Diameter of jackstays

[gregs1234]

Hello everyone, I am building the Bluejacket Jefferson Davis. There was a build log before the crash, but I haven;t been able to rebuild it. I have been moving along rather slowly, but the hull is complete and I am working on the masts. I am building the yards and am ready to install jackstays. Bluejacket provides some padeyes for this purpose and I have brass wire that fits the holes perfectly. However, the diameter comes out to about 2.2 scale inches. This seems a bit oversize. I have two other diameters of wire that are 1.65 scale inch and 1.4 scale inch. But, these smaller sizes will be loose in the padeyes.

Does anyone know what the diameter of a jackstay would be for an Revenue Cutter build in the 1850's?  I am also concerned about the spacing of the padeyes, The plans show them to be spaced about 16 inches apart. However, I was only supplied enough padeyes to space them about 30" apart.  Would anyone have an opinion on the spacing?

Thanks for all your help.

Edited November 25, 2014 by gregs1234

[Jim Lad]

I don't think there was much change in the style or size of jackstays over time.

 

This photo of a large steel yard from a barque of the 1870's might be a help to you.

 

As you can see, the eyes are about 18 inches apart and the jackstay itself is roughly 1 inch diameter.

 

I think the idea is to keep the jackstays as inconspicuous as possible otherwise the yard will look lumpy and out of scale - but they should be there or the yard will look wrong.

 

John

 

[gregs1234]

Thanks John, I just realized I typed the year wrong. The year should have been 1850's. The mast and yards were wooden, not steel. But the picture does answer a question I had about whether the jackstay was in the center of the year or on the leading edge,, as your photo shows it. I have a set of plans from the Joe Lane, which was an earlier version of the Jefferson Davis (different builder), and those plans show a double jackstay. My plans for the JD only show an angle that makes impossible to tell where (or how many) the jackstay is mounted.

[JerseyCity Frankie]

I would ditch the kit supplied out of scale parts and come up with your own solution. I agree the jacksatays would be smaller rather than larger.

[gregs1234]

Thanks Frankie, I might not use the padeyes and use eyebolts instead. But I still haven't gotten any information about what the diameter would be. I would hate to "eyeball" it and then find out I was wrong.

[Jim Lad]

You can make the eyes from wire the same diameter as the jackstay - that should be fine - and remember - smaller is better when it comes to the size of the wire you use.

 

Double jackstays were a feature of some of the large iron square riggers of the end of the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth century.  I certainly wouldn't put them on your 1850's revenue cutter.

 

As for steel or wooden yards - the same style of jackstay was used on both.

 

John

[gregs1234]

Thanks John

[ahb26]

I also have a question relating to jackstays on mid-1800's revenue cutters, the Joe Lane in my case.  Does the jackstay run continuously across the yard, or is there a gap in the middle of the yard?  The plan suggests that the jackstay is continuous but I can't tell for sure, and I don't want to interfere with the various stuff that happens in the middle.

 

As noted earlier in the post, the Joe Lane plans call for double jackstays on the lower and topsail yards.  It may be that the plans were drawn up from a survey done during a major rebuild of the Joe Lane in the 1860's - double jackstays may not have been on the ship at the beginning.  In any case, I'm going with single jackstays - life's too short!

[JerseyCity Frankie]

Wavertree jack stays with a Master Rigger for scale. Solid steel. The hardwear it's being rove through is bronze and they are known as Falcons, they aren't eybolts but rather spheres with a threaded screw attached to drive them into a wood spar.