Originally Posted by disabled

I know what reality is.
Why do you think I call myself "Disabled"?
Because I am.

Four years ago at the age of 47 I felt more like being 74 years old.
I was close to death.
As close as somebody could possibly be.
I had reached a dead end in my life.

I had to abandon my former wife and my house and everything.
My life was about to kill me.
Basically my whole old life I had lived for 30 years.
I had been a shipwright and a workaholic packed with muscles.
Usually working 10 to 12 hours a day.
And I had allways loved my work, my profession.

But there has also been a burnout-syndrom together with
massive sleeping problems since 2002 plus diabetes since 2006.
Within the last 4 years I have lost 20 kilograms of bodyweight.
Being 180 cm tall my weight reduced from 98 kg to 78 kg between
2007 to 2011.

Today - and it has been like that for the last 4 years -
my body is so weak I can hardly stand on my own two feet for 2 hours.
In reality Iīm actually disabled to work on a regular basis and
therefore had to retire.
If I can sleep one night for 8 hours in one piece itīs like holydays for me.
And it has been like that for the last 9 years.

So please donīt talk to me about reality - ok?
Reality has almost killed me in the past.
_____________________

The only things that kept me alive during these last 4 years
where my girlfriend and my fantasy.

Yes, my fantasy.
My ability to dream, my magination, my own fiction and my love.

My love for old sailingships and my love towards my girlfriend.
I had to learn again to see the world through the eyes of a child.
I had to find the way back to innocence.

I had to learn again how the romantic imagination of adventures -
the pure fiction in my mind, in my thoughts will help my to survive.

As there is nothing wrong with imagination. There is nothing wrong with dreams.
There is also nothing wrong with dreaming about being the kaptn of my own pirate galeon and sailing across the caribbean seas or along the east coast of northern America.
So please do not try to invalidate my dreams.
My dreams donīt kill anybody and in my dreams I also do not intend to rape anybody. In my imagination the crew of my pirate galeon are all following a code of honor and all of them are straight men and NOT criminals in any way.
__________________

My imagination is neither harsh, rude, impolite nor committing any crimes.
But reality can be or may be harsh, rude, impolite and all kinds of crimes can be or may be committed by all kinds of real persons.

Iīm just asking you not to mix reality with any kind of romantic imagination.
This wonīt work.

The movie "Pirates of the Caribbeans" for example is pure fiction.
Kaptn Jack Sparrow is purely a fictious character.
Also the "Black Pearl" is not real in any way -
as well as the "Flying Dutchman" has never really existed.
But who cares?
Who really cares about that?
Nobody!
It is good fantasy and people love it.

It is fun, it is an adventure - and itīs a way to "escape" from reality for some time. Thatīs all that it is. It is a nice dream.
And this may be the most important thing about it.
It makes people dream!
___________________

And I like to dream the dream of my own Pirate Galeon without being invalidated for the imaginations, values and characters Iīm feeling comfortable with.
I do not wish that (dirty) reality gets mixed in between my (clean) fantasy and this way could be able to damage or destroy my imagination (again).

As this is what keeps me alive.
A good imagination may be the only (real) thing what keeps this planet alive at all.
I can clearly see the difference between reality and fiction.
I donīt even intend to escape from reality.
I just have learned to keep reality and imagination apart from each other.

I have also made my peace with my own current reality and Iīm feeling allright again. I am able to dream again.

Can you?

I too have been on the death bed but because of my wife I made it, though I'm still very disabled. I use to have claws for hands but RC eventually gave me my hands back.
Now I don't care what reality and fiction is as life is much to short and I live it to it's fullliest.

It was on Sept. 5th 2011, page 11, post 153.
Quite weird, isnīt it?

Now some days ago I was in the mood again, so I pulled out the plastermoulds and just continued pouring some hot lead.

what leadbulb?

And nothing exploded into my face - by the way.

