The Model Boat

I have been thinking of making a model ship for some time. Years, in fact. I started a model Lightning number of years ago, took it out every once in a while, looked at it and put it away. Last year, however, I got it out and actually made some progress on it. However, I wanted to build something more ambitious, like the Charles W. Morgan or the Bounty, but kits for those are a few hundred dollars, so, if I bought one, I had better do it. I mentioned all of this to brother-in-law, Art, who thought I should abandon the kit idea and build one from scratch. My father had built a model of a sailing sloop entirely from driftwood and it is really beautiful. But, Dad was a craftsman in the true sense of the word. Then I thought, why not build a model of the Sara B. I wanted a model of a boat that had some meaning for me, so that seemed like the perfect answer. I got the lines of Sara B from Skipper Chris who had meticulously taken them right off the boat. I scaled them out as best I could and blew them up to actual size, 1/2 inch to the foot. Sara B is about 38' on deck so that would make a 19" model.

I met with Art and we went over plans and techniques. I was planning on making a solid hull, but Art thought I should do plank on bulkhead, a lot more work, but more fun (Art says). He gave me a piece of walnut from which I can cut the planking.

Here I am with the piece of wood.

Since I wrote this post, but didn't publish it, I joined the Model Shipwrights of Western New York, a group just forming of several people interested in model boat building. I was contacted around October, but didn't get to a meeting until December 2015. The knowledge and expertise of these men is truly astounding. A few images of works in progress and finished boats are below.





Well, I got correctly scaled drawings from Skipper Chris for the size boat I want. I couldn't get my printer to do anything in the way of scaling without a lot of trial and error, mostly error. So, now I have the drawings and the wood. I had better get busy.