The 'Bounty's' Launch 1789

Started around the 2nd January I have now completed this very interesting model.

It is a large model,  scale 3/4 inch =  1 foot, of the ships boat that Captain William Bligh and 18 of his crew were cast adrift from the 'Bounty' by Fletcher Christian and his fellow mutineers in 1789. The actual boat, based on plans from the Greenwich Maritime Museum, was 23 feet long, 6' 9" wide and 2' 9" deep weighing 2.5 tons.

Work begins on the building jig.

Christian and the rest of the mutineers variously made their way to Pitcairn Island,  Tahiti and freedom in England or death at the end of a rope.

First planks in place

Due to the fact that Bligh survived and wrote a comprehensive log we have a detailed account of the 4000 mile voyage from Tofua in the Friendly Isles group to Timor near the north west corner of Australia in 48 terrifying days.

Planking complete and the jig (mould) removed.

Dangerously overloaded the launch was typical of boats issued to the Royal Navy ships of the period, It has been calculated that when loaded with 19 men, gear and provisions,  she floated with a bare 6 inches of freeboard which is why the men spent all of the time in shifts baling water.

Gunwhale and foor planking completed.

Day after day, Bligh and his crew experienced mountainous seas,  rain,  wet sleepless nights, and a diet consisting of bread and teaspoons of rum. On lucky days they enjoyed seagull entrails and blood.

Completion following a challenging 'Sewing Bee' operation on the sails!

Little is known about what gear and provisions they carried but Bligh makes reference to "water vessels", whatever they were, and wrote.  "Seamen who were to go in the boat collected....an eight and twenty cask of water..." They had containers aboard to carry 60 gallons.  These included "four empty beakers" and perhaps some gourd calabashes. A carpenters chest of tools is believed to have been on board.

Note water barrels, carpenters chest and ten oars.

What is for sure is that there would have been very little room  in the boat!!

Not much room there!!

No more models planned yet.  As Spring slowly approaches there is work to do in the garden,  vegetables to plant  rehanging the old log store door,  painting the back yard and above all ensuring that 'Nellie' is ready for the road and our idyllic picnics in the local fells.....that is if the old body holds together (mine!!!!)  and Covid allows.

 

Glad Tidings

 

HAPPY CHRISTMAS

                  and a

PEACEFUL AND      HEALTHY NEW YEAR

 to all my readers worldwide

A feat of 'Endeavour'....

 ....not really,  although with Italian instructions and a rather short on detail English translation it was a bit tricky at times.  Anyway,  it's finished and is now part of my growing collection.

Endeavour is a J-Class yacht built for the 1934 America's Cup by Camper and Nicholson in Gosport.  She was built for Tommy Sopwith who used his aviation design experience to ensure that the yacht was the most advanced of its day with a steel hull and mast.

She is 130 feet long and is still sailing today,  in fact just recently she was on the market for sale at around £2.5 million I seem to recall.

Sadly she failed in her attempt as there was an industrial dispute among Mr Sopwith's professional crew and they had to crew her with amateurs who lacked the necessary experience.  It was a close call though but she was narrowly beaten by the American yacht 'Rainbow'..

I always remember my father telling me that he watched the J-Class yachts at the regatta in Brixham, Devon.

                                                           Second planking progressing.

                                                        Second planking almost complete

                                               Painting and varnishing being completed

                                                 Mast stepped and some deck detail added
                                                 

                                                                          Finished!!     

                                                           The cockpit and bow detail

                                                             The stern looking forward

                                                       Pride of place in the front window!

I've just got to choose my next model although I think that a wormery for my fishing is perhaps first on the agenda!!!!

Dusting the dustsheet!....

 ....prior to a short drive to maintain the circular dimensions of the tyres.

                                                Hoovering the dustsheet prior to departure.

What I don't want while the car is wintering are flat spots developing because it has been standing unused for long periods.  Hence the short but sweet drives to get the engine temperature up to normal and keep it in good shape.

                                                     Safely tucked up after my drive.

It was around 5 degrees,  balmy to eskimos I suppose but not to me !!

Painted Ladies, Boating and Fishing.

I spotted this lovely 'painted lady' butterfly sunning itself on our garden path...pretty as a picture.

 Had a great drive in the Morgan a few days ago on a lovely Autumn day and now it is safely ensconced in it's garage,  with winter weather no doubt just around the corner.

At the end of September we spent 10 days or so in my beloved Norfolk,  5 nights in a cottage at Ludham and then 4 nights aboard a motor cruiser from Brundall.

