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The Ratsée is a brigantine rigged (or hermaphrodite brig, if you prefer)
tender which is the supply vessel for the French squadron of Port Brique. Her
simplified rig allows for easy handling by her small crew (Master, master’s mate
and half a dozen seamen), and her sole armament is a bow mounted swivel gun
generally used only for signaling.
Like the Trésfroid, the Ratsée is built on a one centre section narrow hull,
using inverted slopes to gain some hull width. I decided to, rather than use
inverted slope bricks for the centre section (as I did for the Revenge and
some of my other smaller vessels), to use a painted white centre section (which
I happened to have spare). It’s not a perfect colour match with the dark grey
hull by any means, but I think it looks okay, particularly in this application.
The Ratsée uses the small ratlines, which, when combined with a vertical
(rather than inclined, like the Trésfroid) rig, make for a robust solution to
gaining height for the new style topmast sections. A short technic axle runs
from the topmast (the base of which is designed to accept an axle), through the
4x2 technic plate ‘top’, into the top few 2x2 rounds of the mainmast. I guess a
longer axle could be used (even one which runs all the way to, or through, the
deck), but I find the short one provides enough strength in this application.
The raised forecastle and quarterdeck are probably a bit too much for a vessel
this size, and they, with their access ladders, take too much deck space that
could otherwise be used for cargo… for the moment though, form overcomes
function: The Ratsée is designed to be an older vessel, used to support the
more modern men-o-war of the French Squadron. (But I’ll probably rebuild it with
a flush deck later, anyway).
As I noted above, the rig has been kept simple. Flex tube arms replace
traditional plate arms for the foretopsail – it doesn’t look unreasonably light
(I particularly dislike use of flex tube arms on the Viking longboat, not simply
because of the inaccuracy of having a lower arm, but because of their
flimsiness – particularly when juxtaposed with the gigantic sail and chain
sheets, the dichotomy is quite painful!).
The bowsprit, which I think complements the brown masts nicely, is that most
underrated part, the teepee pole. It’s brown, it’s tapered, it’s easily secured
to the vessel… what more could a builder of small vessels want?
Some more pics:
Cheers
Richie Dulin
FUT .pirates
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Message has 1 Reply:
 | | Re: The Supply Tender 'Ratsée'
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| (...) Beuwdiful. Particularly liked the snot work around the forecastle and the whatever that bit is called under the bowsprit. Ever expanding the boundaries. I like that. Nice work Richie ;-) Richard Still baldly going... (18 years ago, 11-Sep-06, to lugnet.pirates, FTX)
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