5/7/2018: While soldering, I gave up on finding tubing the right size for the wythe and made a proper sized hoop from sheet brass for the flying jib-boom.

I installed a few chain plates on the hull just for display at the moment. Attaching the deadeye strop to the plate took some figuring. My 0-80 nuts and bolts would be great, but expensive, and the round-head brass escucheon pins were perfect, but peening them was giving me trouble. I'm going to give some copper wire a try and see it that peens easier.

The trys'ls were sheeted to the bitts with an easily removed loop so they can be brailed up. The tops'l clew lines were led down the eyes in the deck so they could be made-fast to the bitts when the courses were shortened. The chain-tyes and gin blocks were installed on the tops'l yard halyards, and made-fast with hooks to eyes in the deck.

The royals and t'gallants got hooks on their clews and halyards to make putting them on or off easy. Their halyards are made fast to the topmast cross-trees with loops for now. Eventually they will run down to pin-rails on deck.

To shorten sail, the royals and t'gallants can be removed, the courses bunted up, and the trys'ls brailed up taking her from 17 sails to 7 pretty quickly.

It rained monsoon style from the 15th through the 19th. The museum cancelled all their outdoor activities, and I cancelled the trailer. Sunday was forecast to be nice, so the plan now was just to display the model at Baltimore.

5/19: Once more the poor boat was squeezed into the cramped confines of a Toyota Matrix ready to go to Baltimore.

5/20: National Maritime Day ~ Baltimore Port Expo

Several members of the White Rocks Model Boat Club brought their models, as well as an RC power boat club based in Canton Baltimore. A model being developed into a kit was on hand, and there was even a boat that caught the intense intrest of a local pup.

Constellation on display.

...and then it was time to leave.

5/25: I'm not down rigging the model yet, as I hope to get a sail in, in a couple of weeks with Mark and Kerry, and maybe even before then.

I made the capstan at long last. The drum is a 3/4" maple dowel and the rest is mahogany scrap from one of Mark's musical instrument projects. Not having exact measurements, I had to estimate the size from the deck plan and photographs.

It got some detailing; pawls, holes for the capstan bars, and a base plate. On the restoration the top is covered with copper sheet.

5/29: I spent a couple of hours making a yoke or bow or bow-truss, I'm going with just bow as in bow-and-arrow cause it looks like one. This one was for the fore tops'l yard. This is the thing that attaches to the yard and connects to the parrell. The main tops'l yard's and all three lower's were made from aluminum, but the last one took three tries to get and came out, well meh. Here I tried a different construction idea this time, since my soldering has gotten better. I cut some brass rod and hammered it square, or mostly square; then bent it to the right shape as per my pattern for the lowers. I hammered the ends a bit more to widen them and used files to shape them. I cut a notch down the middle of some rod about double the diameter of the first one, then cut off about an 1/8" giving me two half-round pieces. These got soldiered top and bottom to the center of the bow, forming the swell that the parrell stud goes through. After some filing and cleaning up, I drilled the hole in the swell and 1/16" holes in the ends.
Then something happened with the drill press that startled me, I jumped, and the part flew off somewhere. I spent the day "cleaning" the shop trying to find it with no luck. I dubbed it Amielia Earhart because it flew away and dissapeared.

So, next night, I did it all again, but holding out some hope of finding the errant part eventually, I went about making the mizzen bow instead. when it came time to drill, I dug out the 2-direction sliding vice thing for the drill press, instead of holding it by hand with pliers, and everything came out fine with no unscheduled flights.

5/31: Still no luck finding Amielia so I went ahead and started a new fore tops'l yard bow. I had to get some large brass rod because the pivot hole is larger than on the mizzen. This time I cut, drilled and flattened two side of the center piece, and soldiered two arms onto that.

While these parts help make the model able to sail, they aren't jury-rigging and temporary, but permanent fittings actually moving toward's the model's completion.

6/1: Made the mizzen tops'l yard parrel in the same way the fore and main were made, except it has a smaller stud. This got painted black, but I haven't painted the other two yet. I'm also out of the 0-80 "scale" hex nuts. It costs $12 for a bag of 50 and $8 to mail them!!!