Albatros by Dr PR - Mantua - Scale 1:48 - Revenue Cutter kitbash about 1815

[John Ruy]

Phil, Excellent work as usual. Nice 👍 

[Nirvana]

Phil, I also have Pettersons book. Very handy and thanks for reminding me to use it again.

[Dr PR]

John,

 

Thanks again!

 

Per,

 

Some people don't like Petersson's book. The best I can tell is because he was describing a specific schooner the Experiment, built in the U.S. for the Swedish navy, and not a lot of schooners. He describes a model of the ship, not the real thing, and he says the model was not an exact copy of the original. There are some peculiarities in how it was rigged, but I suspect you can say that about how any specific vessel was rigged!

 

But his book is one of very few that address the rigging and belaying of a topsail schooner. I find it very useful for comparing with Marquardt and some other texts that describe schooner rigging. And it is interesting to compare how Petersson, Marquardt and Chapelle describe topsail schooner rigging compared to what Biddlecombe/Steel, Lever, Lees and zu Mondfeld say about large square ship rigging. Schooner rigs follow most of the same "rules" as larger ships, but masts and ropes are generally only 2/3 to 3/4 as large as on the square riggers.

Edited January 30 by Dr PR

[Dr PR]

I showed my deadeye rigging tool earlier, but here are some photos showing how I make them. I drill a hole pattern in a scrap piece of wood, with pairs of holes the same distance apart as in the deadeyes, and the hole pairs the distance between the deadeyes (3-4 deadeye diameters). Be sure to solder the twisted part before cutting and trimming wire the loop.

 

 

They say "the proof is in the pudding," and here you can see that these tools do space multiple deadeyes evenly.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

However, all is not right in the world. Things started ganging a-gley immediately. On the positive side, it is another learning opportunity.

 

I decided to attach the deadeyes to the ends of the shrouds before rigging them - at least one of a pair that share the same rope. It is a lot easier tying the throat seizings on the bench top than on the model!

 

The idea was to run the shroud around the mast top and tie off the eye around the mast, pulling the loose end of the shroud to get the rope taut before closing the seizing. However, the mast top is very crowded, with lots of ropes that can move around, and many in the way of tying the seizing.

 

As you can see in this picture, it didn't always work and some (two) of the shrouds are just too slack (25%). I could pull them taut with the lashings, but this would leave the upper deadeyes out of alignment with the others. The whole idea behind using the deadeye tools is to get them in a nice straight line.

 

Punt!

 

 

 

A better way to proceed would be to loop the shrouds around the mast top, pulling the ends behind the mast where there is ample room to tie the seizings. Then pull the ends of the shrouds between the crosstrees and let them hang loose. Each line can be pulled around the appropriate deadeye and when taut the two parts can be taped together until the seizing is finished. This would allow for adjustment to get all lines taut before seizing any.

 

Also, this allows you to adjust the shrouds and backstays so the mast is vertical before fixing everything in place.

 

I also found it to be extremely frustrating trying to tie the throat seizing in place on the model. So I gave up and just used two round seizings. The seizing closest to the deadeye was done last, and I continued to wrap the line around the shrouds closer and closer to the deadeye until the loop was tight around the deadeye. I will depend upon the white glue to hold things together and prevent the shrouds from working loose through the seizings.

Edited February 1 by Dr PR

[Dr PR]

More details for the rigging of the fore top.

 

 

After the shrouds and tackle pendants were in place (and the loose shrouds were tightened) the next thing was the pendant for the fore gaff throat halliard.

 

 

 

I put a short leg and long leg in the pendant from the double block. On the ends of each leg are eyes, and these are tied together with lashings on the starboard side of the mast head.

 

 

The halliard loop rested on the shrouds and the pendant hung between the tresletrees on the aft side of the mast. The rake of the mast allows the block to hang free.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The next consideration was rigging the fore course yard sling pendant around the mast top. The sling has two parts. The upper pendant loops around the mast top and hangs down in front of the mast, with an eye in the lower end. The lower part wraps around the yard and has an eye above. The two eyes are tied together with lashings to support the yard.

 

There were two options for this.

 

 

A common way to rig the sling is shown on the left in the drawing above. The sling just wraps around the back of the mast and hangs on the outside of the trestletrees and cheeks. However, this causes it to pull tightly around the edges of the cheeks, where it will chafe, and come together at a fairly wide angle at the eye above the spar. This means the lower part of the sling that wraps around the yard must be very short if the yard is to hang close to the top. Another way to rig this is to lead the arms of the pendant forward over the fore crosstree and then down to the yard. But this causes the sling to ride over the fid for the fore topmast, causing it to chafe and lying in the way when the topmast was to be lowered.

 

The alternative is to loop the sling over a thumb cleat on the aft side of the mast a distance above the trestletrees as shown on the right side of the drawing. The sling pendant then hangs over the forward edge of the fore crosstree and comes down in a narrow angle to the eye. The eye is higher between the cheeks, allowing the yard to be rigged higher. It is this method that I chose to use.

 

Again I created a long and short arm for the sling pendant, with eyes at the ends of both parts. These were lashed together on the port side of the mast top.

