The mizen halyard may be fitted thus : a wooden toggle is fitted to the end of the halyard, two grummet eyes of rope are fitted on to the yard, one at the fore end and the other at middle, the halyard is passed through the upper eye and passed round the opposite side of the mast to that on which the yard is, and then toggled to the eye at fore end of yard ; the tauter the halyard is set up the closer the yard is jammed to the mast. The batten, which is contained within a broad band of tape stitched on to the sail, keeps the sail set flat, and avoids the necessity of tying the reef points.
The mainsail should be made of fine calico sheeting in one width, and the stuff should be nailed out on a floor, and the sail shape marked off in pencil or coloured chalk, taking the selvedge for the leech. Narrow stay-binding tape should then be stitched on all round, except the leech, and the stuff cut outside the tape, allowing sufficient for turning in. Eyelet holes must be sewn where required for lacings, &c., and the sail should be strongly roped on the luff and slightly on the head-corner patches, for strength should not be forgotten. Next the sail may be lightly set on its yard and boom and hoisted, and then well wetted all over and left to dry. After this the reef bands and batten bands may be put on.
For spars yellow pine is generally preferred. Many use bamboo; but, except for a flying topsail, or other light sail, bamboo offers no advantage. Well-picked yellow pine spars look well and stand well.
The main tack can be fitted in many ways. A good plan is that in which a snotter, or short piece of stout rope, or flat sennit is fitted to the boom abaft where the mast will be. It is taken round the opposite side of the mast to that on which the boom lies, and is then rove through a thimble on the under side of the boom, and finishes with an eye. The tack pennant is toggled to this eye, and then leads through a block or eyebolt in the deck under the boom at foreside of mast, and may be used either in single part to a cleat at the well, or fitted with a block and whip. (See also page 447.) In reefing, the tack-earing should always be hauled down first, then the after-earing, and the points can be tied whilst sailing.
The drawing shows the yard as slung with main and peak halyards. In this rig, when the peak halyard is let go, the main being fast, the sail spills just as a gaff sail does. This is very handy in a squall ; and
the sail can be better set than is the case where one halyard only is used. The gearing for these halyards is shown in the masthead plan II. in Plate XL. ; (2) is the mast snotter, made either of rope or flat Bennet. It is lashed to the yard on the mast side, and leads round the mast to and through a thimble at the fore end of the yard, and is then finished off in an eye to which the main halyard toggles. The reason for having these snotters is, on the one hand, that they receive the chief wear and tear and can be renewed, thus saving the halyards and tack pennant from being cut and shortened ; on the other, that, if of flat sennit, greased, they travel on the mast more freely, and do not out into the spar as rope does. No. 4, the peak span, is best made of copper or brass wire cord. It divides the strain on the spar, and permits the peak halyard to shift upwards when the sail is reefed. A metal thimble, with a grommet of rope on it forming an eye, travels on the span, and the peak halyard is toggled to the eye.
The topping lift (5), a most useful piece of gear, is fitted by having its standing part—a running eye—round the masthead; the end is taken down one side of the sail to and rove through the thimble, in the sheet block strop, then up on the other side of the sail to reeve through its block on side of masthead, and down to block at side of mast at deck, and into hand at the well.
The peak halyards may be taken down to a block on stem head or at side of mast, and lead into the well.
With the large sails now in use a forestay will be found almost necessary to hold the masthead from coming aft when close hauled by the wind. Another very useful piece of gear is a mast jackstay, fast at both ends to the mast, one at the masthead, and the other having passed down outside the sail on the opposite side to the mast, comes under the boom and up, and belays round the mast, some 6in. above the level of the boom; when the sail is lowered, it is snugly gathered in by this jackstay and the topping-lift, and all the gear can be unbent from the yard and boom, and then the sail, rolled round, can be slipped out from the gear, and all the ropes neatly frapped up and down the mast.