Rigging Calculator app

[HiSModel]

Hello everyone,

we would like to share a new free online tool we have just released at HiSModel.
It is a Rigging Calculator that helps modelers determine the correct rope diameters and block sizes for historic ship models.

📌 When is it useful?

• Especially when the ship plans do not provide information about rigging dimensions.

• It gives orientation values that can serve as a practical guide when choosing ropes and blocks.

📌 What do you need?

• The scale of your model.

• The diameter of the main mast at the deck level.

• The historical period of the original ship on which the model is based.

📌 How does it work?

• Enter the required values.

• The calculator provides rope diameters and block sizes suitable for your ship model.

• The calculations are based on the authoritative reference:
  Wolfram zu Mondfeld — Historic Ship Models.

We believe this tool will be useful both for beginners (who may lack access to detailed rigging data) and for advanced modelers (as a quick reference). All the funcitonalities are described in the help section of the app.

👉 click to try RIGGING CALCULATOR

We would be glad if you try it out and share your feedback!

We are fully aware that this calculation provides only rough values and that there are additional criteria needed for more precise data. At the moment, these are not available to us and we prefer not to “make up” any numbers. If you know of any literature containing detailed tables that could help refine the calculation, we would greatly appreciate your recommendations.

[Dr PR]

"The Masting and Rigging of English Ships of War 1625-1860" by James Lees (Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, Maryland, USA, 1990) has a lot of information about calculating rigging of square rigged ships. It is published in England by Conway Maritime Press, Limited, London.

 

"The Global Schooner" by Karl Heinz Marquardt (Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, Maryland, USA, 203) has much information for determining masting and rigging of schooners and other fore-and-aft craft. The ruled for schooner rigging are different from square rigged ship's rigging. Because the tophamper is much lighter than square rigging the masts are somewhat smaller diameter, and this has to be taken into consideration for calculating rope sizes. This book was also published by Conway Maritime Press.