HM Schooner Ballahoo by georgeband - Caldercraft - Haddock drawings

[Dr PR]

I agree that the crossjack yard is usually the spar on the mizzen mast that spreads the clews of a topsail.  The spreader yard on a schooner's square sail mast is often called a crossjack because it is essentially the same as the mizzen's crossjack on a square rigger.

 

I read somewhere that whether the yard that the course attaches to is called a spreader or a course yard depends upon how much tackle is permanently attached to the yard. If it is fully rigged for a square sail, like the fore/main course yards on square riggers, it is called a course yard. If the spar is rigged only to spread the topsail it is a spread yard, but some rigging could be attached temporarily to raise a course.

 

And then there are the spreader yards that rest on and are tied to the bulwarks, with the course sheets running through blocks on the yard arms.

 

But what about the Bentkick yard? It is actually called a boom, although it is essentially a yard and nothing like the boom on for-and-aft sails! It is a spreader yard attached to the clews of the course, but pulled down to the deck with a tackle attached to the center of the yard.

 

And I would bet dollars to donuts that there were other variations on this theme that none of us have seen!

 

****

 

Trevor,

 

Underhill (Masting and Rigging) mentions that luff tackle and buntlines were often belayed on the same pin since they are both slack when the sail is set, and hauled on when the sail is reefed.

 

Since the studding sails are set only when the other sails are fully deployed the lines could be belayed on almost any point carrying other lines for the associated square sail. However, I also suspect they might have been tied off to any handy point on the mast or tops. I keep watching for some explanation of how to belay stuns'l lines.

[georgeband]

Trevor and Phil,

 

Thank you for marking my homework, finding more information, and guiding the interpretation of the names for yards. It is a messy subject in much the same way as 'hounds' on masts. Different contemporary authors use different terms and are not always self consistent. 

• I propose to use cross-jack yard for the lowest yard on the foremast of a schooner because people know what a cross-jack is and does. Its principal function is to guide the topsail sheets. It is not routinely raised or lowered. 
• I propose to use square sail yard for the yard that has a square sail (course) bent to it. This yard might be the same length as the cross-jack yard or it might be much shorter or it might even be absent. The square sail is raised by hoisting it and the square sail yard up to the cross-jack yard. 

I hope this helps for other model builders. 

 

George

 

[georgeband]

Square sail yards and booms

 

I finally decided on the sizes of the square sail yards (topgallant, topsail, cross-jack, square sail) and the studding sail yard which hangs from the topsail yard and the stuns'l boom that projects from the cross-jack. The drawings below show the distances along the spars in red and the diameters in blue. The diameters at the quarters follow the standard proportions (30/31, 7/8, 7/10, 3/7) and are rounded to the nearest 0.05mm. 

The larger yards I made from wood, turning it with an electric drill while gripping it with sandpaper. Dowel stock 3mm diameter was the basis for the cross-jack yard. I found on Ebay a pack of 100 dowels that were 2mm diameter and 200mm long and spent a few pounds on them. They are from some close grained wood and were perfect for the topsail and square sail yards. The ends of the topsail yard should be 0.75mm diameter but I stopped at 1.0mm to allow enough material to drill holes into the ends of the yards. 

The smaller yards started as polystyrene rods and I reduced the diameters by hand sanding. The stuns'l yards stayed a constant diameter because the reduction would not be visible. 

 

I glued cleats on to the yards following Steel's guidance, and drilled holes for eyes and sheaves. The wood spars received a coat of 'European larch' wood dye and the plastic spars were painted khaki with enamel paint and then a wash of burnt umber. (The photo is at the khaki stage.)  The stuns'l yards have their halyards tied on at the middle because that works with the other yards to give a reasonable overlap between the studding sail and the topsail on my model. The books typically place the halyard '1/3 of the way along the yard' and accept that it was not a precise rule, so I have a justification for my decision. 

Today I have made a start on the studding sail irons and will continue with other bits on the yards. My intention is to have the spars well clothed with ropes and sails before I fit them to the mast. The preparation for this stage was time consuming and I continue to make small adjustments to rigging plans, flipping between Powerpoint and Excel pages and the books that inspired me. I am glad that my Excel files have columns that show which books and pages I referred to for each rope. The numbers in blue boxes below are the numbers I assigned to the ropes; they go up to 161 at present. The first picture is for the topgallant and topsail. Below that is one for the cross-jack and square sail yards. Photos later. 

