rigging

rigging, a term covering all the rope, chain, metalwork, and associated fittings used to support and operate the masts, spars, flags, sails, booms, and derricks of sailing vessels, and the masts, booms, and derricks of power vessels. The rigging used principally to support the masts and spars and which is fixed in nature is known as the standing rigging. That used to operate the sails and other equipment, which is adjustable, is known as running rigging.

Standing Rigging.

Used where a mast is supported athwartships by shrouds and fore and aft by forestays and backstays. Historically, these were made of rope, sometimes specially built four-strand hawser-laid rope which had less stretch than three strand. This has been generally superseded by steel wire and, occasionally, solid stainless steel bar is used for performance sailing yachts where the smaller section can reduce wind drag. In early and small square-rigged ships the rope shrouds were set up by tackles which could be slacked or detached to allow the yard to swing closer to the centreline. Later and bigger vessels used deadeyes and lanyards, and these could also be slacked away to allow the yards to be swung closer.

Wire rope was originally used with deadeyes but these were superseded by bottlescrews. These are more efficient at stretching the longer and stronger wires, and can be retightened as required to counteract the stretching of the wire, but are not slacked away for any aspect of sailing. Stays followed a similar evolution except that they generally used hearts instead of deadeyes. Forestays and the backstays of square-riggers were not commonly slacked away, but the running backstays of fore-and-aft-rigged vessels have to be eased to allow the boom to swing clear over the ship's side when running before the wind. The running backstays of yachts are often operated by a lever system such as the Highfield lever.

The degree of use of standing rigging varies heavily with the type and rig of the vessel. The junk rig may not use any, and relies solely on the strength of its pole masts to support its sail; and vessels such as dhows use the falls of halyards and parrel tackles (both classed as running rigging) for mast support. Power vessels usually rely on a minimum of standing rigging to support masts which may carry only steaming lights, flags, aerials, and radar. Fore-and-aft-rigged sailing yachts support their masts with only the most basic standing rigging, often as little as a single forestay and a single backstay together with twin lower shrouds, and a single upper shroud, each side.

Big square-riggers have a more extensive system of standing rigging due to their size, the complexity of their masting, and the specific need to swing their yards around the masts. Each stack of sails of a classic square-rigged ship was likely to have three or even four component masts. To the one stepped into the hull would be added a topsail mast and a topgallant mast, and sometimes a royal mast. To these a clipper might add a skysail mast.

Traditionally each upper mast was separate and set forward of its lower mast so that it could be lowered past it. The lower masts were supported by shrouds taken from the masthead to the side of the ship. The shrouds of upper masts were taken from the masthead down to the crosstrees and then to the lower mast or lower shrouds by means of the futtock shrouds. The intersection between the futtock shrouds and the lower shrouds was arranged at yard height to maximize the scope for the rotation of the yard. Each masthead was usually supported in the forward direction by stays taken to the bowsprit assembly, or to the mast immediately forward. Backstays from each masthead were taken to the side of the mast. Modern square-riggers with one-piece pole masts follow the same rigging pattern.

Bowsprits and their extensions, the jib-boom and flying jib-boom, are supported athwartships by shrouds led back to the hull. The loads from the various forestays are taken by bobstays and martingales back to the stem, generally making use of a dolphin striker to improve the angle.

In square-rigged vessels those yards which are not arranged for hoisting or lowering may be fitted with fixed-length lifts which would be classed as standing rigging, as are the stirrups and footropes used on yards and such items as cran lines and ratlines. Generally speaking all items of standing rigging are identified by their association with a particular mast.

Running Rigging.

Sails are generally hoisted by halyards and trimmed by sheets; booms and yards are held up by lifts and adjusted by braces or guys. In bigger sailing ships the normal rope rigging often contains flexible steel wire components, and chain is sometimes used for square sail sheets. Modern yachts of any size often use wire halyards operated by winches.

The sails of square-riggers are pulled up to their yards for furling by clew lines and buntlines, and big sails of fore-and-aft-rigged vessels such as spankers often use brails to bundle them up to their mast and yard. Brails have also been used on some headsails. The course sheets of a square-rigger are normally taken aft to the deck. But they also have a matching pair of forward sheets, called tacklines, to allow the sail to be sheeted forward when sailing to windward as this adds lift and reduces the heeling moment. Bowlines attached to cringles in the weather leeches were also used to pull the luff of the sail forward.

The yards of square sails are controlled by braces attached to the yardarms. Course braces are usually led aft and down to the deck, often to brace poles extending from the ship's side to give a better lead. Upper yard braces commonly lead aft to a convenient point on the next mast, but in vessels such as brigs the braces from the mizzen yards are often led forward to the foremast. In the later stages of commercial sail groups of braces were handled together by brace winches.

Colin Mudie