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Question about yards

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  • Member since
    June 2005
  • From: Walworth, NY
Question about yards
Posted by Powder Monkey on Sunday, April 2, 2006 10:06 PM
I am building my USCG Eagle without sails. I want to show the yards in the lowered position. Do they look right? I have based their location on a book about clipper ships.




  • Member since
    May 2003
  • From: Greenville, NC
Posted by jtilley on Monday, April 3, 2006 9:09 AM

Almost.  The Eagle has double topsails and single topgallants.  You got the upper and lower topsail yards positioned just about right - the lower topsail yard fixed permanently to the lower mast cap, and the upper topsail yard, in its lowered position, a few feet above it.  The topgallant yard is also about right - resting on the topmast cap.  (It might be a couple of feet higher; I'm not sure exactly how the hardware on this particular ship's topmast cap is configured.)  I think the royal yard is a little too low, though.  If I remember correctly, it slides in a track that's built into the front of the mast and terminates a couple of feet above the eyeband where the topgallant stay is secured.  There should, in other words, be a bigger gap between the topgallant and royal yards.  If I remember correctly, the gap is just about the same whether the sails are set or not; both yards get lowered about the same amount.  Easy to fix.

There's a convenient source of information about all this.  The Naval Institute Press publishes a little paperback book, Eagle Seamanship.  It's used as a textbook for cadets on board the ship, but anybody can buy it.

One other modification you may want to make - if your nerves are up to it.  The rings around the masts, where Imai intended the yards to snap in the raised positions, can be shaved off.  I'm not so sure I'd want to try that with the masts already set up, though.

The model's looking great - and the photo-etched parts are wonderful.  Good luck.

Youth, talent, hard work, and enthusiasm are no match for old age and treachery.

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