"Speeljacht" 1:50 - test model

[Seahorse]

Hello colleagues
Many modeler friends said to me that it would be nice to assemble a sailing ship, but rigging is generally too difficult. Therefore, a few years ago I asked Ab Hoving for an idea for a simple model with the simplest possible rigging, and I didn't have to wait long (2-3 hours) when a precise and immediately three-dimensional design of a "recreational yacht" appeared on my computer. ", i.e. "Speeljacht".
This design is very similar to the commercially available plans drawn by Cor Emke.
NVM 10.06.017 Speeljacht volgens Nicolaas Witsen (1671) - Modelbouwtekeningen.nl

Recreation on the water was probably not an invention of the Dutch, because in the tomb of Tutankhamun an image of the pharaoh fishing on the Nile was found, which can be considered entertainment on the water. However, until the 17th century, sailing ships of various types fulfilled basically only commercial and war functions or were used for work, such as fishing. It was only when the trade in Asia enabled merchants to build great fortunes that yachts for entertainment appeared.

Maybe it was then that "yachting" appeared as a way of spending time with family, friends or for business purposes. Not only did people relax by sailing for pleasure, but such expeditions were accompanied by delicious feasts, including plenty of drinks. Nicolaes Witsen even mentions a "beer house" under the aft deck. In addition to romantic trips, owning such a yacht meant prestige and/or wealth - a bit like modern billionaires and oligarchs.

The decorations were chic, but not flashy. The Netherlands was a Calvinist country, so one had to be modest. There was usually a family coat of arms on the stern.

A similar model was developed in wood by Kalderstock.
And for the inquisitive and curious: the Clean2Anywhere Foundation has been experimentally recycling plastic for several years, building replicas of small historical yachts from it, including this speel yacht. Link to one of the videos where you can see the construction of a speel yacht:
An amazing year of building ships from waste plastic! | C2A | Recap episode - YouTube


How is my construction going? So quick and easy that I didn't take many photos, especially obvious stages like frame frames,...



...or "first - false planking"



The retouched edge of decks has always "disgusted" me, so I experimented a bit and glued narrow strips on the visible edges, imitating the face of the boards. The stripe is 0.7 mm, my hand trembled a bit and it didn't turn out perfect, but I think it's a very good idea for the future.


Since masking the edges like this has a future, I went ahead and played with the edges of the planks at the stern. There is also something to complain about, but that's my fault - I liked the idea itself.


A large number of visible frames required tedious gluing and retouching, and initially I planned to glue them to the hull first and then continue covering them with the planks. Fortunately, before I started committing such stupidity, I changed my concept and glued this component separately, finally gluing the finished one to the model. In total, in four stages: 2 amidships and 2 aft.


The last layer of planks (in color) went very well, and of course the corrections were made on the edges that are covered with wales. This is how it turned out:



Modest decorations (as I wrote at the beginning) will only be made of cardboard, so that the model is fully paper as standard. It was necessary to choose the coat of arms of some noble family. The final choice fell on the van Loon family, also because their "palace" still houses a popular museum.(https://www.museumvanloon.nl)


That's it for now, only decorations, leeboards and very simple rigging remain.

Regards
Tomek