1/100 scale Chesapeake Skipjack...

[Kugelfang]

After visiting the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum in St. Michaels, MD, I was quite excited about designing one of the Chesapeake style boats. Because of the simplicity of the design and the elegant appearance, I've settled on the skipjack. After searching the internet for a while I found the National Historic Landmark Nomination form for the Kathryn--and it included the lines and drawings of the boat. SCORE!

I hope the simplicity of the skipjack construction will lead to a simple to construct model. However, the Kathryn is atypical. Most skipjacks were V-bottomed, with a hard chine (a sharp edge where the sides and the bottom meets). Hull planking was typically in a herring-bone fashion and the boats were primarily constructed of pine. While still a V-bottomed vessel, the chine on the Kathryn was rounded and the hull planking is fore and aft. (Though, I think I will design it as hard chined to ease design and construction--I'm not sure at 1/100 scale it makes that much difference anyway.) Additionally, there is evidence of a much greater proportion of oak used in construction of the Kathryn.

The builder of the Kathryn is unknown. She is one of the earliest existing examples of the skipjack, though, being constructed in 1901. The construction techniques and materials suggest (to me) that she was built by a more experienced boat builder than other typical skipjacks.

I have a question for the boat folk here. How do you pronounce 'chine'? Is it 'chin' like the forward most part of the jawbone or does it rhyme with 'chime' like the sound a bell makes? Maritime words don't have much logic in their pronunciation. For example, 'dredge' (as to rake oysters off the sea bed) is pronounced 'drudge' (as in hard labor). And a 'sprit' is (apparently) a 'spreet' though I'm not precisely certain in which situations to use that pronunciation.

Attached is the first screenshot of my Kathryn.

--jeff

[darter]

"Chine" as in mine will do just fine.
I believe dredge is pronounced as dredge and bow "sprit as sprit although some folk seem to ignore the "r" and it becomes "bow spit".
Having said that, here in Australia, buoy is pronounced as "boy" and not "booee" as in the US.
Bout the first time we heard "booee" was from Dennis Conner back in 83.
Perhaps it depends on where you call your home port.

[Don Boose]

As an old Baltimore Boy, I applaud your choice of model.

I'd love to visit the museum at St Michaels. A former member of this Forum, DrBill Geoghegan works there, and is an old friend from the 1940s and 50s in Baltimore.

Will your skipjack be equipped to drudge for ersters?

Don

[Kugelfang]

'Ersters' are the whole reason skipjacks sail... so, I'd like to model dredges if it's not too impractical. Apparently the National Archives has detailed plans of the Kathryn, including her pushboat. I've been in the DC area for several years now and have yet to visit the National Archives. Now I've got a reason!

I too always pronounced 'bouy' as 'boy'. But I grew up in the midwest of the US far from any large body of water and it was not until I lived on the east coast that I was informed differently. I've come to the conclusion that pronunciation is very regional and each region thinks it is correct. C'est la vie!

Did a bit more work on the internals today.

--jeff

[Kugelfang]

Enough of the framework is done for me to start printing out and doing some fit testing tomorrow. Unlike the Zeppelin of a few months ago, I think I'll test build this one as I design. There's a little bit of tweaking needed to straighten out the transom but other than that I think the hull is mostly complete. The picture show the internal framework. The actual sides appear mostly with the orange lines.

At 1/100 scale the entire boat is about 20cm long. Seems like a lot of internal framing for something that small!

--jeff

[Kugelfang]

This is going to be one sturdy little boat! I cut out the framework and hull skin today and will probably get some glue on it tomorrow. I suspect I could eliminate every other former without effecting anything--except making it a bit easer to build.

Can't say I enjoyed cutting the former slots out of the 2mm thick keel. Rather labor intensive and of course my cutting isn't all that straight which leads to the formers being somewhat askew. Not that they can't be fixed while gluing but that's just even more work. In addition, the pressure of cutting seems to have caused some warping in the keel and delaminating. Annoying, but since this is just a 'concept build' it's not worth worrying about.

During a break I came across this thread on a different forum: Bluenose II by Heronguy - Billing Boats Nr. 600 - Scale 1:100 - First build - Build Logs for SHIP MODEL KITS - Model Ship World .

That got me to thinking that I could use the deck as more of a structural member rather than just a thin decorative skin. So now I'm thinking that I could create a 1mm deck marked on the bottom for the keel and former locations. Instead of a single laminated 2mm keel, go with two 1mm keel profiles (easier to cut) which get glued side-by-side on the centerline of the bottom of the deck. Then the formers can be glued on either side of the keel profiles, aligned to the markings on the underside of the deck. This would eliminate the need for cutting slots in either the keel or the formers. And since the keel is glued perpendicular to the deck, it's not going to warp.

In theory, this seems like a much simpler build process. Have there been any card models made in two halves like this and then married together? Seems to me I recently saw one but I can't find it now.

--jeff

[Don Boose]

Looks very good.

Don

[Kugelfang]

Thanks, Don.

It amazes me that anything I design comes close to fitting together. Pushed ahead with Kathryn this morning and, frankly, it's OK. I attached the single 65# deck to the keel making sure to straighten the keel as I went. Then I swiveled the bulwark formers, applied glue to the underside of the deck where the bulwarks should be and then swiveled the bulwarks back into their proper places.

Moving on to the sides, I glued together the side and bottom portions of the starboard and port sides. Their curves actually mated together quite nicely to form the chine of the hull.

Once the glue was dry, after dry fitting, I applied glue to the bulwark formers and the bottom tabs of the skin then carefully slide the sides into place applying pressure to ensure that they lay as close to the bulwarks as possible. I made a classic mistake here, though. I put the glue on the starboard bulwarks and then on the tabs of the port skin. So then I had to rush, put glue on the starboard skin, attach it, then hurriedly apply glue to the port bulwarks and get it in place before the glue dried. Consequently, I didn't have time to properly align the two sides so they are off by 1/16 of an inch. Oh, well... it's a test build.

Lastly, I cut out and attached the transom, which, did not fit terribly well because of the hull misalignment. Oh, well... it's a test build. The final shape is exactly what I wanted.

Back to the design work for the deck furniture and sails!

--jeff

[eatcrow2]

Wonderful work!!

[Kugelfang]

Thanks, Eatcrow2.

Back to the design board and she's beginning to look like a real boat.

--jeff