Pride of Baltimore c.1981 in 1:20 scale

Packing the trunk

Back on the 17th, I cut the prop cut-out in the stern post - something better done when the keel was first cut out - but why take the easy way out, right? .


I also arranged and sized the deck beams to properly frame hatches, mast partners, etc.


Instead of the big pipe attached to the bottom of the keel for ballast, with Pride I'll be using a fin with a bulb at the bottom much the same as I've seen on some big Newfie schooner models (Bluenose types) that are of a comparable size and sail area.


Toward that end, I installed what amounts to a dagger-board trunk in Pride's hull.

The trunk is made from two sheets of luan plywood, glassed on their inside faces. Two pine strips, coated in epoxy, act as spacers and hold the sides apart so a 6 inch wide by 1/8 inch think aluminum plate can slide in.


The plate will have a bulb of lead shot cast in epoxy on it's end.

All of this would have been best designed into the keel before the hull was started - but the hull was made before I decided to go this route - so much for advanced planning and design. You folks out there - learn from me and don't make my mistakes.

The trunk is meant to go through the hull and sit flush with the bottom of the keel. That meant cutting the entire center of the keel out of the model for about 6-1/2 inches.

Fortunately; a while back I bought a "multipurpose tool" from Harbor Freight that looks like a right-angle grinder, but actually just vibrates what-ever's mounted on it from side to side - like a sanding pad, or a saw blade!


This gizmo made quick and clean work of cutting out the keel and the trunk fit right in, nice and snug.


I've been helping an old shipmate, and friend, build a 14 foot skiff in my yard this week.


He let me use some 2-part epoxy in a caulking gun tube to install my dagger board trunk. With that I was able to push epoxy into cracks and spaces, and get into corners - great stuff at about $22 a tube. You can recap the unused part, but you have to replace the spout as the epoxy in mixed inside it and will harden.

So, end grain and outside surfaces got smeared with epoxy, and after setting and sanding, some more glass & resin will go on and the inside will get some bracing.

 

Braceing the trunk

The trunk got cut down about an inch, capped, and braced.


Everything was epoxied in place - inside and out.


Another bulkhead was fitted aft, that will support the motor which will be placed pretty much in the same spot that Pride's engine was actually placed. The motor comes from an old 12 volt Craftsman cordless drill.

 

Waling at the Damn Yankee Workshop

I re-sized an image of myself from 1980 to 1:20 and pasted it to some card. Now there's a 20 year old me, 3-1/2 inches tall, standing around so you can get an idea of scale in the pictures.


Since I was already cutting card-stock, I made a template for the deck.


I drilled the hole for the bolt that will hold the fin keel. The hole is centered so the fin can be switched, fore-and-aft. I may cut a little hollow in one side to move the CLP slightly to balance the boat. To seal the plywood and reenforce the hole, I epoxied in a length of brass tube. When that set up, I cut the tube inside the trunk with a hacksaw blade and filed it smooth with a jeweler's file. A brass nut and bolt hold the fin in place.


I was rummaging through the shop trying to find something to make the wales from when I came across a piece of molding that was used as a batten for marking the curves on the plywood for a skiff being built in my yard. It was perfect for Pride's wales. Unfortunately, it was about 4 inches short of getting both sides out of it.


In the mean time, I beveled the bow end of the wale to fit the stem, wet the piece, and clamped it onto the hull. When it dried I thinned the aft end slightly with a block plane to help it make the twist at the counter. I mixed up some slow-cure epoxy and sawdust; buttered up the piece, and clamped in onto the hull.


Tomorrow I'll get another piece and we'll take a shot at the other side.

 

Paint!

Picked up another piece of "screen molding" and epoxied it onto the port side.


When that set up and the clamps came off, I sprayed the bottom with white primer.


