March 2024 Volume 14 number 3

With spring approaching later this month, it's a good time to clean up your work area.Remove things from the work surface, then dust, vacuum and wipe down the surface. It also gives you a chance to evaluate your tools - Do you need more Xacto blades? How sharp is your razor saw? Need to throw away those brushes you never use anymore? How about your paint supply? Does your CA glue not kick off as fast as it used to? It has a room-temp shelf life of 6-8 months only. Treat yourself to a new tube.

NRG'S MODEL SHIP WORLD

Model Ship World is an on-line forum of over 40,000 ship modelers. Topics range from kits to scratch builds, in-process continuing stories, tips, manufacturer information, technical topics. Too many to list here. Go take a look! And yes, BlueJacket is one of the sponsors.

www.modelshipworld.com

I'd like to introduce you to our new caster, George S. He comes from a financial background in Florida, and recently retired and moved up here to Maine. He came into BlueJacket to buy a model to keep him occupied, and after talking to Trisha and me, decided to come work for us.

He's now finishing his 6th week with us, and is enjoying the detail work that casting involves.

Josh

Backstay - Any of a variety of stays leading aft from a mast to the deck. Thought of, perhaps, as a relatively modern element of rigging, this obviously is not the case.

Cargo - Is the general term for lading, or freight, carried by a merchant ship. The origin is Latin, carricum, load. It may have come into English via Gascon French. One word scholar asks why cargo pertains to ships, and shipments to land conveyances.

Gondola - The famed oar-propelled boat of the canals of Venice. A generic word, it possibly is related to the Greek kondy, a drinking vessel. The Assyrians has a similar craft.

Mate - (1) A deck officer below the rank of captain in a merchant ship. (Many have master's licenses.) (2) One of a number of petty officer's ratings in the services. The word came, via Middle English, from earlier Dutch maet, mate or assistant.

Information is from the book "Origins of Sea Terms" by John G. Rogers

copyright 1985 Mystic Seaport Museum, Inc. and available from BlueJacket.

Our rigging class is a popular event. We run it from 9 to 3 for 5 days (although some people leave early on Friday.) IT IS A CLASS FOR NOVICES. We don't assume you know anything about rigging a ship model. All tools and materials are provided with the class fee of $500. You get a hull to work on, all the sticks and dowels, glue, blocks, deadeyes, threads, wire, beeswax, sandpaper and the following tools:

Excel hobby knife and blades

2 Pin Vises

Assortment of drill bits

Tweezers

needle nose pliers

flush cutters

clamps

cuticle scissors (best for clipping rigging)

and probably some other things I forgot

If you use magnifiers for your modeling work, you should bring them. By the end of the class you will have learned how to use the tools, tie a multitude of various knots, and will have completed what you see in the picture above.  You can see shrouds, backstays, bobstays, gammoning, vangs, topping lift, ratlines, hearts, throat halyard, peak halyard, sheet tackle on a traveler, lifts, braces, forestays, etc.

Obviously, we don't waste a lot of time to make the model look pretty! We want to concentrate on the rigging. At the end of the class, BlueJacket will ship your model and materials to your home, again all part of the tuition cost.

Monday will include a pizza party for lunch and a behind the scenes tour of the BlueJacket facility. In addition, all students will receive a 10% discount on anything they buy during that week. Kits, tools, books, gift items, you name it!

The hours of 9-3 are flexible, we have the hotel conference room available 24 hours a day for the week. If you bring a family member, the 3:00 PM cutoff lets you do some sightseeing around the area. But if you need to catch up a bit, the room is yours!

Classes will be at the Fireside Inn in Belfast, 4 miles from BlueJacket on Route 1, tel# 207-338-2090. You can ask for the promotional code BEL if you choose to stay there. They are holding rooms at $160.49 for us. There is a pool,sauna and Jacuzzi, plus all rooms have an excellent view of Penobscot Bay. If you are the camping type, Searsport Shores is nearby.

Class is limited to 12 people with payment in advance. Full refund up to 2 weeks before, 50% refund up to 1 week before. Unfortunately, cancellation less than a week in advance cannot be refunded except by extreme circumstances, which we reserve the right to determine.

From John B of ME

"Hope this comes through OK... BTW I hate G-Mail LOL 😖

For Model of the month I would like to submit The Robert E Lee by Bluejacket Shipcrafters. It is a vintage kit from the 70s I rescued from eBay."

What a gorgeous model. You can follow his build thread here:

https://modelshipworld.com/topic/30601-robert-e-lee-steamboat-by-john-ruy-finished-bluejacket-shipcrafters-332%E2%80%9D-to-1%E2%80%99-scale-1128/#comment-868107

From Rick S of Canada:

"Hi Nic,

Congrats on your demotion! Every now and then I am tempted to get a job managing people and then I just slap myself silly.

You asked for pictures of workshops. My workshop happens to be a vertical computer screen but I thought it might be fun for you to see what I am working on. She will be my first full kit. She is 48" long.

Best regards,

Rick"

Nic's bench - The Harriet lane is on hold while I finish a Santa Maria model for an IPMS show in mid-April here in Maine. Wood decks replaced the plastic ones.

Al's bench - Al has had to re-make the mold masters for our Constitution resin boats.

