Gokstad Viking Ship by Dr PS - Paul Schulze - FINISHED - Dusek Ship Kits - 1:35 Scale

[GrandpaPhil]

Congratulations!  Well done!

[Louie da fly]

She looks magnificent!

 

Steven

[Jens Leuteritz]

Hi Paul,

I am building the Gokstad as well. May I ask how you got the ropes so straight? Is there real tension on it or do you use glue to stiffen the ropes? I am amazed how you managed the shrouds as I have problems keeping the ropes in place here and on tension. Any help is very welcome. This is my first built and the rigging seems harder than expected. Thank you, Jens Leuteritz

[Srodbro]

I recall rolling mine out, wetting it and hanging it, heavily weighted, from overhead joists in the basement to dry. 

[Altduck]

Great looking model, but at the risk of displaying my ignorance, I have a question about how they reefed their Mainsails back then.  In your build, and on the box Cover Photo, the reef points start at the foot of the sail, and I'd have expected them to start from the yard to bring the reefed section(s) up lashed to the yard, and lowering the yard as they set more reefs.  As shown, it would seem like a rather large and bulky roll of material hanging at the bottom of the sail by the time they set the 3rd reef, although I assume they could still be lowering the yard if they wanted to reduce the overturning moment.

 

I searched for other on-line articles about this, and the images shown are all just like this - reef points starting at the bottom.  I found nothing about actually setting the reef.

 

Would appreciate any insight anyone can share as to how they sailed these vessels in heavy weather. 

 

Thanks

[Louie da fly]

Very good question, Richard.

 

This very question has been discussed in post #165 (dated December 18, 2021) on Woodrat's Incredible Hulc thread at https://modelshipworld.com/topic/25641-the-incredible-hulc-by-woodrat-a-frumious-reconstruction/page/6/

 

Though this is somewhat later than the Viking period, it's the best we've got. There seems to be no evidence from the Vikings' time of how they reduced sail, though the way they controlled the sail looks very interesting!

 

Here are another couple of pics of reef points from about 1200-1300;

 

   

 

Steven

 

Edited January 15, 2022 by Louie da fly

[Altduck]

Thanks.

 

I did find this article on-line, which has a photo of a modern replica under sail with the sail shortened from the foot, and interesting narrative on sailing these although they don't explicitly mention reefing:

 

https://www.vikingeskibsmuseet.dk/en/professions/education/knowledge-of-sailing/sail-and-trim

 

It gives us some idea of what the original lads had to deal with, as they explored their world.