I've started this model of the Athena sailing yacht because it's the nicest looking yacht I have ever seen. I'd love to see the real thing sometime if she ever gets to Florida.
I took pictures of the deck plan and some side view shots of her off the website of the builder,sectioned them off and adopted a scale of 1/8th = 1'0".I then drew full sized plans of the top and side of the boat and guessed at the shape of the bottom using the pictures as a guide. I'd like to hear any CONSTRUCTIVE criticism from anyone as to the model looking like the real thing.
The keel was made and the frames cut out of picture framing matt board and all hooked together temporarily to see how she will look. The frames will be cut out of 1/8th plywood when I get the patterns right.
Here's a frw pics of the project so far. Pete

http://community.webshots.com/album/167903161GJvIYS

How on earth do you people see 3 dimensions from a 2 dimension picture? I just can't figure it out. Wish I could!

You have to take the picture and find the scale of it. You do need to know at least one major dimension like the length of the boat which I got from the builders site. I measured the overall length of the boat in the picture and cut it in half drawing a line through the middle. Then you measure half the length of the boat in the picture with a regular ruler. So many sixteenths will equal half the length of the boat. From that you can determine the scale of the picture and convert it to any scale you want to draw your plan in. I can't see in 3-D but there are a lot of pictures of the real boat on the builders site to look at and like I said above I guessed at the curves in the hull as there are no hull lines available to use. Let me post the URL of the builders site and you can see all the pics that are available for this yacht. You just have to look at the picture and tranpose the sight to your drawing board. Not very accurate but close enough for a model. Pete

http://www.yachtforums.com/forums/ro...ns-athena.html

You're right Pete. She is a glorious looking yacht.
The hull is the easy bit. The fittings & details will bring your craftsmanship to to new levels. This is gonna be one helluva build. I think we'll all learn something with you on this one.
P.S. Feel free to read my avatar quote from time to time
Best regards.
Paul.

I intend to make this boat for sailing so there probably won't be the level of detail on it that you would expect on a static model. However there will be as much as I feel comfortable with once I get to the floating tests. It will need quite a bit of ballast so the weight of the details will be a consideration. Should be a fun project. Pete

Go for it Norgale, you're doing things right so far, BRAVO!

Ha! I hope your right but we''ll see.

this is going to be one nice boat..
one comment though: looking at the lower part of your hull, i believe you are building it too flat.. your lower part looks more like a freighter than a sailboat.. looking at the manufacturers site, there is one picture from the stern and you can see a little more curveture to it..the lower part below the waterline, needs to be curved more and you have to have more of a keel with it.. otherwhile the boat will not hold course and it will be very unstable..
try to find some pictures of the old 1900's sailboats , like the america.. those should be very close to the original..

hope that info helps a little


ps.. i do have the old sterling model america.. almost the same hull design.. if you want to, i can post some pics

Thanks for that Wolfsong. Thats the kind of info I'm looking for. Yesterday I lined up all the frames with some temporary planks on them. I found several frames that need some shimming to make them even and it looks as though you are right about the bottom. It needs to be more rounded to meld with the sides. As for the keel it didn't look like it stuck out at all in the pictures and there is a huge weight to be added to the bottom because of the height of the masts and the size of the sails. I now have all the frames apart and will start redesigning them today. Rhumbline also wrote and mentioned a slight inboard curve to the gunnels that I hadn't noticed before. I may try to incorporate that too although it's so slight that it wouldn't matter on a model this small.
I would be happy to see your America pictures as I need all the help I can get with this hull. I has to be right or the model won't sail well. I keep thinking about the yellow schooner someone posted on here.I'd like to see some pics of that hull too. It's a beautiful sail boat and I'd like mine to look that good also. Thanks again for your help. Pete

Today the frames were sawn and the installation of them started.

scratch building....ahhh...i love it!

After redrawing the frames and rounding out the bottom more (I like rounded bottoms best) The frames were cut and installed. Even after all that they still arn't lined up right so now there will be some grinding and shimming. I think the problem is that the slots on the bottom of the frames wern't all perfectly centered. This is a problem on the verticle sides but not so much on the lower areas.

Norgale, Beautiful choice for scratch build. You going to detail out the wheel house?
Anyway, Thanks for the link....What a beautiful boat.
And I hope you send the builders and designers photos of this build.

Norgale,

Building from pictures is difficult. I don't do it too often as I get
overly critical about the accuracy. You've done a great job so far.
You have a good eye, the lines are much better after refairing the frames.

Jerome thanks for the comments and Umi too. I was really impressed when I first saw this yacht so of course I had to take a crack at building her. I'll be making a few changes in the model to facilitate sailing her but not so much that would change her overall looks.
Here are a couple of pics after I got the frames all lined up as well as possibe for me. Took four days of pretty steady work to do this and now I know why these boats are built upside down on a level floor. You have to make the frames extra high to give the hull a level base to work on and then trim the frames down to match the sheer line after the hull is planked. That's a lot faster and more accurate. Pete