RIGGING.

 

What can we say about ‘rigging’?

You should look for three different weights of twine to make the standing rigging more interesting.  Shrouds require a heavy, permanent, appearance whilst the ratlines (footholds) use the finer line.  Stays may be of nylon covered spun steel (from bead threading shops), trace wire (from fishing tackle shops) or of the middle weight line as are the yard-lifts, back-stays and purchase tackles, etc.  You soon develop a feeling for the loads each line was originally expected to support.  These lines should ideally be pre-shrunk (in case they get wet) and stretched (by hanging a lead weight on the end over night) to avoid the rig going slack after a few weeks.  Dressing with bee’s wax will generally tidy the lines up and suppress their natural tendency to twist.  The colour of your line needs thought.  Black gives a traditional look.  Reference books for the various types of working boats are plentiful .  Try The Gaff Rig Handbook by John Leather, Greenhill on Schooners or Edgar J March’s books on working sail.  That sounds like a visit to the library!  The ends of the lines are secured by whipping, binding, gluing, shrink wrapping, crimping (suitably fine crimps may be cut from brass tube) or indeed knotting (clove hitch, anchor bend etc) or any combination of these.  I usually ease the burden of binding the loops by tying six or eight half-hitches on alternate sides of the two lines.  This is finished with a three layer reef knot and a spot of super glue carried in on a needle point. 

If you expect your model to sail, the running rigging (sheets and adjustable halyards) will require a twine more like a woven Dacron as used for fishing.  Twenty to fifty pound breaking strain is quite sufficient (see photos 6 and 8), according to the size of the sail being sheeted.  I like to use this line for halyards and any other running lines which need normal cleating to allow adjustment.  The sheets will have been routed from the RC winch (or sail-arm servo) to the sails via plastic tubes which have been permanently shaped with a hair dryer and placed through, or under, the deck beams before the deck has been laid. 

Anchor warps and bow and stern docking ropes are usually the heaviest ropes on a boat whilst flag hoists will be made of cotton or button thread. 

So what else do we need?  Good scissors, forceps/pincers (see below - essential for tying knots etc), super glue to stop the knots coming undone when you turn your back or when the wind starts its tricks, brass wire at 30” and 40” with wire cutters and soldering iron, fine pliers, round nosed pliers and a book on knots and whippings.  A loop of nylon fishing line will make a good aid for threading lines through small holes and crimps, as it is fine and yet stiff. 

I now turn to a few illustrations of the various techniques that I find helpful.

This is the main mast of a schooner being fitted out before painting and rigging.  Some of the tools mentioned can be seen with some pulleys and ‘iron work’ (brass - paint black later).  The main sail crane was made of heavy brass rod with a flat brass plate cut in and soldered.  The rods were threaded at  the front of the mast and nuts screwed home.  The other brass eye-bolts were roughed up with wire cutters, super glued in, and brass plates soldered on at the front end for effect. 

This is an attempt at a quick prompt about pulley making.  Pulleys can be built up in layers using 1mm veneer or, as here, they may be cut out of a solid length of a nice wood.  This is lignum scavenged off Selsey beach.  Box wood is realistic.  At this size I do not bother with sheaves (wheels) as a heavy brass wire pin (1.5mm) will work quite well enough if the need arises.  A channel is cut round the pulley for the 0.8mm wire which forms the end rings (as the job requires) and the pulley band which is finished off around itself for strength in heavy winds.  Electrical soldering would not be strong enough to last but silver soldering would.  The wire band is then filed to present a flat side and the rings or hooks may be lightly flattened with a hammer.

When enough rigging is in place to hold the spars in the correct positions sail making starts with brown paper patterns. 

These patterns are then transferred to tissue paper (not found round the bread any more! Try the florist).  Lines representing the lengths of cloth (about 2ft wide) are drawn on the tissue and after much deliberation about wefts and warps (see the pencil arrows) the tissue paper is stitched to the polyester cloth (or polyester and cotton cloth) with polyester thread.  Your machine needs to be set at low tension as you do not want these stitches to bunch up the cloth.  I also find that the panels lie flattest when sewn at 45 degrees to the weft or warp.  So pin the tissue to the cloth with plenty of pins.  Now machine two lines round just inside the edge (see later photos) and then machine all the panel lines, always working in the same direction, so that the tissue is sewn to the cloth.  No, no hems!!  Now tackle the long job of removing the tissue using the tweezers illustrated (picture 2).  Then with a hot iron (picture 5) and steel rule cut round, just outside the two stitched lines, by melting the polyester cloth.  The ends of the panel threads can be melted down in this cut.  Any cotton content can then be cut with a scalpel.  The sail should now fit the brown paper pattern.  Bolt ropes are sewn on the sails port side, between the two lines of stitches, only where the sail will be brought under stretching strains. 

This shot of Giralda’s top mast fittings shows the bolt rope used to keep the top-sail leach tight;  a couple of pulleys made by layering veneers, one with a string surround for speed;  and brass eyes (three in view) were made by passing brass wire through the mast and fashioning a ring on each end, always thinking about strength in a wind.  The running lines are woven Dacron and the standing rigging is spun line finished off by binding and gluing. 

Now we can see the two lines of stitching inside the edges of each sail.  The black spun lines of the standing rigging have their bindings covered with heat shrink insulation (as used for electrical circuits).  Some chain and some steel cable can be seen in the bob stay area.  The adjustable ends of the dacron jib sheets, and the down hauls coming off the bow sprit, are belayed on pin racks.  Frayed running ends are avoided by applying a dab of glue with the point of a needle.  Deck fittings, like the working windlass, will reward you for the time spent on them.  Why not add a rope mat or two? 

There is so much to look at when it all comes together that you can get away with quite a lot.  Notice here that the shrouds are secured at the cross-trees by a pin arrangement to allow the mast to be un-stepped for travel purposes or for R&R.  Chains have been used where the research suggested.  A light line secures the fore-and-aft sail to its gaff.  The pulleys to the top right are actually bowsies used to adjust the length of the braces.  The spars of a real boat will be all sorts of colours as they will have been replaced piecemeal.  The steel main stay can be seen with its crimped end sealed with shrink wrap insulation.  A wooden bead doubles as a simple bowsy to adjust the square sail sheet (bottom right).  To the left of the bead the main yard pivot is supported by a chain which passes through an eye drilled through a piece of hammered out brass wire. Fine Dacron fishing line has been used through the throat halyard blocks which will allow adjustment of the sail’s luff tension.