Jump to content
MSW Spring Donation Drive

popeye2sea

NRG Member
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    1,788

  • Joined

  • Last visited

 Content Type 

Everything posted by popeye2sea

  1. popeye2sea
    Bill, The lead of the line will depend on how far out on the yard it's innermost leading block is fastened. In general, you want a fair lead down to the deck. Meaning, no bends in the rope passing over areas or objects where it can chafe. For instance, sheets, where the innermost block may be at some distance out in the quarters, may not have to be lead through the lubbers hole. Similarly, clew lines where the garnet block is at a distance out along the yard. On the other hand, bunt, leech, and lift lines, where there is a lead block up under the cap or in the trestle trees, will have their lead down through the lubbers hole. Regards, Henry
  2. popeye2sea
    Eric, Welcome to the Heller Soleil Royale family. I also started mine sometime around that same time. Looking forward to what you do with her. Henry
  3. popeye2sea
    Another option would be to work small wire into the leach rope of the sprit sail and then use that to change the drape of the sail. Could work. I've never tried it though I did stiffen up my foot rope horses by worming the rope with wire. The wire needs to be color matched to the rope if you don't to want to put a service on. That worked out pretty well. Regards, Henry
  4. popeye2sea
    True. But tin solder has no weight to it. Maybe a piece of uranium would do? 😜 Regards, Henry
  5. popeye2sea
    Bill, I thought about putting a small bit of lead weight in a pocket on the clews of the sprit sail in order to give it some weight and let it hang a bit more naturally. Just looking ahead a bit. If you intend to set a fore stay sail it is going to need a false stay. In fact, I think all of the stay sails would need to be set on false stays. A false stay runs just below the normal stay. It is seized to the normal stay quite high up and allows the stay sail hanks to slide up and down without fouling on the various braces and brace block pendants affixed to the normal stay. Regards, Henry
  6. popeye2sea
    I believe that the order of setting up the rigging is important as well. Start by establishing the rake of the mast with the fore stay. Once the mast is properly stayed move on to the shrouds. Here is where some may disagree with my method. Since the rearmost shrouds have the greatest angle and therefore the greatest influence on the position of the mast I start there. If you go from forward to aft then a slight over tensioning of the after shrouds will lead to a bit of slack in the shrouds further forward. Regards, Henry
  7. popeye2sea
    I agree, however I am not sure that the reef tackle would run in front of the sail. The hauling end would as you mentioned probably run inboard under the yard to a leading block and then down to the deck. Bunt lines also come down in front of the sail. Also, the diagram does not show the studdingsail rigging which is covered under another page of the instructions. Regards, Henry
  8. popeye2sea
    According to the rigging plan lines 1117 and 1118 are the reef tackles Regards, Henry
  9. popeye2sea
    And...the proper coil to use when you are hanging your unused gaskets from the yard is a - wait for it - gasket coil! Regards, Henry
  10. popeye2sea
    I was describing the lower ones. I may have misread your question. Futtock shrouds take the name from the "foot hook" or the "foot hook plates" that they hook in to. So when you said from the topmast shrouds, I assumed you had a question regarding the topmast futtock shrouds. Given that, I do not think there was the same necessity for ratlines on the topgallant futtock shrouds. There is much less rigging that passes through the gaps in the top mast cross trees and so would not impede the climbing through of the sailors. I have not read any references to ratlines on the topgallant futtock shrouds Regards, Henry
  11. popeye2sea
    Yes. The lubbers hole that exists in the top is not actually there for sailors to pass through. It is there to allow rigging to pass through the top on the way to the base of the mast. The lubbers hole when the ship is fully rigged is pretty much chock full of rigging. There would be not enough room for a sailor to pass through easily. It can be done, but it is actually much easier to go up the outside via the futtock shroud ratlines and over the rim of the top. Regards, Henry
  12. popeye2sea
    Falconers Dictionary of the Marine states mast coats are heavily tarred. Regards, Henry
  13. popeye2sea
    Figures like these are more like heraldic supporters than mounts. They are designed to fit up against the ships side and bottom and give some support against the hull tipping over. For the first picture, the tail of the sea horse (or sea Pegasus, I don't have a name for these) fits under or against the keel with the horses mane against the ships side. In the second picture, the tails of the dolphins (yes, those are heraldic dolphins) rest against the hull. For the third, the dogs backs go against the hull. Dogs are an interesting choice for ship supporters. Although those look really nice. Regards, Henry
  14. popeye2sea
    Bill, I have set up my brace in a similar fashion. I cut in a sheave hole just aft of the ledge for the backstay. It comes through on the aft side of the kevel. The standing end of the brace will be spliced on to that eyebolt that is just forward of the quarter gallery on the top plank strake. But, now looking at the angle your brace takes, I see that I might have mis-placed that sheave hole. The lead of the brace will lie directly on the back stay ledge. I may have to shift the sheave hole forward like you have it. Regards, Henry
  15. popeye2sea
    You are correct, Allen.
  16. popeye2sea
    It has been my experience in the USN that nothing is to be secured to a life rail stanchion. They are much too lightly constructed to hold any considerable weight. In fact, we were always taught to not even lean against them while underway. I have personally seen life rail stanchions go by the board when struck with a heavy object in a high sea state. About the most we ever attached to them would be a temporary light line for an awning or something similar. Regards, Henry
  17. popeye2sea
    I read somewhere (forgive me, I can't remember the reference) that at one time a quick release was built into a stopper mechanism attached to the cat head timber. The stopper was released by striking the release mechanism open with a maul by a sailor at the inboard end or on top of the cat head timber. Similar to the way a pelican hooks works today. Henry
  18. popeye2sea
    I hear what your saying Ian, and it makes sense, but I have never seen a stay on any ship I have been on with any discernable sag to it. It may in fact be there, but it is very hard to see. Those stays are pretty tight. Same with shrouds. Now running rigging is a totally different story. Catenary curves abound. Regards, Henry
  19. popeye2sea
    Bill, There is no need to have those braces ramrod straight tight so that they distort the stays. Just snug is perfectly fine. And depending on which way the wind is blowing, one side is always going to be more taut than the other. It is usually the windward brace that takes most of the strain. One would assume that it would be the leeward brace that is keeping the yard pulled around, but the force of the wind is actually working to fling the windward yardarm around and the windward brace works harder to keep the yard from coming further around. Under a breeze, if you were to let fly both braces the yard would immediately try to brace further around. Regards, Henry
  20. popeye2sea
    I think with the fore topsail and topgallant yards already positioned at full height you are forced to set the main topsail and topgallant the same for the reasons stated above. Changing the fore topsail and topgallant now would necessitate lowering their yards. When reducing sail the fore topgallant would have been the first to be furled. So with the fore topgallant set that means that the main topgallant and topsail would have been set already. For the courses there is a case to be made that even with the fore course set the main course could have been furled so as not to block/scavenge the wind from the fore course. Regards, Henry
  21. popeye2sea
    The way you figure out how far down the tye block should be is to imagine raising and lowering the yard to its extremes. When the yard is fully lowered to the top you need to still have some drift between the block and the cap. When the yard is fully raised you do not want the block to foul on the main topmast stay. Regards, Henry
  22. popeye2sea
    The way I read the plan is this: The topsail tye (line 1051) comes down to block m.1, which has a runner rove through it (line 1052). One end of the runner is seized to the eye bolt in the channel a11. The other end comes down on the opposite channel where the halyard tackle is hooked through it's fall to eyebolt a12. The Hellerism is what they did with the fall of the halyard tackle. They have both ends of the fall fixed above and below the blocks. If you want to rig this correctly you have to attach the fall to one of the blocks with a becket, either opposite the hook on the lower block or opposite the runner on the upper block. Which way you want the hauling end of the fall to lead will determine which you choose. As a follow on point, the topgallant halyard (1058) does the same thing. It is going to lead to a5 and a6 just inboard of the topsail halliard. The aft most knight is where the fall belays. I think you can use the that knight to belay the fall of the topsail halyard as well. The lead is a bit wonky if you have the topsail halyard fall exiting from the bottom block. Regards, Henry
  23. popeye2sea
    Bill, The yard , with it's parral, look fantastic. One question though. Have you left out the halyard and tye? Or have you just not rigged it yet. The selvagee strops that you added to the yard inside the cleat are what take the ends of the tye. The two parts of the tye then lead up over the cap and down to a ramshead block for the halyard tackle. That is how the yard is hoisted and suspended in place. Regards, Henry
  24. popeye2sea
    SR was in that transition period when reefing was coming into vogue. As I briefly mentioned earlier, reefing begets footropes because of the way the sail has to be gathered and tied at the top of the yard where, with the former method, the sailors would be standing or sitting. Henry
  25. popeye2sea
    Yes, the older method of increasing or decreasing sail was to add or subtract from the bottom of the sail. The exact opposite of reefing which is essentially reducing the sail at the top of the sail. With the old method the lower yard had to be movable on a regular basis. The parral provides rollers to assist in lowering the yard while maintaining control. When reefing became more of the norm, lowering the course yards was no longer necessary. Le Soleil Royale was right at that transitional phase when reefing started to come into use. BTW, reefing causes footropes to start being used also. Before that the sailor used to walk out along the top of the yard. Regards, Henry

