The Italian Navy tall ship the Amerigo Vespucci

The Italian Navy tall ship the Amerigo Vespucci - dubbed the 'most beautiful ship in the world' in 1962 by men onboard USS Independence - has left Portsmouth Harbour after a four day stay


http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6103657/The-beautiful-ship-world-164ft-tall-three-decked-rigger-sets-sail-Portsmouth.html

hi Damien,

she is a very impressive ship, would have liked to see it leaving   



david

Indeed David. 

I actually saw this ship in Rome's Civitivechia harbour. Moore - not sailing unfortunately. I'll see if I can dig out the photo I took. A friend at my previous boat club built the model which in itself was prett impressive.

Barrie

hi barrie, 

you were in the right place at the right time you lucky man 
did your friend  put all the detail of the rigging on it, as that is impressive on its own.

david

Hi David, Yes it was fully rigged. He once gave us a demonstration of how he did it. He actually built several of these fully rigged vessels. I'll see if I have any photos when I've got time to search. At one time he regularly won medals at the old Ellesmere Port Boat show.

Barrie

I don't seem to have any digital photos of the model - only ones in the Club Magazine which are not good enough to digitize and post. This is the one in Italy. This was taken from our cruise ship - we weren't allowed to walk around the docks so this is the best shot I could get.

Barrie

hi barrie, 

good photo
how about it for your next build , it will keep you happy for a long time I have been looking at some kits that start at £2200 .

david

David

If I manage to do the rigging on the Thames Barge it will be a miracle  I still have my big Fishing Boat to rig as well, although I think that is unlikely to happen. Just at the moment I am struggling to get up the enthusiasm to work on the barge. Its no use forcing myself to model so it will probably have to wait for a few weeks.

Barrie

I did a Thames barge quite a while ago... the rigging is something else and took me longer to do than build the hull!

Such is life, shame it’s sat on a shelf in someone’s window the boat worked a treat before leaving me.

I’ve always fancied doing another but I just can’t bring myself to build a boat that size again, ( sails mostly)

This one was requested by my wife Aron, so it was not strictly my choice . It won't sail.

Barrie

That’s such a shame they really are a joy to sail. Especially if you can get the counter weights each side to work without using a false keel weight!

But enjoy the build they are very unique boats and I really enjoyed building the one I did.
(modern racer styled) looking forward to that blog bud.