 

 

The lower part of the sling loops around the yard.

 

 

The fore stay loops around the mast top and rests on a thumb cleat just below the top cap. In the drawing above I show it hanging outboard the cheeks and behind the forward crosstree. But it actually gives better clearance for the other rigging if it hangs over the forward edge of the crosstree as shown in the photos.

 

 

 

Some drawings show the stay to be spliced to form an eye around the mast and others show it "moused." I decided to try to create a mouse for this model.

 

The mouse is just a lump on the stay that is too large to pass through an eye in the end of the rope. I made the eye small enough that the 0.055 inch (1.37 mm) stay rope will just barely slip through it.

 

I tried a couple of methods to create the mouse. First I just tied a simple overhand knot in the rope and then tried to wrap  0.008 inch (0.20 mm) rope around it. This produced an unsightly asymmetrical lump.

 

 I started over and used a needle to work the small rope through the larger stay and then began wrapping layers of the small rope around the larger one, like serving but in multiple layers. I made the larger part of the lump on the lower end - where the eye will rest - and tapered it toward the top. I applied white glue between layers to hold the mouse wrappings together.

 

I think I got a bit carried away and made the mouse extra large, but it works!

 

 

 

At this point none of the shrouds and stays are fastened to the hull - I haven't installed the lashings on the deadeyes and hearts. But the next things to install are the jib stay and preventer, and these will pass through holes in the bees on the bowsprit and have deadeyes on the lower ends. Then everything will have to be tightened with lashings and the mast will be permanently in place.

Edited March 30 by Dr PR

[Dr PR]

I am still working on  the foremast standing rigging.

 

As I started planning this bit I realized I had not installed sheer poles to keep the deadeyes from twisting. Mondfeld says these were introduced in the mid 1800s, but this is incorrect. Lever describes sheer poles in 1808. The original sheer poles were just iron rods tied to the shrouds immediately above the deadeyes to prevent them from twisting due to forces on the shrouds. But Marquardt elaborates a bit, saying that a "wooden stretcher" or "squaring staff" was seized to the shrouds to prevent twisting, and these sometimes served as a belay rack. I decided to use these wooden stretchers on my model.

 

 

I first painted them with the brown I used for bulkheads and sanded them to a nice finish. Then I wondered if I should use tan or dark brown rope to lash them to the shrouds. I decided to look at photos of existing ships and realized that the entire assembly should be dark brown/black like the shrouds. I drilled them for three belaying pins. These will come in handy for belaying the falls of the mast tackles and running backstays.

 

Then it was on to complete the standing rigging on the foremast.

 

 

 

 

This image shows the foremast tackle. This heavy purchase, also known as a burtoning tackle,  was used to load cargo, cannons and other heavy objects. It was also used to bring in the anchors.

 

The rig consists of a block on a pendant from the mast top. Through this runs a runner tackle from a double block below, through the pendant block, to a hook on a ring in the channels.

 

The luff tackle has a double block seized to the runner and a single block below. The single block has a long strap with a hook below. This long strap was served for extra strength and protection from chafing.

 

The hook on the strap was hooked into an eye spliced on the end of the fish tackle. The other end of the fish tackle was seized around the fish hook that was used to catch and raise the crown of the anchor.

 

The method of fishing the anchor is described here:

 

https://modelshipworld.com/topic/27410-small-ship-anchor-handling/?do=findComment&comment=787942

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

At the very top of the foremast two foretop backstays are attached with eye splices above the rigging for the topsail yard and the foretop shrouds. These port and starboard lines lead down to luff tackles hooked to ring bolts on deck or attached to the channels.

 

The foretop stay attaches above the backstays with an eye spliced in the end of the rope. It runs down through a sheave in the end of the jib boom (see below).

 

 

 

 

The fore backstays lead down to deadeyes on the aft end of the channels. Above where they attach is a spliced eye in the strap for a single block for the flying jib halliard. Above this is the spliced eye for the flying jib stay that passes through a sheave in the end of the jib boom (see below).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The foretop stay passes through a sheave at the end of the jib boom and leads back to a deadeye on the starboard side of the bowsprit cap (below).

 

The flying jib stay passes through a shackle on the traveller and then through a sheave near the end of the jib boom. It then leads back to a luff tackle attached to the port side of the bowsprit cap (below).

 

I have rigged this so the flying jib stay also serves as an outhaul for the flying jib that is attached to the traveller.

 

 

 

 

 

Here you see that luff tackle for the flying jib stay that allows the stay to be slackened to haul in the foot of the flying jib attached to the traveller, or to allow flying jib stay to be tightened to haul out the foot of the flying jib.

 

On the far (starboard) side you can see the deadeyes for controlling the tension on the foretop stay.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The jibstay and preventer feed through the bees behind the bowsprit cap. They are the same cable that was looped around the fore mast top and spliced together, so either could be said to be the stay or preventer. The jib will ride on the aft most of the two lines.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The jib stay runs to deadeyes attached to a ring bolt on the starboard side of the bow forward of the hawse openings. Other standing rigging for the bowsprit and jib boom is secured to points in this area.