About us

Modelshipworld - Advancing Ship Modeling through Research

SSL Secured

Your security is important for us so this Website is SSL-Secured

NRG Mailing Address

Nautical Research Guild
237 South Lincoln Street
Westmont IL, 60559-1917

Model Ship World ® and the MSW logo are Registered Trademarks, and belong to the Nautical Research Guild (United States Patent and Trademark Office: No. 6,929,264 & No. 6,929,274, registered Dec. 20, 2022)

Helpful Links

About the NRG

If you enjoy building ship models that are historically accurate as well as beautiful, then The Nautical Research Guild (NRG) is just right for you.

The Guild is a non-profit educational organization whose mission is to “Advance Ship Modeling Through Research”. We provide support to our members in their efforts to raise the quality of their model ships.

The Nautical Research Guild has published our world-renowned quarterly magazine, The Nautical Research Journal, since 1955. The pages of the Journal are full of articles by accomplished ship modelers who show you how they create those exquisite details on their models, and by maritime historians who show you the correct details to build. The Journal is available in both print and digital editions. Go to the NRG web site (www.thenrg.org) to download a complimentary digital copy of the Journal. The NRG also publishes plan sets, books and compilations of back issues of the Journal and the former Ships in Scale and Model Ship Builder magazines.

Our Emblem ®

Modelshipworld - Advancing Ship Modeling through Research

Nautical Research Guild ® and the NRG logo are Registered Trademarks, and belong to the Nautical Research Guild (United States Patent and Trademark Office: No. 6,999,236 & No. 6,999,237, registered March 14, 2023)

×
×
  • Create New...