Model Ship Update: Spritsail

Well, I've affixed the first sail - the spritsail. It is not actually glued or tied to the bowsprit, but held in place (rather rigidly) by a system of four lines. If you compare the second image with the one from the kit a couple of posts ago, I think that you'll agree that I did the right thing in moving the chain and bowsprit stays in order to fit the sail properly. Now it looks like this thing would actually work.


In the third pic you can see how one of the braces is made fast to a belay pin. I've spent a bit of time on a real tallship (not too different in size from this one), and I attached and coiled the line correctly (or, at least, the best I could with tweezers). I've been going back and forth on whether to leave the running rigging "running". This would allow me to adjust sail trim, which I thought would be pretty cool. Unfortunately, it soon became clear that the thin thread wouldn't stay coiled and I ended up putting a bit of glue on the coil making the rigging not adjustable - oh, well.

The last pic is the view from about half way up the formast. You can see in this picture that I added a footrope below the yard. The kit pictures didn't have one, but this is what the crew would stand on while they were adjusting the sail. So I figured I would added it in.

Mike