 

 

You can also see where the flying jib stay luff tackle fall leads back to the foremost belaying pin on the port bow pin rail.

 

 

 

 

I should add a comment here about how some of these lines were rigged to allow them to be tightened occasionally as the ropes stretched. I show the jibboom guy, jib stay, martingale backstay  (and the topmast shrouds, foretop stay, flying jib stay and bobstay) rigged with small deadeyes and lanyards secured around the lines. But some vessels just used simple eyes, or hearts, to tighten the lines. Other vessels used double blocks instead of deadeyes with the falls belayed on deck. I suspect smaller vessels just used eyes and the larger ships used deadeyes. "Mid sized" vessels might use any combination. So you need to do your homework to see what the ship you are building used. I probably could have used simple eyes on a schooner of this size.

 

I think this completes the standing rigging for the foremast.

Edited March 22 by Dr PR

[John Ruy]

8 hours ago, Dr PR said:

I think this completes the standing rigging for the foremast.

I’m sure you will find something else to add. 😆 Great job, your narrative is great, I learn something new every time. 
 

John

[Dr PR]

John,

 

I would bet there is something I have overlooked!

 

I will be starting the main mast standing rigging next, and there is at least one line, the main topmast stay, that attaches to the fore mast top cap. (and two ways to do that).

 

Then there are the yards and booms to rig, and maybe the sails. There are at least 10 more ropes of running rigging passing through the fore top area!

 

I have ordered some 00 silkspan and will try my hand at making sails.

[Jsk]

Phil,

 

I just wanted to pop into your log and say how much I've learned from it. As a new modeler working on a similar model (though in card, not wood) you've answered many of my basic rigging questions.

 

Thanks again,

 

--jeff

[Dr PR]

Jeff,

 

I'm glad you found my posts useful. I have also posted a few articles on schooner rigging and such, primarily to help new modelers figure out all the arcane and variable details.

 

Topsail Schooner Sail Plans and Rigging

https://modelshipworld.com/topic/25679-topsail-schooner-sail-plans-and-rigging/#elControls_750865_menu

 

Small Ship Anchor Handling

https://modelshipworld.com/topic/27410-small-ship-anchor-handling/#elControls_787942_menu

 

[Dr PR]

I have been working on the standing rigging for the main mast. After installing the shrouds I added the main backstays, port and starboard. These attach to deadeyes in the channels and secure to thumb cleats high on the topmast.

 

Then the main top backstays were added, leading down from just below the truck at the mast top to luff tackles hooked to ring bolts in the deck. These are "running" stays. The windward stay tackle was tightened to support the mast and the leeward stay was loosened to allow the boom and gaff sail to swing outboard.

 

After the backstays were done the main stays were added. There is a port and a starboard main stay, and they attach to luff tackles that hook to eyes on vertical timbers of the fife rail. These are both moused like the forestay.

 

 

These also were running stays. Like the main top backstays (and the fore top backstays) the windward side main stay tackle was tightened and the lee side tackle was loosened to allow the fore gaff sail to swing outboard with the wind.

 

Please ignore all the loose line ends laying on deck. I am still rigging the ship and everything hasn't been tidied up yet! Besides, I still don't know where everything will be belayed.

 

 

The mainmast top isn't quite as complex as the foremast top.

 

 

In the left picture above you can see the two pendants for the main boom topping lifts hanging from the aft crosstree. The right hand picture above shows the pendant for the main gaff throat halliard riding over the shrouds and the main stay lines. It has eyes spliced in the ends, and these are lashed together to close the loop as they are on the fore mast.

 

The main topmast stay is secured above thumb cleats on the main topmast with an eye spliced around the mast. The lower end is spliced around a wooden thimble (or truck). Another thimble is spliced to a ring bolt in the aft side of the fore mast cap. A lanyard is attached to one thimble with an eye, and is reeved through the thimbles several times. The loose end is tied around the splice at the ring bolt.

 

Also notice in the picture the small stuff line tied around the jib stay and preventer and looped over the mast cap. This was an added bit of "insurance" to keep these lines secured over the cleat on the back side of the mast.

 

 

 

 

The aft channels and deadeyes are similar to the fore mast rig. Again a wooden "stretcher" is tied on above the deadeyes to prevent them from twisting. This provides two extra belaying pins on each side. One will be used to belay the running end of the mast tackle on each side.

 

The standing ends of the mast tackles are hooked into ring bolts on the channels. The lower block of the luff tackle can be seen here, with a long served strap hooked to a ring bolt. The fall of the luff tackle is belayed to the forward belaying pin on the spreader.

 

 

 

I think this finishes the standing rigging. It is a stopping point so I can get caught up on a presentation for next month, taxes, house cleaning, etc.

 

 

And this leads to the next step. I have purchased some silkspan and I will try to make some sails for the vessel.

 

Edited March 30 by Dr PR

[John Ruy]

Wow! Nice work on the standing rigging, Phil 👍 Glad to see you are going to add the sails. I personally thing a model is not complete without Sails and it’s associated running rigging. 
 

John

 

 

[Dr PR]

Well, wish me luck on the sails! I have put sails on only one other model (Santa Maria in 1969) and they were paper sails supplied with the kit.

