Sails and Running Rigging

Description of MIR's Rigging an how it Works.

The MIR's twenty-six sails drive her, in optimum winds, twice as fast as does her auxiliary engine. The sails are set, doused, and trimmed by means of her running rigging. The task of memorizing the location and use of the more than 230 lines may at first seem overwhelming, but it is actually quite simple. The lines can be grouped into a handful of functions; their locations are logically determined by their functions. In addition, most lines are paired and located similarly on the foremast, the mainmast and the mizzenmast. To understand these functions it will first be necessary to examine the MIR's sails.

SQUARE SAILS

MIR has fourteen square sails. The sails on the foremast, mainmast and mizzenmast are essentially the same and are made of panels of dacron. The head of the sail is attached to the forward jackstay on the yard by robands. Earrings in the upper comers of the sails are attached to a hook on the earring jackstay and keep the head of the sail taut. The side edges of the sail are the leeches; the bottom edge is the foot; and the lower corners of the sail are the clews. Running along the outer edges of the sails is a wide tabling of dacron, which helps to shape the sails and give them strength.

The bulk of the running rigging is used to set and douse the sails:

• Sheets are attached to the clews of the sails and are used to sheet the sails home, i.e., to haul them down to the next lower yard—or the deck for the courses—when setting. The section of sheet attached to the clew and running through the sheet block at the end of the lower yard is made of chain to reduce chafing; the remainder of the sheet is wire rope with a single sheave runner block attached at the bitter end. A manila line dead-ended on deck is reeved on deck through a block and back to the fiferail.
  
• Clewlines are also attached to the clews of the sails but they oppose the sheets. Clewlines lead up to the yards on which the sails are bent rather than down to the yards below. Just as the sheets are used to haul the sail down when setting, the clewlines (clew garnets on the courses) are used to haul the sail up when dousing.
  
• Buntlines are also used when dousing the sail. If just the clewlines were used, the sails would belly out in the wind so much that they could not be furled. In heavy winds, they would probably luff violently. The buntlines run from the foot of the sails through bull's-еуеs in the sails, which allow the line to gather the sail up to the yard in several small bights. The lizards at the head of the sails are fair-leads for the buntlines.
  
• Leechlines are used on the courses because their leeches are so long that they are difficult to handle when dousing. The lines lead from the middle of the leeches up to the yard. 
  
• Tacks are used only on the courses. Unlike the upper sails, the courses are not set onto a lower yard. Thus, it is impossible to control the foot of the sail by a single line, for when braced sharp, the lead of the weather sheet is excessively long. Tacks, then, serve the same function as sheets but lead forward whereas the sheets lead aft. In setting the courses, the tacks and sheets are balanced so as to hold the foot of the sail directly under the course yard. 

HEADSAILS AND STAYSAILS

The Мир has six staysails, named after the part of the mast supported by the stay on which they are bent, and five headsails. Like the square sails, all are made of dacron. The leading edge of the sail is the luff. Metal hanks are used to bend the luff to its stay. The bottom edge is the foot, as in a square sail, while the aft edge is the leech. The top point of the sail, to which the halyard is bent, is the head; the lower point, at the junction of the foot and the luff, to which the tack pendant is attached, is the tack; and the remaining point at the junction of the foot and the leech, to which the sheet is attached, is the clew. Along the edge of the sail, as with square sails, is a tabling of dacron.

Three lines control the headsails and staysails. A fourth, the tack pendant, runs from the tack to the mast on the staysails and to the bowsprit on the headsails. It is used to hold the sail at the proper distance up the stay. This pendant is permanently attached and is not adjustable.

• Halyards are bent to the heads of the sails and are used for setting them by hauling the luffs up the stay.
  
• Sheets as on square sails, are attached to the sails and are used for trimming them. The headsails and staysails have two sheets each, one for each side, and thus can be shifted without dousing.

The sheets themselves consist of two parts. A wire-rope sheet pendant is permanently shackled to the clew of the sail A sheet tackle, whose size depends on the size of the sail, is shackled to an eye on deck and to the pendant. In shifting the sheets the two shackles are unshackled, and the tackle is carried to the opposite rail. The pendant is hauled up and over any lower stays by a cadet stationed in the top. It is then reshackled into the tackle.

• Downhauls, as the name implies, are used for dousing the sails. They lead from the head of the sails down to the clew. This arrangement allows better control of the sail in dousing. Hauling on the downhaul will pull the clew of the sail up to the head, causing it to spill its wind and lessen its slatting, and will pull the sail bodily down the stay.

SPANKER

The remaining sail, the spanker, although unique, is rigged in a manner analogous to the squaresails. The spanker's parts bear the same names as those of the square sail. The upper aft corner of the spanker is known as the peak, the upper forward corner as the throat, and the lower forward corner at the foot as the tack. The running rigging for the spanker consists of the following:

• The topping lift is used to top (lift) the spanker boom high enough for the sail to set properly. When the sail is not set, the boom is lowered into a gallows and snugged down to keep it from slatting about.
  
• Outhauls are analogous to the sheets of the square sails and are used to haul the sail out to the end of the boom (foot out-haul) and gaff (peak outhaul).
  
• Inhauls are analogous to the clewlines of the square sails and are opposed to the outhauls. They are used to haul the head and foot of the sail back to the mast when dousing.
  
• The brails are analogous to the buntlines on the square sails and are used to control the body of the spanker when dousing. Since the spanker can be set on either tack, the brails are rigged on both sides of the sail.
  
• The sheet is a three-fold purchase that runs from an eye on the fantail to the end of the boom. It is used to trim the spanker.
  
• The preventer is a three-fold purchase used to oppose the sheet. As the sheet leads from midship on the fantail, it cannot control the swing of the boom if the ship gets caught aback and the boom starts to swing to weather. The tremendous momentum developed by more than a ton of gear swinging out of control could easily tear the sail or even rip the boom from the mast. The preventer keeps the boom from swinging and thus prevents uncontrolled jibes.
  
• The vangs are used to control the gaff. In general, they are used only when the sail is not set and prevent the gaff from slatting about. When the spanker is set, the movement of the gaff is controlled by the spanker sheet, to which it is connected through the leech of the sail. In such cases the vangs are used only for trimming.

BRACES

The lines discussed so far are used primarily for setting and dousing the sails. The remaining type of running rigging is used primarily for trimming the square sails and their yards.

Braces are used to adjust the fore and aft trim of the yards. At the foremast and the mainmast, the lower three braces lead directly to the yardarms from the pinrails, via bumpkins on the side of the ship. The upper two braces lead up the shrouds (of the mast) aft of the mast, on which the yards they control are located, to the yardarms. This arrangement results in a more horizontal lead and makes the yards easier to control. All braces are paired. Whenever one brace is hauled, its equivalent on the opposite side of the ship must be eased.

The braces of the mizzen mast lead all to the main mast, then along the mast down on deck and through blocks before being belayed on the pinrail behind the main mast.

after the handbook of the EAGLE,
converted  for the MIR in Summer 2000 by Nicole Graf and Leonid Il'yinsky (MIR's sail master)