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5 en NR HAT TED I GIMED We [DI SISNE2 PIACE SAIQPING Molin ANARGUS SPECIALIST PUBLICATION MAY 1989 £1.40 engines, Meccano, trade stands including items for the ladies, and all the usual fun of the fair – and, of course, boats! Over 400 model ships and boats are expected, with demonstrations under way all the time. Camping is available with plenty of social gatherings planned. This is available from 6.00pm on Friday evening through till Monday morning for a price of £20 for the whole family or £2.50 adults and £1.50 children and senior citizens per day. You can even take a coach trip to Brighton beach if so desired, or a helicopter ride! A great fun packed weekend for all modellers and their families. For further information regarding trade, camping, exhibiting or just visiting, contact Dave Bishop at D.B. Sound, 17 The Square, Tatsfield, Near Westerham, Kent TN16 2AS or telephone 095 977 550. Northern Model Show — 1/2 July Just to show that the South doesn’t get all the goodies, the Harrogate Model Club is organising a packed show on another race course, this time Ripon, located just five miles from the Al at Boroughbridge. The race course provides excellent facilities for displays/competitions of aircraft, helicopters, stock cars, buggies, slotcars, model engineering, trade stands, arts and crafts, refreshments and amusements for the younger visitors however, the race course also sports a massive manmade lake which will allow demonstrations of yachts, submarines, i.c. and electric powered racing craft, scale boats and waterplanes – plus a finale each day of a combined air/sea battle to be fought out over the lake in what promises to be a unique spectacle. Admittance will cost £2.50 adult and £1.50 child, and the show is open daily from 10.00am to 5.00pm. Anyone requiring further information should contact The Organiser’s Office, Northern Model Show, 75 West End Avenue, Harrogate, North Yorkshire HG2 9BX, enclosing a stamped addressed envelope. Sandown Park Model Symposium Exhibition and Display There’s one other race course event, probably the best known of all, and that is, of course, the Elmbridge Model Club’s Show at Sandown Park, and this year is the 14th in a long line of successful shows – the first one being held at Brooklands Technical College, Weybridge back in 1967. We remember it well! The dates this year are 6/7 May on the Sandown Park Racecourse and Exhibition Centre. The completion of the new first floor Exhibition Halls allows for some 140 stand and displays – 100 trade stands representing the whole spectrum of the modelling world – plus all the clubs, model societies and preservation groups covering aircraft, boats, cars, railways, and engineering. Model boaters will be well catered for with club and trade displays on the Boat Pool which is located in the ‘Winners’ Enclosure. This stepped viewing gives good spectator access from three sides where one will be able to watch the many club displays of scale boats, fast electrics, yachts and of course, submarines. There MAY 1989 will be three one hour sessions during the day, when the visiting public will be able to operate boats provided by the club. The large static display is alongside the boat pool in the covered ‘Selling Ring’ where it is expected that there will be up to 200 model boats on show over the weekend. Other attractions include massive aircraft and car displays, working railway layouts, demonstrations on model covering and spray painting, etc. Definitely the show not to be missed. Liverpool Model Boat Club’s Model Boat Exhibition 2nd The Great Hall at the Albert Dock is once again the venue and other model boat clubs will be joining with Liverpool over the weekend of 17/18 June, during the River Mersey Festival when there will be a Grand Parade of ships on the river. Thousands are expected on the waterfront during the Festival and many will no doubt visit the Albert Dock complex. The hall is a roomy 5000 square feet and will allow a portable pool for exhibitors to sail on if they wish. There will be no prizes and competitions, just a good two days of meeting and talking to people who enjoy a common hobby. If any model boat clubs would care to join with Liverpool, or for that matter any individuals, please come along. All will be made most welcome. Also, trade enquiries from model shops are invited as there are still one or two stands left. The person to contact is N. Newbery, 77 Muirhead Avenue East, West Derby, Liverpool L11 1EG. Telephone 051 256 0223. St. Albans Exhibition Another date for your diary is 13/14 May at the St. Albans College of Further Education, Hatfield Road, St. Albans, where the Model Engineering Society will* be holding their 1989 Exhibition. This is always an excellent club exhibition, strong on model