 

I have made the attachments to belay all the running rigging associated with the sails so I need the sails for all those lines. There is a very good tutorial on YouTube for making silkspan sails. I bought enough silkspan for several ships. If at first you don't succeed ...

[greenskin]

Thank you for your post, @Dr PR! I've been struggling to understand the foremast standing rigging for quite a while and now I think I finally got it. May I ask you for similar post about jib, flying jib and sprit sails running rigging? I'm trying to figure it out for my Le Superbe and I find your instructions VERY clear.

 

Fantastic build and a beautiful model.

 

Piotr

[Dr PR]

Piotr,

 

I am happy that you find my posts helpful. I have learned much from other members of the forum!

 

I have posted general details of topsail schooner rigging here:

 

https://modelshipworld.com/topic/25679-topsail-schooner-sail-plans-and-rigging/?do=findComment&comment=750865

 

I describe each spar and sail and how the running rigging connects to them. In some cases there are several options

 

Another thread talks about belaying options:

 

https://modelshipworld.com/topic/30234-topsail-schooner-belaying-plan/?do=findComment&comment=862302

 

This is just a preliminary plan for the model I am building. I have made a few small changes while creating the actual rigging, but the general ideas apply to all vessels. Figuring out how to run all of these lines without tangling them is very difficult to imagine on paper or computer. In the long run you will have to work it out on the model, as they did on the real vessels. And no two ships will be rigged exactly alike.

 

I am just starting to measure each sail and plan how to make them. As I rig them I will post pictures and descriptions.

 

It will be interesting to see how close my original plans made on the computer match what I finally come up with!

 

The best laid schemes o' mice an' men

Gang aft a-gley.

Robert Burns

Edited March 4 by Dr PR

[Dr PR]

SAILS

 

I have pretty much developed the sail plan for the ship. Here I will talk about the fore-and-aft sails, and I will deal with the square sails in another post. I plan to follow the procedures in Tom Lauria's YouTube video Making Sails for Ship Models From Silkspan.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g_m_VWzk4w8

 

However, because this model is 1:48 scale I will add the boltropes (to be described later).

 

 

NOTE: The first thing I did was measure everything on the model (mast heights, stay lengths, etc.) and made sure my CAD model has the correct dimensions. Some things had changed since I restarted this build four years ago!

 

NOTE: The dimensions and proportions shown here are about right for the first quarter of the 19th century (1800 - 1825). They were slightly different for other periods.

 

I consulted half a dozen books to learn the "rules" for sail design. Most were really interested in large square-rigged ships, but I have some books specific to fore-and-aft rigs. As usual, no two authors agreed on the details, but the general ideas were there.

 

The main sail - the gaff rigged sail on the main mast - is the largest and contains all the elements of the remaining sails. Here the forward edge (luff or forward leech) is on the right side of the drawing and the leech (or after leech) is on the left. The length of the head (top) and foot (bottom) are determined by the length of the gaff and boom. The forward corners attach to eyebolts on the gaff and boom. The after corners are  forward of the gaff/boom ends to allow rigging to a block or sheave. The height depends upon how high the gaff is rigged. The angle of the top of the sail is determined by the angle of the gaff - it ranged from 25 degrees to 30 degrees on schooners. Here is it 25 degrees.

 

The sail is made up of "cloths" 24 inches wide, running parallel to the after edge or leech of the sail. From the 15th century on the width of these cloths varied, but was often 27-28 inches. By the 18th century in England and the Americas the width had become 24 inches.

 

Each individual cloth was sewn to its neighboring cloth with a 2 inch overlap. I do not intend to sew together individual cloths, but will mark the seams with light pencil.

 

Around the edges of the sails is a second layer called the "tabling." Some authors call this the "lining." However, other authors reserve "lining" for the additional pieces added at the corners of the sails. In addition, there is a reef band 1/6 up the forward edge or luff of the sail. Larger vessels could have up to 4 reef bands. All of these pieces are shown in grey.

 

Edit: The tablings were the folded over edge of the sail cloth that was stitched to provide strength to the edge of the cloth. Tablings were usually placed on the port side of fore-and-aft sails and the after side of square sails. Some authors say the linings were on the starboard side of fore-and-aft sails and the forward side of square sails. However, I have read a few books that say the opposite about tablings and linings! Some say the tablings and linings were on the port side of fore-and-aft sails.

 

Reef bands were on the forward side of square sails and on the starboard side of fore-and-aft sails. They were sewn under the edges of the linings for extra strength. On author claims the reef bands were sewn on both sides of the sails for extra strength.

 

I also show a possible downward curve (roach) in the bottom edge (foot) of the sail. I am still trying to determine how common this was, how deep it ran, and if it was commonly used on schooners. In this case the sail will not be lashed to the boom, but will be attached only at the clew and tack.

 

Different authors describe different widths for the tablings. I have used tablings that are 3 inches wide across the head, leech and foot of the sail. Some authors say 2 inches wide at the foot and leech and 3 1/2 inches wide at the head. The forward edge, or luff, has a strip made of a 24 inch piece doubled over to 12 inches wide. The reef band is 1/4 the cloth width, or 6 inches wide.

