How to rig both stay sails and top sails on fore-and-aft schooner

[bolin]

I have started some research for a future project, and have come across a question that I hope someone could help me shed light on. I have taken over a started build of Billing Boats Meta, which in the kit is presented as a three masted jackass barque. However I plan to modify it to be the original configuration, a thee masted fore-and-aft rigged schooner.

 

What running lines are needed to control both the stay sails and the topsails on the main and fore masts in the following sail plan? How are the sails handled when tacking? Is the topsails lifted over the stays? How?

I recently got my hands on Masting & Rigging the Clipper Ship & Ocean Carrier by Harold Underhill. I have not read all of it yet, so I might have missed something. Does anyone know of another source? Maybe a build log of a similar ship?

[bolin]

I think that I have found most of my answers in COMMODORE S. B. LUCEs Text-Book of Seamanship with the relevant section here.

 

The most relevant part says:

 

Quote

 

Tacking. - Schooners. - Under ordinary circumstances, moderate breeze and smooth sea, clew up the fore gaff topsail, "hard a lee" very gradually, keeping all sheets fast just as long as they will do any good, haul all over as she comes head to wind, especially avoiding keeping the staysail sheet one instant to windward if she will pay off without its assistance. Trim the jibs down at first quick and flat, but as she gathers headway ease them slightly.

If the schooner is out of trim, or a dull sailer, or if the circumstances of wind and sea are unfavorable, the staysail sheet is held to windward to assist in paying off, and the clew rope let go at the order "Draw" or "Let draw." If she goes around with a stern board, the helm must be shifted.

When around on the other tack set the fore gaff topsail to leeward of the triatic stay by unbending and dipping the sheet aloft. In making short legs, the fore gaff topsail is not set, as a rule.

 

If I understand the nautical terms it means that seamen must go aloft and shift the sail there.

 

 

[Gaffrig]

You are correct.

When tacking or gybing a schooner like the one in your plan, they had to loosen the downhaul, while someone aloft hauled the topsail over the stay and peak halyard. They had a downhaul on both sides, so once the sail was lifted over, the other downhaul was tightened.

 

hope this claryfies a little!

 

Gaffrig.

 

 

[Kingfisher317]

Hi! I sailed a 2 masted schooner that had a main topsail, and we tacked it from the deck. We set free the tack line which had been made off to a pin on the boom, then we'd haul up the tack with a tack brail. Once the boom had swung underneath and the was on the other tack we'd let go the brails and haul down the tack. If the wind was too bad (or the sailor wasn't careful) something would get stuck on the spreader. If that happened, we could possibly fix it by coming into the wind and loosening the sheet, but more often than not we'd send someone aloft to fix it. I don't know how common the brails are, or if your ship design accounts for them, but I thought I'd chip in.

[Dr PR]

bolin,

 

Typically the gaff topsail will have three lines for handling:

 

The topsail halliard attaches to the peak (uppermost point) to haul the sail up. It ran through a sheave in the mast top or a single block attached to the mast top and from there down to the deck.

 

The topsail tack attaches to the low point (tack) of the sail near the mast and pulls the sail down, opposing the halliard. It commonly had a tackle at the deck to help pull the sail tight.

 

The topsail sheet attaches to the after point (sheet) of the sail. It runs through a sheave near the end of the gaff or a single block attached to the end of the gaff. From there it leads to a single block attached to the boom jaws, and then down to the deck.

 

As kingfisher said, a brail could be attached to the tack and run through a block near the top of the mast, and then down to the deck. This line would be used to haul the tack up to clear the peak halliard rig on the gaff boom.

 

A flying gaff topsail might also have a downhaul attached to the peak that ran down to the deck. This line was used to haul the sail down.to be furled.

 

****

 

The staysail had a staysail halliard at the peak that led through a single block on the after mast and then down to the deck. The halliard hauled the sail up the stay.

 

The tack of the sail was often hooked to and ring bolt on the forward mast (often at the mast top) .

 

A staysail downhaul was also attached to the peak. It led forward to a single block on the forward mast near the tack and from there to the deck. It opposed the halliard and was used to haul the sail down the stay to be furled.

 

The staysail sheet attached to the clew (lower aft corner) and led through a single block attached to the after mast and from there to the deck. It pulled the sail tight after it was raised.

 

****

 

Some or all of these lines may have tackle of some sort at the deck. The larger the sail the more likely that a tackle of some sort would be used. And keep in mind that there was no "right" way to rig anything. Every ship owner, Captain and bosun had his own ideas about how their ships should be rigged, and rigging on a ship sometimes changed with time.

 

A good reference is Wolfram zu Mondfekld's Historic Ship Models, although it is almost entirely oriented to square rigged ships and doesn't have much to say about schooners.

 

Lennarth Petterson's Rigging Fore-and-Aft Graft has a section on topsail schooners, and most of this applies to straight fore-and-aft schooners.

 

John Leather's The Gaff Rig Handbook gives a lot of detail for rigging modern fore-and-aft yachts and racing boats, but much of this isn't very useful for 19th century and earlier vessels. However, he does give the history of the development of different types of rigs, mainly focusing on British vessels. But the book doesn't have a useful index and finding information about a particular rigging detail is like looking for a needle in a haystack.

 

Harold Underhill's Sailing Ship Rigs and Rigging has general sail plans for many types of ships and boats but not much about the actual rigging. But it does have a useful glossary.

 

I also have Underhill's Masting and Rigging the Clipper Ship and Oceanic Carrier. It is an excellent book with a tremendous amount of details. It is mostly for British clipper ships, but it has a section on schooners. Unfortunately the drawings seem to be scattered randomly through the book and are rarely anywhere near the text that refers to them. But it does have a list of drawings after the table of contents. Most of what he writes about are rigs of the last half of the 19th century and early 20th century.

 

James Lee's The Masting and Rigging of English Ships of War 1625 - 1860 is almost entirely about larger square riggers. However it does give a lot of details about parts of rigging that does apply to schooners. More importantly, it tells how to determine the dimensions of rigging, blocks and such based upon the mast diameter, and has lots of tables. But some caution is necessary because for-and-aft rigs are much lighter than square rigs, and mast diameters are usually smaller for schooners.

 

I have found two books indispensable for translating the nautical jargon into meaningful explanations:

 

The Young Sea Officer's Sheet Anchor by Darcy Lever (1808) tells the novice officer or seaman how to rig a ship - every detail of how to put all the pieces of the rigging together. It is essentially an illustrated glossary of nautical terms and a how-to book. But there isn't a lot about fore-and-aft rigs.

 

The Art of Rigging by George Biddlecombe (1925) is based upon David Steel's 1794 The Elements and Practice of Rigging and Seamanship has an excellent glossary and many illustrations. Again,  not much about schooners.

 

I think you can find Steel's original book on line as a PDF file.

 

Hope this helps.

Edited January 15, 2021 by Dr PR

[bolin]

Thank you @Gaffrig, @Kingfisher317 and @Dr PR. Your input is very helpful when trying to understand what I see when studying various pictures and plans that can be found in books and on the Net. I will check out the references mentioned, some of them I already have, but some are new to me.

 

I have one point I’m still wondering about. If you have a brail to lift up the tack of the topsail, would there be two tack lines going down? One on port and one or starboard so that the tack can be pulled down on the other side when the sheet has been pulled over.