Mandatory Safety Training for Hyde Street Pier Volunteers

Posted on April 13, 2016 by catopower

A mandate was made this year that all volunteers working at Hyde Street Pier must attend a safety training course. As all Hyde Street Pier Model Shipwright members are officially Park Service volunteers, all club members are required to attend safety training.

Terry Dorman, the Volunteer Coordinator, in coordination with our lead volunteer and President, Paul Reck, has set up a session for club members on the morning of April 30th, and has graciously offered to provide us lunch. All members are expected to attend. Those who can’t attend should have made alternate arrangements with Terry to attend a session on April 23rd, or made some other arrangements.

We’ll be discussing this a bit further and answering any last minute questions at the upcoming April club meeting. Ω

First Meeting of 2016

Posted on January 13, 2016 by catopower

This Saturday is the first meeting of the Hyde Street Pier Model Shipwrights for 2016.

Some of the topics we’ll likely be discussing:

Safety Training
Shop Library Status
Model Requests from the Park Service
Dues collection ($24 due this meeting!)

And, of course, we have our regular ongoing meeting topics and Show and Tell. So, please make sure to bring something to show and discuss. Keep working on those ship models!

See you Saturday at 9:30am aboard the Eureka. Guests are always welcome.

HSPMS Meeting this Saturday, November 21 on the Eureka

Posted on November 18, 2015 by catopower

It’s time again for the next meeting of the Hyde Street Pier Model Shipwrights. This should be a good meeting as it’s the first meeting following this year’s NRG conference and last week’s club outing aboard the USS Potomac.

The meeting also follows a workday that took place a couple weeks ago where a number of club members met to clean up our workshop and set up a new bookshelf.

As always, guests are welcome. We meet at 9:30am on the third Saturday of every month outside our workshop aboard the ferryboat Eureka at Hyde Street Pier. Going aboard the ships at the pier usually requires that you purchase a pass. However, if you are coming just for the meeting, just head right on aboard the Eureka. If anyone asks, just let them know you’re heading for the ship model meeting.

Hope to see you there!

Hyde Street Pier Ship Modelers on the Bay

Posted on November 17, 2015 by catopower

Veteran’s Day, 2015 was a gathering time for members of the Hyde Street Pier Model Shipwrights as they took a cruise aboard the U.S.S. Potomac, which is based out of Jack London Square in Oakland. The ship, originally built in 1934 as the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Electra. She was late transferred to the U.S. Navy and renamed the Potomac, and was used as President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s presidential yacht.

Club member Jerry Bellows serves as engineer aboard the ship and arranged our club outing, which consisted of 18 members and guests.

The two hour cruise took us under the new span of the Bay Bridge, over to Fishermans’ Wharf close to Hyde Street Pier (actually just got as far as the Liberty Ship Jeremiah O’Brien and submarine Pampanito), then back along the San Francisco waterfront and back under the Bay Bridge and back to Jack London Square.

Along the way, one of the unexpected sights was the C.A. Thayer in Alameda where she is being worked on.

It was interesting to see her there out of the water, but we did find ourselves wonder when she’s going to be getting her masts.

Being that it was Veteran’s Day, there were many veterans aboard and the narrator gave special honors to each and every one. Including many of our own club members.

All in all, as you can see, it was a really nice day to be out on the water. Special thanks to Jerry and Fran Bellows for organizing the trip and for giving us a special tour of the engine room and for helping to keep us out of trouble. Ω

NRG’s 2015 Photographic Ship Model Contest

Posted on November 5, 2015 by catopower

The Nautical Research Guild held their annual conference in Mystic, CT, at the end of October. While only one of our Hyde Street Pier Model Shipwrights members was able to attend to representing our group. At the NRG banquet, our group members took a larger share of the honors.

The winners of the 2015 Photographic Ship Model Contest were announced at the dinner event. All models entered into the contest received a ribbon based on total points earned in the scoring. The top models in the categories of Journeyman and Master received medals. Three medals, either Bronze, Silver or Gold, were awarded in each category, for a total of six medals, with Hyde Street Pier members taking home with 2 of the 6 medals.

Clare Hess, receive a Bronze medal in the Journeyman category for his model of the Private Armed Schooner Lively, 1813, while Paul Reck was awarded a Silver medal in the Journeyman category for his model of the Grand Banks 32, Willie II.

Clare’s Lively model is a 1:48-scale scratchbuilt model of a small, single gun privateer, typical of the early pilot boat model privateers of the War of 1812. The model was based on kit plans by the late Jim Roberts.

Paul Reck’s Willie II is a Grand Banks 32 that was built around 1978 and used by the St. Francis Yacht Club as a race committee boat. His model was built from scratch in 1:16-scale and is on display at the Yacht Club.

Watch the upcoming NRG Journal and the NRG website for a full report on the contest.

Note: This story originally referenced the wrong yacht club for the Willie II. The correct yacht club is the St. Francis Yacht Club, not the Corinthian Yacht Club. Thanks to David Wingate for catching the slip-up!

Visiting Our Gracie S. Model in the Maritime Museum

Posted on October 18, 2015 by catopower

We had a nice meeting of the Hyde Street Pier Model Shipwrights aboard the ferry boat Eureka yesterday. Good turnout, interesting talk, news from members, and all. We even made some decisions and got started on cleaning up and cataloging our library of ship plans, books and media. So, at the end of the productive day in workshop, heading back to our cars, Paul Reck and I decided to stop in at the Aquatic Part Bathhouse Building which is home of the Maritime Museum (or what remains of it), and visit the Gracie S.

The model was built by members of the club, including yours truly, though I had a relatively small part in it compared to Paul, Tom and Bruno.

The Gracie S. model was built at a scale of 3/8″ to the foot or 1:32, and I can’t exactly recall how long it took to complete. Group builds can be slow, particularly when they are worked on primarily in our model shop.

The neat little shipyard diorama was mostly Paul Reck and Tom Shea’s work and it really adds life to the model. Paul commented that his neighbor also had a hand in it, contributing an old board from his fence which was used to build the sheds in the display.

What’s particularly nice about this display is that the museum put together the information board, showing photos of club members working on the model and describing our group and how to find us. You can even see my hand and belly in the first photo…

It’s nice to see that the model has a good home, is viewable by the public, and that it reminds visitors that people still build ship models. Time to go home and build more…

– Clare Hess

The Good News – Classic Yacht Model by Paul Reck

Posted on August 19, 2015 by catopower

Long time Hyde Street Pier Model Shipwrights member and president Paul Reck shares a slideshow of a model he built in 2010 of the 60′ yawl-rigged yacht Good News. The original boat was designed by Sparkman and Stephens. The plank-on-bulkhead model was scratch built at a scale of 1/2″=1′ using white pine with sugar pine hull planking and deck planked with Alaskan yellow cedar.

The model features wire rigging and many parts that had to be built from scratch. Paul put together a nice little slide show of his build, which you can access on his Dropbox account here:

Good News Slide Show Note that it’s not necessary to have or to create a Dropbox account. Just close the window that asks you to sign-in.

The model was built for the St. Francis Yacht Club, where it now resides. It is one of 70 models (many of which were built by Paul) featured in the recent publication, The Models of the St. Francis Yacht Club, which is available only through the yacht club. Ω