New to the forum, question re mast caps

[jcavin]

New to the forum, and what a help it is! I am building the San Franscisco ll, and I find the rigging info with the kit to be quite sketchy, to be polite about it. On the mast caps there are four holes for rigging lines to go over the cap and out the bottom of the caps. Just where do these lines get tied off? What is their purpose? The kit photos show the lines, but no mention at all of where to tie them off.

[Jim Lad]

Hello, jcavin, and a warm welcome to the forum from 'Down Under'.

 

I'm sure that one of our kit builders will be able to come to your rescue re your question about San Francisco II.

 

John

[Ganymede]

Greetings jcavin,

 

I'm not the most knowledgeable person but I am fairly certain this is the answer.

 

The two lines you mention are the ends of a single rope which were attached to the yard below the cap i.e. the cap on the main mast and the main yard, topmast and the topsail yard, etc., The rope was taken through the two forward holes and over the sheaves in the cap and down behind the mast to a sheave in a heavy block called, I think, a 'ramshead' situated at/near the base of the mast. The ramshead was large with a sheave (in the athwartship plane) for the yard halliard and below this were three or four smaller sheaves (in the fore and aft plane) These were linked to a similar 3 or 4 sheave block to give sufficient purchase to raise the yard. I hope this is clear. You might try searching for Ramshead Block here in the forum.

 

This was generally the practise on the continent (I think the correct term was a Dutch Cap) in England the yard halliard was taken through two blocks secured below the top.

[Ponto]

This is exactly my dilemma with my build  at the moment but I agree with Ganymede's response.... and with respect to plans in general, depicting the miles of rigging accurately must be an arduous task for kit manufacturers.  Research and patience is the key..........

JP