Mast and spar tapers

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Bhill

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Good Day All, is there a general specification for mast and spar tapers? In the book "Ship Modeling Simplified Chapter III", the author references this, but refers you to the instructions /plans that came with your kit. And of course, the wunnerful folks at Constructo neglected this for the Enterprise..the kit I have anyway. But there must be a standard for this on ANY sailing vessel.

Thanks!
 
Bhill said:
Good Day All, is there a general specification for mast and spar tapers? In the book "Ship Modeling Simplified Chapter III", the author references this, but refers you to the instructions /plans that came with your kit. And of course, the wunnerful folks at Constructo neglected this for the Enterprise..the kit I have anyway. But there must be a standard for this on ANY sailing vessel.

Thanks!
Click to expand...
I think there was not a standard in principle, only defined standards for a time period and a navy. The contemporary shipwrights changed the techniques over the time, also based on the available timber and trees of this time and country.
I am not at home. so in moment I can not show something out of my library....
I think a good information will be in "Masting and Rigging of English Ships of War, 1625-1860" by James Lees

Book review - The Masting and Rigging of English Ships of War, 1625-1860" by James Lees

An other cornerstone in each private library describing the mast, spars and the complex rigging work should be The Masting and Rigging of English Ships of War, 1625-1860 By James Lees Publisher: Naval Institute Press; 2nd Rev edition (October 1984) Pages: 212 ISBN-10: 0870219480...
shipsofscale.com
I will take a closer look later on
 
I struggled with the same issues your having, I mic the top and bottom on the print, and go from there, have you posted pics of your Constructo kit? I’d like to see it.
I bought a book, 18th Century Rigs and Rigging, But the more I looked, the more confusing it was. Lol
 
Part of an answer is how "accurate" are you trying to be? If you just want to be close, the rule of thumb that I have used is taper to about 60% of the center diameter (as applies to yards...not masts). Or generally, if the center of the yard is 1/2 inch then taper from the center to 3/8 inch at the tip. But of late I have tapered my yards on the last few models so they "look about right." The eye does quite well at discerning what is correct at most model scales!
 
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