I’d saved 66 e-mails from Frank Andrew. They fell into three categories; general encouragement and enthusiasm and discussion about writing; technical help he was giving me; and help I was giving him.
I won’t post them all. But I do want to post the ones where he was helping me figure out the ship building that was critical to HAWKSPAR–they show a good, a generous, a remarkable person in love with life. They are linked to his life and to something that he was passionate about. They are a part of how he lived, and how he died.
From: andrew@oneluckyguy.com
Date: Wed Jan 26, 2005 10:30:41 PM US/Eastern
To: Holly Lisle
Subject: Ships, sailing research, capacity, crew, etc…
Holly,
You can sail your whole life and still be a newbie. But you can read one book and sound like an expert.
I just finished a three year stint on this subject and have quite a few references. I would highly recommend you pick up a copy of Royce’s Sailing Illustrated -Vol 1. It is all about sailing ships, it explains everything from basics to details and has wonderful images to boot. It isn’t all that large, but it still manages to tell you about sailing, how to sail in various weather patterns, types of rigs, berths, sails, decks, lines (ropes), flags, hulls, keels, knots, tenders, rigs and much, much more with an exceptional index and glossary.
They’ve been published since 1956, but get an update every couple of years. I think I paid $15 for mine, brand new.
I cannot recommend this book enough for the kind of research you are doing.
Cheers,
— Frank
Sent to Frank:
- Wolf-ship foremast view with sail detail
- Wolf-ship aftermast cutaway with sail detail
- Wolf-ship side cutaway
- Wolf-ship maagen deck
- Wolf-ship working deck
From: andrew@oneluckyguy.com
Date: Fri Jan 28, 2005 10:10:00 AM US/Eastern
To: Holly Lisle
Subject: Re: Ships, sailing research, capacity, crew, etc…
Delighted to help. Hope you find the book useful.
I checked out your ship design. For someone who didn’t know anything about ships when she started, you’ve done a great job. I’m impressed.
The sail design is fantastic. Very believable. This is a great sail plan. Reminds me of some designs from the lower pacific and Middle East where wind travels closer to the water. The tall Marconi rigs you see today on fiberglass yachts are better for the Atlantic and northern Pacific where you have to reach up over the waves for the wind.
May I make one or two comments?
When England was a sailing power to recon with, crewmen were given 14 inches of width and seven feet of length for their hammock and personal gear. The only way they could sleep was because one crew was always on deck. Looks like you have something similar to this going on but I thought I’d point out the actual lack of width. Can you imagine cramming all your stuff into a 14″ wide space for a six month period of time at sea?
The masts on a sailing ship are taller than the ship is long. This is a pretty hard and fast rule until you reach the four, five and six masted ships called windjammers. On wooden ships, they also go all the way down to the keel. Looks like your masts stop short of the ships backbone (keel), something that you only see on fiberglass, steel and aluminum ships. It may make no difference in your story whatsoever, but I know you like to have the details in place. They could also stand to be thicker on the bottom, but that may be your sketch more than your design.
I don’t see any ballast on your ship. It may be there and just not noted (that shaded part at the bottom?). A ship of this design would carry several tons of on-board ballast. This is usually cut stone that fills the very bottom (bilge) of the ship, but can be lead or iron or even heavy cargo like steel. Today, most sailing ships have external ballast that hangs below the ship, back in the day of wooden sailing monsters it was on-board. This also allowed them to dump ballast if they got caught on a sandbar and needed extra flotation – can’t do that with external ballast. Iron wasn’t the best choice since all plank-on-frame wooden boats leak a little and the salt water will not only rust the iron into one large clump, but it will set up an electrolysis process that rots out the wood in record time. That’s why all fittings on wooden ships were made from bronze (or better yet, silicon bronze if their tech is that high). Stick with stone ballast or lead if they have it.
I’m impressed with the design.
Cheers,
— F
From: andrew@oneluckyguy.com
Date: Fri Jan 28, 2005 10:20:08 AM US/Eastern
To: Holly Lisle
Subject: Re: Ships, sailing research, capacity, crew, etc…
One more thing. I really like the fansail. There is a design similar found on a small boat with two very large fansails called a butterfly sail. It has virtually no mast and is used on lakes. I always thought they looked neat.
For your fansail, you might change the fan arm to be thicker where it attaches to the fan bracearm instead of thinner. That is where it will take most of the stress and break in a heavy blow or unexpected squall where the sails should be furled but are left up.
Oh yeah, the hull design is classic. Been around for a long time. This kind of canoe hull is fairly complex to make but highly successful. Looks like a Norse design. They do tend to roll a lot in the water since the sides are smooth curves, where as flat bottom and flat sided boats tend to be more stable, but for plank on frame (that’s most likely the construction you are looking at here) they are a great design. Excellent pick.
