[ENTRY] Sloop Windy (Mini Set)

[Marooned Marin]

ORIGINS

I got inspired by the topic of mysterious letter in Eldorado Fortress when a nagging question occurred, what if the letter contains some information of unparalleled value, and Governor Broadside needs to be informed right away?

Problem is, Governor was last seen cruising down the Forbidden Island archipelago on Caribbean Clipper in search of the Sin Island and his runaway niece Camilla.

How do you go about delivering the news? There are no phones or satellites, no Big Brother (yet) following you every step of the way. It seems the only way to transfer intelligence is by the sea, and perhaps best way to do it is by a quick and nimble sloop which can sail directly into the wind, which is also light and shallow enough to sail over the treacherous coral reefs - if pursued by much bigger pirate sloop or enemy warship, and is inexpensive for the King's treasury as it's built of only 40 pieces (+6 pieces for sailor on board).

THE BUILD

I intend to build this crafty sloop out of the real bricks, as soon as I get them, and make instructions available for free on ReBrickable in the near future. This could be of some interest to all of you pirate fans who own one or two row boats which come with a great number of pirate sets. With a small BrickLink purchase you can easily turn a useless dinghy into a useful sloop. Be sure to follow me on Instagram or Rebrickable.

Lastly, by a closer inspection of digital renders, you can easily spot that the aft mainsail is intended to go over the balls. I have only so much time and patience in CAD to make sails, so I skipped this small detail and left it for the real build.

..........

FIRST VERSION HIDDEN INSIDE THE SPOILER BELOW

Spoiler

 

ORIGINS

I got inspired by the topic of mysterious letter in Eldorado Fortress when a nagging question occurred, what if the letter contains some information of unparalleled value, and Governor Broadside needs to be informed right away?

Problem is, Governor was last seen cruising down the Forbidden Island archipelago on Caribbean Clipper in search of the Sin Island and his runaway niece Camilla.

How do you go about delivering the news? There are no phones or satellites, no Big Brother (yet) following you every step of the way. It seems the only way to transfer intelligence is by the sea, and perhaps best way to do it is by a quick and nimble sloop which can sail directly into the wind, which is also light and shallow enough to sail over the treacherous coral reefs - if pursued by much bigger pirate sloop or enemy warship, and is inexpensive for the King's treasury as it's built of only 40 pieces (+6 pieces for sailor on board).

THE BUILD

I intend to build this crafty sloop out of the real bricks, as soon as I get them, and make instructions available for free on ReBrickable in the near future. This could be of some interest to all of you pirate fans who own one or two row boats which come with a great number of pirate sets. With a small BrickLink purchase you can easily turn a useless dinghy into a useful sloop. Be sure to follow me on Instagram or Rebrickable.

Lastly, by a closer inspection of digital renders, you can easily spot that the aft mainsail is intended to go over the balls. I have only so much time and patience in CAD to make sails, so I skipped this small detail and left it for the real build.

Now, fire away them comments and critiques!

 

 

Edited August 24, 2023 by Marooned Marin
Updated images for the final version

[Rogue Redcoat]

I love the small sloop you created out of the dingy here are my suggestions, first, it appears that the sail in front is not attached to the mast (perhaps it could be attached with a small string?), second I think there should be at least one oar if the wind dies down and pirates are after him. Other than this the build looks great, anyway happy building :)

[Mister Phes]

52 minutes ago, Marooned Marin said:

Long have LEGO Pirate fans spoke tales of how they longed for more small sets based on ships.

So you've done us proud with this creation!

[Quotenotto]

Nice little boat!

You can use either of those pieces as a rudder: https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?P=3835#T=S&O={"iconly":0}

https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?P=44676#T=S&O={"iconly":0}
and this piece for the mast:
https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?P=476#T=S&C=11&O={"color":"11","iconly":0}

You can attach that piece with a balljoint connection and use clip pieces to attach the spars. Using those pieces, you can save some others for more details and have a movable sail as a play feature. Also, the mast would be collapseble, a neat feature to row under bridges.

Edited August 9, 2023 by Quotenotto

[Slegengr]

Wonderful use of limited piece count! 
Ignoring the CAD limitations in the images, I cannot make out how the jib sail is intended to attach at the top?

Edit: I personally like the use of the Technic cross-axles for the mast, but think @Quotenotto makes good suggestions for rudder replacement.  The current rudder looks good, but does appear a bit thick for this scale. 

Edited August 9, 2023 by Slegengr

[iragm]

I have seen a great many boats made out of the little rowboat over the years.  This is by far my favorite.

