Restart of my Pirate Galeon Project.

I really have to start again from Zero, as I need that ship at 1:20 scale to reach all I intended.
1:25 is just not big enough for me.

Here is how far I got with the 1:25 scale:
http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1068813

lots o' photos.........but i never get tired of looking at great lines on a hull......like on a woman....can make yer head spin....

nice project

are you going to make this authentic or more disney-way??

I'm going to follow this offcourse.

Originally Posted by lucc

nice project

are you going to make this authentic or more disney-way??

I'm going to follow this offcourse.

Dear Lucc,
my problem is that I couldn´t get hold of other (not to say several) plans of ships of compareable size, time period and/or different countries.
I would have loved to see plans of english, french, spanish, dutch and netherland galeons of compareable tonnages.

I´m definitely not going the disney-way, except for the stern/gallery and the overall rigging concept.

My idea is to use this authentic plan of the mentioned "Red Lion" - which is complete - as a basis and then modify the parts that don´t fit my concept.
This will also include a more developed rigging -
maybe more 1650 than 1590 era.

Remember - I try to build/reproduce a picture in three dimensions I have in mind since 43 years by now! A lot of thinking and experience has been done/achieved in between.
Allthough I was unable to get any proofen datas, I would suspect some hundreds of galeons in the whole european seas in this timeperiod.
Probably nobody can tell how much there where and what they looked like in detail.
But I believe hull lines have not been changed that much within 60 years.

Besides all of the said above, this is a fantasy build!
I´m building my own ideal pirate galeon -
and of course it will also be influenced by these old
black and white Errol Flynn pirate films I loved so much
when I was a kid.

Originally Posted by yancovitch

lots o' photos.........but i never get tired of looking at great lines on a hull......like on a woman....can make yer head spin....

Dear Mr. Yancovitch,
you speak my way!

A beautiful sailingship is simply erotic!
The curves need to have the right shape, the right size and
need to be in the right place.
Not like these now-a-days models we call hunger-hooks in german,
but much more like the classic pin-up girls.

And like a friend from another forum uses to say:
"Most of my money I spent for boats, beer and girls -
the rest of it I just wasted"
________________________

Pictures: This cannon barrel is 4 3/4" long.
It should have been a sample for the bigger cannons of the lower battery deck at 1:25 scale, but fits now as well for the smaller cannons of the main deck at 1:20.
The cross section plans in the background are allready copied/enlarged to my scale.

On the left side you can see that original "Jolly Roger" Plastic model, the cannon barrel in front of it and the new started big plug on the right.

Quite a difference is size, isn´t it?

i'm looking forward to see what method you use to remove the foam

If the fibreglass shell is thick enough you can just pull it off after curing.
The two important things are a finesanded foam surface +
you got to leave the stern open.

The foam plug doesn´t even get damaged.
I´ve done that many times.
________________________

Some more cross sections cutted.
Now that the scale is 1:20, these sections are 140mm thick.
I´m doing this with 80mm and 60mm Foam.

Mainsection is 400mm whide and 370mm high for now.
The stern will be 620mm high.

This is still not full height for the main section - not even up to the maindeck, as I want to be able to take this model apart right above the lower batterydeck for easier access.

As you can see on the mainsections glued together with doublesided selfadhesive tape, sanding is easy and fast with a very rough 24 grid, then 40 grid..

Length overall: 200 cm
Height overall: 160 cm
Width overall: 77.5cm

Length waterline: 137.5 cm
Length of hull: 177.5 cm

Looks like a great project. Is the ship to be a static model or an in-the-water model?

it gadda be in da wadda......me tinks

Yep!
This will become a fully operational Pirate Galeon!

Lower hull in fibreglass epoxy with internal and (removeable) external ballast, almost invisible waterpump drive, rigging also fully operational plus firing cannons like the 1:25 H.M.S Surprise in this forum - and so on.

I´m trying to build this like Hollywood would probably build a big one - 40 meters overall - for a new Pirate Movie.
A quick and economical build for the not-so-eyecatching details like the submerged part of it, but lots of wood above CWL.

If I remember correctly, there was a BOUNTY rebuild in the 80´, which had a steelhull and a diesel engine, but all above CWL was close to original -
it simply was cheaper and faster to build for the movie.
I think it was the one with Marlon Brando as Mr.Fletcher Christian.
Also this BOUNTY rebuild was about a third or a quarter smaller than the original,
but even my trained eye was unable to see that in the movie.
I just read it somewhere.

I don´t want to spend to much time on woodplanking over frames -
like our Master Model Shipwright Mr. Yancovitch has done in such a beautiful way.

I´m simply to impatient to wait such a long time
untill I get to the really interesting part of the build.

You might want to rethink relying only on internal ballast. The real versions of these boats weren't the most stable and models of them are even less so.

Leitão de Barros, "Nau Portugal" (1940) (3 min 39 sec)

Accidentes en Expo 92 (0 min 36 sec)

Yes yes, these were miscalculated launches, and I posted them to poke fun, but the lower your weight, the less you will need, and being able to detach 18-25 kilograms will make handling the model a lot easier too.

with internal ballast, making the hull above the waterline as light as possible helps too......before, i always used maple dowels to make the masts etc., and besides, being heavy, it was often hard to find straight ones....now, would you believe it, they're making dowels here in vancouver out of plywood or laminated wood, and may be using poplar wood...they are very light although softer, and very straight...it is what i used......in my case my hull is so fat and deep, i figured inner ballast was ok.....but i don't know about disabled's hull shape.....

I´m planning 1/3 of the overall ballast for internal ballast, plus 2/3 of the weight as a lead bulb on an external keel fin.
Also a removeable rudder extension is planned for better sailing abilities.
Do you think this will be apropriate?

Dear Mr. Jerry Todd,
thanks for these great videos!
I will be trying not to go down that road.
As soon as the lower hull is laminated and watertight, I will do intensive floating tests to get the exact volume and CG - as these datas are not included in the plans I have.
In the description it only says: about 20,000 tons displacement for the 1:1 scale.

Dear Mr.Yancovitch,
would you please be so kind to tell me/us the overall dimensions of your hull - length, width and heigth - and how much ballast you are using to get to the CWL?
Also the weight you achieved for your empty hull without any rigging if possible?

Also these datas mentioned above for the H.M.S Surprise in this forum would be of great help.