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!

 

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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