This scratch-built model of the "Lady Van", first
become possible in 2002, when Club member Steve
Tupper unrolled some original plans and he was about
to have a look at the Roedde boats that raced here
just after the Second World War., when he noticed
there was a drawing on the back of the wrapping
paper. It was when he spread out that sheet in the
light that he found himself face to face with history.
The brittle old sheet of paper turned out to be an
original hull plan for the "Lady Van". Produced in the
drawing offices of Camper & Nicholson's Ltd., in
Gosport on the south coast of England just across
The Solent from Cowes, the brownline plan is stamped
and dated December 22, 1927.
The brownline plan with its easily faded vegetable dye
was professionally cleaned and conserved and then
digitally recorded. A museum grade copy is on display
on the second floor of the Clubhouse. Club historian
Jock Ferrie began a campaign to have the "Lady Van"
comemorated in a more tangibile fashion, the result of
which is the superb scale model of the vessel hanging
in the Club stairwell.
The model, built to a scale of 1:9, is the work of
Lucian Ploias, Vancouver's renowned maritime model
maker. The entire model was scratch built, a
painstaking process that took Lucian six months of
full-time work. The hull is authentically built-up, with
plank on bulkhead construction. The first layer of
planking is made of red cedar, sealed with an epoxi
resin. The outer layer is sheeted with maple, the
individual planks hewn to scale, less than 1mm thick.
The detail is so precise that you can easily see the
seams between the planks.
Lucian was equaly precise with the deck, which is
planked with European pearwood, chosen for its
minute grain, which best replicates the grain of the
original teak decks reduced to the scale of the model.
The planks are individually caulked, just as they would
have been in the original boat.
Lucian used a stock of extremely fine-grained
Egyptian cotton and vintage photographs of "Lady
Van" in full sail, to piece together the sails. It required
32 individual sections of fabric to duplicate the
mainsail and 11 for the headsail. The brass deck
hardware is astonishing as well. All the rigging works,
including miniature turn-buckles, their screws threaded
left-hand and right-hand just as they would be in real
life.
This model which represents both the mastery of the
maritime model maker's art and the great racing
history of the Royal Vancouver Yacht Club, was made
possibly by a most generous gift from the family of
Kam Brasso and her brother Terry Bryne in memory of
Honorary Life Member Donald Thomas Byrne.
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