Instruction manual

33
GENERAL RIGGING
& SAILMAKING INFORMATION
Rigging Terms Defined
If you are new to the nautical world, there are a few
rigging terms you should know. You old salts can
skip this part and grab yourself a mug of grog:
1. A sail has names for each of its edges and corners.
On a square sail, the top edge is called the head, the
bottom is the
foot, and sides the leech. The lower cor
-
ners are the clews. On a fore and aft sail, the top is the
head, bottom the foot, aft side the leech, and forward
side the
luff. The lower forward corner is the tack, aft
lower corner the clew, upper forward corner the
throat, and the aft upper corner the peak. A triangular
sail is similar except it has no head side, but the upper
corner is called the head. There is no throat or peak.
2.
Standing rigging refers to the fixed rigging that sup-
ports the masts and spars. Generally, standing rigging
is tarred; therefore, it is black or dark brown. The
Pride
of Baltimore II
has some standing rigging that is not
black, so follow the color notes given on the plans.
3.
Shrouds are transverse support lines for masts. Dead-
eyes
, and their lines called lanyards, are used to taught-
up the shrouds, stays, and other lines. Deadeyes are
wood and have three holes for reeving the lanyards.
On a modern day ship, such a device would be
replaced by a metal turnbuckle. Sometimes, you will
find a
heart or a bullseye. These are similar to a deadeye
except there is only one large hole instead of three.
They are used for more permanent installations.
Chain
plates
are iron bars or a rod for holding shroud dead-
eyes along the hull. At the topmast shrouds, there are
no chain plates. Instead, there are rods or rope that go
from the deadeye to the mast or lower shrouds. These
are called
futtock shrouds. If these shrouds go only to
the lower shrouds, they generally tie into a wooden or
metal rod called a
futtock stave.
4.
Stays and backstays support the masts from fore and
aft forces. A
running backstay is one that has a tackle
at deck. It can be moved along the deck if necessary.
5.
Footropes are lines that sailors stand on when work-
ing and furling sails.
Stirrups hold the footropes.
6.
Bobstays support the bowsprit from upward loads,
and
guys support jibbooms and bowsprits from side
forces. Bowsprit guys are sometimes called
bowsprit
shrouds
. Bowsprits sometimes have a vertical strut
below the jibboom cap to help increase the down-
ward pulling force of stays leading back to the hull.
This strut is called a
martingale or dolphin striker. Head
stays go through the jibboom, down to the dolphin
striker, and back up to the bow. Separate stays start-
ing at the jibboom, rather than continuing from the
head stays, are called
martingale stays.
7.
Running rigging is a term applied to lines that
move, reeve through blocks, and are used to operate
sails and spars.
8.
Blocks are wooden or metal shells with sheaves for
handling lines. A
tackle, or purchase, is a device made
up of several blocks and a line to provide a mechani-
cal advantage for handling sails and spars.
9.
Halliards (also spelled halyard) are lines for raising
and lowering a sail, yard, boom, gaff, or a flag. The part
of the halliard attached to a yard is called a
tye. For gaffs,
the outer halliard is the
peak halliard and at the gaff jaws
is a
throat halliard, named for the part of the sail it oper-
ates.
Downhauls, outhauls and inhauls haul a sail along a
boom, or up and down on a stay.
Sheets hold the lower
corners of a sail or boom.
Furling means to bundle the
sail up on its yard, boom, or mast, when not in use.
Clew
lines
pull up the corners of a square sail, leech lines pull
up the side, and
buntlines pull up the belly of the sail for
furling.
Brails are like buntlines except they are used on
loose footed fore and aft sails to pull the sail in toward
the mast for furling.
Bowlines are lines attached to the
sides of a square sail to pull the sail forward. These are
used primarily on 18th-century and older ships.
10.
Reef bands are horizontal bands of reinforcement
canvas that run across the sail. These bands have
short sections of rope called
reef points. These are
used to tie the sail to the yard or boom to shorten sail
in heavy weather.
Reef tackle is used to pull the sail
reef bands up (or down) to the boom or yard.
11.
Parrals (also spelled parrel) are lines or devices for
holding yards, booms, and gaffs to their respective
masts and spars. A
truss, jeer and sling are similar to a
parral. These terms describe lines used to hold a yard
up and against the mast. They are most common for
lower yards. The
Pride of Baltimore II has a truss on the
fore lower yard and it is tightened from the deck. Its
crew calls this line a
choker, rather than a truss.
12.
Braces are lines attached to the ends of yards for
directing the yard angles and holding them taught.
Lifts are standing or running lines for holding yards
when lowered. A
topping lift refers to a line for hold-
ing up the end of a boom when the gaff is down or
when there is no gaff. A
vang is a line which steadies
a gaff from swinging sideways.
13. A
lazy jack is a series of lines forming a finger-like
spread of lines along a boom. These lines keep the
sail from falling on deck when the gaff is lowered. On
the
Pride of Baltimore II, the topping lift and lazy jacks
for the main boom are a combination rig. Lazy jacks
were used on Chesapeake Bay skipjacks. I don’t
know if it’s a Chesapeake Bay original rig or not.
This covers most of the important terms you should
know for the
Pride of Baltimore II model. For the
future, get yourself a good book on nautical terms.
1. Rigging Options
Just as in rigging the real ship, there are numerous
options for rigging the model. Here is a list of some
of the possibilities. In the end, it’s your choice, but a
few comments are offered for your consideration:
Model with Sails
A.
Rig the model complete with a full set of sails
including all fore and aft sails, square sails, studding
sails and the ring tail sail. Not many modelers go to
this extreme. It is a good approach, if simply to have
one model with all the detail. However, the mass of
sail obscures a lot of the nice detail on the spars and
on the deck. Sails really look better on a ship at sea,
rather on a model sitting on a table.
B. Rig the model with sails, but omit the topgallant
sail, studding sails, and ringtail. The topgallant
furled sail would be stowed on deck, port side bul-
warks, just aft of the main shrouds as shown on plan
sheet 4. The studding sails, ringtail sails and their
yards are stowed below on the real ship, so they are
omitted from the model. The studding sail boom and
ringtail boom would remain in place but would be
shoved into a stowed position. This rigging choice is
STAGE G