Ryan21

The video was started after we loosed out the sails. Those are not tell tales, they are reef nettles. In heavy weather the topsails have two reefing positions to make them smaller, you can carry close reefed topsails into 40-45 knots of wind, but a full topsail would simply blow out or overstress the mast at that wind speed and above. Essentially you have reef tackles that haul the sail up to reefing position on the outside edges, the two new top corner lashings are made on the yardarms, and the excess sail all along the top gets rolled up tight and the reef nettles get tied around it to keep it controlled. In simple terms you make the sail smaller for higher winds. With the single reef in you still haul the halyard to raise the yard a little but not as much, with double reef you simply sheet the sail home and leave the yard in its lowest position. This does two things, it reduces windage on the sail and it decreases the ships center of gravity by keeping the 600 pound yards a little lower, making her easier to handle in the ugly stuff.

If this game has decent ship models, which it certainly looks like it does. And incorporates a fair bit of the manueverability and yard management and weather related damage I will be happy. It would be very cool to be able to execute real square rigger manuevers like tacking, waring and boxhauling through rudder and yard positions and sail set for the conditions.

I have also read that in a few different places. My knowledge comes from serving on two different brigs, and reading seamanship in the age of sail and other publications. Lady Washington is about as weatherly as the "square rigger standard" for those days as is commonly publicized, she will sail about 65 to 70 degrees close hauled, and her speed will be hampered a fair bit compared to the same wind levels on a beam or broad reach. The main physical factors affecting how well a square rigger sails to windward are how sharp the yards can be braced, which differ's ship to ship, and how fine the entry of her bow is for taking a head sea. Lady was a merchantman and has a very round bow, therefore she sails pretty well close hauled in a mild to moderate sea state, but if there is a heavy head sea her ability to sail to windward is dramatically reduced. Niagara however, can brace her yards much much sharper than Lady due to larger and different rigging geometry, and she is much longer on the waterline with a very very fine clipper bow. Niagara's capability to sail to windward at speed is head and shoulders above Lady Washington. I recall a day sailing on lake Erie, single reef in the topsails, I was at the tiller steering full and by (as close as she would lie to the wind without luffing,) it was blowing about 20 knots and I was stunned, Niagara was charging along at over 9 knots right up against the wind, the anemometer read 55 degrees, and sometimes dipped a degree or two lower, her clipper bow sliced through head sea's with ease. Steering Niagara with a decent wind is one of my most treasured memories. I love both brigs equally, but for close hauled sailing capacity Niagara has, sharper traverse of yards, longer waterline length contributing to higher hull speed, and a clipper bow to cut through head seas. Hope this answers your question. Here is Niagara tearing along right up against the wind. She does have disadvantages.. She was built quickly and designed for one decisive battle, the battle of lake Erie. She was never designed as an ocean going warship and has significantly lower freeboard than Lady, which means she will reach deck edge immersion and downflood sooner, she was also built with a very lofty rig, lots of sail area for her hull design, the result is an extremely powerful low and moderate wind performer, able to ride out heavy weather on the lakes, but never designed to stand up to ocean sea states.

Thanks for the welcome, anything specific you want to know just ask. She is a replica of the Lady Washington that started life as a colonial trading vessel on the east coast in the 1770's and later became the first american flagged vessel to round cape horn and explore the pacific coast. Her goal was to open up trade with China for the newly independant USA, she made a number of circumnavigations successfully. The replica was built in Grays Harbour Washington in the late 1980's and as far as the rig and most of the vessel goes she is very very accurate.

And just because this completes the process, this is how we furl a topsail, I'm on the port side with the hat.

Here is another one of Lady Setting sail, I took on my day off from afar, gives some perspective. I love this brig to death, was my home for 5.5 months.