The wales looked a little thick, so I shaved them down with a block plane until they looked right to my eye. I also adjusted the sheer line from about midships to just short of the bow - the run of the sheer looks much smoother now. I marked the waterline and then marked the painted waterline about 1/2 an inch higher than the load-waterline the model will float at.
Pencil line is the LWL.

I intended to get some green paint to mix with some white and a little blue to make the blue-green color Pride's bottom was painted - but they had no green I could use, and everything was gloss.
I would up with a can of Rustoleum satin Moss Green spray paint.


I gave that a try, and though it could be a little bluer - it's not bad.


The top sides were painted with flat black enamel to the top of the wales. There' modelings and channels to go on yet, so I'll paint up there when that's been installed.

 

Moldings, fashion pieces, fancy pieces, and more paint.

Later on the 5th, I installed the molding that on the real boat, is the outside edge of the waterway cap rail. This was painted red on the Pride and will, of course, be painted red on the model. I also cut out and fitted both forward channels, but only the starboard one got installed so far.


4/6: The molding got put on the other side and the gun ports were cut out. Some white paint on the bulwarks and she's looking a bit more like the Pride of Baltimore.


I noticed I screwed up the deck clamp somehow. I made the deck flush with the top of the stem-head when it should have been lower - even with the top of the wale. I'm going to have to move, or remove it to where it belongs.

4/7: I started fitting the fashion pieces that cover the counter planking's end grain; and the transom wings that reenforce the part of the transom that hangs beyond the side of the hull.


With those installed, the "fancy piece" was fitted and installed. This piece forms an decorative arch, the inside of which will be finished with a mahogany veneer. This piece was also sanded thinner at the ends to give the transom a little bit of a bow.


Under the fancy piece is the name board which is bordered, top and bottom with some 1/16" half-round molding I got from Doll House Collectables a long time ago.

 

A thin red line and changing the channels.

Since I pulled out the deck clamp, I'm rethinking the deck. I'd really like to get some thin plywood, like 1/8" "doorskin" and some birch veneer which will give me a deck about 3/16" thick. But it's hard to find that stuff around here. No one apparently makes anything in Maryland.

I went looking for a little red paint for the waterway cap molding, but it was priced so high I left the hardware store disgusted, which seems to be a common occurrence. I found some "regal red" spray paint cheaply at another store. I really didn't want spray paint, but I take what I can find.

I masked off the molding on one side and sprayed a couple of coats. After touching up where it bled under the masking, it wasn't too bad.
To do the other side I sprays some paint onto a sheet of cardboard and brushed it on. That worked pretty well except it dried very quickly requiring me to respray it a lot.

I put on the other three channels. Same drill, epoxied and pinned with 16ga steel brads. They got a coat of paint and I sat the model out in the sun while I stuck wale planks on
Macedonian.

Port fore channel being fitted.
Aft channels clamped in place.
Another view.
A coat of paint and out in the sun.

 

Deck Structure

I've decided I'm going to use 3/16" luan ply (same as I'm using on Constellation as a sub deck) and glue down strips of something, probably bass, for the finished deck. With that decided, I know how thick the finished deck will be and can set the deck clamp accordingly.


With the new deck clamp installed, I decided to thin out the deck beams. They're no longed notched , but simply butt to the deck clamp. Blocking went in between the beams to lock it all together, strengthen the structure, and keep the beams squared up. All the wood-to-wood joins were glued with Tite-Bond III and wood to glass/resin with epoxy.


Mast partners and some framing went in to outline the cabin opening and what will be the main access hatch. The cabin trunk was made from some 1/8" plywood I had from the unused battery box I originally made for Constellation. The is actually an inner sleeve, the cabin trunk will slide onto this like a box lid and be held down with a pair of those tiny, but strong magnets.


The cardboard deck template was re-cut to the new deck position and traced onto the luan plywood. It was cut on the bandsaw and some fine shaping done with a block plane and a file.


To allow it to take the deck camber, I'm going to cut saw kerfs in the underside instead of cutting completely through like I did with Constellation's subdeck. If that won't allow it to take the camber and sheer combined, I'll go ahead and cut it through.

