Fifth Sail

10/26/2016: For the fifth time, and only the second in open water, Constellation went sailing. It was a very nice day, mostly sunny in the upper 50's. The wind was forecast to be Northerly at 5 mph, but it was gusting up to 15, and in the that little bend in the creek, sometimes from two directions!

There's images in the Photos section, and video forthcoming, but let's look at my "goals" for this expedition from last page...

• Test fit in car; she hasn't been in my Matrix yet.

  It was tricky at first, but it worked. Note in the photo, in the car on the left is the launch cart with the wheels removed, packed in nice and neat. I had to fold down the passenger seat, so if she's going in my car, no one else is riding with me.

• Test the new launch cart.

  As noted, it broke down and packed away really nicely. The approach to the ramp was very steep, and I took her down head first so she wouldn't slide off the back of the cart. The bumpy ground made the model slide back a lot. I'm going to put a stop in the channel that will catch the edge of the PVC cap and should fix that problem.

  There's also a lot of slop in the flag pole bracket, the cast in teeth that allow it to be adjustable don't fit very tightly making for too much up-and-down play in the handle. I think I'll drill a hole through that and put a pin in it to fix that. The wood handle swelled a little when it got wet and flexed a lot, so I may look for a better handle. I have a section of ash shovel handle that looks like it might work better. The wheels are hard and a bit jarring, especially on the ramp where there was broken concrete underwater so cars wouldn't sink into the silt. The handle was the bigger problem though, slopping up and down and flexing. Otherwise the cart performed as expected and I was really pleased with it.

• With the royals set, she'll be sailing with the most sail so far.

  Forecast was for Northerly winds up to 5 mph. Up in the creek that was variable in direction and speed, gusting at least to 15 now and then, sometimes from two directions! The model took it all very well, though my heart beat faster every time she heeled, I don't think she once got her gun-stripe wet.

• Test fore tops'l yard brace routing.

  No problems at all, everything worked as designed, for a change. Bacing all the sails on the mast from the top'sl yard instead of the coarse yard worked fine, and the whole system will be simplified to just the three tops'l yards being braced.

• See how self-tending bowlines rigged on the main tops'l work out.

  They seemed to function just fine. When the model was close enough to see them, they didn't snag or interfere with the sail or bracing. They were mounted a little high on the leech, but mounted lower where they belong, they'll help pull the coarse yards around better, especially with the coarses set.

• Actually sail the model in open water instead of bumping the bottom in a shallow pool.

  A combination of joy and terror. Every gust my heart raced, but she sailed great where I meant her to sail from the beginning.

• Get some pictures and video of the model sailing.

  One thing that went wrong was the camera's batteries dying, so I didn't get all the pics and video I wanted. Fortunately, Mark was on hand and took some shots and video with his phone.

In all, I say the day was a resounding success. Everything went well, nothing broke or failed. And she sailed! Not like her first sail where she barely made head way for more than a few seconds, but controllably, reliably, and fast too! I handled her by myself. Mark was there and offered his help, but part of my test was seeing if I could deal with it all 100% by myself. No problems. The awkward bit was sitting her on her ballast and lining the rods with their holes without her falling off. That's something I need to work out, otherwise no part of loading, unloading, launching, retrieving, etc, was more than one person could handle.

Undressed and on the Bench

As the holidays and Winter draw near, the model has been down rigged; sail's unbent; and thought is given about what's next. I burned in all the grommets on the sails that didn't have them done yet so all of them are ready for bolt-ropes that need them. A variety of thicknesses of aircraft plywood has been ordered to make a new, and hopefully final, set of winch drums. These will be shorter since I'm only controlling the tops'l yards. Some way to secure while being able to adjust the heads'l sheet ends in the hull is needed, a clamping device of some sort I'm thinking. To get a permanent rig up at last will require walking a a lot of line and making and installing the rest of her chain-plates and dead-eyes. To make rope I need to make a new looper end for my rope-walk. There's piles of other things to do yet; finish the forward bulwarks, make the aft bulwarks; put the gun circles on the deck; make 30 or 40 crew figures, and the list goes on.

My immediate goal for next spring is to have, at least, her lower shrouds, dead-eyes and lanyards in place, and jack-stays and other hardware, including the collars for the tops'l yards all in place. So she'll sail with a real rig up and not a web of string and half-hitches.