Seeing the Bluenose II off the starboard beam of our cruise ship last fall, sparked my desire to build a model of her. She was an awesome sight and I was convinced this would be a great project. Then I started to do some research and figured I needed to cut my teeth on some simpler builds. I purchased Steve Rogers “Model Boat Building Made Simple” and built my first rowing skiff. I had so much fun I went on to build his “Spritsail Skiff” and am now working on his “Skipjack”. But in the back my mind, the Bluenose II was a constant presence.
Using the measured drawings from L. B. Jenson and Gene Bodnar’s wonderful Modeling Practicum, “The Queen of the North Atlantic ―The Schooner Bluenose”, I started lofting a 3D model of the Bluenose II in SolidWorks. This has taken me almost a month. It is amazing how intimate one becomes with the lines of a hull through the process of creating a 3D model. I had many false starts, but finally developed a simple set of equations and a table that describes the spline control points for all of the frames of her hull.
I imported and scaled the side view, top view as well as the hull lines as my starting point:
Resulting in my final model:
Now, as they say, it is time to make some sawdust:
Now I go into mass production mode as I need to make over 60 frames. It is bizarre timing, but today I reported to work as usual and was immediately sent home due to the Covid-19 crisis. My company is limiting on-site access and having us work from home. I don’t know how that will work out, but at least I have some time to crank out more frames. 🙂