Originally Posted by disabled

And nothing exploded into my face - by the way.

Always a good thing.

Hi disabled

It's always good when nothing blows up(except when you want it to)...especially in your face.

Looking forward to seeing your Galleon come together.

kind regards
Tim

My problem is, I will have to build two galeons to reach everything I want.

...you feel just like a little bird - lost...

Happy Feet 2 ~ Erik's Opera with Lyrics (2 min 17 sec)

...you gotta move back to move forward...

Happy Feet 2 - Under Pressure (good quality) (4 min 32 sec)

...you simply gotta dance...

Happy Feet 2 - Penguins Riverdance - Lord of the Dance (2 min 49 sec)

...and sometimes you just wanna follow rivers...

Triggerfinger - I Follow Rivers (LIVE 07.07.12) (Wladimir Klitschko vs. Tony Thompson) (3 min 45 sec)

Fact:
Youīll never know what is able to inspire you -
untill you finally feel inspired - again.

Sometimes...

...you just wanna be heading out to sea...
...and sometimes you wanna feel like a Freddy Mercury...

Queen - Under Pressure (HQ) (Live At Wembley 86) (5 min 39 sec)

You know youīre in trouble,
if you wanna write your very own song -
and all youīre getting out of it is something like this:

"I wanted to build a ship - just as beautiful as a song
I wanted to sail the oceans - to find out where I belong
`cause for my parents Iīve allways been a bastard -
they never wanted me around..."

...combined with a sound like that one:

Axel Rudi Pell - Mystica (8 min 26 sec)

"A ship without a port -
a sea without borders -
a pirate..."

Forever Angel (6 min 7 sec)

But again - I neither like drugs nor crimes nor criminals -
I have my own code of honor Iīm just trying to follow.
This world is cruel enough without all that crap.

Time to start building again.

i think your blog would be a better place for posts like this... it just distracts from model ship building

disabled, i know you have so much creativity and heart, but meatbomber is right......you could just leave a link, for those people who would like to dive into your psychi ...maybe, at the risk of getting lost there
signed, the minotaur

My music and my very personal thoughts donīt distract me from boat- and shipbuilding.
For me itīs the only reason why I stay with it and where I get my motivation from to do so.
If you allow yourself to get distracted by it - well - your problem, not mine.

Please understand that:
Iīm not a shipwright despite my psychi and the music I love,
but BECAUSE of it!
__________________________________________________ _______________

Several decisions had to be made:

Scale: 1:20
Hull Length: ~ 200 cm (~ 40 m at 1:1)
Hull Width on frames: 46,20 cm
Hull Width overall: 48,00 cm
Draft Hull: 19,00 cm
Draft Keel: 21,50 cm
Length/Width-Ratio: 1:3,5
Displacement: 89,01 kg
(14, 01 kg more than the 75,00 kg I originally wanted/expected)
After some more calculations the Displacement could be only 55,3 kg as well - or something in between 55,3 and 89,01 kg! I donīt know anymore!
Please also read:
http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showp...5&postcount=54

My plan so far had been, to build a galeon at 1:20 scale
with an overall displacement between 500 - 600 tons,
but now it will/has to turn out as a Galeon/Frigate of 712 tons.

At this scale of 1:20 of course the volume relation has to be 1:20x20x20 = 1:8000.

Later on I will explain exactly how I came to this decision(s).

Frame distances: 100 mm

Build technique:
Again with (fibreglass over) Styrodur foam for checking the preciseness
of the cross section drawings and the hull lines,
but with the option to do it with planks on plywood frames later on as well.

So yesterday before lunchtime I drove to the shop to buy 8 boards of 100mm styrodur foam.
Dimension 125 x 60 x 10 cm each.
Or 12,5 x 6 x 1 dm3. Weight of one board = 2,65 kg.

