Ship Modeling Simplified Part 3.pdf

PART III

Masting and Rigging

"The rigging of a ship consists of a quantity of Ropes, or

Cordage, of various dimensions, for the support of the

Masts and Yards. Those which are fixed and stationary,

such as Shrouds, Stays, and Back-stays, are termed

Standing Rigging; but those which reeve through Blocks,

or Sheave-Holes, are denominated Running Rigging; such

as Haliards, Braces, Clew-lines, Buntlines, &c. &c. These

are occasionally hauled upon, or let go, for the purpose of

working the Ship."

— The Young Sea Officer's Sheet Anchor, 1819

GETTING STARTED

The quest for the perfect blend of masts

and sails began the moment it dawned

on primitive mariners that they could

harness the wind and — sans sweat —

move their boats through the water. The

evolution continues today, with sailors

using computer-designed sails and

modern alloy spars to squeeze the most

from wind and craft.

Cutting the waves on a downwind

run, the first sailor likely had no idea why

the animal skin he hung to catch the

wind was pushing him along. The physi-

cal principles behind the concept of

using wind and sail to produce motion

are simple. But adapting those principles

has led to a chase that will give aspiring

model builders an infinite variety of styles

to pursue.

Animal skins eventually gave way to

more pliable materials — papyrus, and

flax, then woven cloth. And as boats

became bigger, so too did the sails —

which sailors expanded by sewing strips

of cloth together. Canvas became the

cloth of choice. To strengthen the sail in

high winds, a rope was sewn around its

edges. Seamen ran ropes through eye -

lets in the sail's corners to hold it in place,

or adjust it to the ship's advantage.

To hold the sail up to the wind, ship-

wrights used wooden (later steel) poles

called yards. The yards were held in the

air by bigger poles, or masts.

To secure the masts and the yard —

which together with booms, gaffs, and

sprits are collectively called spars —

shipwrights developed standing rigging.

Standing rigging includes stays, which

secure masts fore and aft, and shrouds,

which do the same athwartships. To

enable seamen to climb the mast to furl

or unfurl the sails, rope ladders, or rat-

lines, were tied to the shrouds.

The spars and canvas were knitted

together by ropes — running rigging —

that moved the yards and the sails not

only up and down but at different angles

to the ship to catch the wind on differ-

ent headings. The weight of the yards

and the force of the wind became too

much to handle, so the ropes (or, more

properly, lines) were rigged through

wooden blocks with sheaves (pro-

nounced "shivs") to produce tackles.

These reduced the amount of power

needed to pull against a weight or op-

posing resistance. The more times a line

is rigged over sheaves (i.e. the more parts

in the tackle), the less power is needed

to overcome the weight at the other end.

So on a ship's rigging we will find tack-

les with blocks having one, two, or more

sheaves.

To secure the ends of all this run-

ning rigging, early ships used shaped

pieces of timber called bitts, cavils, and

cleats. Later, as the sailing apparatus

became more and more complicated and

more line ends needed to be secured,

belaying pins were fashioned and in-

serted into holes drilled in belaying pin

racks, pin rails, or fife rails, so called

because the fifer — flute player — often

sat there. His playing helped ease the

crew's burden as they sweated the great

yards aloft.

To successfully mast and rig a model

you'll need to understand the function

of every part involved. As a general rule

you can assume that the basic function

of masts and rigging is essentially the

same on every sailing ship. Any differ-

ences are stylistic adaptations to suit a

particular environment or task. For ex-

ample, yard braces — which controlled

the sail's angle to the wind — were in-

variably rigged from the yard ends and

brought down to belay on the deck be-

low. But in a man o'war — a fighting

ship with a need to keep its bulwarks

(and guns) free of a lot of lines — these

braces were brought first to a block fixed

on a stay, then to a lower block, and then

to the belaying pin rack. On a clipper

ship (which had no guns to man), the

braces were fed through a block on an

adjacent mast, and then brought down

to the belaying pin rack.

Once you know that a yard has to

have two braces, you'll know what to

look for in plans and how to rig them

on your model. Just remember this:

You're now about to start a very deli-

cate and exacting phase of building your

model; it's easy to make frustrating mis-

takes. Be patient. If you suddenly find

yourself entwined in a mess of line you

hoped would be your ratline assembly,

take a deep breath and a step back.

