Sunday, July 31, 2011

MARUFFA


Once the list of half hulls I wanted to make had reached 25, with 10 of them completed (all of which can be seen in this Blog), I came across the lines plan for MARUFFA in the book SAIL & POWER by Uffa Fox. I was not aware of MARUFFA's east coast history until I read that article but I knew she had a storied history in Puget Sound waters, having been aboard at her dock on Bainbridge Island when in I was in college. I also knew MARUFFA to be an SYC boat and many times I have gazed at her half hull model with gold bottom paint displayed with many others just outside the Ward Room at SYC.

MARUFFA was designed in 1954 by Phillip L. Rhodes. She carries a yawl rig and is 67'5" LOA, with a 15'2" beam, and a draft of 8'6".

MARUFFA's line plan in hand I went to work on the half hull (ahead of 15 others) in the summer of 2010. I used 3/8" lifts of sugar pine and a 1/16" backing of bass wood for the keel and rudder. The topside are white acrylic with a gold pin stripe. The waterline is red acrylic and not wantiing to copy the half hull model on display at SYC I used flat blue acrylic paint below the waterline. The mounting board is mahogany with six coats of shellac. My half hull is 25" in length. The scale is 1/32 so 3/8" = 1'. MARUFFA was fininshed in Aug 2010.






CAL 40


The Cal 40 is one of my all time favorite hulls. She was designed by C. William Lapworth in 1963. She is 39'6" LOA, has a beam of 11', a modest draft of 5' 6" and utilizes a fin keel and spade rudder. One article I read about the Cal 40 called her "a downwind machine" and mentioned one Cal 40 in the Trans Pac Race from LA to Honolulu regularly reaching speeds when on a reach in excess of 20 knots.  

I used 3/8" lifts of sugar pine for the hull with bass wood for the keel and rudder. I painted the topsides gloss white acrylic, the waterline is blue acrylic and below the water line the hull is flat white acrylic. The mounting board is mahogany with multiple coats of shellac. The half hull is 15" long. The scale is 1/32 so
3/8" = 1'. I finished the Cal 40 in Dec of 2010.






 

NINA


In the early 1960's I read Yachting & Sail magazines cover to cover so it was not at all unusual for me to read about NINA in 1962 and fall in love. That year she was 33 years old was first-in-class and first overall in the Burmuda Race. NINA is a staysail schooner designed by W Starling Burgess in 1928. She is 59' LOA with a beam of 14' 10". She is one gorgeous yacht.

I used 3/8" lifts of sugar pine and a backing piece of 1/8" bass wood. I added a mahogany rub rail and transom. The topsides are white acrylic, the waterline black acrylic and below the water line I used green acrylic. The mounting board is stained mahogany painted with muliple coats of shellac. The lines plan shows the vessel with the bow to the left so that is the way I built the half hull. The half hull is 20.5" long - 24" with the bow sprit. The scale 1/35th so 11/32" = 1'. I finished the half hull of NINA in Dec 2010.







 

Tioga


I think I have 200 of the 220 issues of Wooden Boat magazine but issue #205 Nov/Dec 2008 is special. The cover shows a stern on view of the 50' yawl Tioga, as it was laid up in the Blind Bay boat shop on Shaw Island having some major repair and refit work done. The article about Tioga written by Tom Jackson answered two questions for me. First, the lines plan was included in the article so I could add this beautiful vessel to the growing list of half hulls I want to make. Second Jackson notes that someone I know, Peter Francis had owned this boat in the 1980's. Some time after arriving in Seattle Peter bought a small business. I was fortunate to meet Peter at that time. I knew that Peter had owned a large saling vessel and had traveled from the northeast through the Panama Canal and varied other Pacific destinations before landing in Seattle and selling the boat. Rather than put Tioga at the back of the line I decided she would be my next project. The article by Tom Jackson includes some great photos and is well worth reading. 

Tioga was designed by K. Aage Nielsen in NY and was built in 1953 by Cantieri Bagliettoin Varazze, Italy. She is 50' LOA with a beam of nearly 13'. She is unusal in that she has a very shallow draft of 5' 7" and utilizes a retractible centerboard.

