Rigging order.

L

LeatherVerse

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Hi all,
I'm creating the leather pirate ship, and have finally gotten to the point where I'm ready to start rigging.

- Ship is built and weathered.
- Mast are in, not counting the spars.
- Deck furniture and such are in and secured.

Given that I've never done any kind of model ship, I've got no idea what order to do the rigging. I can easily look up YouTube videos, but I don't know many of the actual terms to look up.

So, two questions.
1. Should I attach the spars and the bowsprit before starting the rigging? (Seems like I should)
2. What order should I do the rigging in? Is there a website you could referr me to?

Thanks in advance.
 
Leather
Many, if not most, folks rig blocks and such to the yards before they are hung on the masts. Some wait until the standing rigging is completed before adding the yards. The sprit should be made and set in place before any rigging is done. In general, standing rigging goes first then the running rigging. There was an order of dressing for rigging the lines which varied a bit over time. There is David Steel's work The Elements and Practice of Rigging and Seamanship on line that should be helpful. The book is several hundred pages long but the order of rigging can be found at https://maritime.org/doc/steel/part7.php There are also books with this information, including a specific order of dressing in James Lees' book The Masting and Rigging of English Ships of War. In another book The Rigging of Ships in the Days of the Spritsil Topmast,
author RC Anderson does not give a specific order of dressing but his book does follow a logical path.
Allan
 
AllanKP69 said:
Leather
Many, if not most, folks rig blocks and such to the yards before they are hung on the masts. Some wait until the standing rigging is completed before adding the yards. The sprit should be made and set in place before any rigging is done. In general, standing rigging goes first then the running rigging. There was an order of dressing for rigging the lines which varied a bit over time. There is David Steel's work The Elements and Practice of Rigging and Seamanship on line that should be helpful. The book is several hundred pages long but the order of rigging can be found at https://maritime.org/doc/steel/part7.php There are also books with this information, including a specific order of dressing in James Lees' book The Masting and Rigging of English Ships of War. In another book The Rigging of Ships in the Days of the Spritsil Topmast,
author RC Anderson does not give a specific order of dressing but his book does follow a logical path.
Allan
Click to expand...
Thank you! That's exactly what I needed to know.
 
All good info to read. The one piece of advice I received when I first started down the rigging path was to work from the inside out. Start in the center and work Forward or Aft and, Port to Starboard. Standing rigging first and follow same pattern for running rigging. Process worked for me, but I think in the end a person finds their own rhythm after trying a couple of different methods. What I also found was it's easy to cut off the rigging and start again if need be.

good luck and keep smiling.

Oh yeah and don't be in a hurry, make some custom tools to get in where your fingers can't...
 
There is another aspect to this. So you want your sails to be 1) fully out 2) Fureled 3) or no Sails.

Obviously, the fully sailed ship will have all the blocks and tackles attached to the Yards (spares as you say) and also to the Sails, like leech lines and Sheets.
Now, a Furled rigging is the Sails are "Hauled up" onto the yard and tied off. However, still, ALL the sail rigging is needed as they did not know when or if they needed to lower the sail.
Lastly, is the NO sail and the ship is rigged in that manner. The manner is that just about any blocks that MANAGE the sail will be left on the Yard, such as BUNT line blocks, Yard Lifts, slings and therefore.

Once you determine this manner, then the foremost thing to do is to rig the shrouds. I suggest highly that you attach each shroud opposite to maintain balance of the Mast as you do not want to rig all the shroud lines to one side only ---- as a matter of fact, "most" shrouds are in "pairs" (one piece) that go from poart to starboard in one pass (at the center will be a loop in the middle where the mast top will be hooked to.

A lot of manuals that come with kits will want you to rig the STAYS and Preventer STAYS first, but that is wrong. the STAYS that travel center of ship adds TENSION to the shrouds after the fact.

I had written a rather lengthy post about rigging and I need to find that link for you.
 
I had initiated a discussion on this previously.

Basic Elements of Rigging

I thought I would post my viewpoint on "The Basic Elements of Rigging" and in hopes, it might bring some help to those new to this. All warships will have basically the same rigging "Pattern". The easiest as has been mentioned is to work in an orderly fashion and I would go as far as saying...
shipsofscale.com
 
LeatherVerse said:
Hi all,
I'm creating the leather pirate ship, and have finally gotten to the point where I'm ready to start rigging.

- Ship is built and weathered.
- Mast are in, not counting the spars.
- Deck furniture and such are in and secured.

Given that I've never done any kind of model ship, I've got no idea what order to do the rigging. I can easily look up YouTube videos, but I don't know many of the actual terms to look up.

So, two questions.
1. Should I attach the spars and the bowsprit before starting the rigging? (Seems like I should)
2. What order should I do the rigging in? Is there a website you could referr me to?

Thanks in advance.
Click to expand...
1. It is easy!
2. Start at the bow and work to the stern.
3. Start at the midline and work to the sides.
4. Start at the deck and work to the truck (sp?).
5. Start with the standing rigging and follow-up with the running rigging.
6. Add the sails and the lines used to maneuver the sails as shown on the plans; the running rigging shown on the plans is usually totally inadequate.
7. Do not be reticent to add belaying points and lines that are necessary to maneuver the sails and yards but do not show on the prints.
8. Buy a few books on rigging ships of the period you are interested in. Most of these books are very incomplete, so it is like filling in the parts on a jigsaw puzzle.
9. Practice thinking like a sailor of the period and apply some 200 to 300 year old common sense.
10. There is no one totally complete answer/right- way/wrong-way to your problem. The bos'n ruled and all bos'ns were different. Learn to think like a bos'n.
 
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