Hi Adam
Thanks for the link – I have seen this image before but am not convinced this is a Charlie - the sail looks wrong... I think it's either an early Victor I or possibly as the caption says, the Nerpa conversion. Thanks anyway, I appreciate your time.
I tried Wayne Frey, he didn't offer any solutions. I don't think his book covers the Charlie class, unfortunately.
It seems to be one dead end after another! I cannot work out whether the tiles are square or rectangular – the later boats, Oscars/Typhoons etc seem to all have square tiles (as the RN/USN subs do), but the earlier Russian boats seemed to have thicker, rectangular versions (I believe they were bolted to the hull not glued). They do seem to change to square tiles towards the stern, am supposing so they fit easier into the tight contours.
I have a reasonable photo of the Schuka-B which shows rectangular tiles, I may follow this as it fits reasonably well with the only two images I have seen of the Charlie class with tiles – published in the Noot/Polmar book. I just don't like guesswork!
Anyone with any inside info on this subject, please feel free to jump in.
Good luck with the Alfa Adam – if I can be of any help, please let me know.
Cheers
Chris