With a volume of 75 dm3 this makes a specific weight
of that foam of 0,03533 kg/dm3. Do you get that?
Balsa has a specific weight of 0,2 kg/dm3 normally -
means balsa, the lightest available wood is still
5,66 times heavier than that kind of foam.

So all 8 foam boards together have a weight of only 21,2 kg
at a volume of 600 dm3 (!). Thatīs 0,6 tons in other words!

And the prize?
One board is 11,18 Euros, so all 8 are 89,44 Euros.
Plus three rolls of doublesided selfadhesive tape - 5 cm wide and 25 m long each - to glue the cross sections together instantly - 24,87 Euros.
This makes 114,31 Euros all together to build up a complete plug for a 2 m long galeon hull with perfect lines!

I believe it is also an important aspect that both materials are standard materials
for home building purposes! The foam is a standard insulation material for houses outside around, as well as for floor insulation inside - and the doublesided tapes you normally use to glue your carpets to the floor.
Thatīs why these material are relatively cheap.

Not like most specific modelbuilding materials are!
__________________________________________________ _______________

If I think about the fact, that I had spent more than 300 Euros over the past year for buying,
copying and size increasing of all the different shipplans alone
I was interested in it really appears funny.

Originally Posted by disabled

My problem is, I will have to build two galeons to reach everything I want.

For more than a year I have been thinking about abandoning this original project
of my 16th Century Pirate Galeon now.
But the fact is - I canīt.

There are so many things I want to do in a different way than all the other modelbuilders here in this forum are doing them. So if I really want to be successful with my BIG galeon, I will need to try them first on my smaller shipmodel. The one which will "only" be 2.00 m long...

But as a matter of fact - to really be able to include everything I want to have on my BIG galeon, she - the "Prometheus", needs to be 1.333 times bigger in every dimension.

From a hull width of 40 cm to 53.3 cm.
From a length of 142 cm from stem to stern to 189.3 cm.
From a draft of 18 cm to 24 cm.
Form a displacement of 32 kg to (1.333 x 1.333 x 1.333 = 2.37) -> 75.8 kg

So far so good - but: If I would keep the smaller ship at the scale of 1:20 like originally planned, I couldnīt sail her together with the "Prometheus" at 1/16 scale - not really...
Therefore, this original "Jolly Roger" - the Pirate ship - needs to be rescaled to a ship which is also 1/16 scale. Means, I have to abandon the concept of the "Red Lion" for her; - but for the "Prometheus" the concept of the "Red Lion" will be carried on ...
Have I been able now to confuse you completely???
Well - I myself have been confused about that for quite some time.

But:
The allready built fibreglass hull of the "Red Lion" - about 250 tons - at 1/20 scale has a displacement of about 32 kg now. (1/20 scale - 20 x 20 x 20 = 8000)
The same model displacement of around 32 kg at 1/16 scale ->
-> 16 x 16 x 16 = 4096 -> is only a bit more than HALF of the original scaling factor!
Therefore the "Jolly Roger" at 1/1 scale would only be a ship of 130 tons; - NOT 250 tons anymore!!!

Which shifts her much more into the range of a "Golden Hind",
the small frigate "Berlin" - to name the most popular -
or into the range of the dutch pinasship "Papegojan",
which is a very pretty ship I think.

Meatbomber was so kind to tell me about that link to the "Papegojan" (Parrot)
http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showp...3&postcount=23

If you click that link, youīll find several more interesting pics of her.

So if I'm understanding this correctly, you're keeping the current hull as-is, but re-naming her and re-sizing the detailing to match a smaller ship in a larger scale, which ends up with similar dimensions?

Originally Posted by kotori87

So if I'm understanding this correctly, you're keeping the current hull as-is, but re-naming her and re-sizing the detailing to match a smaller ship in a larger scale, which ends up with similar dimensions?

YEP! - seems the only reasonable way to go for me.

There are also a lot of preparing steps for getting this hull into the water and functioning which have been done allready - like the external keel bulb and the plans for the invisible waterpump drive.