Like anything else with the Santa Maria there seems to be a variety of speculation regarding pinrails, cleats and the like. I’ve had to scan the rigging over and over to try and figure out where these fixtures would have been.
I’ve also been trying to speculate whether or not the belaying pins are more traditional looking (as they are with more modern ships) or whether they may have been more primitive in nature like some of the cleats appear to be.
So, like the rest of the model I’ve looked at many of the builds and references that are our there and then pressed on with what I think works best while maintaining a credible level of accuracy.
I used a 4mm x 4mm piece of walnut and bevelled the top edges. I’ve stayed away from much ornamentation on this build because I truly believe the Santa Maria had very little. However, I wanted to include a little bit of craftsmanship that I think every vessel would have likely had. So, I used one of my mini pin-files (which sounds redundant) to notch out the top of the posts.
I used a 1mm thick 5mm wide piece of walnut and sanded it at a curve for the rail portion of the piece. I then notched out both the posts and rail to give them a nice tight fit. After staining the entire thing in “Kona” colored stain (to match the weathering I’ve done on the rest of the ship) I put them all together with the belaying pins.
Although it’s not clearly seen here, I mounted the entire piece in the same method that I’ve done railings and stanchions – which is to drill and mount pins in the bottom of the posts, drill corresponding holes in the deck, then mount the piece with a touch of CVA glue. It’s always a challenge come rigging time to get these pieces to hold well once the running rigging is attached and pulled tight.
The Lehman Shipyard 