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

Clare Hess Reports on Edo Period “Hacchoro” Model

Posted on March 14, 2015 by catopower

Ship Modeler Clare Hess reports that his 1/24-scale model of a traditional Japanese fishing boat called a Hacchoro (Hot-Cho-Ro) is complete. The model, started in December of last year, is built from a Japanese kit with a few modifications. The boat carries the “Mon” or crest of the Tokugawa shogunate. History says that 24 of these boats were commissioned to provide escort for the Shogun’s boat. Due to restrictions on the number of oars that could be employed by the boats, they had a difficult time keeping up. So, special permission was given to increase the number of oars to 8. Thus, the name Hacchoro, which translates to “8 oars.”

Paul Reck Reports on Grand Banks 32 “Willie”

Posted on March 12, 2015 by catopower

Ship modeler and lead volunteer Paul Reck reported today that the model of the Corinthian Yacht Club’s committee boat is nearly complete and sent along a couple photos. The boat is a Grand Banks 32 that he scratch-built with the assistance Tom Shea. The 1/16-scale model has appeared at various stages of construction over the past several Hyde Street Pier ship model meetings.

First HSPMS Meeting of the Year

Posted on January 13, 2015 by catopower

Saturday, January 17 marks the first meeting of the Hyde Street Pier Model Shipwrights for 2015. It’s a new year and a great time to get those ship model projects out and to recommit ourselves to support the club and the park service by spending a little time at our workshop aboard the Eureka. Meeting starts at 9:30am.

From the December meeting

Tom Shea and Paul Reck deserve some thanks for having done some house cleaning in the workshop so members have more room to work on their builds. So, come and take advantage of the new space and see what everyone is working on.

Hyde Street Pier November Meeting

Posted on November 11, 2014 by catopower

November Meeting

The November meeting of the Hyde Street Pier Model Shipwrights will be this Saturday, November 15th at 9:30am at our model shop aboard the Ferryboat Eureka at Hyde Street Pier.

This month, we’ll be collecting photos for our club calendar in time to get them ordered and delivered by the December meeting. Members, please provide your photo contributions to Clare Hess at the meeting or by email ASAP.

May ’14 Ship Modeler’s Meeting Canceled

Posted on May 15, 2014 by catopower

Due to the temporary closure of the Eureka, the Hyde Street Pier Model Shipwrights meeting was scheduled to meet in a conference room located under the bleachers, next to the Bathhouse building. But it seems that this is one of those busy months where everyone has commitments every which way, so there will be no May meeting. The June meeting will take place as scheduled on Saturday, June 21st, at 9:30pm under the bleachers (sounds so clandestine). Hopefully, the group will be back home aboard the Eureka some time in August, when repairs are scheduled to be complete.

Brand New Blog Site Under Construction

Posted on May 3, 2014 by catopower

Hello to any visitors who arrive here wondering where the content is!

Well, I just started constructing this blog for the Hyde Street Pier Model Shipwrights and, honestly, they don’t even know about it yet. So, please be patient.

Last week I was on the phone with our lead volunteer and de facto president Paul Reck. We were discussing the membership roster which nobody seems to be currently maintaining since our organization is primarily lacking… well, organization. I suggested that maybe we just need to put together a blog site to make people aware of our group and to promote ship modeling. Plus, we can use it as a central location to post important internal information. He suggested I put something together and present it to the club. The result is what you see here.

Clearly, this is not a complete site, but the structure is now in place. I’ll populate it will a small amount of content to get started and we’ll see what the club members think. If people like it, we’ll start using it and hopefully it will help us get organized.