US Brig Syren by Passaro

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Mar 27, 2019
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I started Syren about two years ago and I didn't know about this wonderful website when I started. My last cellphone, loaded with all my Syren pics from the laying of the keel up to recent, bit the big one. All those pictures were lost. Well anyway here are a gaggle of pics in no particular order leading up to where I am now on the project: Almost complete up to finishing the standing rigging. Next up are yards and the running rigging. So far about two years and 490 hours of labor.

I'll start posting pics of my progress from here on out.
 
Fore topmast backstay bullseye (and you can see the block and tackle for the main royal backstay to the right) I followed Chuck Passaro's method of making a bullseye using an awl and lots of CA glue. Works pretty good but I was horribly inconsistent from bullseye to bullseye. All were slightly different sizes. For my next project I bought tiny brass thimbles from Model Dockyard. After blackening the brass you simply lash your rigging line and secure just as you would for a block-and-tackle.

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Main mast royal backstay rigging and a sample of my way of doing rope coils. In my opinion it takes high quality rigging line to get a good rope coil. I get all my stuff from Mr. Syren himself, Chuck Passaro. But I'm thinking of building the rope walk kit he has available. After the initial investment of the rope walk itself the cost of making high quality rigging line will drop considerably.

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I've decided to cease all rigging of blocks until I get my supply of blocks from a specialty shop, in fact I'm probably going to remove all the pre-rigged blocks hanging from the tops I installed before I set the masts. I'm tired of looking at poorly sanded blocks. Unsanded blocks look even worse. So I'm proceeding with fabricating all the yards and spars and before I'm finished the premium blocks will be here.

To start I made the boom and gaff. I debated keeping them with a natural wood finish as it shows off the detail better and they came out pretty good so why not show it off! But historically accurate is black so that's what I'm going with except the lower yard stuns'ls which are natural wood. Boom and Gaff minus the blocks:

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Main and fore lower yards took about 2 hours each to this point. Still have to install foot ropes and blocks and the stuns'ls. This is the last time you'll see them in natural wood, gonna paint them like the boom and gaff. Again, the stuns'ls installed above these yards will be natural wood per history. The center roughly 1/3 of the yards have battens installed giving this section an octagonal cross section.

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Well good news and bad news. Good is I finished the lower course yards for the fore and main masts and they came out...not bad. Bad news is I should have checked the plans a little more closely. The stuns'l booms should have been installed at a 45 degree angle angled forward when looking at a cross section of the yard. Big time oops. I installed them at 12 o'clock and so all the blocks tied to the top of the yard will bash right into the stuns'ls. Before I start to mount the blocks I'm going to have to remount the stuns'l booms. Not a huge problem but it will take a couple hours of work.

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Well good news and bad news. Good is I finished the lower course yards for the fore and main masts and they came out...not bad. Bad news is I should have checked the plans a little more closely. The stuns'l booms should have been installed at a 45 degree angle angled forward when looking at a cross section of the yard. Big time oops. I installed them at 12 o'clock and so all the blocks tied to the top of the yard will bash right into the stuns'ls. Before I start to mount the blocks I'm going to have to remount the stuns'l booms. Not a huge problem but it will take a couple hours of work.

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More or less everybody - I think EVERYBODY made such mistakes and had to repair, change, adjust for some hours
-> But this will never happen again - THIS mistake o_O
 
My repositioning of the stuns'sl booms and cleats went fine. This little jig is helpful in holding the yard straight and parallel so the footropes and pulleys hang directly underneath. Once the custom pulleys arrive (I forgot to order them two weeks ago) I'll add them. Meanwhile I'm starting on the topsail yards.

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You're build looks fantastic. It's coming along very nicely.
I noticed in the photo above that the grain is very pronounced- I'm not sure if that was the effect you were trying to achieve or the camera/light makes it look that way?
Years ago I had a similar result and found it to be very frustrating as it wasn't the look I was after. I prepared the parts very well; sanding them to a fine finish and then, after I applied my first coat of acrylic paint, all my hard work was ruined when the grain raised.
I later found that the water in the acrylic paint raised the grain giving this look.
Now I sand the wood to final finish and apply a very lightly dampened cloth over the wood which will raise the grain, I let it dry (the grain will remain raised after drying) and give it a final light sand that gets rid of the raised grain. Only a few short sanding strokes is required. The grain will only raise once.
Or you can give the wood a coat of paint, let the grain raise and sand the first coat of paint after it is completely dry- it should remain smooth after that.

You may already know this, just thought I'd mention it so as to prevent others from going through the same frustration I went through.
I hope you do not find offense with my comment- my intentions is only to give help to others where I can.
 
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