 

The linings are 24 inch wide pieces attached to the starboard side of the sail. They extend about 3 feet from the upper (peak) and lower (clew) corners, but where there are reef bands they extend up to 1 foot above the highest reef band. At the lower forward corner (tack) the foremost cloth is doubled.

 

I have drawn two holes or grommets per cloth across the head of the sail. Some authors show only one hole, in the center of the cloth.  Some show one hole, positioned at the seam between cloths. Another says there should be a single hole in a cloth, two in its neighbor, one in the next, two in the next, and so on. Take your pick.

 

The forward edge (luff) has holes positioned at the spacing of the mast hoops around the mast that the sail is attached to (not to be confused with "mast hoops" that fit tight around the mast for structural strength). Spacing was generally 24-30 inches. The hoops were at least 1 1/4 the diameter of the mast so they could move along the mast smoothly. Some authors say the sail had two holes for the hoop lacing to pass through, but others said only one hole. I have chosen to use one hole. However, some authors say sails had cringles (short pieces of rope) laced to the bolt rope for the attachment points instead of grommets or holes.

 

Now let's look at the other sails. In all of these drawings the cloths are 24 inches wide and can be used for scale measurements.

 

 

The fore gaff sail (left) is similar to the main sail. Perhaps it should have a reef band (to be determined). The fore staysail (right) is triangular, and the construction is generally the same as for the trapezoidal (4 sided) sails. However, the rules for the size of the triangular sails are more complex. The side laced to the supporting stay (head of luff) was sometimes called the "stay," if for no other reason to confuse as to whether an author meant the stay (rope) or the stay (leading edge of the sail).

 

The stay/luff of the forestay sail was supposed to be about 4/7 the length of the forestay (rope). But what is the" length?" Is it from the lower end of the stay to the mast head, or up to the mouse or seizings forming the loop around the mast? I chose to use the length from the bowsprit to the mouse, because the sail cannot extend up beyond the mouse. Starting at the lower forward corner, the tack, I measured up the forestay the required distance. The leech extended down to the height of the bottom center of the course. The foot length was calculated as a "little over" half the width of the course (to be described later). The clew (bottom aft corner) of the sail was to be cut at a right angle, so I used geometry to determine the configuration with the proper foot and leech lengths coming together at a right angle.

 

Next the jib and flying (outer) jib.

 

 

 

 

These two sails are very similar, the jib on the left and the flying (outer) jib on the right. The stay/head of the jib is 3/4 the length of the jib stay/preventer (ropes). Again, I used the distance from the lower end of the stay (rope) up to the mouse. The leech is 3/5 the length of the jib stay. The foot is about the length of the boom, or in this case, the bowsprit. The leech should be about 1 1/2 the length of the foot. These calculations varied over the years, so check the date of your model.

 

The flying (outer) jib stay/luff is 4/7 the length of the flying (outer) jib stay (rope). None of the calculations for the leech or foot worked to complete a triangle shaped anything like a jib (either the leech and foot ends would not meet or the sail was ridiculously narrow from clew to stay. So I made the foot about as long as the jib boom, ran the foot a bit below horizontal fore to aft, and connected the peak to the clew to get the leech. It looks like the flying jibs in drawings of topsail schooners.

 

Note: The foot of the triangular foresails should be about as long as the bowsprit, jib boom, or flying jib boom. It doesn't have to be exactly as long, but about the length of the associated spar. When in doubt, this is a simple rule to follow.

 

This leaves the two fore-and-aft topsails.

 

The main gaff topsail (left) was four sided, but almost triangular, with the topsail spar almost vertical behind the mast in the American version. On European vessels the spar was closer to horizontal, making a trapezoidal sail.

 

The dimensions are determined by the length of the gaff and the topsail spar, leaving enough space for the corners of the sail to attach to the spar ends or running rigging for the sail. The tack extended below the gaff. The leading (luff) edge had a 12 inch wide lining for added strength.

 

 

The main topmast staysail (above) rode on the main topmast stay (rope) between the main topmast and the cap of the foremast top. It was attached to the stay with hanks (robands) or with a lacing, depending upon the vessel.

 

The length of the sail stay/head was shorter than the stay (rope) enough to allow rigging to the foremast and the main topmast. The leech extended down to where it was rigged to a block on the main mast top cap. The foot was long enough to fill the space between the foremast and main mast, with allowance for the sheet and block at the mainmast head.

 

Two of my references for this were Lees' Masting and Rigging and Mondfeld's Historic Ship Models, but these just had the rules for square rigged ships, and they sometimes didn't work on the schooner. Marquardt's The Global Schooner provided some rules, but not enough to actually design the sails.

 

So I blended information from all sources to arrive at these sail designs.

Edited May 24 by Dr PR

[georgeband]

Phil, 

You are a brave man to try to follow the 'rules' for sails. They are much like those for masts and yards, and contemporary sources agree on some points but not on others. I am sure that the final decisions were made by the man holding the needle. 