The mahogany filler piece was glued into the transom.

 

Re: Deck Structure

Spent a little time marking the 1:20 scale measurements on the spar plan in preparation for making spars.


I cut a motor mount from an electrical box cover and mounted it to the motor bulkhead. The mounting plate used the motor mount holes in the face of the motor and doubles as something of a heat sink - though I doubt it'll need that. I still have to get or make a shaft, stuffing box, and prop, as well as a way to connect it all to the motor.


A box of a few thousand trenails from the "dollar store."


This is half the rail. The inside half will be laminated after the deck's in and the timber heads are installed.
This rail is pegged into the top of the planking.


Cutting the pegs with the flush cutters.


Rails installed, clipped, sanded, and some paint applied.


Main access hatch cut out of subdeck


Framing the main access hatch. The beams will be cut when the framing that holds it's shape is complete.


1/16" basswood sheets for decking:
Left, stained gray, then oak
Middle, stained oak, then some gray
Right, bare bass


Some planking laid out on the deck. Pride's deck was very dark - this looks to match it pretty well.

 

Hatches

Finished framing the access hatch and cut it out. Some more wood went in to create a ledge for the hatch cover to sit on. The section of the sub deck over the hatch was glued to the portion of the frame removed making the hatch cover.


Some additional bracing went into the deck framing so all the deck beams are braced to each other. A couple of posts were also put in at the mast partners. This stiffened things up quite a bit.


The motor mount bulkhead and plate were painted and epoxied into the hull.


Started building the cabin trunk. This is the lid part that will lift off.

 

My 4 bitts worth

I have a few boards about 5/16" thick, 4" wide, and 3 feet or so long. It's some sort of dunnage, pallet stuff - I think it's some sort of mahogany. Anyway, some of it has now become bitts on the Pride of Baltimore.
It seems to have worked out well, so I'm gonna use it for the catheads, pinrails, and maybe the tiller, as well.

 

Bitts, cabins, gudgeons, and a rudder

I put some framing in the counter, which will get decked over. A block of oak was installed her to strengthen the rudder pivot point here.


While that set up I roofed cabin box-top and installed some internal structure in it. Some of the wood from the original Pride's mast was milled into little logs from which I made the skylight, hatch, and trim around the roof. This was given a little oak stain to better match the original's color. The binnacle box and the hatch doors have to be made yet. I haven't found any pictures that show the cabin hatch, and I can't recall how they looked (I didn't live in this part of the boat)


The real boat had a big keystone shaped hole through the counter for the rudder head to pass through and turn in. I thought about this a while and opted not to do that. Instead I drilled a slightly over sized hole thought the counter for the 3/16" i.d. brass rudder tube. It was set in the hole with J.B.Weld and a 3/16" rod blocked and taped at the heel of the stern post to keep things lined up. This is more precise, stronger, easier, and more waterproof than making the big hole through the counter. J.B.Weld gets thinner before it sets up and will run out of holes, so a bit of tape was placed on the bottom of the counter and the tube pushed through it. The J.B.Weld fills around the tube held in by the tape. When it was set-up, the tape was removed and the tube trimmed almost flush with the counter underneath, and on top. The counter was decked over and the big keystone hole left open to give the impression of how the boat looked.


The rudder cut from 1/4" Plexiglas. I drilled the 3/16" brass rod that would be the rudder shaft for the 1/16" brass drift pins that will tie it to the rudder. Using these holes as guides, I drilled the rudder to match. The drifts were cut and everything dry fitted. The drift pins were soldered to the shaft, filed and sanded smooth. I squirted CA adhesive into each hole and quickly set the rudder post in and then everything went wrong. The CA set up so fast I never got the drift pins all the way in. In trying to tap it in, the solder joints broke and I wound up peening the pins over on the shaft and a piece of the rudder head broke off.