The rudder/tiller is by far the best part, so clean and simple.  Unfortunately, @Quotenotto's suggestion about the flag will not work, the flag sticks down below the bottom of the boat, and if it's placed with one clip above the gunwale, the bottom of the flag doesn't reach the water line.  So, best to keep it as-is, I think.  (I actually just built it out of physical bricks, I can rotate the rudder and the tiller handle follows -- very satisfying to fidget with.)

There is a bit of wasted space in the bow section of the boat under the curved bricks, it would be great to have some sort of hold for treasure, letters, whatever there.  I know that it is structurally necessary right now, but still, just a thought.

Now, there is a problem, and that's that the boom can't rotate.  With a whisker pole holding the jib out, the main should be out to the other side, wing to wing.  So, either find a way for the main mast to swivel, or get rid of the whisker pole and add a jib sheet instead and run close hauled.  I'd rather the mast could swivel, for both realism and playability.  The jib is also a tiny bit large for this size of boat, but not a huge deal given that this is a toy.  You could change the main to a gaff rig, shrink the jib by about 30% and it would be perfect.

This is the best entry in the small sets category so far, and the others aren't even close.  Amazing work, I will build this as soon as the instructions are available.

[Marooned Marin]

2 hours ago, Mister Phes said:

So you've done us proud with this creation!

Thank you @Mister Phes  Please add this humble sloop to the list of entries.

Ok, now to the questions and answers.

@Rogue Redcoat @Slegengr

-> yes, little bit of string should be used to connect jib-sail to the mast, I forgot to draw some while editing images in photoshop.

-> Having few spare parts, I've added two red oars (as suggested) and a bottle of rum/water, as a provision for our thirsty sailor. Thanks Rogue!

 

@Quotenotto

-> I considered the ball and clips solution. Even though folding mast could be a good thing, my instincts tell me that the whole thing could be too flimsy, and constant correction of the mast would eventually turn out to be nuisance.

-> As @iragm pointed out, the use of flag is a great idea, but it goes below waterline. I tried the axe and I don't know, let me hear all of your thoughts. I kinda like the brick-built rudder, but I'm biased in my opinion so that does not count.  I invite all to give their opinion on the rudder: brick-built or axe?

@Quotenotto and @iragm

-> You make excellent point on making the boom able to swing, so with some minor replacements, I made it just that.

-> The sloped bricks in the bow cover all the technic pieces used to mount the bowsprit and the mainmast - so unfortunately no hidden compartment there.

 

Here are the quick images, and new renders will come soon. Please, let me know of your opinion on the rudder dilemma: axe or brick-built.

 

 

 

 

And thank you all for positive feedback regarding the overall idea of this sloop.

Edited August 9, 2023 by Marooned Marin
poor grammar

[Slegengr]

@Marooned Marin After reviewing options, I do think the original brick-built rudder is best.

I really like the idea of being able to swing the boom to shift sail position, but it might be too flimsy/fiddly at this scale as you mentioned.
It has sparked several ideas that I might try out for small-scale boats like this...

 

[Marooned Marin]

8 minutes ago, Slegengr said:

but it might be too flimsy/fiddly at this scale as you mentioned

Not necessarily. If we push two technic bushes firmly enough from top and bottom of technic pin connector used to pivot, they should provide just enough friction to avoid 'flimsy' feeling. This needs to be tested with real bricks.

1 hour ago, iragm said:

The jib is also a tiny bit large for this size of boat

Sorry Iragm, I forgot to get back to you regarding this.  I made it intentionally big because I drew inspiration from traditional Dalmatian (Croatia) fishing boat from 16th century - Falkusa. I wanted to give Windy that same feeling, like it's almost able to fly over the water.

 

[Slegengr]

2 minutes ago, Marooned Marin said:

If we push two technic bushes firmly enough from top and bottom of technic pin connector used to pivot, they should provide just enough friction to avoid 'flimsy' feeling. This needs to be tested with real bricks.

Hopefully that works.  It was the first idea that came to my mind to allow the booms to swing, but I was not confident that there would be enough friction to avoid free swinging of the boom.  As a playset, I would not count the connection secure enough as the boom would be easy to move by accident during play.  The bushes would be too easy to shift out of friction tolerance in my opinion, but this is not tested yet with physical pieces.

[Rogue Redcoat]

Aye, I agree with @Slegengr that the brick build rudder is best the axe looks a bit too small.

[Horation]

I won't bother with a full review since this build has received more activity in 5 hours than most builds get in 5 weeks.

