Does this placement of studdingsail booms look correct?

[Antonio Vasquez]

Are the booms too far off of the yard?

[allanyed]

Hi Antonio

Your photo appears to the booms tied to the spar with line instead of mounted with iron rings.   What ship/year/nation is your model?   The mounting varied with nation and era, but I do not believe they were ever tied with rope of any kind.  For example for British ships that carried stunsail booms there were two boom irons on each side of the yard.  For British ships the rings through which the booms passed lean forward 45 degrees up to 1850 then they were at 22.5 degrees.  They do not sit straight up on the spar nor do they lay in a flat plane as you show in your photo.  The outboard  ring through which the boom passes had a roller in them after 1773.   The inner ring through which the boom passes was hinged after 1773.  Dutch ships carried the booms abaft the yards.

The outer rings were fitted with straps and bolts to the end of the yard and the inner rings were about 1/3 of the length of the boom in from the end of the yard.

Hope this helps.  Lees shows some very detailed drawings of the boom irons. 

Allan

[paul ron]

Just out of curiosity... how were they used without taking off fingers or losing hands in the process of letting them out n bring them back in on a rocking n rolling ship at sea?

 

I would have though they had some sort of pulley n rope system for that?

[allanyed]

Paul,

You may be correct in that there may have been a few fingers on the deck, but keep in mind these sails were not used except with lighter winds, or as Harland describes in Seameanship in the Age of Sail, in reasonable conditions.  In these conditions, when the wind was near abeam, the weather side studdingsails might come out.  The lee side would not be used unless the wind was about dead aft.  Keep in mind, the topsail yard studding sails and even the topgallant yard studding sails saw more use than the lower yard studding sails.  Regarding the lower yards, the foreyard studding sails were used far more than the those on the main yard.   The main lower studdingsails fell out of use completely after about 1800.   

There was a lot of rigging involved with the sails themselves and described in great detail on how they were rigged and used in Harland's book for anyone interested.

 

Allan

[Antonio Vasquez]

On 12/24/2018 at 6:35 AM, allanyed said:

Hi Antonio

Your photo appears to the booms tied to the spar with line instead of mounted with iron rings.   What ship/year/nation is your model?   The mounting varied with nation and era, but I do not believe they were ever tied with rope of any kind.  For example for British ships that carried stunsail booms there were two boom irons on each side of the yard.  For British ships the rings through which the booms passed lean forward 45 degrees up to 1850 then they were at 22.5 degrees.  They do not sit straight up on the spar nor do they lay in a flat plane as you show in your photo.  The outboard  ring through which the boom passes had a roller in them after 1773.   The inner ring through which the boom passes was hinged after 1773.  Dutch ships carried the booms abaft the yards.

The outer rings were fitted with straps and bolts to the end of the yard and the inner rings were about 1/3 of the length of the boom in from the end of the yard.

Hope this helps.  Lees shows some very detailed drawings of the boom irons. 

Allan

It is a 1/96 Constitution Revell model. I am replacing the plastic yards with wooden ones. The instructions said to “ lash the boom heels” I thought that’s what they meant. Ooops!