One book that is worth looking through is Steel's 'Elements and Practice of Rigging and Seamanship'. He concentrates mostly on the sails for a 20 gun vessel but does refer to others too, even boats. You can find a web copy at https://maritime.org/doc/steel/ and sails are from pages 83 to 151. There's a lot in there and it will probably confirm that your decisions are reasonable and realistic. 

 

George

[Dr PR]

George,

 

Thanks for the reference! I will read it and check my calculations. Better to discover a mistake now before I have cut any material!

 

But you are right about the variability of sail design. In one sail making text I read it said the sail maker got the dimensions of the yards/spars and about where they were positioned on the mast, and from these dimensions fabricated a sail. Drawing on the lore and normal practice the cloths were cut individually and sewn together. The resulting sail actually determined the final positions of the yards and spars relative to each other. So sail plans were just used for guidance, and the final result may be different.

 

I'm sure that is what will happen on my model!

Edited March 10 by Dr PR

[Dr PR]

I looked through Steel's book and it is mostly what Lees said. And of course it talked about sails for an English square rigged ship. The British Admiralty was very conservative, and resisted any changes to the way things had always worked. American topsail schooners were rigged more "aggressively" than British ships - until the Brits figured out they couldn't catch them with the smaller British top hampers. So the dimensions given in Steel and Lees don't always work for Baltimore clippers.

 

Here is the fore topsail.  It has the basic features shown in Steel and Lees, but configured for the schooner.

 

The rough dimensions were determined by mast height and the length of the fore course yard and topsail yard. The actual width at the head was 13 24" cloths wide, with a 2" overlap at the seams.

 

Tablings (gray) on the back of the sail were 3" wide on leeches and foot, and 4 1/2 " wide at the head.  Linings (gray) were on the front of the sail and were one cloth wide on the left and right leech, and half a cloth wide at the foot.

 

The center cloth had no grommets (holes) at the top for robands to tie the sail to the spar. Then the next outer cloth had two holes, then one, then two, and so on. Each corner had a grommet/cringle for lines to attach the sail to the yard arms and to the clews and sheets.

 

The fore course was more complex and similar to that on a square rigged vessel. The dimensions were determined by the mast height and fore course yard width. The yard was suspended below the trestletrees 1/10 the length of the fore mast from partners to hounds. The center of the foot of the sail was 7 feet above the fo'c'sle deck.

 

The sail is more or less rectangular, 19 cloths wide. The tablings were 6" on the head and 3" on the leeches and foot, on the back side of the sail. The linings were on the front side and were 1 cloth wide on the leeches and 1/2 cloth wide at the foot.

 

The grommets for robands at the top were the same arrangement as with the topsail. Some authors say there were two grommets in each cloth and some say only one.

 

There was a horizontal middle band half way down the sail that was 1 cloth wide. The reef band was down 1/6 the height of the sail at the center from the top (it is shown in the wrong position in the illustration!). It was 8" wide, and had two grommets for reef lines in each sheet. Some authors say there was only one grommet per sheet, either in the center or at the seam between sheets.

 

The bottom of the sail was curved down 3 feet from the buntline grommets outward, and straight between the buntline grommets.

 

 

The configuration of both of these sails is somewhat simplified, with fewer linings and reef bands than sails on larger vessels. And it is similar to what Lees and Steel say for sails from about 1811 through 1845. There were differences in other periods.

Edited May 26 by Dr PR
Correct error in the position of the reef band.

[Dr PR]

I printed each sail to produce templates for cutting them from the silkspan. I have been around a while, and have used many printers, so I know that some of them do not print 1:1 accurately. On one HP laser printer I owned I had to set the scale to 1.0623:1 to get accurate print sizes. So I put a ruler in every CAD drawing  to allow checking the size.

 

 

NOTE: The reef band is shown in the wrong position! It should be 1/6 the height of the sail down from the top (head).

 

To my pleasant surprise, my Brother laser printer prints exactly 1:1 when I set the print scale to 1:1. Here is a photo of all the sails laid out on a 36" x 24" (914.4 x 609.6 mm) sheet of silkspan. A quick arrangement takes half a sheet of silkspan.

 

 

 

Wow! Up to now these sails have just been images on my computer screen and not all that large. But when I printed them out many were too large to fit on a 8 1/2" x 11" sheet (~A4) of printer paper. I had to tape two or four sheets together!

 

 

This is the main sail (main gaff sail) with my hand for a size reference These things are big! It's a good thing I got several sheets of silkspan!.

Edited May 26 by Dr PR

[Dr PR]

I decided to try to prepare some silkspan for sails. I followed Tom Lauria's YouTube procedure in Making Sails for Ship Models From Silkspan. It looked pretty simple. I used a buff color acrylic paint to color the material and give it some "body." I cut the 36" x 24" silkspan material in half and worked with 18" x 24" (457 mm x 610 mm) pieces.

