When to attach sails to yards?
I am at the point in my Constellation build where I have all the yards built and rigged and am looking into constructing the sails. I am a bit confused about attaching the sails to the yards. The instructions show putting the rigged yards on the masts before putting the sails on. I would like to have the upper sails on each mast full and the the lowest one on each mast reefed about half way so the deck is easily visible.
I am thinking it will be more difficult to rope the sails to the yar
Sails are attached (bent) to the yards by robands. Depending on the era of the ship they were either bent to the yards directly or to a jackstay above the yard. There were usually two robands per sail cloth, sometimes both placed between the seams, and somtimes, one on the seam and one halfway between. The photos below show the two methods.
