Topsails rigging for a Gloucester fisherman - help with the plans and instructions understanding needed.

[juhu]

Hi all,

again am coming here to ask kindly for a help. This time with topsail rigging for my BJ's Smuggler kit.  The kit provides very detailed instructions here and my question may seem as unnecessary, but the problem is that English is not my first language and even with the help of the web, translators and very limited sailing practice, I got lost in the description attached. I see, that topsail shall have somewhat put their bottom corners over the gaff to the weather site, but am not sure of all those explanation of overhauling the cleaves and also why there is something more complicated for the for topsail only....  By chance, could anybody provide some drawing of how shall be the sails rigged having the ship starboard as a weather side? From the plans (where as described below something is not actually correct) I am not 100% sure. Of course, no blame on kit instructions here, just my language maritime skills are not sufficient. (Hm, maybe will leave fore topsail furled after all, although here again am little bit lost how to tidy up all the lines and make realistic sail package, but for now the idea of the full sails still prevails)

Thanks for help!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited June 12, 2022 by juhu

[Dr PR]

juhu

 

I can see where the descriptions you posted could be confusing. I had to tread them a couple of times to understand them (mostly).

 

The gaff topsails had three points where lines were attached. The halliard at the top/peak corner was used to raise the sail. The clew corner was at the end of the gaff, and the sheet line pulled the bottom side (foot) sail out from the mast to the end of the gaff. The tack was the lower corner near the mast, and the tack line pulled the bottom of the sail down.

 

The vessel could have one or two tack lines. With two tack lines one would run down to deck on one side of the gaff and the other tack line would lead down on the opposite side of the gaff. Ideally the tack corner of the sail would be hauled down on the up wind (weather) side of the gaff. The weather side tack line would be pulled tight and the tack line on the Lee (downwind) side would be slackened. In this way the weather tack would take some of the strain on the mast caused by the force of the wind, acting somewhat like a running stay. The lower part of the sail would be blown against the gaff.

 

Then when the vessel changed course to bring the wind in from the other side of the ship (tacking) the tack of the sail would be hauled up and over the gaff, and the other tack line (now upwind) would be pulled tight and the lee side line slackened.

 

However, some vessels rigged only one tack line to one side of the gaff. On some ships the line would be hauled up and over the gaff when the ship changed course, but on other vessels they didn't bother to pull it up and over the gaff when the ship changed course. The instructions suggest that only one tack line be rigged on the model.

 

The instructions say to attach the standing part of the clew line to the bottom mast hoop and the running part lead through fairleads at each corner of the sail. This is described in Howard Chapelle's "The American Fishing Schooner" (W. W. Norton & Co., New York and London,1973) on page 475. This is an excellent reference for American fishing schooners of the late 1800s and 1900s. It shows the clew line fastened to the lowest mast hoop. The line then lead down and thorough a single block at the tack corner of the sail. From there it ran through a single block at the clew corner of the sail, and then up through a single block at the peak corner of the sail. Then it lead down to the deck. The line was strung through rope loops (lizard fairleads) spaced along the edges of the sail so it would not tangle with other parts of the rigging. When the halliard, sheet and tack lines were slackened and the clew line pulled tight it would pull the three corners of the sail to the bottom hoop, causing the sail to collapse into a ball like a "string purse" (a bag with the top drawn together by a draw string). Then a rope (gasket) could be tied around the sail to furl it to the mast head. This apparently was common on the fishing schooners. The instructions say the clew lines lead down to deck on the port side.

 

A less complicated arrangement  was used on earlier schooners. The clew line was fastened to the clew corner of the sail and lead up thorough a block at the head of the sail and back down to the deck - this line hauled the clew of the sail back to the mast for furling the sail. This line was needed only on vessels that had the topsail leech side (closest to the mast) attached to the mast with hoops. These sails were furled to the mast when not set. The sheet was loosened and the clew line pulled the clew corner of the sail in toward the mast. At the same time the halliard was loosened so the clew line also pulled the top of the sail down toward the mast cap. The tack(s) was also loosened, allowing the sail to be gathered into a ball near the lower mast head.

