Climbing the mast

On the morning of their departure Mott and Charlie got their ‘tour of the mast’.  Brigantine Tres Hombres has 315 m2 of sail to be managed by the crew. The 2 masts on deck are about 29 meters high and to open and close the sails crew needs to climb in the masts, on open sea and during sailing of course – rain or sunshine.

 

Usually new crew members climb up the mast for the first time in the harbor, to get used to the height and balancing themselves when the boat is not moving yet.

First they all put on the safetly straps with a hook they can click into the ropes of the mast to be ‘ secured’.  Look twice to hook it onto the right rope (not vertical for example, and one that can potentially hold your weight!).

The 4 new crew members climb in the mast and Marina explains them the basics of the mast, which ropes to unty, in what order and how to secure knots. She is on board since a couple of months and moves fast and secure in the mast, very nice to see from the ground

 

 

There is even a safety rope in the back, which you should keep behind you when walking to the lef tor right of the mast.

When I was up there myself, few days earlier to take some good shots of the harbor, Elise told me that in the old days safety ropes nor saftey harnasses were used…  Sailors would just get in there and surely in storms someone would fall off and be left behind in the waves, seeing the ship sail off to the horizon…

 

Whats in a name: so a little history on the sailing terms mentioned here, related to the Tres Hombres…. In sailing, a brigantine  is a vessel with two masts, only the forward of which is square rigged. Originally the brigantine was a small ship carrying both oars and sails. It was a favorite of Mediterranean pirates and its name comes from the Italian word brigantino, meaning brigand, and applied by extension to his ship. By the 17th century the term meant a two-masted ship. By the first half of the 18th century the word had evolved to refer not to a ship type name, but rather to a particular type of rigging: square rigged on the foremast and fore-and-aft rigged on the mainmast. The word “brig” is an 18th century shortening of the word brigantine, which came to mean a vessel square-rigged on both masts. Rectangular sails attached to yards, and hanging perpendicular to the keel line are referred to as square sails, because they are “square” to the keel line (not because of their shape); and this type of sailplan is known as square-rigged.

Rigging is the mechanical sailing apparatus attached to the hull in order to move the boat as a whole. This includes cordage (ropes attached to the spars and sails in order to manipulate their position and shape), sails (aerofoils, usually made of fabric, used to catch the wind), and spars (masts and other solid objects sails are attached to).