 

I spread the material on a large plastic sheet and sprayed it with water. Then I rolled the paint onto the material until it was opaque. I attached clips to the corners as Lauria showed and then lifted the sheet off the plastic. It immediately, ripped, disintegrated and folded over on itself repeatedly! When I tried to separate the folded layers it tore some more. Here is the result:

 

 

The photo isn't in sharp focus, but you get the idea. Not perfect! The wet silkspan disintegrated when I tried to lift the corners. When I did start removing the material from the plastic it ripped everywhere I pulled. I ended up with a soggy mess. I think it was a bad idea to spray with water first. The silkspan Lauria used may have been a better quality than the SIG 00 material I am using.

 

OK. If at first you don't succeed ... I tried again, but without the water spray. But I did add a few drops of water to the paint to thin it a bit.

 

 

The second attempt came out much better! The acrylic paint I used dried to the touch in an hour or so. The edges are a bit wrinkled and the corners are shredded, but I should be able to get several good sails out of this. I will need another sheet to finish them all.

 

I repeated the steps used in the second attempt and got this result.

 

 

Disappointing! Again, the damp material ripped as I tried to remove it from the plastic sheet. But there is a lot of usable material and I should be able to get the rest of the sails and the tabling and lining material from this sheet.

 

Murphy really got in his licks on this job!

 

I think with the SIG 00 silkspan it would be a better idea to hang it or put it in a frame and spray the paint on with an airbrush. But if you are persistent you can get usable sail material.

 

After the paint dried the material was easy to handle and didn't tear. When I smooth it with my hands on a flat surface the wrinkles smooth out nicely. I am hoping that a warm iron will smooth out the wrinkles permanently.

 

NOTE: After the material dried over night I ironed it with a dry iron (no steam) on the lowest heat setting. The wrinkles ironed out nicely leaving very smooth sail material!

 

The dried material measures 0.001 inch (0.0254 mm) thick. This scales to 0.048 inches (1.2 mm) at 1:48 scale. So it is a reasonable scale thickness for sail material.

Edited March 30 by Dr PR

[greenskin]

Hi @Dr PR

I'm trying to find equivalent to silkspan in Poland, but I can't (probably it's not a directly translatable term). Can you provide more details on it? What is the grammage of it? We have something similar here, which is a parchment paper for sandwiches, but in my view it's too translucent.

 

I'm looking for a good material for sails in my Superbe (1/150 scale). Any ideas?

Edited March 7 by greenskin

[Dr PR]

greenskin,

 

I can't help you much here. I have no idea what the SIG 00 silkspan is supposed to weigh. But it is about 0.001 inch (0,00254 cm) thick, give or take a bit.

 

4 1/2 sheets weigh 1.3 ounces (38 grams) as measured on a kitchen scale (not a precision measuring device). That comes out to be 0.289 ounces (8,44 grams) per sheet.

 

The sheets are 24 x 36.5 inches (60,8 x 92,6 cm) so the area is 876 in² or 5630,08 cm².

 

The volume of each sheet is 876 in² x 0.001 in = 0.876 in³ or 5630,08 cm² x 0,00254 cm = 14,3004 cm³.

 

So the weight is approximately 0.289 oz/0.876 in³ = 0.323 oz/in³ or 8,44 g/14,3004 cm³ = 0,59 g/cm³. I think the metric value is probably more accurate due to low resolution of the scales in Imperial units.

 

****

 

There are several different materials sometimes called "silkspan" and some tissue papers that are similar weight. The actual silk products seem to fall into two categories - woven fibers and unaligned fibers. Real silkspan seems to be the later type with random fibers. That must be why it disintegrates so easily when wet.

 

"Japan Paper" is a similar product, called "Papier Japoński" in Poland.

 

There is a discussion of silkspan here:

 

https://modelshipworld.com/topic/28459-what-is-silkspan/?do=findComment&comment=813999

 

****

 

Silkspan is very thin and translucent. Most modelers recommend painting the paper with a good acrylic paint to give it body, and this makes it opaque.

 

As I mentioned in the edited post above, the material has a lot of small wrinkles when it dries after being painted. I ironed it with a dry iron (no steam) on the lowest heat setting and it smoothed out nicely.

Edited March 10 by Dr PR

[greenskin]

Thank you @Dr PR for your detailed answer. You helped me a lot 🙂. Weights you gave me will help me choose japanese paper with proper thickness. Also, good hint with reducing translucency by painting the paper.

Regards

Piotr

Edited March 7 by greenskin

[Dr PR]

Here is my first attempt to make a sail. First I arranged the sail templates on the two usable sheets of sail material.

 

 

 

Then I cut off one of the ragged sides of the second sheet where the template for the main gaff topsail fit.

 

 

 

 

Here is the sail piece and template after trimming the sail from the sheet.

 

My first mistake was failing to draw on the cloth lines before cutting the material from the sheet. It probably would have been easier to draw the sail outline and cloth lines on the sail material sheet before cutting the sail from the sheet. This is what Tom Lauria suggests.

 

I just aligned the template edges with the sail edges and drew tic marks where the lines should terminate. Then I penciled in the lines with a mechanical drawing pencil, using #2 lead. A drawback to this method is that the tic marks are visible on the sail after the lines were drawn.

 

I also discovered that even though the sail material is very thin and easy to wrinkle I could erase the lines I screwed up and draw them again. There were a couple of opportunities for that experiment!

