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Excess Halyard


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 I am working on the main yard tye and halyard.  The question is this. Once you figure out the lengths of the tye and halyard needed to hoist the yard from the rail to the raised position, you end up with a really long halyard.  What did they do with all of the remaining halyard that ends up on deck?  Was it coiled and left on the deck? Was it hung from the knight, as I have shown below?  It is a lot of line. Don't mind the sloppy coil, it's very temporary.

post-1079-0-14061000-1433597597_thumb.jpg

 

Help :o

 

Regards,

Edited by popeye2sea

Henry

 

Laissez le bon temps rouler ! 

 

 

Current Build:  Le Soleil Royal

Completed Build Amerigo Vespucci

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I understand that I could just eliminate much of the line. But that would defeat the purpose of having the proper working length of halyard available.  My goal with this build is to have all of the lines workable, belayed and coiled, not fixed with glue.  I was really curious what was done on the actual ship.  A hanging coil of this size would be extremely unwieldy.  And I am not sure coiling on deck would be a viable option.

 

Anyone have any insights?

Henry

 

Laissez le bon temps rouler ! 

 

 

Current Build:  Le Soleil Royal

Completed Build Amerigo Vespucci

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My late friend Neb, a rigging expert, was of the opinion that the course yard halliards were belayed and much of the fall cut off.  When needed, and these weren't lowered very often, the fall could be spliced back together in only a couple of minutes.  If it is 100 feet to the jeer blocks, trebles, you could have a quarter of a mile of line to deal with.

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This has always been one of my favorite rigging questions which I bring up whenever I meet people who know about ship rigging. It always seemed unlikely to me that these huge coils would sit around on deck all the working life of the ship, seldom used. How often did the strike the lowers anyway? My guess would be during really bad weather or for repairs. The rest of the time the coil would be in the way of everything and vulnerable to rot. People say the line could have been led directly to the cable tier and this makes the most sense to me since it gets the line out of the way, out of the weather, and its still available for use.

  

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 Niagara USS Constitution 

 

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My late friend Neb, a rigging expert, was of the opinion that the course yard halliards were belayed and much of the fall cut off.  When needed, and these weren't lowered very often, the fall could be spliced back together in only a couple of minutes.  If it is 100 feet to the jeer blocks, trebles, you could have a quarter of a mile of line to deal with.

 

An interesting option.

Henry

 

Laissez le bon temps rouler ! 

 

 

Current Build:  Le Soleil Royal

Completed Build Amerigo Vespucci

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This has always been one of my favorite rigging questions which I bring up whenever I meet people who know about ship rigging. It always seemed unlikely to me that these huge coils would sit around on deck all the working life of the ship, seldom used. How often did the strike the lowers anyway? My guess would be during really bad weather or for repairs. The rest of the time the coil would be in the way of everything and vulnerable to rot. People say the line could have been led directly to the cable tier and this makes the most sense to me since it gets the line out of the way, out of the weather, and its still available for use.

 

Another interesting option.

Henry

 

Laissez le bon temps rouler ! 

 

 

Current Build:  Le Soleil Royal

Completed Build Amerigo Vespucci

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Can I commend this manual to you - great read on all aspects.

 

http://www.hnsa.org/resources/manuals-documents/age-of-sail/textbook-of-seamanship

 

Thanks Spyglass.  That is a great reference.  It deals mostly with 19th century rigging practice so, unfortunately does not mention lower tyes and halyards of the 17th century.  

Henry

 

Laissez le bon temps rouler ! 

 

 

Current Build:  Le Soleil Royal

Completed Build Amerigo Vespucci

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