Page:Yachting wrinkles; a practical and historical handbook of valuable information for the racing and cruising yachtsman (IA yachtingwrinkles00keneiala).pdf/148

 follows: Bobstay, rod of steel 3/4-inch in diameter, set up with a turnbuckle at end of bowsprit; shrouds, two on each side, 1-1/8-inch steel wire; forestay set up to stem head, 1-1/4-inch do.; jib set flying, hoisted with 3/4-inch 8-stranded flexible steel halyards, set up with a jig-purchase; runner shrouds of 7/8-inch steel wire canvased over; main lifts, 3/4-inch flexible steel wire, painted, parceled, served over with white cod-line, and then covered with white canvas sewed on; the throat and peak halyards are of 3/4-inch flexible steel wire. The blocks are all strapped with grommets of flexible steel wire, served and leathered.

From these examples a fair idea of the modern method of rigging a racing craft may be gathered. Strength, lightness, and neatness are the qualities sought and attained. Steel wire is now largely used for the leech ropes of sails, and it is strongly recommended by our "swellest" sailmakers.

The above I owe to my old sea-faring friend, John F. Byno, who put the neatest splice ever seen in the Brooklyn Bridge cable, and is an expert with the marlinspike, as all the members of the Seawanhaka Corinthian Yacht Club can bear witness.

Flexible steel-wire rope is nearly if not quite as pliable as new hemp rope of the same strength. It is made with nineteen wires to the strand. The greater the diameter of the sheaves