— F
From: andrew@oneluckyguy.com
Date: Fri Jan 28, 2005 12:16:40 PM US/Eastern
To: Holly Lisle
Subject: Re: How much taller?
Quoting Holly Lisle
Oh, on the sails … how much taller? Is there a ratio, or is it just length of the ship plus ten feet, or something else? I can’t redo these now, but I will redo them once the mad dash I’m in stops, and in the meantime, it’ll be useful just to know for myself.
Thanks again,
Holly
Holly,
Good question and one without an easy answer.
I’m building a sailboat right now. It’s just over 13 feet LWL (Length at the Water Line) and has a mast that stands about 19′ tall. That’s not much taller than the ship is long at the water line, but it’s a small boat. The ratio MAST HEIGHT : LWL seems to get larger as the boat gets larger. Then all of the sudden it drops as you add a second mast. The main is still taller than the boat is long, but not as much as a really long, single masted boat. Again, as two masted boats gets longer, the main mast gets taller by a larger ratio, then suddenly you have a three masted boat and the ratio drops again.
I’m sure a nautical engineer would know how to figure this out. I don’t. I’m also sure that 98% of all sailing readers won’t know either because they sail fiberglass boats with carbon-fiber/glass/aluminum masts that can do things wood can’t do. You’re also limited by the weight:strength ratio of the wood being available to the builders. Most wooden boats built in the US use Douglas Fir for the mast/boom/arms to keep down the weight while getting a fairly strong wood. Mine will be a hollow laminated white-oak/cypress combo (4 pieces of each) But I get to use power tools and nifty epoxy that you’re folks probably don’t have.
The bottom line is, you can do just about anything you want with the height of the main mast, so long as that is backed up by the materials on hand and you have the main taller than the LWL of the boat. In fact, if the main is a bit taller than the LWL you won’t even need to mention the materials on hand, folks will probably presume the shipwright knew his business.
About sails on one mast overlapping gaps in sails on the other, that’s good to know you have that. Also, the arms can probably be turned on their mast a bit so they don’t run at 90 degrees to the length of the ship. That would allow the pilot/captain to take advantage of the fastest angle to the wind and sail into the wind a bit better. On a ship this large, you won’t twist them too much, just a little.
FYI – Sailing with a wind that blows from the West to the East Sailing to the East, with the wind, is called being On A Run. You can go almost as fast as the wind. Sailing to the North or South, 90 degrees to the wind, is called being On A Reach. A well-designed boat can go slightly FASTER than the wind this way. (Trust me on this, I’ll explain if you like)
Sailing to the West, into the wind, can’t be done exactly. You have to always be pointed slightly north or slightly south. How close to exactly into the wind your ship can get is measured in points. (I think these are the same as degrees but don’t quote me on that.) As in, “She sails ten points off the wind and that’s better than the other ship that sails twelve points off the wind. She’s faster but, we’ll still beat her in an upwind race.” You can see how the tighter to the wind a ship can sail, the less water will pass under the hull before she reaches an up-wind destination. (And the less tacking she will do too.) Big, tall, triangular sails with booms that swing around a wide arc (Marconi rigs) are best for sailing into the wind. Chinese junkrigs or mostly fixed square sails (your design) are best for sailing on a run. The old totally fixed, single square sail on a short mast (like the old Norse boats had) have to sail on a run – that’s why they have sweeps (oars) so they can go back where they came from. This stuff is all covered in that book Sailing Illustrated I mentioned butI’m glad to discuss as much as you need.
I noticed that you used sailboats a lot in your Wolves/Dragons/Falcons trilogy. (See? I read some of your stuff just like I said I would.) But, you never mention the ship’s details. I didn’t really catch any errors mostly due to the details not being mentioned. That worked just fine since the sail plan/ship design wasn’t part of the story.
Kudos to me. I just finished the rough draft of The Virgin Of New Orleans. (Think Elmore Leonard) Gee, I feel helpful too. Think I’ll stick a gold star on the calendar. 🙂
I’m off to play tour guide with the in-laws. They’re staying with us for Mardi Gras (plus a few weeks). I’ll check email when I get back in case you have any other questions.
Cheers,
— F
From: andrew@oneluckyguy.com
Date: Fri Jan 28, 2005 12:24:46 PM US/Eastern
To: Holly Lisle
Subject: Re: How much taller? – visual…
Visuals help.
http://boats.oneluckyguy.com/foxfeathers.htm
On the above page you will see the boat I’m building. Note that the mast is about 20% taller than the LWL. In the upper right corner of the profile, you will see a second rig option. The mast is shorter than the LWL, but there is a spirit rig (that kinda arm, kinda extra mast thingie) that pushes up the total height to slightly more than the LWL. Really tiny boats like this get knocked over more easily so they don’t want to carry too much sail and they don’t want to carry it too high. You won’t have that problem on this big boat unless you flew all your canvas in a major storm.
Cheers,
— F