Except for a slight gap between the rudder and the shaft, everything seemed tight. I even tried pulling a drift pin with the idea of saving the shaft and starting over, but I couldn't get it out, so I decided to go ahead and give using this rudder a shot. I touched some heat to the pins to maybe reset the solder and filled the gap with J.B.Weld. The broken head was replaced. I made Constellation's rudder the same way and didn't have this problem, so I wasn't expecting it this time. I'll know better on Macedonian's rudder. I'll flatten the drift pins on one side, set them half way then squirt in the CA.


The heel of the rudder is held to the boat by a gudgeon plate. This plate is made in two parts; a mounting plate that attaches to the keel with wood screws and epoxy, and has holes threaded for two machine screws that hold the second part; the gudgeon plate, that holds the heel of the rudder to the keel. It's made to be easily removed in case the rudder needs to be removed for some reason.

I made the plate from the same heavy copper sheet Constellation's gudgeon plate was made from. Because of the rake of the stern post, it had to be bent into a 'Z' shape. I morticed the bottom of the keel so the mounting plate would sit flush with the bottom of the keel, and predrilled the plates. That all done, I had to get the brass screws to put it together.

I found some #2 brass wood screws and some #4 brass machine screws without having to buy any more, so I drilled and tapped the holes in the mounting plate, and drilled and counter-sank the holes for the wood screws. The holes in the gudgeon plate were opened to the right sizes, and the mounting plate was screwed and epoxied to the keel. When every thing was set-up - the model had a functioning rudder.


A pair of beams were installed in the hull for the battery to lay on. The battery is held in place by peel-n-stick tabs of Velcro.


I actually have very few pictures from my time on Pride. My camera was broken before we went to Yorktown, and some photos I know I had I haven't been able to find. There's not a lot on the Internet either - searches for Pride of Baltimore turn up much much more on the Pride II than the first boat. Greg Pease's book, Sailing With Pride has actually been a big help. It's full of photos many of which reveal details I need and couldn't find elsewhere. It's been especially helpful where the boat's construction deviated from the plans, such as the shape of her transom. That I found the book for $5 wasn't bad either.

 

More deck details and controls set-up

The cabin lid is completed. All the bright finished wood came from one of Pride's top masts that was replaced just before she went on her last trip to Europe. So, this wood was on the boat when I was.

The counter was planked and transom knees installed.

The focs'l hatch was a project unto itself. Nothing in the plans matched what the boat actually had so it came down to studying a lot of photos and guessing. I had the hatch cover hinge for no particular reason other than I could. I had access to a sail control pulley in mind, but that's another story.

Using the same wood I used for the bitts and hatch coamings, I made the tiller. I didn't have tubing the right size, so I wrapped it in sheet brass that I rolled on a drill bit and CAed onto the tiller. I think it's a pretty decent match.

The deck furniture is moving along, but before the subdeck can be permanently attached, the controls have to be sorted out.

The shaft & stuffing box, prop, and coupling arrived from Dumas.

The coupling mounted on the motor.

1/8" aircraft plywood servo tray on the daggerboard trunk for the sail controls. Note the red painted knees supporting the aft end. The block of oak with the square hole is the main mast step.

The rudder servo is mounted in the cabin on a tray of the same aircraft ply, and is removable if need be. I can still access the motor without moving the rudder servo. The servo will control the tiller through control lines lead through the deck and disguised as the relieving tackles used on the real boat.

A peek into both hatches.

A rough schematic of the controls.

I had to make holes in something a while back and these wooden wheels were the scrap from the hole saw. They were drafted to serve as pulleys to mock-up the shuttle system for the sail winch.
A quickie spring tensioning set-up was cobbled together as well.

After trying several lay-outs, I decided to go with this set-up: The pulleys will be mounted on a beam with the tensioner incorporated into one end. It will be a removable unit made from a length of aluminum channel. The pulley ends will land in each hatch where I can get at them with out removing the unit.

