Posted by Laurence Monkhouse on September 25, 2006 at 14:50:34 from 80.3.128.6 user Laurence_.
In Reply to: Goblin's mast hoops posted by Alex Forbes on September 23, 2006 at 04:19:44:
I stand open to correction, but I believe that early Bermudan mainsails like that of the Goblin had a tensioned vertical wire running close to the back of the mast, and the top of the sail was fastened to it by hanks, in the same way as a jib is fastened to the forestay.
There would be a tendency for this wire to sag to leeward, so the part of the sail below the crosstrees - which are very high on Goblin (and on Nancy Blackett)- was held to the mast in the then conventional way by mast hoops.
The whole thing seems cumbersome and inefficient, and must have imposed an aditional compression strain on the mast. But this was the new technology of the time.