 

 

George

 

[tkay11]

Very useful, George. Thanks

 

Tony

[georgeband]

Square sail yards and booms cont.

 

I started at the top and am working my way down the fore mast, attaching all the bits and ropes to the yards. The top gallant is easy and just has a halyard (Gutermann polyester, 724 colour) tied on with a Fisherman's bend. I tied a similar line to one stuns'l yard with a stuns'l halyard bend that I found in Luce Seamanship, plate 15, figure 90. I could have used reef knots because the proper bends are only visible under high magnification but it feels good to know that they are there. 

 

The topsail yard is still quite bare and I have attached a jewel block to each arm, using a Seahorse 2mm single block and a copper wire eye from Caldercraft. Gluing the rope around the block was a good test for shaky hands. The port side block will just dangle from the eye and the starboard will route the stuns'l halyard.

The reef block uses a HiS 2mm single block and a HiS etched brass hook and strap. The line is again Gutermann 724 and it passes through a sheave hole in the yard.  

I returned to the stuns'ls and made the fittings for the booms on the cross-jack yard. Starboard side has the boom extended and port side is retracted. I deviated from actual practice and the booms are fixed in place with wire pins and do not slide in the iron rings apart from one - the outer boom iron to port. The booms have not been fitted yet and will be glued on after more ropes and blocks. The inner ends of the booms will be lashed in place. Copper wire and black paper were the main construction materials and precision drilling the technique. 

It's not fast but it is progress. 

 

George

 

 

[tkay11]

Are you painting or varnishing the Seahorse 2mm blocks? My ones are a really odd colour that don't quite look like wood. Forgive me if you've already said somewhere that you have painted them!

 

Tony

[georgeband]

Tony,

Thank you for your question which I think splits into three parts: what colour should the blocks be, how can we achieve this, and (less important) what have I done?

 

1. What colour for blocks?

My guess based on hazy memories of what I have read is that the blocks were natural, weathered wood, probably elm. They might have been varnished at some point but I doubt if sailors would climb up with sandpaper, a bucket and brush to renew the varnish. The photos below are from my garden in the winter sunshine and show two fence panels and some oak sleepers. The fences are nondescript soft woods. The oak goes dark brown when it is wet, and dry it has a lot of variation. My impression of weathered wood from looking around is mostly grey with a hint of beige/pink/brown to it and this is what I try to achieve. 

 

2. How to colour the blocks

Larger blocks, 4mm to 5mm for example, can hang from a bent wire and be sprayed with a colour of your choosing. If like me you prefer a hairy stick to an airbrush then the technique is similar though the blocks need to rest on something like kitchen wipe paper so they don't flap about. It can be done and then the wires are hooked 'somewhere' while the paint dries. There is a separate risk that the holes get blocked with paint. 

For smaller blocks such as 2mm the technique is still achievable but more fiddly. 

 

3. What did I do?

I took the easy option for 2mm blocks and left them as raw resin. The colour is similar to my fence panels, and the wooden blocks next to them (see my previous post) look toy-like to me in comparison. I will consider painting or staining the larger blocks when I get to them, both wood and 3D printed. 

I launched a long term experiment in May 2024 when I left resin bases from the Seahorse 3D printed blocks on my south facing window ledge (indoors). Sunny Worthing gets a lot of sun by UK standards and I have not found any effect on colour or material properties after two bright summers.  I don't expect the unpainted resin blocks to fare worse than a painted finish or wood. 

 

Suggestions or comments? I assume that other model makers have different priorities and for them a display piece with fine woodwork in the blocks aspires to a different ideal. What are you trying to recreate? 

 

George

[tkay11]

Yes, I too have left them uncoloured, as I couldn't think of anything better to do. It just does leave them a little out of accord with the few wooden blocks I had already rigged. In my case, I'm not too bothered about that, as my Jacinthe is only for my pleasure and no one else's!

 

Thanks for the analysis and description of your experiments - very useful as always!

 

Tony