Here's a cut-away profile showing the internal arrangement of the model.

 

Re: More deck details and controls set-up

I had drilled a 1/8" hole for the prop shaft some time ago, but the stuffing box was 3/16" and I needed a 1/4" hole. The larger hole makes lining things up easier and also makes sure all the wood the shaft passes through is epoxy coated. To make life easier, I got a 16" long 1/4" drill bit.


Everything was dry fitted, and prepped to be set in place...


The hull was stood up on it's transom and J.B.Weld pushed into the shaft hole. The outside end of the hole was covered with tape so the JBW wouldn't run out. The stuffing box was taped except where is would be in the sternpost and slid into the hole and pushed through the tape so it potruded about 1/4" out of the stern post.


Speed controls are expensive little buggers, but I found a Traxxas 1260 on ebay and it arrived a couple of days later.


The old battery quit working during Constellation's test sail last summer, so I had to get a new 6 volt battery before I could try the speed control out.


After testing it out, I made a mount for it and the micro servo that operates it, tested everything again, and mounted the unit on the beam I installed to steady the prop shaft. I have that can of red spray paint, so a lot of little things are getting painted red.


I cut full size patterns for the sails and pinned them up on the shop wall to see how she'll look fully rigged. A lot of sails over lap on this boat, and I felt the heads'ls overlapped a bit too much for a model to deal with, so I moved the clews on the jib and flying-jib forward a little to reduce that.


The model will have 2,205 square inches of sail with everything set. I'm not making stuns'ls, ringtail, or a fisherman for it - there's no easy way to control them remotely.

 

Re: More deck details and controls set-up

I've been wondering the same thing. They do warm up pretty quickly, even after just a minute or two at 6 volts. The instruction sheet shows them mounted on a card or board with the tabs poking through - but it didn't come with one and doesn't say what it's made of. At the moment, they're just dangling in the bilge. I looked around and can hardly find a thread in a forum that mentions this controller, much less what to do with the resisters.

I imagine I'll glue them to something with some high-heat Loctite - but I'm wondering if I should stick on a heat-sink.

 

Re: More deck details and controls set-up

I don't think it has a reverse in it; but it sure is cheap compared to most I've seen.

I have a similar one in a never used plane I got a long time ago, and considered using it here. I thought I could stick a SPDT on the flaps or gear channel to give forward/reverse selection.

As it is, I'm considering a on/off switch on a spare channel to keep the motor off when I accidentally bump the throttle.

 

Mast maker, mast maker, make me a mast...

Pride's lower masts are being made using the "Birds Mouth" method.
Here's a link to everything you'd want to know about it, including calculators to figure out how to make yours.

I helped the fellow building the skiff in my yard make the mast for the skiff using this method - the first time either of us had done it. From a pair of 2x6x12's we made a hollow mast that not only very light, but very strong.


So, using a V-groove router bit in a table mounted router, I tried the idea using some scrap pine and made a couple of 4" long test masts 1-1/8" in diameter.


That worked, so I proceeded to make the model's 42" long foremast along with cross-trees and trestle trees, hounds, and cap. The mast is 8 sided from the heel to about 2" above the deck. The top 5" is squared. There's a tenon at the heel for the mast step, and another at the head for the cap.


Here's a more detailed look at making the main mast:

I'm using white cedar left over from Constellation's masts and spars. None of what's left was long enough to make a solid mast, so this method allows me to use these scraps that I otherwise couldn't have used.


This was ripped into 1/4" thick boards


The boards were then ripped into 5/16" strips.


The strips were fed through the router and the V groove cut. Then I sorted them into 8 sets of staves.


I started gluing them together with Titebond III carpenter's glue, using rubber bands to clamp it up.


When it was all together, I wrapped it tightly with a "string clamp."


The fagot was trimmed on the bandsaw to a rough length of 47". I messed with it for a while to take out any twist and make sure it was straight - then I left it to set up over night.