engineering and model ships and boats, particularly steam power. Opening hours are 10.00am till 7.00pm on the Saturday and till 5.00pm on the Sunday. Admission fees are 70p for adults and 35p for children and OAPs. Bath Model and Craft Show The final show in this mammoth batch this month is another first, a model and craft spectacular to be held at Royal Bath and West Showground, outside Shepton Mallet in Somerset, over midsummer weekend, 24/25 June. This show will concentrate on active demonstrations as well as an extensive indoor and outdoor trade exhibition. Modelling activities will include model boats on a specially constructed pool, model car racing, model railways and every type of model flying. With on-site camping available from the Friday evening, the excellent facilities available on the site are expected to attract many families. Given midsummer’s day, it is hoped that there will be at least eighteen hours of exciting and practical modelling activity over the weekend. Opening hours are 9.00 till 6.00 on both days. The Royal Bath and West Showground is at the West Of England Exhibition Centre, Shepton Mallet, Somerset on the A371 road between Castle Cary and Shepton Mallet. Further details can be obtained from Model and Craft Show ’89, 1 Dibdin House, Minguard Walk, London N7 7RT. MAILBOAT Wishbone Schooner —- Argus Dear Sir, I have been subscribing to Model Boats for quite some time now and I read with interest your excellent series Curved Air. Like Cormac McGinlay’s letter in ‘All Points’ (January issue), I too share a passion for yesterday schooners so much so that I succumbed to temptation and built a semi-scale Wishbone Schooner based on plan MM405. The drawing shows the bread and butter method of construction but as the requisite timber was not available I used in. marine ply for the frames and 1’4in. x 4mm strip for the planks, the latter glued edge to edge. This produced an excellent strong lightweight hull on whichI fitted a 4lb. cast lead keel. Braine type control was specified on the plan but I changed this to radio control using a modified Futaba sail winch to control the sails. John Tindall’s wishbone schooner Argus. The cabin and hatches are my own design and are removable by sliding forward against a light spring and then lifting. These give access to the controls when the need for adjustment arises. Karly sailing trials indicated that the yacht was carrying too much lee helm and it was necessary to move both masts back ‘sin. The result was quite outstanding and in moderate winds the degree of control was almost perfect. For the record, length overall is 30in. x 7’Ain. beam and 41%in. high. The displacement with Ni-Cads and R/C is 8lb. Keep up the good work in producing such a fine magazine. John R. Tindall Whitehaven Cumbria advertisement and Kit Bag review by David Metcalf in April 1981 Model Boats. Not wishing to live under false colours when asked “Did you built it?”, I would appreciate if the original builder does recognise his model and informs me accordingly. A. Cass 39 Craddock Road Sale M33 3GQ Kingfisher Trophy Winners Dear Sir, Through your journal we would like to make the following appeal, which we hope you will be able to publicise for us. We, the Waterside Model Club, being the current holders of The Kingfisher Trophy for tug towing, have kindly been given permission by the Kingfisher Club, the donators of the above trophy, to add a larger base and past winners’ names to it. To this end we would like any past winners of the Kingfisher Trophy to contact us to enable their names to be included on the trophy. The details we require are: Club Name, Year of Winning and Venue where they won the trophy. The purpose of the venue is so that we may back-track any winners who may Queen Mary II Dear Sir, I read with interest the article in February’s Model Boats about the Queen Mary II. My father was Captain of the Queen Mary II several times with both Williamson Buchanan and Caledonian Steam Packet. As I remember it, the final settlement between Cunard and Williamson Buchanan was, Cunard paid all expenses in re-registering QMII, and donated a large signed portrait of Her Majesty Queen Mary. The portrait hung in the first class saloon immediately under the bridge facing aft. I still remember the blue velvet curtains each side of it, and the large highly polished brass protection rail. The negotiations must have been carried out in great secrecy, as the big Queen Mary’s name was only known to a few people prior to its launch. I trust this is of interest to readers. John Glashan Laurieston Stirlingshire Did you build this Nelson 40? Dear Sir, Seeing, liking then purchasing a model boat offered by a Shropshire model shop, I sought information as to its builder. Unfortunately the model shop could only tell me that the previous