Cranes on, netting from the kitchen fly screen

After eight months I have finally picked up the Diana again. The hammock cranes are on, and now I have started on the nettings and the hammocks.

To be clear, because Scheepshoorn asked: the cranes from the kit were so delicate that nearly all of them were broken. Not the dog this time. Cornwall, by the way, were kind enough to send new drawings. Unfortunately only one, while two were destroyed, but they are going to send the other one on. (Postscript, September 2026: the new sheet is sheet 5, with the belaying plan; sheet 3 with the spars is still missing.)

The nettings

The netting to go between the cranes came off the fly screen that hung in the kitchen. It was a bit too long anyway, and the mesh size seemed to me exactly the right scale. Incidentally, the kit contained no netting at all, only rope. It was the same with Scheepshoorn’s Victory. I am not that happy with the kit in general. I make most things myself and the drawings are not too good either. Then again, it does add to the challenge to work things out for yourself.

The hammocks

After a few trials I settled on rolls of 4 by 3 cm. That seems odd, since the length is 3 cm and the width much less. But apparently the crew used to roll their belongings up in the hammock as well, so the rolls were somewhat thicker than the cloth alone. I bind them with seven small whippings. That supposedly comes from the seven seas, or else it is a tall story. I got the colour by dipping the pieces of cloth in very strong rooibos tea for about 20 seconds. Not bad at all.