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

17 hours ago, Bill97 said:

Ok Ferrus that is exactly the way I have rigged it. It is difficult to tell from my photos. The only thing I guesstimated is how far below the mast top m1 should be?  Basically how long the tye (1051) should be?  I brought it down about 3” below the mast top. 

 

 

 

 

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

6 hours ago, Bill97 said:

Ferrus I think we are close to seeing and saying the same thing. 1052 is the number of the rope. The arrow at the end indicates it is heading somewhere. Based on what you are saying and what I am reading  I cannot determine if it is eyebolt a12 on the channel or a6 inside on the deck. I think what I am going to do is tie 1052 to eyebolt a12 on the starboard channel. Then on the opposite side of the ship I am going to attach block (h1) to eyebolt a11 on the port channel. Then instead of wrapping the fall around block (h1) I am going to tie it inboard on eyebolt a5. If later I find eyebolt a5 had another purpose I will just add another eyebolt. 
 

Baker I had the same thought as well. I will be tying the parral lines on the mast top. 

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

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

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

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

For ships of HMS Victory vintage, there is no expectation of lowering the course yards on a regular basis, hence no need for parrals.  There remains a need to truss the yard in towards the mast so truss tackles ( or tackle truss?) are employed.

Regards,

Henry

That's a beautiful model.  Keep up the great work.

Bill,

Nice story. I'm pleased that you ran with it. The ship is looking great.  And the gun crews will be the envy of the fleet!

Regards,

Henry

32 minutes ago, allanyed said:

Lees (or me😀) may have this wrong or it may just be a matter of terminology but on page 80 and page 91 of The Masting and Rigging of British Ships of War he describes the larger lower block of the pair, or larger sheave if a fiddle block, as used for the topsail sheet, not a tack.  He makes no mention of there being a tack for the topsails.

Allan

You are correct Allan. Topsails have no tack. The sheet holds them confined to the lower yard.

Regards,

Henry

Good find.  Thanks!

Regards,

Henry

Envision a scenario whereby the ship is underway and exercising the great guns.  Picture this - The 1st Lieutenant orders the guns to be exercised by division.  The second LT, who is in charge of the second deck battery, orders the first division, in this case it could be the first four guns on the port side, to prime, load, and fire.  He will compare their best time with the other divisions for a bit of competition.

Bottom line. Display them however you choose.  Anything can be justified with a good narrative.

Regards,

Henry

BTW, I made a spreadsheet of all of the rigging plan, calling out all of the blocks and fittings needed. It helped me greatly to figure out how the rigging runs and what blocks to put where.  I can more easily search the spreadsheet for a particular line than try and follow it through multiple pages of the Heller instruction booklet.

Regards,

Henry

Not sure if my rigging plan compares to yours but here is what mine shows for lines leading through the saddle.

Saddle port side top to bottom. duplicate on starboard side except 1011

1011  Fore topmast stay tackle

1018  Spritsail brace

1098  Fore sail bowline

1088  Spritsail clew line

Rack Block ( on gammoning) port side top to bottom

1023  Spritsail yard lift/spritsail topsail sheet

1020  Spritsail topsail brace

1096  Fore topsail bowline

1094  Fore topgallant bowline

1085  Spritsail topsail clew line

There may be additional lines run through there but I would have to do a more complete search of the plan.

Hope that helps

Regards,

Henry

12 minutes ago, Bill97 said:

Top sprit yard installed and rigged. There surprisingly is a lot of rigging to that little yard!  Still studying to determine the exact belay points for the halyards for it and the spritsail yard. One instruction I have shows the lines going through the holes in the bowsprit halyard guide then up to the rail. Another instruction has them going directly to the rail or tie off to the gammoning. 

Take them through the saddle fairlead. That is it's intended purpose. Other parts of the running rigging for the spritsail and spritsail topsail will go through the rack block on the gammoning.

Regards,

Henry

The spritsail yard looks great.

Regards,

Henry

"I’ve seen all the drawings and diagrams that show the gun tackle ropes in neat inspection-ready coils, but I wonder what the gun crews really did with their lines. I didn’t glue the coils down all that securely just in case I see something that changes my mind."