owner had purchased it from an unknown policeman in Telford; he having apparently purchased it at a show. The model is a Modelcraft kit of the Nelson 40 Pilot Boat, 1:12 scale, length 40in. x 12in. beam, designed by Commander Peter Thornycroft for Trinity House. It appeared in a Modelcraft Did this Nelson 40 belong to you? 8 miss this appeal for help, so that they can be contacted for any details and hopefully no-one’s name will be missed off the trophy record. Any one with details that may help can contact: Peter Reynolds, 46 Rollestone Road, Fawley, Southampton, Hants. SO4 1GB. Hopefully this appeal will enable us to compile a complete record of the Trophy and allow the winners’ names to be placed on the Trophy. We would also be grateful if you could publish the dates for this competition and our open scale event, these being as follows: Open Scale, Sunday 25 J une; Kingfisher Trophy Tug Towing, Sunday 24 September. The venue for the regattas will be Gang Warily Recreation Centre, Fawley, Southampton. P. E. Reynolds 46 Rollestone Road Fawley Southampton Hants SO41 GB Demented Tea Trays! Dear Editor, After almost 19 years away from boat modelling I recently re-discovered the joys of a Sunday morning at the lakeside. Ho things have changed over the years. No more blisters from starting cords, just ar: ache from reaching for the electric starte The club I have joined is mainly multi-boats. They have become much faster over the years, but has this been at the expense ofa little elegance? A moder! multi boat certainly gives the thrill of speed, but it does look rather like a demented, glass fibre tea tray with a tune pipe sticking out of the back. I returned to the boating fold with an Irvine 40 powered Cachalot, designed in the 1960s by Vic Smeed. Yes, don’t laugh! The hull really is made of plywood and that’s really a model driver sat behind th windscreen. However, I soon caught a mild dose of the speed bug. I purchased a Mastercraft 40 from S.H.G. Marine and a Webra Speed 40. The graceful hull lines and high quality of mouldings inspired m to try and make something that would look good whilst still giving a reasonable turn of speed. The hull is fitted out in the usual multi boat manner. However, I hav: used an under deck tuned pipe from Prestwich Models which fits entirely within the hull, gives good power and is very quiet. Now for the bit that gives the folk down at the boat club a good laugh! I’ve built a hatch and on the top sits an Action Man sliced in half (Ooh, nasty!), a few dummy air intakes, an engine hatch and now the thing might even be mistake: for a model power boat. I don’t think any of this has reduced the performance, it may not be the fastest boat at the club but it is reliable and fast enough for club competition. So come on! Try your hand at something that looks like a boat as well as giving the ducks a hell of a fright. I did and it’s given me great pleasure. Finally, a tip for those of you who need ; waterproof box for your radio gear. Instead of the sandwich box with a lid that after some use becomes loose, try a black plastic box from ‘Radio Spares Ltd.’, available from most electronic component shops and sold as a box for building electronic equipment in. The lid has a lip around it and is held firmly at each corner by a 4BA bolt. For extra waterproofing a smear of grease around the lip before bolting down the lid will completely seal the box. Happy boating, and don’t forget a bad day with the boat is still better than a good day at work! John Young Nottingham — Curved Air With Model Yachting Association General Secretary Russell Potts here is a lot of MYA and IMYRU news to fit in this month, so there will be less of the series on restoring Orion than I had intended. I will, however, put those of you who had been trying to work out her origins out of your misery. MYA News New Clubs Peterborough MBC have affiliated their small sailing group and are hoping for an increase of members as a result. They sail on a good stretch of water, part of a purpose built rowing course and have the use of good clubroom facilities close to the water. The sailing secretary is Colin Eustace, Pond House, 8 The Green, Glinton, Peterborough. Tel: 0733 252 333. Leigh & Lowton SC is a full size sailing club on an inland water in South Lancashire. One of their members is Billy Maguire who has been an active model yachtsman for many years. He has persuaded a small group of his fellows to form a model sailing section. Billy Maguire, 87 Bewley Drive, Southdene, Kirkby, Liverpool L32 9PB. Aerial Protection The MYA has succeeded in getting IMYRU to make adequate protection of the ends of transmitter aerials obligatory at all IMYRU events. By the same token, competitors at all MYA events will be required to have adequate protection. We have so far had no serious