But I feel like the rudder should be axed (pun not intended), since the axe is too small to look credible and the other options won't fit, I'd use this new space for a small stud shooter with a handle (a bit like a swivel gun) as it would add some play value. As for the rest of the ship, it's really good, so no complaints there.

[Slegengr]

@Marooned Marin If you want another idea for the rudder, you could attach a 1x2 curved slope to the bottom of the clip plate and a 1x2 curved wedge to the top.  It gives it a very similar but sleeker look than the wedge plate, in my opinion.

If physically built and tested, does the clip bar for the tiller grip the rudder bar enough to make it pivot in the rowboat clip, or does the clip bar turn on the rudder bar first?

[Rogue Redcoat]

24 minutes ago, Slegengr said:

@Marooned Marin If you want another idea for the rudder, you could attach a 1x2 curved slope to the bottom of the clip plate and a 1x2 curved wedge to the top.  It gives it a very similar but sleeker look than the wedge plate, in my opinion.

Aye, aye, I second this, I love this rudder and how its smooth now :)

[iragm]

3 hours ago, Marooned Marin said:

I made it intentionally big because I drew inspiration from traditional Dalmatian (Croatia) fishing boat from 16th century - Falkusa. I wanted to give Windy that same feeling, like it's almost able to fly over the water.

A large jib is totally understandable given the medium, but even that ship has a much larger lateen rigged main.  If that is your inspiration, you may want to skip the hank on jib and string and simply have 3 attachment points.

17 minutes ago, Slegengr said:

does the clip bar for the tiller grip the rudder bar enough to make it pivot in the rowboat clip

No - rotating the tiller just rotates the tiller.

18 minutes ago, Slegengr said:

or does the clip bar turn on the rudder bar first?

Rotating the rudder does turn the tiller.

 

4 hours ago, Marooned Marin said:

Please, let me know of your opinion on the rudder dilemma: axe or brick-built

Brick-built, 100%.  The axe rudder is cool, but it's been done in the 90s and doesn't fit with this more modern build.

6 hours ago, Quotenotto said:

and this piece for the mast:
https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?P=476#T=S&C=11&O={"color":"11","iconly":0}

This is too flimsy for how many attachments there are on the top IMHO.

3 hours ago, Marooned Marin said:

If we push two technic bushes firmly enough from top and bottom of technic pin connector used to pivot, they should provide just enough friction to avoid 'flimsy' feeling.

With some play, the bushes quickly get pushed up, leading to the boom swinging freely.  The bushes also don't come in black (or at least, I don't seem to have any).  That said, it doesn't matter.  It's fun to jibe it back and forth and just blowing on it lets it swing.

I was able to find some bricks to build this with, and raided my scrap tanbark cloth collection for some sails.  I also stole @Elephant Knight's figurehead.  I must say I give your design a 10/10.  In hindsight I probably should have made the sails a bit bigger to have more fill.

 

[Elephant Knight]

A gorgeous little sloop, very well done, looks right at home in front of Eldorado Fortress.

EKnight

[hikouki]

Really small but I do like the use of the sail elements. Perhaps add another soldier?

[MstrOfPppts]

I'm not too much into ships and have no idea how thigs work nor am I able to name all the parts. But either way I too think that the sails look like a bit of an overkill for the size of a boat, but nothing wrong for an awesome toy design. In that case I think that another playability upgrade would be to make the brown box a stud longer ant fit the mast on top to gain some small storage area underneath. Not sure how to attach the technic stuff  that way though.

[Mazin]

Very nice design of the vessel, and nice presentation, tho seeing a comic book i thoight You'd throw some action in there ;) And i still think that's what this set could use, a bit more excuse for some action happening on it, it seems very static right now. I'd try to look for ways to bring more life into it. Right now all that can happen here is him sail it and Lego is more about providing more opportunities to play with, this one didn't fire up my imagination ;)

So maybe You could throw a monkey in there, so that it could steal soldier's bag and he would have to chase it all over those masts? Or maybe he could carry an important prisoner instead of the letter?  

Also, this hut at the front of the boat, as much as it looks nice, i'm not sure what's it supposed function in all of it. The way it's positioned it only occupies some place, it doesn't seem to be something one could play with, or maybe there's still something hidden under it? Maybe it could be openable? There could be a small hatch, so that the letter or the bad could be secured under it? ( we surely don't want to wind to blow it away ;) )

If You want to keep the number of parts, then i'd suggest dumping that bag for even a simple spying glass, as it would provide more play value. Bag... it's just a big, nice decoration, but not something one could realy use for storymaking ;) 

Or maybe he could carry something small, but far more important than a letter? Like the golden sword of king Kahunatakahakapowhatakahatakaugatakhakatatakanuhaka? ;) Throwing in some sort of single-piece artifact would make it much more appealing.   

