Tag: tall ship

8/9/2020 Luna Construction updates!

Posted on by John Collamore | Posted in UncategorizedTagged , , , , ,

We had another great Luna construction weekend with progress being made on the poopdeck and steering system. We had to spend some time Saturday cleaning up and doing some repair work to the construction site from the recent storm and the following down pour the next day. As we see what other tall ship programs are up to, we noticed a common theme- Maintain systems and prevent rot! If you’re not working on either of these you’re ships care can get away from you really quickly!

We’ll begin with the steering system. Steve has been working on this project for a while including having to design the aluminum tiller arm featured in an earlier article and now fabricating extruded fiberglass pads for the hydraulic cylinders to ride on.

The extruded fiberglass pad and wedges to support the high pressure hydraulic steering system.
Bedded in place! From this angle you can carefully make out the various shapes machined into the rudder post that will secure the tiller and emergency tiller arms. The tiller arm fits onto the keyway and the emergency tiller fits over the square cap
It fits!!!! Here, the cylinders and tiller arm are all fit and riding in position!

Onto the poop deck! Excuse the blue hue, but the tarp is keeping us shaded. To help remove water from the deck we have added three scuppers to each side. Scuppers are openings in the sides of the boat which allows the water to drain instead of pool and cause rot. As we build Luna we constantly look for these potential pooling areas and figure out how to eliminate them, preventing water from getting below or causing rot which is much more than a cosmetic repair.

A close up of the scuppers exterior on the poop deck. The tape line at the bottom keeps us in line with the other scuppers. They are four inches wide and almost two high. The trick is to make them flush with the poopdeck on the inside of the rail and keep them consistent on the outside. Nothing a bit of patience, time and eye for detail doesn’t take care of.
A look from inside. The scuppers edges have been puttied to help direct water overboard. They will next be sanded to smooth out the rough spots, fiberglassed to ensure water tightness, then fared in to give a seamless appearance.

So there you have it! This weekends progress. We’ll be back on board this week and have more to share so check in regularly, share our blog and progress on social media and visit our website at www.colonialseaport.org