injuries to other skippers on the bank, but there have been a few cases of skippers walking into each other and folding up their aerials against the chest or shoulder of their vis-a-vis. It requires little imagination to envisage what might happen if the end of the aerial should go into someone’s eye. The simplest and quickest solution is a practice golf ball, which will push fit onto most aerials in moments and stay there without any fixing device. It costs about 20 pence and will be obligatory for all MYA championships and ranking events. It is strongly urged that all who use a radio transmitter should fit one and reduce the risk to others. Skipper’s Compendium The requirement for aerial protection will be included in the Standing Sailing Instructions for MYA events. These will be republished as part of a comprehensive guide for the competition minded skipper. This will include in one place everything the keen racing man needs and much more that he will find valuable. Entry procedures, registration procedures, the up to date IYRR and RCRR Appendix (1989-1992), and other material will be included. Ian Taylor is masterminding this and I shall let you know as soon as it ready. 46 MYA ‘How To’ Guides Ian is also masterminding the production of a series of brief pamphlets of specific information that many model yachtsmen, and not only beginners, will find valuable. The first is ‘Numbering Your Sails’, designed to meet whatis _ obviously a long-felt need, if the number of inadequately numbered boats at even the highest level is anything to go by. The pamphlet includes all the relevant Rules, as well as a template to help you get the numbers spaced out neatly and a set of number and letter templates in each of the sizes required by the various Class Rules. Other titles in preparation include ‘Installing the Winch’, ‘Care and Protection of Radio Equipment’, ‘Measuring the “A” Class and 6-m’, ‘Basic Sail Trim’, ‘Using the Vane Gear’, and (for the benefit of the Vintage Group) ‘Using the Braine Gear’. These will be available in due course through the MYA and may also be available through model shops. Suggestions that there should be another one on ‘Making Your Appeal’ have so far met with a mixed response. Yes, we do want more competently presented appeals, but do we want to encourage more of it than we get at present? The Social Sailor The Skipper’s Compendium mentioned above is an example of the MYA expending effort on the better organisation and preparation of the competitive sailor. There is no doubt that the minority of keenly competitive skippers get a lot more out of the MYA than those who, for whatever reason, do not sail away from their own club. Much of the MYA’s activity and expenditure is centred on the organisation of competition at the higher levels and this work is necessarily funded to a large extent by the payments of the majority who choose to make no use of the services provided. The cry that the MYA should do more for the casual sailor who is not interested in the higher levels of competition is one that recurs with some regularity over the years. which suggest that successive Councils have not been entirely successful in meeting the requirements of this group. So that we can have yet another look at what we could or should be doing, Council would like clubs and members, particularly those who are not active on the competitive scene, to tell us what they want from the Association and how its Below, photos 1 and 2. Orion was in a sorry state when first discovered. Section spacings wide apart at Gin., note where tape had been applied under varnish. Opposite bottom, figure 2, Stella Sharpie – see ‘Orion and her design origins’. services to the broad masses of the membership could be improved. Individuals or groups who are involved in model yachting but currently have no connection to the MYA are also invited to contribute ideas. All suggestions will be carefully considered. remain legal, though those who are contemplating building to them, or to others that incorporate this means of massaging the measurement of the LWL, are warned that they may find their boats ruled illegal at a later date. League Results The allocation of places for the RM Europeans in Italy in September has been revised to bring them into line with the IMYRU guidelines. This means that the MYA allocation is reduced from 9 to 6 at the first round. There is of course still a chance that we shall get some more at the second round. The date for the 1990 RM World’s in the Canary Islands is now confirmed as 6-15 July. International Racing This year there is an extremely full record of the League results that David Coode has prepared. One has gone to each club and there is a small number of additional copies available for individuals who want them. These will cost £1 each to cover