Bowsprit bitts and rest. After gluing together the six pieces that form the cradle for the bowsprit I drilled holes all the way through and inserted some nails to make it a little more solid. I made the assembly a little shorter to fit under my extended forecastle and added a pin rack. Finally I painted the bitts the same color as the other deck fittings: chocolate diluted with denatured alcohol.

Getting the bowsprit to fit into the bitts was a real bear. Not wanting to alter the opening through the bow, I ended up cutting off the legs of the bitts and pinning and epoxing the bitts in place at a slight angle. No biggie since they'll be hidden under the forecastle deck. Next I pinned the bowsprit rest in place, which I had to sand a bit to fit just right.

Wheel. The plans for the wheel assembly were hard to figure out from the supplied drawings, so I looked at the finished product from other builders for help. I added some waxed string to make ropes and furniture nails for the hubs. For the wheel itself I chose the paint scheme from Gilligan's Island for purely nostalgic reasons. A couple of pins later and shipwright Marty finally has a proper wheel to man.

Philly Flags. We spent a week in Philadelphia during their pirate festival and got to tour seven tall ships and watch them have a mock battle on the Delaware. The ships were the Gazela, Pride of Baltimore II, AJ Meerwald, Kalmar Nyckel, Mystic Whaler, Virginia and Hindu, plus the giant four masted restaurant the Moshulu. It was awesome to see so many tall ships and be able to identify so many universal parts of each.

As an added bonus I was able to buy several scale 15 star flags at the Seaport Museum, plus a 13 star one from the Betsy Ross House. I also got a Liberty Bell from the Liberty Museum. The Theresa Marie will not want for colors or bells.

Week 62