Time for some major planning on how the servos and sails will work. The usual way for talented/experienced shipwrights is to rig individual lines from the servos to each sail. Since that seems a bit overwhelming for my first model ship, I think I'll try mounting the masts directly on the servos and just turn the whole mast instead.

Originally I was thinking of drilling holes through the deck and putting the servos on the bottom of the hull. But before I got to the "drill baby drill" step more problems occur to me. My hull is hand carved and not flat at all, so how do you mount the masts perfectly straight? How do you waterproof the holes in the deck for the rotating masts?

So I think the plan will be to mount the servos directly on the deck, then put something around the servos to conceal/waterproof them. Since the deck of the real Beagle was very crowded with stuff, it shouldn't be too hard. (Boxes full of Darwin's fossils and specimens, or maybe some kegs of rum.) This should be much easier (for me) to do, and be much easier to fix any problem with a failed servo or damaged mast in the future.

I'll still have some rigging to attach the jib sails from the bowsprit to the foremast, and some supporting lines between the masts, so from a distance it will still look like it has rigging.

Week 13