the considerable post and packing charges. Photo 3. Fifty years exposure to atmosphere, dirt and wear and tear has left the original top suit sails in a sorry state. Yet another M Class Rule ‘M’ Class Rule Interpretation IMYRU have issued a Rule interpretation on the way fittings on spars are to be regarded and on the extent of discontinuous luff attachments that may be disregarded for measurement purposes. Details have been circulated to all clubs. Another ‘M’ Class Rule Interpretation: Bumpers Last year there was some confusion over what was meant by resilient in the context of the M Rule on bumpers. The MYA’s Technical Secretary has devised a simple pondside test that will be used to check the resiliency of bumpers for the M Class and for other classes if there is any doubt over the characteristics of a bumper. Essentially, this involves standing the boat, in full sailing trim, on its bumper on a flat surface. If the bumper compresses to less than 51% of its original thickness, it is too soft. If it will not accept a 16g (1.5mm) wire and return to its original shape when the load is removed, it is too hard. Full details have gone to clubs. None of this amends the Rule as such, nor does it mean that a bumper that meets this test of resiliency is, ipso facto acceptable. Race Officers, Measurers and skippers are expected to use their common sense. Interpretation Some confusion has arisen over the requirement in the M Rule for Measurers to sign and date sails when they are measured. This requirement has revealed that some Measurers are not examining the smaller suits of less than 800 sq. inches. At least, they are not signing them as they should do. Skippers should ensure that the Measurer puts his mark on all the suits that they intend to use with the boat. Rhyl, where the RM Nationals are to be held in May, can be very windy and we may well find that we need all our suits. It would be annoying to say the least to find that your smaller suits were not regarded as legal by the Race Officer or by other competitors. ‘A’ Class Rule Interpretation Request Council was asked to consider the ‘A’ Class designs Alien and Vapour Trail, recently published in ‘MYN’. They decided that there is a doubt whether these designs conform to the Rule in respect of the provisions of the clause on ‘Notches and Hollows’. Each has a reflex curve in the profile in way of the aft end of the waterline. The IMYRU Technical Committee has been asked to give a ruling. In the meantime, these designs | DATUM New Allocation System For IMYRU events after the beginning of next year a new system for allocating places will be used. Places will go to the reigning champion and then two to each member nation. The remaining places will be allocated in relation to the places gained by each nation in the previous relevant event. Thus, countries that have done well in the past will get additional places in future. This, it is hoped, will raise the general standard of the entry. If successful, it will mean that the serious scrapping for the top places is going to be taking place even further down the fleets than was the case in Berlin. Stop Counting The immediate cause of the change in allocation rules is the IMYRU’s decision that it is no longer interested in how many boats are currently registered in each country. This is the consequence of the introduction of the lifetime certificate which has made it, in the view of IMYRU, too difficult for them to count boats. As a result, they have had to change the way in which subscriptions are calculated and votes allocated to a broad banded structure which, though it reflects the current boat strengths of member nations, LINE oO a | DEK & CHIME oe te Borrom + — “STELLA 10-RATER 1 ZOE — SHARPIE DesicneD LWL By W. J. DANIELS. 485%” DisPracement S.A. 12157 242% \bs. SKIN | |-——Froeas &-——. | | | Full-sized Blue Prints of this Model are obtainable MAY 1989 | inwace frmen Transers K* raceme | KEELson from Marine Mope.s Offices, price 15s., post free. 47 has no way of responding to future changes in numbers. The PC Minutes airily give member nations freedom to devise their own system of determining fleet strengths, as though consistency of method in this taste didn’t matter. I personally find this a curious response to the unintended and unwanted consequences of the lifetime certificate, but far be it from me to question the judgement of our betters. National authorities are clearly to be the dustcart after the Lord Mayor’s Show, clearing up as best we can the unconsidered consequences left behind by the Mayor’s proud horses. Start Counting In this spirit, the MYA has decided that it still wishes to know how many of its lifetime registered boats are currently active and a scheme will be introduced to do this, probably taking the form of a periodical declaration