 

For topsails where the leech side was not attached to the mast the clew was not needed. All lines were slackened and the sail was lowered to the deck when it was not flying.

 

I have posted a lot of information about fore-and-aft sails and rigging in this thread:

 

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

 

If this doesn't clear things up post more questions.

Edited June 15, 2022 by Dr PR

[juhu]

Thank you very much for your comments Phil,  helped me a lot.

 

I went through your very detailed thread and also looked into Chapelle's book. I have one and am using it for my build presented also here in dedicated thread, it has lot of valuable info, just sometimes I simply do not know, what to look for, which "keyword" to search.

Yet some question still prevails, related mainly to fore topsail, which might not be so common configuration, but apparently used very often on fisherman of the era:

 

1. I understand now, that strange looking tack of the fore topsail hauled over the gaff to weather side would somehow relieve the stress on the mast, pushing part of the sail against the gaff. OK, but why this mechanism is supposed to be used only fore? Main topsail does not show the same feature and its configuration seems to be much simpler and nicely captured also in your thread. What was the practical reason?

 

2. If I make the simple fore set up with only one tack line, would the configuration of the fore and main topsail look identical, ok, maybe apart from that hanging fore topsail corner around the gaff ? 

 

3. Why the last picture in my starting post does not show any stretched weather line for fore tack corner going straight to the deck? This seems to be very strange to me. Is that an error or do I not understand the mechanism? Simply I cannot see any line fixing the bottom corner of the fore topsail.

 

3. What is the name and the purpose of the line marked here? I guess, it is used only when turning the ship and hauling the fore topsail to the other side, so it does not make sense, if I would adopt the simpler solution with just one tack line and can be omitted?

 

 

Thank you

Juraj

 

[Dr PR]

Juraj,

 

1. The main difference between the fore and main topsails is the main and topmast stays (lines S, T and U in the drawing) and the gaff topping lift. These interfere with the fore topsail. When the ship tacks the sail and it's rigging have to be lifted over these lines. The main topsail does not have this problem with the stays, but must still be lifted over the topping lift.. For this reason many schooners just used a main top staysail that is much smaller than the one shown in your drawing and is positioned above the topping lift.

 

2. With just the one tack both sails would look the same. The bottom corner (tack) of both sails would blow against the gaffs.

 

3. The fore topsail would have tack lines running down to the deck. If there are two tack lines one (lee side) would be draped over the fore and fore top stays. The other windward (weather) stay would be pulled tight. Looks like they forgot to show the fore tack line(s) although there is a short curved line running up from the sail tack corner.

 

4. This is just a guess. The fore topsail may have two sheets attached to the clew corner of the sail, These pull the clew corner out to the end of the gaff, running through a block at the end of the gaff or a sheave in the gaff end. From there the sheet often ran forward to a single block attached to the bottom of the gaff jaws and then down to deck.

 

In the rig shown in your drawings, because of the main to fore mast stays, the clew corner must be lifted over the stays when the ship changes course (tacking) to bring the wind to the other side. Two sheets would allow this to be done from the deck, pulling the slack line tight to haul the clew corner of the sail up and over the stays. So the slack sheet would be draped over the stays like the line you point to in the drawing.

 

With two sheets and two tacks the sail could be shifted from one side, up and over the stays, and then back down on the other side just by hauling and slacking the proper combination of sheet and tack lines.

 

One of the main advantages of the fore-and-aft rigging like on the schooners is that almost everything could be done from the deck without anyone going aloft. This was very important in the topsail schooners, especially in the over rigged (in British opinion) American schooners. They were very "top heavy" or "tender" and a sudden squall could just blow them over and capsize them. There are several records of this happening. So it was essential that they could shift or drop the topsails very quickly.

Edited June 17, 2022 by Dr PR

[juhu]

Hi Phil,

 

thank you again for replies. Now with all your hints, coming back to plans and instructions (and with the help of Mr. Chapelle too of course) I think I got the picture. Let's see, if I would be able to make it into realization!

 

Regards

Juraj