[CDKiii]

15 hours ago, Marooned Marin said:

Here are the quick images, and new renders will come soon. Please, let me know of your opinion on the rudder dilemma: axe or brick-built.

I just release mine, for a brick built rudder, add the pieces usually put under bigger boats, it will give you the space for this rudder.

[Marooned Marin]

@Slegengr

-> Rudder made out of slope and wedge is phenomenal solution which I have incorporated in this updated design. Thanks!

-> I made a new boom pivot-solution, see below

@iragm

-> You gave me an awful fright! I wasn't reading text and saw your images and thought to myself oh no... someone made exactly the same boat and well before me. Upon second look I realised you actually made it out of real bricks. It looks superb! 

-> I made a new boom pivot-solution, see below

@Elephant Knight

-> Thank you fellow shipbuilder

@Horation

-> I 'axed' the axe and Slegengr rudder idea took place.

@hikouki @Mazin @MstrOfPppts

-> Adding more parts for play are all good advices which come with great difficulty of implementation as we are limited to only 50 parts/bricks within this Mini Set category. Any addition requires sacrifice of something already there, and I already pushed past the limit to 53 parts as it is. 

@Mazin

-> The hut /Curved-slopes) in the bow of the boat is there only to hide all the technic pieces which are used to mount the front jib and mainmast. Sadly this does not allow any free storage space for play there, but thank you for your input.

@CDKiii

-> I had time just enough to see three of your images (before you pulled them away for re-work) but I could not see on any of them your rudder design, they were all taken from up-front. Let me know when you re-release your design

DESIGN UPDATE (morning after)

Ok, I found a new and better way to pivot the boom and made corrections on the original design. I used technic liftarm, pneumatic t-bar, and technic linker. Here be the images.

 

The unfortunate trade-off is that I have pushed past 50x parts, and now I need your help to help me decide which parts will be excluded.

I considered using ball&clip to attach jib-sail to the top, but that adds another 2x parts, so back to the piece of string.

I could use only one lift-arm for boom, and spare 2x parts, but I don't like the looks of it.

 

Edited August 10, 2023 by Marooned Marin
poor grammar

[CDKiii]

34 minutes ago, Marooned Marin said:

I had time just enough to see three of your images (before you pulled them away for re-work) but I could not see on any of them your rudder design, they were all taken from up-front. Let me know when you re-release your design

rudder by LA BRIQUE  DE CAMBRONNE, sur Flickr

you can see i used the triangle flag.

[Marooned Marin]

30 minutes ago, CDKiii said:

you can see i used the triangle flag.

Ahh yes, we already went through that approach earlier in discussion above and found it impractical as the flag goes below the bottom of the boat, hence this required you to use 3x round boat plates. But thanks!

BACK TO DESIGN / RE-DESIGN

Instead of the T-Bar I found this solution which reduces part-count by another 2x lift-arms (it comes in pearl dark gray).

Now only one part needs to go, but which one?

 

[Mazin]

Thanx for responding and explaining. As for choosing those unlucky elements that have to go, it'd say paddles ( if these count as two pieces and not as one inseparable pair ;) ) and a bag. Paddles i didnt even see in Your presentation, i did spot them only now, and since You already have the rudder, i don't thing they are needed. And, as for the rest, as i proposed before, a bag. It's the least exciting element among those presented in my own oppinion. Sword is always a sword, You wouldn't expect this soldier to go on a mission without a weapon, right?;) I'm actually surprised he doesn't have more of them, like a pistol! And the whole idea for this set started with a letter, so i would keep that. And an epoulette is an epoulette, it was always such a cool item to get them, and soldiers without them would look weird ;)

So 2x paddles and 1x bag it is = 3x parts excluded :)  BTW. If You would be doing an another entry i would start with those pieces that You will decide to drop ;) To kinda make it up to them for their loss ;)   

Edited August 10, 2023 by Mazin

[Marooned Marin]

5 minutes ago, Mazin said:

And, as for the rest, as i proposed before, a bag.

As I found a way to reduce piece count to 51, only one has to go now - and given over the thought, I would rather discard paddles and keep the bag as it might serve as a food provision.

The paddles/oars were added yesterday at the suggestion of another member when I had only 46 piece count.

Oh yes, almost forgot, the short comic will come for this ENTRY, I just haven't got around to produce it. You'll be notified.