by the owner, to be recorded by the Registrar, that the boat is still in use. Orion and her Design Origins WhenI first saw this 10-rater, she was just a nondescript boat in poor condition, showing every day of her obviously considerable age. (Photo 1) The sail number was 775, which I knew put her in the middle thirties; when I got her home, the 10-rater Register revealed that she had been first registered in November 1936 as a boat of the Norfolk and Norwich club. There is now no way of knowing how she got to the West Midlands where I found her, but she had been there for twenty years or more. The Register showed that she was owned and built by E. Smith and designed by W. J. Daniels. I didn’t recall having seen a Daniels design like this one, with its rather unusual combination of round planked bottom and sharpie hull form. My first sort through the 10-r plans didn’t throw up anything remotely like her, but I did find a 1929 design by Daniels for a 36in. boat for juniors called Star Junior, which was distantly based on the ‘Star’ full-size keelboat and used this Photos 4 and 5. Every seam open in the lower part of the hull. Fittings were all home made from brass. form of 10-r overhang. I must confess that at that stage I assumed that the adaptation had been done by Mr. Smith and that the attribution of the design to Daniels was wishful thinking or flattery. Only after I had written last month’s article did I come across his design for a 10-r called Stella, which appeared in ‘Marine Models’ in September 1935. As these things will, it had filed itself in the wrong box and I found it when I was looking for something else. The hull form. This design was widely built to at the time and the Birkenhead club used it as a one design class for their juniors. Ken and Wally Jones and Bill Poole each cut their competitive teeth on the design. Bill has a scrapbook which opens with a photo of himself aged about 12 in short trousers and giglamp glasses, standing in the front garden holding a Star Junior, his first boat. The design was drawn before the days of the 36in. Restricted Class and when the MYA adopted the latter, Star Junior, which was a shade broader than the beam allowed by the new class, fell out = : Litiiitilt Boa L of use. A comparison of the Star Junior body sections with Orion showed that they were identical in form but in the 10-r they had been enlarged to 120% of the original size. It didn’t take long to work out that the design had been made by enlarging and opening out the section spacings and redrawing the ends to give a more typical 48 Fig. 1a, Star Junior sections. os tL |4 RRS| COVERING BEAD accompanying article makes clear that the design is directly derived from Star Junior and gives comprehensive instructions on how the boat should be built. The two designs are reproduced here and it can be seen how they are related. (Figs 1, 2) They shared the same constructional method with substantial floors at each station, on which the planked bottom is fixed, but no internal frames to the upper part of the hull. The section spacings are very wide, 6in. in the 36 and 5in. in the 10-r, and this may have been part of the reason why the planking has proved less than totally resistant to movement over the years. Orion had had some sticky tape, probably zinc plaster, applied to the inside of the planking when she was built and before the inside was varnished; this can be seen in photo no. 2, but had proved inadequate to hold all secure. Condition She was in a sorry state; her top suit, which had been kept on the spars, exposed to the atmosphere and dirt for fifty years, was in rags and useful only to give an indication of the sail plan for a new suit. (Photo 3) The smaller suits, which had been rolled in a sail bag, were in first class condition and appeared to be made of the ‘XL’ sailcloth marketed by Mr. Perks during the late 1930s. The deck was split in several places as well as being badly cockled and lifting from some of the beams. Splits in the deck are by far the most common problem with boats of this vintage. The deck is very thin and very wide; it is often the least well conditioned component as the most common source of supply was the material used for picture backing before plywood and hardboard became the norm for this particular job. Once the boat was taken out of regular use, the gradual drying associated with indoor storage meant that the deck shrank and, as the hull would not move to accommodate it, split. On Orion, most of the deck beams had come unshipped from their mortices in the inwhales and one had fallen down against the topsides and forced a split in the sheet mahogany that formed the hull side. The lower part of the hull, which was conventionally planked in pine, had dried and shrunk so much that every seam was Fig. 1b, Star Junior