Norfolk is renowned for being England's driest county and all the locals said that they were needing rain.  Understandable I suppose,  but the weather did not need to be quite as violent and unpleasant during our holiday, but it was!!

                             Passing Reedham on the River Yare during a rare fine morning!

On our first day of our stay in the cottage there was a horrendous storm which brought down trees and caused flooding everywhere.....apart from a couple of half days it never stopped raining.  Quite incredible and annoying because it was only affecting the extreme eastern edge of Norfolk where we were,  the rest of the country was to a large extent fine.  Ah well!

A rainbow on our last night,  spent sadly at the yard a day early,  due to an appalling storm forecast for the following day.

We have just arrived back home after 4 days in a fishing lodge just half an hour away from us where I enjoyed some fantastic fishing, apart from an hour spent fishing in Norfolk this was the first coarse fishing that I have done for around 60 years!!! prompted by the restoration of two vintage 'Avon' rods

                                               Not a bad way to spend a few quiet hours.

Wonderful time and we shall do the same thing next year...in fact I have added my name to their list of people interested in joining the temporarily closed membership of their club,  as it is so close to us.

          A nice little carp, just one of a catch that included some excellent roach and perch.So we are managing to keep very busy during this ghastly virus saga and I am now looking forward to getting to grips again with the building of  a model of 'Endeavour',  Tommy Sopwith's 'Americas Cup' challenger in the thirties.

                                                           Sunset on our final evening.

Biggles flies again!

Well it's finished!

After some weeks and extremely close attention to the instructions, Biggles can take to the skies again,  although I suspect he won't because  his operator no longer has the legs to chase after it!

                                                          Biggles awaiting take off

However,  it has brought back many memories of long ago when I sat in my bedroom,  building aircraft just like this.

For those who may be interested, the firm that produced the kit offers most of the old 'Keil Kraft' and 'Frog' models that many of you will be acquainted with  but now are all laser cut which dispenses with the need for much accurate cutting of balsa.  Their name is the 'Vintage Model Company' in Derbyshire and I would urge you, for nostalgia's sake to look at their website.

              Getting close, with jigs in place to get the correct geometry for the two wings.

The problem is,  where to display the six models I have completed during this ghastly period and I am afraid that this will probably be my last aircraft build because of limited shelf space to accommodate wingspans and my wife does not favour the idea of planes swooping down over the dining table or indeed in other locations in the house.

There again,  perhaps the loo might be an appropriate place where I and others might ponder the magnificence of my labours!!

Fishing, a Camel and a Mask!!

The other day I pootled down the road to a nearby village to fish at a local fishery and to test and hopefully 'blood' one of my recently restored vintage rods.

                                                                Hambleton Fishery

Well, I did catch some fish,  roach, perch and two unidentified specimens,  all were embarrassingly small, hence no photographs!  Incidentally it is probably 50 years since I last coarse fished and bought some maggots for bait, it was therefore with some surprise that I had to part with £3 for a pint of grubs!!!!

The Sopwith Camel is taking shape and is proving more difficult and demanding than the previous kit I built for the boys down south. At least the pilot is prepared for take off....let us hope that it will not be a futile gesture on his part!

In a conversation that I had with a lovely lady in Yorkshire when I was ordering another bespoke rod bag from her for my second renovated fishing rod,  I happened to mention that I had tried unsuccessfully to buy a mask with the 'Morgan' logo on it from either the Morgan Club or from the factory shop.

                                                   Not a perfect match but pretty good!

As we are going to be encumbered with these wretched masks for some time I thought that it would be a useful commercial opportunity.   I did receive a reply from the Sales/Marketing guy at the Company,  only after vigorous complaining about the lack of good business practice nowadays etc.,etc. but he admitted that they were too busy meeting the huge demand for the latest models which are in the £60-80000 price range....and people talk of austerity!!

But I digress as usual. Anyway I joked with the lady that if she had a bit of dark green material lying around she could knock one up for me!  What a surprise when the immaculate rod bag arrived complete with 'free of charge' mask!

Naturally I phoned her immediately to thank her and sought an embroidered logo to put on it.

To cut a long story short,  the small one I ordered from the Club was too large and would have looked ludicrous and then I spotted an old Morgan baseball cap in the garage with a super logo on it and as all 'one size fits all' caps look like peas on a drum on my huge cranium I decided to carefully detach the logo and dispense of the remains of the cap. 

                                                                   Not a pretty sight!

The result of these efforts can be appreciated in the photographs and I can now hold my head high with all the F1 drivers and pit crews who sport their company's logo on their masks.