Jeff McFadden wrote:

I have spent some time looking at the photos on your letter.

After you made the masthead cap, did you put a conventional block with metal shackle on for the halyard? I can't tell from looking.

Jeff

Jeff, I just tied or laced the parts to the mast cap. Check detail photo in the album "Arne's photos" under my Member's Photos.

Arne

Arne Kverneland wrote:

Stavanger, Mon.

David, I find that I am using rope or webbing hoops, slings, and lacings more and more, and metal fittings, metal grommets and shackles less and less. I remember when I first saw an America’s Cupper which had done away with the usual metal fitting for the main sheet and replaced it with stout webbing. It looked so right. It sometimes makes a lot of sense to combine old methods with new technology (polyester-, aramid-, carbon-fibre). A few years back we were visited by a Swedish replica of a 1730 East India trader ("Götheborg"). The 3-masted rig with a lateen mizzen was an orgy in wood, hemp and (hand-sewn) flax. Even shrouds and stays were hemp. Wherever one turned one’s head, one could spot clever use of lacings, splices – the lot. When they could make hemp hold so well, why should we not make modern materials hold?

I remember about 10 years ago installing some new "open" bearing blocks, using shoelace sized spectra.  It used three turns going through the open part of the block....which had three holes in it.  The lacing pattern and basic design was the same one used in a deadeye on a traditional ship or gaffer, hundreds of years ago!

I think this is a wonderful trend, now that modern ropes & webbings are just about as strong as anything else we would use....and it sure is fun to bring back some of the "old" ways.

Barry

P.S.  Here's another favorite rigging trick--you can get kevlar slings made for mountain climbing, and they are great for attaching blocks or shackles to padeyes or rails--strong, and no metal-to-metal rattle.  If you bring a couple aboard you will be amazed at the places you can use them!

Gary Pick wrote:I do like your webbing mast head cap Arne, though I will go down the aluminium path for Redwing as it will need to support a light and VHF antenna.

Sure, Gary,

I never meant to start a webbing masthead cap movement. I just found that on that little rig and with the tools available, I could make it that way, nice and comfortable in my own living room and dead cheap too. On a bigger rig I would be inclined to have it made from aluminium. For Johanna's mast cup I cut, drilled and filed the bits myself and then paid a professional workshop for welding the pieces together.

Arne

Stavanger, Mon.

David, I find that I am using rope or webbing hoops, slings, and lacings more and more, and metal fittings, metal grommets and shackles less and less. I remember when I first saw an America’s Cupper which had done away with the usual metal fitting for the main sheet and replaced it with stout webbing. It looked so right. It sometimes makes a lot of sense to combine old methods with new technology (polyester-, aramid-, carbon-fibre). A few years back we were visited by a Swedish replica of a 1730 East India trader ("Götheborg"). The 3-masted rig with a lateen mizzen was an orgy in wood, hemp and (hand-sewn) flax. Even shrouds and stays were hemp. Wherever one turned one’s head, one could spot clever use of lacings, splices – the lot. When they could make hemp hold so well, why should we not make modern materials hold?

On Broremann there is not a single screw, metal fitting or shackle in the mast and yard and of course, not in the sail either. The battens are of local-grown bamboo – aluminium – which only shows that I am not a purist in any way; I just think like an engineer, seeking to get most bang for the bucks. I think that when making an ordinary junk sail, one can save both weight and money by sewing, tying, splicing and lacing more and welding, screwing and bolting less.

Arne

PS: I have used your scaffold knot when re-rigging Broremann and I find it to be very good; easy to make, secure and not least, very compact.

Good article Arne. You mentioned having trouble with gluing the mast partner panel because it slid around.
What I do in that situation is I tap a few cut off thin brads (little wire nails) into one of the mating surfaces. keep them short so they sink into the other surface easily. No slippy side.