Sail Questions

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Anchorman

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Feb 12, 2018
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Good day all,
I have a question. Last year I went to the Tall Ship Festival in St. John, New Brunswick. One of the ships had a sail tied into a bundle with a single line that appeared to release it.
Please see the picture.
My questions are:
What is this called?
Can it be duplicated accurately on a model?
Have any of you done this?

Many thanks_DSC4978 a-Exposure small.jpg
 
Last edited:
Anchorman - 1st off, a good picture of furled sails on bowsprit. 2nd, I'll be following any responses to this as well. I'm new at rigging and I am at the stage to use furled sails on my Bluenose kit so I am asking myself the same type of questions. Thanks for this post ;) Cheers!
 
Fright said:
Paul - Thank you for posting this thread. It gives a me some good understanding with the diagrams and explanations of some of the rigging used. I'll try to to 'pull some thread' instead of 'pulling some hairs' over this. Cheers and thanks for responding to Anchorman's question(s). ;)
Click to expand...

You will like the document, very interesting
 
Anchorman said:
You will like the document, very interesting
Click to expand...

Hello Anchorman - are you currently working on rigging a model ship? I'm trying figure out the running lines for the Bluenose. Great to see you had an adventure with visiting the Tall Ships! Take care and here's to learning some new skills. Cheers!
 
Fright said:
Hello Anchorman - are you currently working on rigging a model ship? I'm trying figure out the running lines for the Bluenose. Great to see you had an adventure with visiting the Tall Ships! Take care and here's to learning some new skills. Cheers!
Click to expand...

No and a bit of a laugh with this one. I am in between ships at the moment. I just finished an Endeavour Longboat and an Armed Pinnace (both posted to completed builds). My next project is a mini scratch build that I will start a log for and then I will be joining the Bluenose Club. My wife figured it would be a good display as we live in the Canadian Maritimes so she got me a vintage AL (1986) kit complete with a VHS instruction tape. I was asking about the bowsprit sail as I want to do it on my Bluenose.
 
Fright said:
Here's a few pics that I have. The 1st one is a photo of someone's build. Not sure if you can use these as a reference.


Thanks, nice images. They show exactly what I want to do. I am also following your Bluenose build, nice work.
Click to expand...
 
It looks to me (I assume the single line) is just holding the bundle tightly together. That line will either "fly" with the sail as it is not that long, or it will untied and stowed someone onboard. Looks more like it is just a stand alone rope used to secure the bundle down as that is a lot of sail that needs to be kept bundled together.
They will most likely untie the rope and host the jib sails at sail.
 
Donnie said:
It looks to me (I assume the single line) is just holding the bundle tightly together. That line will either "fly" with the sail as it is not that long, or it will untied and stowed someone onboard. Looks more like it is just a stand alone rope used to secure the bundle down as that is a lot of sail that needs to be kept bundled together.
They will most likely untie the rope and host the jib sails at sail.
Click to expand...

Donnie, thanks. Looking closer and at the images from member Fright I think your stand alone rope theory is the way to go.
I was hoping there was some kind of fancy sail bundle tying method that would "let go" when the sail was raised.
I want to duplicate this look in one of my builds. Cheers
 
Take a look here, I made already in the books area a short post in which I showed this book for download, which could be of your interest

https://www.shipsofscale.com/sosfor...amanship-1794-by-david-steel-and-others.1898/

There you can find a free download link to

The Elements and Practice of Rigging And Seamanship, 1794, by David Steel

Off course it is depending for which time period you are searching, due to the fact, that the rigging of sails changed during the time periods.
Hope this is helping
 
Uwek said:
Take a look here, I made already in the books area a short post in which I showed this book for download, which could be of your interest

https://www.shipsofscale.com/sosfor...amanship-1794-by-david-steel-and-others.1898/

There you can find a free download link to

The Elements and Practice of Rigging And Seamanship, 1794, by David Steel

Off course it is depending for which time period you are searching, due to the fact, that the rigging of sails changed during the time periods.
Hope this is helping
Click to expand...

Thank you, these are fantastic
 
Hi Anchorman,
yes, this can be duplicated on your model GIVEN that is is a schooner type here is which similar to the Bluenose. Let me be a little clearer on this. If you are rigging a standard square rigged (meaning the sails are all basically square) for a full tall ship, etc, then the dynamics change a little.
Then you would employ something like a yard-arm gasket in which it is a temporary rope that ties the sail to the yard-arm.
This image taken from WIKI-PEDIA

GearAtYardarm.jpg​
 
Donnie said:
Hi Anchorman,
yes, this can be duplicated on your model GIVEN that is is a schooner type here is which similar to the Bluenose. Let me be a little clearer on this. If you are rigging a standard square rigged (meaning the sails are all basically square) for a full tall ship, etc, then the dynamics change a little.
Then you would employ something like a yard-arm gasket in which it is a temporary rope that ties the sail to the yard-arm.
This image taken from WIKI-PEDIA

Click to expand...
Thanks, this is great. I will be working in 1:75 so I should be able to do this. Cheers.
 
View attachment 38977
Click to expand...

You will note there is a line (rope) tied to the eye at the head of each sail, near the block (pulley). This is a "downhaul" and used to haul down the sail. It typically belays on a pin rail over or to either side of the bowsprit.
The lines wrapped around the sails are gaskets, just like you'll find on the yards of the square sails. These are attached to the bowsprit or to lines that run down either side of it just for this.
Some of this may just be a bit of line wrapped around the sails, especially that top-most sail in the pile.

Yes, this can be done on a model. The problem with models is the material used for sails, especially in kits, is immensely too thick and exacerbated with over sized stitching to represent seams, and a lot of other awful looking "details." All of that results in too much bulk for the thing to be furled in anyway that looks like the real thing. To get it to look like that, you'll need to reduce that bulk either by using the finest, thinnest, material you can get, and/or only making a portion of the sail, and not the whole thing.
 
JerryTodd said:
You will note there is a line (rope) tied to the eye at the head of each sail, near the block (pulley). This is a "downhaul" and used to haul down the sail. It typically belays on a pin rail over or to either side of the bowsprit.
The lines wrapped around the sails are gaskets, just like you'll find on the yards of the square sails. These are attached to the bowsprit or to lines that run down either side of it just for this.
Some of this may just be a bit of line wrapped around the sails, especially that top-most sail in the pile.

Yes, this can be done on a model. The problem with models is the material used for sails, especially in kits, is immensely too thick and exacerbated with over sized stitching to represent seams, and a lot of other awful looking "details." All of that results in too much bulk for the thing to be furled in anyway that looks like the real thing. To get it to look like that, you'll need to reduce that bulk either by using the finest, thinnest, material you can get, and/or only making a portion of the sail, and not the whole thing.
Click to expand...

Thank you Jerry, I think this would also work well. Now I must test the methods. Cheers
 
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