. They are appreciated especially after a problem that takes 8 hours to find a work around, as in the bottom strake to keel joint. Another Rhino Gem: "When all loft commands fail fall back onto the "surface from network" command and crank up the precision".

So after tweaking the strake cross sections the following render provides viewer relief [designer too]. Don't ask about the fantail as it still requires additional work to be an entry in the next post of "Boat Beautiful". Couldn't resist adding a deck + hull render just to show how it looks...,

+Gil

[larry2]

Sah.............weeet!