Yard lift vs Shrouds?

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Hey guys,

 

I'm a beginner doing a (plastic) kit build of Revell's Spanish Galleon (which from what I can tell is more of a English Man O War instead of a Galleon), and I'm running into the following problem:

 

The kit calls for a slight angle on the yards (~10deg). I might have overdid this a little at 15deg. I've also decided to do all of my rigging before putting on my preformed shrouds on against the instructions as doing the rigging would be a huge PITA with the shrouds being in the way. However, when I try to put on the shrouds, it seems that because of my yard angles, the yard lift is in the way of the shrouds (see pic).

 

 

Unfortunately there isn't many resources on ships this age except maybe Sovereign, and nobody seems to be running into this problem. I guess I have a few questions:

 

1. Is this supposed to happen? My guess is no.

2. Yard lifts are supposed to go in front of shrouds right? Instead of between shroud lines?

3. Did I overdo the angles on my yards?

4. Is there any saving myself at this point, other than surgically removing my yards and glue them on at a different angle?

 

Thanks all,

Jeff

[popeye2sea]

The upper blocks for the lifts were sometimes fastened to the mast with a pendant that passed through the shrouds so that the block was outboard of the plane of the shrouds.   That may make it a little easier to re-rig the lifts after you fit the shrouds in place.

 

Side note:  Watch out, if you changed the intended angle of the mast your shrouds may not fit properly.

[JerseyCity Frankie]

From the one photo you provide here I'm saying congratulations on your work so far,the model looks great! About the lifts I have an observation or two: In actual practice the yard would often be braced to port or starboard and the lifts have to be able to lead from their point of contact to the mast in an unobstructed path to the yard arms. This means the lifts must run outboard of the shrouds and NOT pass through the shrouds. it means the lee lift would likely chafe against the front of the lee forwardmost shroud of the mast above though and this has always made me wonder at what precautions were taken to keep the lifts from chafing and damaging themselves. ( I imagine it would be the serving on the forwardmost shroud which is often seen on ship models AND baggywrinkle clapped on over that, which I have NEVER seen on a model) As has been suggested, the lifts could be on penndants with their running gear outboard of the shrouds and I have seen this idea in use( this makes the most sense to me), but most of the lifts I have seen had the falls of their tackle running at a point where they WOULD touch the shrouds when the yards were braced up all the way. I picture a topsail braced hard over to Port, the port brace is tight and its pulling the port lift down and aft ( sometimes just aft). The Starboard lift has a great lead at this point, not touching anything and not under as much strain as the Port lift would be at this point of sailing. But those Port lift tackle falls are rubbing against the first Portside t'galent shroud and by the same token the course yard lifts are rubbing against the Topmast shroud. This has never sat well with me.

Edited March 15, 2014 by JerseyCity Frankie

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@popeye2sea: Thanks for the suggestion, I'll give it a try. I guess it's just the lack of experience on my part to not angle the yards properly (as with most plastic ships, there's not a lot of precise details in the instructions). I would also have to put a block on the starboard side to make it symmetrical, and I'd imagine the starboard lifts to run at a really weird angle. But such is life, much better than an unfinished model I would think!

 

@JerseyCity Frankie: Thanks for the kind words! I did spend quite some time working on the details of this model and I would hate for it to go unfinished (although my Sultana box is looking ever-so-tempting). It seems on many ships I've seen the lift tackles were fastened onto the mast instead of the mastcap (and much higher) which I suppose gives it a little more room to work with. Actually, maybe I'll try this, since the shrouds run closer to the mast giving me a better angle. How wrong would this be (fastening the lift tackles onto the mast at a higher location than the mast cap)

 

I remember taking a look at the Balclutha (since I'm in SF) and I don't recall seeing pendants on the foremost shrouds, but I could be wrong and will probably go back for a revisit. It's of course nowhere near the same time period as my ship though.