My half hull is 18.5" in length. The scale is 1/32 so 3/8" = 1'. I used 3/8" lifts of sugar pine for the hull and a backing of 1/8" bass wood for the bottom of the keel, rudder and center board. The rub rail and transom are varnished mahagony. The think black line just below the deck is pin stripe. The topsides are painted with white acrylic. The black water line is also painted with acylic and below the waterline I used Benjmanin Moore Spanish Red latex. The mounting board is cherry painted with multiple coats of satin varnish.   




Saturday, July 30, 2011

L A Dunton


L. A. Dunton is a Gloucester fishing schooner. She is 123' in length with a 24'11" beam and was built in 1921 in Essex, Mass. Today she is a registered National Historic Landmark and is moored at Mystic Seaport, Conn.

There are many photos available of this beautifull ship and there is a lot written about her history. Lines plans can be found in several places and the lines plan I used shows the addition of an auxiliary engine in 1922.

I used 3/8" lifts of sugar pine stacked one on top of the other and light card board section templates to get the final shape. I also used a back piece of 1/16" bass wood for the cut water, keel and rudder. Photos of the actual vessel appear to show grey and white trim at the gunnel, black topsides and a green hull below the waterline.

The scale is .1/72 or 1' = 11/64".   Acrylic paint was used on the half hull. The cherry mounting board was varnished with a gloss finish. This was finished in July 2009.






Friday, July 29, 2011

Ingrid

Ingrid is a 38' double ended ketch designed by Colin Archer and refined by Wm Aitken. This is a common hull form around Puget Sound and indeed around the world as it has proven to be extremely seaworthy. I found the lines and decided to make this a "half model" not just a half hull, hence the cabin, masts and tiller.

I used 3/8" lifts of sugar pine. The half hull is 14.25" in length without the rudder post or bow sprit. The scale is 1/32 or 23/8" = 1'. Above the waterline the paint is acylic. Below the water line I used Benj Moore Spanish Red latex.The cherry mounting board has 6 coats of Captains varnish. The mounting board is 7" in height and 23.5" long. I finished this in Nov of 2009.








Oceanus

Oceanus :  Designed by William Garden in 1954. Oceanus was 60 ft LOA. Joel White said she was designed to be "the most, and fastest, boat that could be signle handed by two people while cruising..." (Source: WB #81, March/April 1988).

My half hull was completed in Nov 2009 using the lines plan found in that WB article. I used 3/8" sugar pine and assembled a total of 9 lifts. The keel, skeg and rudder are also sugar pine. I used station molds of light card board to get the hull shape right. I did such a good job (ie, no filler) that I could finish it bright.
I used  6 coats of varnish on the hull and also on the mahagony mounting board. The scale is 1/32 so 3/8" = 1'. The mounting board is 25" long and 8.5" high.  

I remember seeing Oceanus on several occasions around Puget Sound and marveling at the beautifull, sleek hull. Very sadly several years ago I heard the boat, by then a derelict, was cut up for firewood as the yard bill was several years past due. So I guess this is my way of keeping the beautifull shape of Oceanus alive.





  

Thursday, July 28, 2011

Christmas

A wonderfull photo of the Starling Burgess cutter Christmas was on the front cover of the WB publication Wood, Water & Light. She is a 44' double ender with a full keel. Since renamed Arawak and now seen with a white hull above the water line, to my eye she never looked better than with the black hull on the cover of this book. Also in the book are her lines drawings which were the source material for this half hull. I used horizontal lifts of sugar pine of about 1/2" cut on the band saw to the profile for that lift. They are then stacked on top of one and other and a backing of 1/16" basswood was added to create the rudder and keel.

Although this is an auxiliary cutter with a diesel engine the plans ignore this - thus no space is shown on the half hull for a prop even though we know there is one. This was completed in May 2009. The half hull is 15.5" in length so the scale is approximately 1/32 or 3/8" = 1'. The hull is painted gloss black above the water line and Benj Moore Spanish Red below. The cove strip is white pin striping and the waterline is painted with white acrylic. The back board is oak finished with several layers of shellac.