Posted by Alex Arnakis on July 31, 1998 at 21:26:03 in 213.arlington-14.va.dial-access.att.net:
In Reply to: Rigging - Need Help posted by David DeJarnett on July 30, 1998 at 22:35:51:
I found that rigging the masts was much harder than rigging the funnels. (The funnels, after all, have predrilled holes.) One problem is that the thread included in the kit is too heavy for the scale, especially for the upper stays. If you're going to drill through the upper masts, you have to use a finer thread, probably some type of monofilament fishing line. (Use a very thin drill bit held in a pin vise.)
If you don't drill the masts, then you'll have to tie the stays to the masts and no matter how you do this, it looks bulky. To reduce the illusion of bulk, you might want to paint the threads at the point of attachment to match the color of the masts.
There are two other serious problems in rigging the masts, as I found out. First, humidity in the air will make the lines sag. To counteract this, rig the masts on a humid day, so that dry days will tend to tighten the lines, rather than the other way around. Rub the thread with beeswax to waterproof it, or use monofilament line.
Second, the tension on the stays must be equal to avoid bending the masts out of alignment. The easiest way to equalize the tension is to run the lines under the deck from side to side of the ship. In other words, rig the stays in pairs: attach one end of the line to the mast, run it down through the hole in the deck, across to the other side under the deck, then up through the hole in the deck, and finally attach the other end to the mast at the same point. You have to preplan for this method before you assemble the decks, however.
The fore-and-aft stays are even trickier in getting the right tension.