ok, so on a square rigger of the time period from the 1700's-early 1800's, the lower yards on all three masts, the Crojack on the Mizzen, the Mainyard on the main, and the Foreyard on the fore were fixed at the same height by a sling. the upper yards, topsail, topgallant, royal, and skysail were yards that could be hauled up from the mast cap they partially rested on to nearly the top of each of there mast sections. In order to set a topsail for instance, the men would lay aloft, cast off the gaskets (lashings) that secured the sail in a tightly furled condition, let the slack sail fall and climb back down to deck, wherapon the sail would be "sheeted home" The bottom corners of a square sail are called clews and the lines attached to them are called sheets. So by hauling the sheets, the bottom corners of the square sail would be hauled down to blocks on the yard below them and the lines made fast. The next step would be to haul the line called the Halyard, this line hauls the yard into it's upward position, stretching the sail out. This also allows the topgallant to be set above the topsail in a proper manner, you cannot sheet the topgallant home when the topsail yard isn't raised, and so it is with each sail further up. I did leave out one very important thing. There are lines called clews and bunts, and reefs, these sets of line are used to haul the sail partially back up to the yard in preperation for proper furling, THESE LINES MUST BE CAST OFF and tended while the sail is being sheeted home and while the halyard is being hauled, if not you wont be able to set the sail. Also the braces are lines used to trim the yard around depending on the vessels tack, these must be tended while the halyard is being hauled. Sailing ships are a complex system of push and pull, while some lines are hauled, others must be eased. I will link a video that will show the setting of Lady Washingtons main topsail and topgallant from aloft, note the sails have already been "let fall" that is to mean we had layed aloft and taken the gaskets off and coiled them neatly in place so the sail is free to set. Any more questions just let me know, this is my passion and I'm working hard to make it my career!

Hello all, my name is Ryan. I spent most of last year and a portion of the year before sailing on square rigged vessels, in many different situations, locales, and wind conditions. My youtube page is here for everyones enjoyment. I am trying to spread the word that tall-ship sailing is actually something you can do in this day and age! My career goal is to be a square rigger captain before 30, I will be eligible for my 150 ton mates licence at the end of this year so my goals are reasonable. Ryan youtube.com/user/tallshipspacific

Hello there. I have spent the last year and more of my life sailing full time on mostly the Brigs Lady Washington and Niagara, as well as a couple months sailing and maintenance on the topsail schooner pacific Swift. Becoming a square rigger captain is my before age 30 goal and sailing these ships is the great passion of my life. Please ask questions I have lots of stories. my youtube page is here for those interested.. www.youtube.com/user/tallshipspacific

I sail square rigged sail training vessels for a living. Having said that, I think one of the most important things is realistic wind and heavy weather sailing. The vision of a square rigger with every sail including royals and studdingsails set in a gale of wind is not only unrealistic, it makes these ships seem two dimensional. I enjoy playing empire total war, that being said, I would enjoy it alot more if in a gale of wind I was forced to close reef my topsails or else my higher yards and mast sections would break and have to be repaired, also a realistic sea height and behaviour with larger and larger inline swells forcing you to take in sail, and impeding your ability to sail close hualed and eventually in storm force winds to no longer make any headway and be forced to scud or heave to until the system passes. My youtube page has lots of sailing footage from the two brigs I have served on. www.youtube.com/user/tallshipspacific That being said it would make this game a hundred times better if when you went to "tack" or Ware ship, the yards actually turned at the right times in the right order. for instance when tacking a ship as the helm is put hard to leeward and the ship begins to turn up into the wind, the main and foresails are clewed up to allow the upper yards to swing around, and the headsail sheets are eased, spilling the wind and releiving downwind pressure on the bow. This allows her to come all the way through irons, when the ship is exactly head to weather the order is given "mainsail haul" and the main and mizzen yards are braced simultaneously onto the new tack. The ship begins to fall off the wind with the fore stack aback and when the main squares begin to fill with wind on the new tack the order "let go and haul is given" which braces the fore yards up on the new tack. As the ship starts making headway and steadies on her new tack the headsail sheets are sheeted for drive. You can set the spanker too in light winds and sheet it amidships to help push her into the eye of the wind, if it wasnt set already. Also when setting sqaure sail it would be neat to see the proper procedure of sheeting the sails home and then the yard being hauled up to stretch the sail out, as in real life the yards do not remain hauled up, they rest on the mast caps. and sail setting in the correct order from the topsail to the topgallant and up, and then last the fore and mainsail, rather than just having all the squares magically sheet home at the same time. As i'm a lifer in the tallships industry of course I would like to see a very accurate simulator but I realize this would bore alot of people. But I do beleive exxagerating speeds these ships travelled should not be done in any future game, on a real square rigger being pushed by a 30 knot breeze, 10-12 knots feels very very fast. Also some good bow wave animations would be great, as your speed increases in heavy weather throwing out a large bow wave and sending spray and foam down the sides would make it magnificient. Ryan