Interesting show on the Discovery Channel

Wish I got to see it.  The only episode I was able to watch was "The Aluminum Ladder".  Now THAT was an exciting topic.

I saw a good part of it - and liked it.  In addition to covering some decidedly unromantic aspects of the sailing ship world, the cameras got into some parts of the ship that, I suspect, visitors normally don't see - and probably wouldn't want to.  Looked like a good show.

Did anybody catch dirty jobs with mike tarring the the Star of India?

Thanks, Al - that's what I hoped it was!  But someone viewing that Youtube clip may be as confused as I was.  Not that it's any too hard to confuse me.  Even so, that would be a pretty neat workshop to have in the basement...

I just read a piece on the Portland within the past week - although I can't remember where I read it at the moment. But someone's discovered the wreckage at the bottom of the ocean, off the coast of new England.  A very sad story - frightening, actually - to think they were trying as hard as they could to reach land, but the storm just kept pushing them further and further out to sea.  I can't begin to imagine what that must have been like - the sheer terror of it.

The production company actually spent an entire day at BJ shooting hours of film. The segment on Portland was Charlie Cook quickly assembling a bunch of laser-cut parts. Believe me, it's far more extensive than that! The "four-masted schooner" on which I was supposed be working was actually a five-master (CORA F. CRESSY) I was in the process of scratch-building. We just put four sticks in it for shooting purposes.

One of these days, I'm going to write an article on how a traditional wooden kit is developed and produced. One of these days....

Al Ross

That's it, though - I couldn't verbalize my thoughts until what you just said, ac.

Were those guys designing a model for production, or were they building a model?  It looked like they were doing both of those things - that's what was so confusing to me, why it was so hard to follow.  Half the time they were making the parts, and the other half they were putting them together.  When the guy was building the Portland, I expected them to continue and show how it became a kit for the public to purchase and build themselves. But no - the guy just built it from the parts he made in his professional shop.

It's a cool show. Each one is divided into 3 segments about as long as the youtube clip.

I had not seen that one, it's pretty cool but as mentioned, far too brief. If building a wood ship kit was as easy as they make it seem, I'd be posting in here a lot more frequently.

That Youtube clip was annoying - if I had no idea how a model was built, i would be completely lost within seconds.  Even so, it seemed to wander quite a bit.  I would hope that it's just a condensation of the complete program - if the whole show was like that .....

i found the clip on youtube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJ0At_Xskk8

 

I saw that segment a couple months back. Nicely done,far too brief. Maybe it'll come around again.

Thanks for the heads up Prof.... 

And I LOVE my new U-verse (like TiVo)... I can record all the good stuff and watch and my own leasure :)

jtilley wrote:

But what foul timing - especially for the population of New England (where Bluejacket is located)!  Smack in the middle of Game 6 of the playoffs between the Red Sox and the Devil Rays.  The people in charge of the Discovery Channel must be a gang of barbaric heathens.

Probably disgruntled Yankees fans.  Wish I would have caught that as well.

 

I missed that one, Prof, thanks for the 'heads up", I'll be looking for it in the reruns.