If you follow the steps outlined in

this section, you'll be able to mast and

rig any model. Believe me, it's not that

difficult.

MASTING AND RIGGING

SEQUENCE

As you did in Part II, read through the

following steps to get an idea of how

we'll proceed. The details for each step

of the process will be covered more

thoroughly later as we build the masts,

1 — flying jib

2 — jib

3 — fore-topmast staysail

4 — foresail or fore course

5 — fore-lower topsail

6 — fore-upper topsail

7 — fore-topgallant sail

8 — fore-royal sail

9 — fore skysail

22 — main royal sail

23 — main skysail

24 — main-topmast studding sail

25 — main-topgallant studding sail

26 — main-royal studding sail

27 — mizzen staysail

28 — mizzen-topmast staysail

29 — mizzen topgallant staysail

30 — mizzen-royal staysail

31 — crossjack

32 — mizzen lower topsail

33 — mizzen upper topsail

34 — mizzen topgallant sail

35 — mizzen royal sail

36 — mizzen skysail

37 — spanker

38 — gaff topsail

39 — mizzenmast

40 — mainmast

41 — foremast

42 — bowsprit

10 — fore-course studding sail

11 — fore-topmast studding sail

12 — fore-topgallant stuns'l

13 — fore-royal studding sail

14 — main staysail

15 — main-topmast staysail

16 — main-topgallant staysail

17 — main-royal staysail

18 — mainsail or main course

19 — main lower topsail

20 — main upper topsail

21 — main topgallant sail

FIGURE 32. A fully rigged ship — lines and canvas galore.

yards, booms and gaffs; add and rig their

accessories; then rig everything to the

hull. Here's what Part III will entail. We'll

proceed as though we're modeling a full-

rigged ship, on the theory that if you can

rig a ship, you can rig a schooner or

another sailing vessel:

stays to the foremast; and finally, the

mizzenmast center stays to the main-

mast. By following the above se-

quence, the forestay and mainstay

will have less chance to bend the

masts and can be set up tightly in

place. (If you're building a schooner,

you'll have no mizzenmast; thus

you'll have no mizzen stays, etc.) Do

not cut the loose ends of the stays

after you've tied them down; if a stay

becomes slack during the rigging of

the braces you can adjust it before

gluing and cutting the loose end.

Step 13: Belay the yard lifts and halyards.

Step 14: Reeve the lower shrouds through

the lower deadeyes.

Step 15: Rig the backstays to their dead-

eyes on all masts.

Step 16: Fit and belay all yard braces.

Step 17: Have a party!

Step 1: Assemble each mast (including

tops) and the bowsprit.

Step 2: Taper and prepare the yards,

booms, and gaffs.

Step 3: Fit the masts with all their blocks.

Step 4: Fasten futtock shrouds to the

masttops.

Step 5: Rig the lower shrouds to the

mast and let their ends hang until

later.

Step 6: Rig the topmast shrouds to the

deadeyes on the masttop and fit the

ratlines to them.

Step 7: Fit the yards with the blocks, the

footropes, the jackstays, and all the

other accessories needed. Put the

yards on the masts and rig the hal-

yards and the yard lifts. Do the same

for the gaffs and booms.

Step 8: Bend the sails to the yard.

Step 9: Step the masts through the deck.

Step 10: Rig the bowsprit's standing rig-

ging, then step the bowsprit.

Step 11: Belay all running rigging to its

respective pins in this sequence: yard

lifts, halyards, sails.

Step 12: Connect standing rigging in this

sequence: Foremast stays to the

bowsprit; all the mizzenmast gaffs

and boom rigging; mainmast center

BUILDING MASTS

If you think about it, the nautical tongue

did not evolve randomly. Let's first run

through a little terminology. Ships, barks,

barkentines, (and, naturally, three-masted

schooners) had three masts; schooners,

ketches and yawls had two. The mast

farthest forward is the foremast; the

mainmast is just that, the largest; and the

mast farthest aft is the mizzen.

The quest for speed and power over

the years led to larger sails and more of

them — and thus to higher masts. To the

lower mast was added a second section

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