Page 53 - The Knot Bible

Studding sail halyard bend

A modern yacht has little use for studding sails nowadays – even in the KNOT SCORE
age of sail they were something of an optional extra. But the knots devised Strength
to haul these sails hundreds of feet in the air without crashing down on Security
someone’s head must have been pretty good. Certainly good enough to Diffi culty Tying
Diffi culty Untying
hold a spinnaker pole when the shackle fails, or to crane that new propeller
Usefulness
shaft into the engine room. A good old knot never dies.

It’s no secret that many of today’s temporary jackyards. Smaller sails topsail halyard bend, for instance,
knots were developed aboard the could then be set outside the other is the same knot as the studding sail
mighty vessels that circled the world sails. These were the studding sails. bend, with the addition of an extra
during the Age of Sail. And they had The spars for most of these sails turn, something which, Ashley
need for good knots. A conservatively- were attached with hefty permanent warns, ‘like the second tablespoon
rigged four-masted barque set more fi ttings, but the jackyards were often of castor oil, savours of redundancy’.
than 30 sails, including topgallants. attached with a temporary lashing, For the modern sailor, these knots
If the crew was being daring, they which could be removed when the provide a useful alternative to the
might also set skysails above the spar was stowed. Hence the studding ubiquitous running hitch and can
royals, and perhaps moonsails above sail bend. be tied safe in the knowledge that
the skysails. There are even tales of In fact, there is a small family of today’s aluminium spars are a good
ships setting heaven pokers, angel knots named after specifi c parts of deal lighter than the wooden spars
pokers and cloud disturbers – all the ship’s rig, including the topsail for which these knots were
above the topgallant. halyard bend and the gaff topsail originally intended.
The only way of increasing the sail halyard bend – though how many of
area outwards, rather than upwards, these were used for their designated
was to extend the yards with purpose is open to question. The

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