01. If a bottle of poison reaches its expiration date, is it more poisonous or is it no longer poisonous?

02. Which letter is silent in the word "Scent," the S or the C?

03. Do twins ever realize that one of them is unplanned?

05. The word "swims" upside-down is still "swims".

06. Over 100 years ago, everyone owned a horse and only the rich had cars Today everyone has cars and only the rich own horses. 

07. If people evolved from monkeys, why are monkeys still around?

08. Why is there a 'D' in fridge, but not in refrigerator? 

09. As I've grown older, I've learned that pleasing everyone is impossible, but ticking everyone off is a piece of cake!

10. I'm responsible for what I say, not for what you understand. 

11. Common sense is like deodorant. The people who need it the most never use it.

12. My tolerance for idiots is extremely low these days. I used to have some immunity built up, but obviously, there's a new strain out there. 

14. It's not my age that bothers me - it's the side effects. 

15. I'm not saying I'm old and worn out, but I make sure I'm nowhere near the curb on trash day. 

16. As I watch this generation try and rewrite our history, I'm sure of one thing: it will be misspelled and have no punctuation. 

17. As I've gotten older, people think I've become lazy. The truth is I'm just being more energy-efficient. 

18. I haven't gotten anything done today. I've been in the Produce Department trying to open this stupid plastic bag. 

19. If you find yourself feeling useless, remember: it took 20 years, trillions of dollars, thousands of lives and four presidents to replace the Taliban with the Taliban. 

20. Turns out that being a "senior" is mostly just googling how to do stuff. 

21. I want to be 18 again and ruin my life differently. I have new ideas 

22. I'm on two simultaneous diets. I wasn't getting enough food on one. 

23. I put my scale in the bathroom corner and that's where the little liar will stay until it apologizes. 

24. My mind is like an internet browser. At least 18 open tabs, 3 of them are frozen, and I have no clue where the music is coming from. 

25. Hard to believe I once had a phone attached to a wall, and when it rang, I picked it up without knowing who was calling. 

26. My wife says I keep pushing her buttons. If that were true, I would have found mute by now. 

27. There is no such thing as a grouchy old person. The truth is that once you get old, you stop being polite and start being honest.

OOPS from last month - it got deleted ?

Anyway, From the Rocky Mountain Shipwrights newsletter:

Here’s another article researched and written by our Tennessee member, Bruce Bollenbach. Thanks, Bruce I know we all appreciate your contributions.

“This article started out with a question I had about how to belay a line to a rail, exactly how it was done and when it was done differently. So, I gathered up all the books I had on Knoƫing, Splicing, and Ropework and set about rereading them to refresh my memory about rigging model ships. As you know, when searching for the answer to one question you will be led to ask additional questions. So, in no particular order here are some of the most interestiƟng ropework items I stumbled upon.

The Reef Knot - Often called the square knot, it is probably the most universally known and remembered of all knots. At sea it is customarily employed in lashings and seizings, and in reefing or furling sails, and for these alone it is excellent. But under no circumstances should it ever be used as a bend, to tie two ropes together. If the two ends are of unequal size, or one rope is softer or smoother than the other the knot is certain to spill and slip. If you grasp one of the free ends and jerk it across the knot it will instantly capsize into a pair of reversed half hitches which can be stripped off with one hand. It is this characteristic, the ease of which it can be spilled, which makes it so valuable as a reefing knot.

The Constrictor Knot - Is the firmest of the crossing type knots and one of the most difficult to untie. “The harder you pull on its two ends the Ɵghter it grips and it will not slacken when you let it go, you can hold all your gain.” The Constrictor knot is not very well known. It’s very useful and superior in construction. An extra overriding turn will improve its appearance and make it impossible to untie once it has been pulled up tight. See also the Double Turn Strangle Knot, better looking though slightly less secure.

The Clove Hitch - The most commonly used of all the hitches, quickest to Ɵe and easiest to remember. “Used for securing to any cylindrical object such as a post, bollard, spar, or rail where the pull will be exerted at an angle.” It also serves as a crossing knot when rigging ratlines or lifelines. The Clove Hitch must never be considered as really secure, and had best be regarded for temporary use. It cannot be drawn up snugly by pulling on one end only, and there is always an unpredictable amount of initial slip when a strain is put on it. It will loosen and slip if subjugated to intermittent pulls in different directions or if placed over a post or piling.

The Rolling Hitch - This is the hitch to use in securing a rope to a spar for a lengthwise pull. Its chief virtue is its ability to hold without slipping when tied on a very smooth surface.

Round Turn and Two Half Hitches - Named by Steel in 1794. A round turn is preferable to a single turn, it makes a stronger knot and dissipates the wear.

Given by Biddlecomb and Luce as an anchor bend,The Draw Hitch - A possible answer to my question of belaying a line to a railing may be the draw hitch. Many hitches can be fashioned for quick release by taking the last turn with a bight of rope instead of the end. However, as many of us know from experience with shoe laces there is a danger that a bowed hitch might slip, this one will not.

The Fisherman’s Bend - Preferred when making a rope fast where the direction from which the strain will come is most commonly at right angles to the point of attachment, as it will not jamb if subjected to heavy strain. Useful for bending studding sail halyards to the spar and for bending on the gaff topsail halyards."

I have been enjoying reduced work hours since the new year.But somehow, I'm not getting as much done as I thought I would. Doesn't matter really, it's just nice to relax. I've discovered that afternoon TV is terrible. So I look at the "honey do" list and figure I can start it tomorrow!