elevation. “te cu lentefe—_ia__f> je j¢ |6 © jo peo jw iva to be worth the trouble of restoring and re-rigging. DECK BEAM ya INWHALE HULL ; | PLANKING FIG.3 TYPICAL HULL CONSTRUCTION: INWHALE / DECK BEAM / COVERING BEAD open from end to end, some of them showing ‘,in. or more of clear daylight between the plank edges. (Photo 4) Everything was covered in filth and the lower, planked, part of the hull had a thick and wrinkled coat of paint that looked as if it had been wrinkled from its first application. To add to the discouragement, the paint was of that tired, anaemic shade of green known as ‘eau de Nil’, much used for kitchens and bathrooms in the 1930s. I don’t understand how anyone can have thought that the Nile was ever that colour, even less how it could have been thought a suitable colour to paint a boat. The mahogany topsides were varnished and had a big curly lettering transfer of the name on each bow. This was the only part of the original decor that I really wanted to keep, and it was to cause me problems later in the restoration. It was covered with a heavy and wrinkly additional patch of varnish that had helped to preserve the lettering from the hard usage the boat had had over the years. The fin and lead were in fair condition and being made to come off, were easily removed to be brought up to standard in parallel with the hull. Having the lead off makes all the other work on the hull a great deal easier, particularly when it comes to balancing it across the knees for all the many filling and sanding down operations that are the essence of the restoration process. Mr. Smith had followed Bill Daniels’ instructions to the letter and the boat, despite her sad and battered condition had been carefully and accurately built in the first place, with one or two nice touches to the work, which suggested that her builder had been a professional woodworker with a stock of tools out of the way of the average amateur modeller. She was clearly going The fittings (photo 5) were all home made from brass and were fairly standard for the period, except that the mast slide was carefully made with an oval hole to suit the oval mast. Was this a mast that the builder had by him or, as rigs got taller, did he feel the need for a mast with a greater degree of fore and aft stiffness? All the fittings were of course filthy and oxidised. Interlude for Aesthetics There is an aesthetic problem over the restoration of boats as old as this, particularly when they have been substantially damaged by time. It’s almost impossible, without a level of skill which I don’t have and an expenditure of effort that I’m not prepared to make, to restore them to their original condition so that they appear to be ‘as new’. They are going to look ‘repaired’ or ‘restored’. That is no bad thing in itself, but it raises questions over what level of final finish to go for. In the case of Orion for example, the deck needed substantial repair and was going to show where the many splits had been filled. I wanted to retain the original deck lining and this made it inevitable that the numerous scars and slurs that had been put into the deck varnish over the years were also going to continue to be visible under whatever new varnish was applied. As can be seen from photo 5, the deck had lost any remnant of gloss to its varnish and no amount of cleaning off the filth of the years would alter that. Should the final finish be matt or gloss varnish? A parallel problem arose over the brass fittings, which had a very heavy patina. Were these to be buffed up to their original shiny state, or left as they were to show their age? I decided to keep the fittings dull finished and to give the hull a final finish that was not glossy. As I write this I have not got to the stage of finally finishing the hull and have not decided exactly how I’m going to achieve the result I want. Stripping Down The first job was to get the fittings off. Most were straightforward, needing only the removal of the small brass screws that were holding them, but in every case it was necessary to clear varnish from the slot of the screw first, so that a sufficient purchase could be gained to move it against the grip of the old varnish. On other boats, I have occasionally had to resort to heating the head of the screw with a soldering iron to break the grip of varnish and corrosion. This has, so far, always worked with brass screws. If you are so unfortunate as to have to deal with a boat that has been assembled with iron screws, you may find that even this doesn’t do the trick and you have to drill the heads off and then try to extract the shank after the fitting is off. It’s not a nice job, especially with small screws. The mast slide caused some problems, as the sliding plate and its fixed cradle were Continued on page 53 MAY 1989 49
