We wanted the look of vintage line on a few of our boats, so we did some research with our friends at R&W Rope and found New England Rope Vintage and New England Rope Vintage Sta-Set. They come in small enough diameters for our small boat rigging.
They also sell a tan paracord that worked nice for whipping and bending sails onto spars, and natural hemp in very small diameter, good for brailing line.
We bought a Dabber recentl and the centreplate uphaul rigging was missing. So we referenced our Lugger to order some blocks and line. Not sure if this is the factory rigging, but this configuration has worked in our Lugger ONKAHYE for over 25 years.
We ordered blocks with swivels vs fixed ends, hopefully we'll have the same results. Otherwise we can go with the exact twist shackle set up as the Lugger. We ordered both the New England Ropes Vintage line and Tufnol blocks from R&W Ropes.
Worked on the starboard side seat for St. Jacques. Used port side as pattern for the outer slat to cut the clearance notch for the plank stringer. Used a Black and decker belt sander with 40 grit to give the planks a fair curve. Faired the outer edge first, then used a combination square to mark the inner line at approximately 2 1/8 inches. Faired the inner edge then put the next plank up next to previous plank to match the outer curve as well as possible. Repeated until all slats were faired. Then routed the edges with a Dewalt compact router with a 1/8 inch roundover bit.
Cut cleats for the seats and installed them. Well if you have side seats then you should check them out. Lots of room for lounging and rowing.
Put on a coat of Jamestown Distributors TotalBoat Wood Sealer Varnish Primer. It flowed well and covered great. We love the curved seats!
We want a vintage look for the lines on this boat, so R&W Rope sent us some samples to look through. From L-R they are Posh dark, New England Rope Sta-Set Vintage, Hempex, New England Rope Vintage, and Posh II. We are leaning towards the New England Rope Sta-Set Vintage, it is pretty flexible and feels good in our hand.
