Peter Wright

As Bob says, environmental concerns. However, my understanding is that the exception was explicitly limited to Swedish churches rather than the more generic "historic preservation applications. Whatever, the exemption was not deemed to include any historic sailing craft - those who spend their tie applying tar fish oil and ovhre to various bits of old boats do not spend much time reading up on the latest restrictions o life coming out of Brussels, so I guess none of us saw that coming until the regulations had been passed into law.

Will (originally Will Everard) was built with steel standing rigging the 3" circumference shrouds being made in pairs which simply looped over the mainmast and rested on trestle trees, one pair each side forming the forward two shrouds and the other pair forming the after shroud and the main runner, The shrouds were secured to the rigging chocks with 3 inch circ. tarred hemp lanyards served through dead eyes, the runners had there own tackles securing them to the rail so that the lee runner could be eased when well off the wind. The forestay was a 4 inch circ. wire rope with an eye splice at the top looped over the mainmast head and resting on a hook on the aft side of the mast. It was secured to the stem head by the stayfall, a 6 to 1 purchase with 25 fathoms of 2.25 inch circ. wire rope to allow the mast to be lowered aft for passing under bridges (this didn't happen often in a barge of Will's size). The heel of the sprit is supported by the 3 inch circ, stanliff with an eye splice in each end - the top one looped over the main mast head (this goes on first, before the shrouds) and the lower end shackled to a short length of chain on the iron band around the foot of the sprit. Also shackled to this iron band is the collar which goes around the mast to hold the sprit heel in position. The head of the sprit is controlled by two vangs of 2.5 inch circ. wire running down to the ends of the main sheet horse where they are each controlled by a tackle. The wooden topmast was rigged with 5 stays of 2.5 inch circ. 2 shrouds (confusingly called backstays in a barge) running down through cross trees to the rigging chocks, 2 running backstays secured with tackles to the rail aft of the main runners and a forestay (called the topmast stay) which would run to the bowsprit head when the bowsprit was rigged or the stemhead when the bowsprit was stowed. There was also a 2 inch circ jibstay from the main cap to the bowsprit head on which the jib would be set, this stay was also used to haul up the bowsprit to stow it. All the standing rigging on the mizzen was also steel. If you really want to understand the rigging of a thames Sailing Barge, the definitive work is A Handbook of Sailing Barges by F S Cooper, first published by Adlard Coles in 1955, second impression 1967. Fred Cooper was a Thanes Barge master conscious of the fact that the barges he had known all his life were disappearing fast, so he set down for posterity an accurate record of how they were built and rigged. He's now long gone, but he would be amazed to see the number of barges he knew still sailing, including the Will. The way they are rigged today is exactly as he knew, apart from the introduction of synthetic sail cloth and cordage. Oh, and the EU banning the use of Stockholm tar, except on Swedish churches. Hope this helps you with your modelling, Peter.