ORIGINAL: R.J. West
Hi BGnome, your boat looks better than mine, nice job!
your not hurting by missing the dumas tiller arm wire as its pretty flimsy I think 1/16 K&S wire would be better. You can probably just solder it onto the rudder. If you want it to last you may consider getting some thin brass sheet and recut the rudder from the brass as my rudder was a thin tin metal. The brass tube for the tiller arm I beleive was the same diameter as the spreader arm for the mast so 1/16 should be a perfect fit....Dont forget to use those little S hooks to connect the line to your screws on the deck. If you need more you should be able to find them over at Home Depot or Ace hardware store.
Cool thing about Dumas boats is you can trace out the parts onto paper and build a fleet of the things if one wanted to...Its an easy boat to build isnt it?
thanks RJ.. your compliment meens a lot...l even more so my co worker the part time luthior who builds $10,000 violins loves the wood work!
even better than tracing out the ribs, I was able to keep the sheet intact and photocopied in real time. I'm just going to take that, then spray glue the template toa stack of 1/16 basswood sheeting.
that is my ultimate goal.. to make a fleet of the little guys using basswood instead of mahogany for all the sheeting... shooting them all a single color then color coordinating them and putting all the kids names on the stern plate.
we're pretty tight nit at the brewery and I've been portraying Santa Clause for about four years now, so it all works out.
I need to make at least four of them to cover the age appropriate boys. I pan to make at least 6 to sell a couple on consignment to cover material cost. so far, I figure I can make them for under$20 each using basswood. the biggest hurdle is going to be manufacturing Keel bulbs, but that should be fine as well.. I have the idea and the tools to do it.
its been a real fun build so far and I've already ordered the timber for the mass build. maybe I should turn that into a build log.. I dunno
but I wanna thank you for your pictures and scans. they added a lot of context over the included instructions