Constitution's Main Yard Lifts, Question

Thanks Schoonerbum & Chuck Fan

So, I'm not entirely nuts. When they braced around the main yards, the crew would slacken the lines on the leeward side to allow for the shrouds. And, now that I think of it, there would be much more force on the windward side than on the leeward side.

Oh, How simple the explanation is. Thanks again.

The shrouds on a square rigger does prevents the yards from being braced around too close to the centerline.  This is why square rigger do not do as well as fore-aft rigged ship in sailing close haulled.    Staysails, jib sail, spanker sail and spenser sail are all effort to overcome square rigger's deficiency in fore-aft sail area.    But  they never  fully succeeded in making square riggers as weatherly as schooners and other fore-aft rigged vessels.

Nothing wrong with your understanding.... lifts were running and adjusted during sail trim. Sailing into the wind, the weather lift (upwind side) was hauled tight to react the downward load from the leech lines and tack (lines which kept the leading edge of the square sail biting into the wind) and the weather brace. The weather lift moved away from the topmast shrouds due to its geometry.

The lee lift had less load on it, only having to react any downward pull from the lee braces and so lift tension was a function of the rig's geometry, the closer to the plane of the yard the brace blocks were, the better. But as you noticed, tension on the lee lift could cause it to bind and chafe on the forward topmast shroud.