 

The dry sail material is pretty tough and I have seen no tendency to tear.

 

One slight variation from Laura's procedure was cutting the tabling strips from along the edge of the hole where the sail piece had been cut out. He just cut a bunch of narrow strips from an unused part of the sail material sheet.

 

Here is the work area for gluing the tablings and linings to the sail. The plastic tray held white glue (school glue, Elmer's glue, etc.) and water. I used a fairly narrow paint brush. Tweezers were necessary for handling the thin tabling strips and the lining pieces. I also had a thin probe to help lift stray ends and realign them.

 

One thing I did different from Lauria's tutorial was to cover the work area (a sheet of cardboard) with waxed paper that was clipped to the corners of the cardboard. I was worried that the glue would stick the sail to the cardboard. The waxed paper worked well to prevent this.

 

 

 

 

Here is the "finished" sail ready to add the bolt ropes. The material is slightly translucent, and against the dark background you can see the linings at the corners (on the back or port side of the sail). The thin tabling strips are visible along the sail edges on the starboard side of the sail. After it has dried overnight I will iron the sail again to take out wrinkles. (It ironed out perfectly smooth the next morning!)

 

One thing about this process that isn't clear from Lauria's video is whether the white glue was diluted before using. He used a wet brush dipped into the glue, so in that respect the glue was diluted. This was a good thing because it delayed the drying of the glue to allow things to be moved into position. But the strength of the glue was unpredictable, depending upon how wet the brush was and whether the glue was becoming diluted from the water on the brush as it was dipped into the glue. Sometimes the glue was thicker than at other times. I am concerned that in some places the glue was too watery and the pieces may not remain glued together. I may try just using diluted glue (1:1 with water).

 

I did have a few problems. First off I got glue on my finger tips and then they stuck to things I didn't want to pull on. I kept a paper towel close by to wipe my fingers on.

 

The long tabling strips were a bit unwieldy and tended to go out of line or settle with raised sections. It was easy to correct this using the metal point or just the tweezers to fit in under the wayward portions and pull them straight.

 

I did use a piece of waxed paper on top of the glued sections as I heated them with the iron. I guess I was using too much glue because I had the same problem Lauria demonstrated in his video. The tabling strips often stuck to the piece of waxed paper as I lifted it. With practice I learned how to lift the paper from the appropriate direction to avoid this problem.

 

But another problem I saw arose from the extra glue on the lower sheet of waxed paper after I painted a line of glue along the edges of the sail. This glue tended to glue the sail to the waxed paper after I had heated the area with the iron. So after each tabling I wiped the waxed paper sheet with the paper towel to remove glue. All part of the learning curve!

Edited March 22 by Dr PR

[Gregory]

Do you think parchment paper ( for cooking ) might work better than wax paper?

[Dr PR]

Gregory,

 

I was wondering that myself. I have a roll of parchment paper in the drawer with the waxed paper. The virtue of waxed paper is that the glue isn't supposed to stick to it. The white glue doesn't actually glue to the waxed paper because it can't soak in, but it does adhere loosely.

 

I'll have to experiment with the parchment paper.

[Dr PR]

Gregory,

 

I glued two pieces of parchment paper together with white glue and then clamped them together. After about eight hours I removed the clamp and the two pieces pulled apart with almost no force needed.

 

I think parchment paper has another advantage. The wax on waxed paper melts when heated and sticks to the sail material (and probably the iron). I suspect this is part of the problem with the tabling material lifting off the sail with the waxed paper that Lauria mentions. Also, when I used waxed paper under the sail to prevent the glue from binding to the cardboard work top the sail stuck to the waxed paper sheet (but not very tightly).

 

I will use parchment paper instead of waxed paper for making the next sails.

Edited March 30 by Dr PR

[Jsk]

Speaking of paper and sails... Has anyone experimented using coffee filter paper for sails? Somewhere on the interwebs I read that silk span was originally used to filter coffee before it was adopted by model airplane enthusiasts (in the 40s?). I'm not sure that's true but being a 'build with what you have on hand guy' I like the idea. I snagged a filter from the Admiral and found that it was surprisingly strong paper. But I went no further as we only had unbleached filters and I did not then have a need to make a sail.

 

BTW, Phil, thanks again for your wonderfully detailed posts and research. I'm about to embark on my first rigging job on the Seahorse Revenue Cutter so I've been intently studying your build log.

[Dr PR]

Jsk,

 

I have heard of using coffee filters (and tea bags) for parts of models (like tarpaulins over hatches). I just measured the thickness of an ordinary coffee filter paper, and it is 0.0005 inch (0.0127 mm)!

 

That is thinner than the silk span, and would be closer to scale for sails on 1:64, 1:75 and 1:96 or 1:100 scale models.

 

The only problem I see is that the filters I have are too small for any of the sails on my 1:48 model. But if you can find sheets of coffee filter paper (I'll bet artists use it for something) I can see no reason not to use it.

 

Come to think of it, we did have large sheets of filter paper of several different grades (thicknesses) in our chemistry labs in college, so it is probably available through chemistry supply companies. Paper chromatography paper is similar to filter paper.

Edited March 10 by Dr PR