When in action, coils like you have, or Flemish coils ( the ones that look like spirals) are a big no-no.  When the gun fires the side tackles act as a sort of recoil brake.  If the lines are coiled they will kink and jam when the rope starts to run out.  One way to avoid this is to flake (or fake) down the rope.  You can look this up in the Ashley Book of Knots or other knotting reference.  There are videos on you tube that show it, but do not use the modern rope climber method of flaking which, to my sailors eye, just looks like an unusable puddle of rope on the deck. Use the proper nautical method still used today to make up ropes to run freely.

Regards,

Henry

2 hours ago, Hubac's Historian said:

Open question:  at this scale, does anyone actually rig parrels around the yardarms, or do they merely represent them on the mast?  I’m trying to figure out how to do thst with the shrouds in place.

I can't leave them out. And I would like to make them as functional as possible. Finding the appropriate size beads for the parrels is not easy at 1:100 scale.

Henry

10 hours ago, Bill97 said:

Henry I continue to have your build bookmarked for quick reference. I find your rigging skill’s fascinating. Now that I have made all my yards I am researching the cleats. As you probably know Heller does not provide them. Either the one for the center of the yard nor the ends of the yard arm. Anderson is not definitive on when they came into use but it seems the SR construction was in the time frame. So like you I intend to add them to the appropriate yards. Here is where I again referred to your build. It appears in your photo that you added the cleat after painting and rigging the yard instead of before. Am I correct?  Which yards did you add the cleats too. Looking a little further into your build, I think your parrals are beautiful. Did you need to add an eyebolt at the deck and form a two block tackle to except the falls from the parrals?

The cleats are added to the yard prior to rigging. The straps inside of the cleats are selvagees (a continuous loop of rope) that is passed around the yard within the cleat before one end is inserted through the other to form the strap that takes the halliard tye. The quarter blocks for the topsail sheets are stropped with two eyes that pass around the fore and aft sides of the yard to be joined by a rose lashing atop the yard.

When I get to that point I will add cleats as well to the upper yards.  I believe that they are open or horn cleats as opposed to the closed cleat for the courses.

Yes, there will have to be determined an appropriate belaying point for the truss pendant tackle.  On my rigging plan there are two eyebolts either side of the fore mast, labelled a1 and a2 that do not appear to be used that I will repurpose for the lower block hooks. On the main there are two eyebolts designated for studdingsail halliards, that I am not using, so I will repurpose them for truss tackles. 

BTW, I am still not certain that the parrel falls for the upper yards came all the way to the deck.  I have read references that they terminate in the tops.  

Regards,

Henry

P.S. I am impressed by advances you have made in correct terminology usage in the short time since this build log started.

Pete,

When not ready for battle the cannons would have been secured by lashing to the bulwarks of the ship. The free ends of the side tackles would be frapped (wrapped) around the fall.

Regards,

Henry

I knew you were going for the "non-serieux" line.  I just thought that not too many people know what ded. reckoning really is.

Henry

Looks like you've got all the stays. Great job so far.

Regards,

Henry

John,

Your ability to bring the story to life is outstanding as is your ability to bring the frieze work to life.  I am in awe of your decal work. The ship looks amazing.

All of these other SR build logs have got me really wanting to get back to my build.  

Regards,

Henry

P.S.  Dead reckoning is actually Ded. Reckoning and is a shortened spelling of deduced reckoning which is continuing the plotting of a course line forward based on the information obtained from your last good position fix. The ded reckoning plot line is marked at set time intervals to estimate what your deduced position will be.  When you actually get to that time point and take a position fix you can then calculate based on the difference between that fix and the deduced point what your set and drift are.  In other words how much you are being blown off course by wind and current. Then you can correct your course accordingly.

So endeth the lesson on navigation.

Regards,

Perhaps yes, handrails for the upper decks, for instance leading up to the quarter deck and poop. But, I wonder if they were fitted for going below. A single grab rail in an overhead beam would suffice for many applications.

Regards,

Henry

The lower yard should be hung right at the level of the catharpins.  In fact, that is one of the functions of the catharpins. To swifter in the shrouds to allow the yard to be able to brace up to its maximum extent.

Also, the foremost shroud would not be placed so that it lies before the mast. Not something you can correct for the Heller kit.

Regards,

Henry