On ebay I came across this nicely finished hand planked hull. The seller is evidently an antique dealer from Eastern CT.
There are some excellent modelers over there – Essex, Mystic, New London, etc. It is pretty small, but elegant. Anyone recognize the design? Was it constructed from a kit? I might take it on, but it would be helpful to know, going in, what the builder was trying to achieve.
Thank you for your thoughts on this.
Regards, Michael
Hi Mike
I’m making a guess here that it “might” be the schooner BLUENOSE - but it is strictly a guess. I base it on the fact that coming from the upper east coast and near Canada, it might be one of the most modeled ships. I’m probably wrong, but I bet Earl Bobert can identify… He knows “everything” !
Regardless, it really looks to be nice quality of build and finish, and with a deck and rigs it would be a wonderful display model. Can’t tell about weight/ballast so it may be hard to convert to radio control.
Nice find, none the less.
If it really is of balsa, good chance it was from a Scientific kit. My first guess would have been the schooner “America,” but the forebody is all wrong.
Cheers,
Earl
Hello Dick and Earl, thank you for your insights.
From the photo, I thought maybe it was basswood and plywood.
At our pond there is a scale modeler who constructs finely detailed models of the classic Lipton AC racers. They are faithful scale models, with scale keels – but he builds in a hidden trunk for a fin and bulb like one we would use on a modern racing rc monohull. His AC boats have a huge sail area, and they sail very well and very fast, appearing scale – until he pulls the boat out of the water and reveals the long fin and streamlined bulb.
Of course, retro-fitting a keel trunk might not turn out to be a fun project…
I guess if we could identify the kit, I could just start from that point. Hate to mess up this man’s beautiful paint job by cutting-in a slot for a keel.
Michael
I cannot put afinger on it, but that hull is quite famous - andit isn’t Bluenose. It is almost certainly American. If it iswhat I am trying to remember the name of, it had a small trimming centreboard at thepiont of inflection of the profile.
I agree that ‘untweaked’ a scale model would sail very badly indeed.
The Herreshoff bros were in Newport RI, maybe one of theirs? The geography is right.
Contemporary designers were Fife (most famous product was Eric Taberly’s ocean racer, the Pen Duick) and Max Oertz (the Kaiser’s “Meteor.”)
I have now named all the famous boats I ever heard of, however.
As a practical matter I have decided to let this auction go by. It is a nice, elegant hull, but I seem to have too many projects in the queue already.
Still, I would love to know the name of that fine hull.
Thanks again.
Best, Michael