This page is a work-in-progress. It is intended to become a library of systems for controlling the yards and sails on radio-controlled model square-riggers.

As I am just starting this project, there isn't much to see as yet, but eventually I will demonstrate, explain, and diagram every system I know of, and that people share with me.

All images will be shown as thumbnails which can be seen larger by clicking on them. Images and diagrams will be attributed where I know who did them. If an image is yours, or you know who's it is, there is an email link up top where you can let me know.

A lot of what follows has come from long discussions and sharing of experiments and ideas on the RCGroups Scale Sail forum. I reccomend looking at this resource if you're interested in building a working square-rigger. The site hides older information, and much of what may be of interest is 5 or more years old already. Scroll to the bottom of their page and look for Display Option. Below that are three boxes, the rightmost titled From The. In the pull-down box under that select, Beginning. You will then be able to see all the post in that forum back to 2009 or so.

Other sources are the following books:
Radio Controlled Scale Sailing Models by Phillip Vaughan Williams ISBN 1900371200
Historical Sailing Ships Remote Controlled by Martin Becker ISBN 1900371960

Generally speaking the square sails are hung from spars across the masts called yards. The yards pivot on the mast in the horizontal plane to angle the attached sails depending on where the wind is blowing from in relation to the direction of the vessel. The sails are angled to catch the wind and use it to move the ship forward. The more from the bow (front) the wind is blowing from, the more angled to one side the yards/sails have to be to catch it, but there's a limit; the yards can only turn so far, and once the wind is ahead of that, it'll blow on the wrong side of the sails and actually hinder the vessel's forward movement. The yards are rotated about the mast by the crew pulling on ropes called braces. Get used to the term braces, because they're mostly what this site is about. The braces are typically hauled-in, on one side and paid-out on the other by the crew to move the yards as someone directs them. Our crew is made up of servos, winches, and other mechanisms, to accomplish the same function.

On real sailing ships, we'll call the prototypes, the baces typically are attached, or anchored to a spot on a mast, a stay, or the hull; run through a block (pully) attached near an end of the yard, through some other blocks that guide it to where it's belayed (tied-off) at a belaying pin in a pin-rail at the ships rail, or at the base of the mast, or even a cleat on a bulkhead or on deck.

As sailing ships evolved technology was developed to require less crew to run the ship. Split-tops'ls, and split-t'gallants required less men aloft, and winch systems, such as the Jarvis Winch (right), were developed that only required 2-4 men to brace all the yards on a mast at once.

Many model use a pair of rods to link the servo to the horn on the head of the rudder. Both horns are the same width, so the rods move in parallel in a puch-pull operation to steer the boat. what follows is basically the same geometry. The first set-up doesn't use rod, but length of line (braces) to move the yards.

Probably the most common and basic system for controling the yards of a model square-rigger. This system employs a double arm on a servo that is typically as wide as can fit inside the model's hull. The braces run through whatever fairleads to get through the deck and up to the yards where they attach to it at the same distance from the yard's pivot point as they attach to the servo arm's center.

In the second diagram above, the braces pass through the servo arm and anchor to the hull; which can as much as double the length of line being pulled when the arm rotates. In this case they are using that geometry to attach the braces further out on the yard which is more prototypical. Nev Wade uses this for most of his models left.

This is basically block-and-tackle geometry, where a 4-part tackle 1/4s the weight lifted, but requires pulling more line to lift it the required height.

A possible draw-back to this sytem is that it all moves as fast as the servo. This can be fast enough to break something, like a yard, if there's a snag somewhere. Modern transmiters can be programmed to change to speed and amount of rotation of the servo, slowing it down to look a little more scale, and maybe allowing you to see a problem before it's too late to react.

When I converted a 1:96 scale Constitution model to RC, I took advantage of the hollow lower-masts to install a brass rod in a tube, bent at the top to provide an arm for the course-yard to attach. Where the rod poked out of the heel of the mast, below decks, I attached a bell crank, and each mast's crank was connected to a servo in a push-pull arrangement.

A variation on this theme for a much larger model was made by Brian Clark for his 1:24 scale Susan Constant. Instead of push-pull rods, each mast's internal rod was turned by a servo driving a disk with a belt.

The main draw-back to this sytem is the mast is weakened at the slot where the rod emerges at the top end. On the 1:96 scale model, some half round tubing was epoxied inside the mast, bridging the gap, and strengthening the mast at that spot.

Another variation on this set-up, is to have the rod external of the mast: In this way all yards are fixed to a shaft, which is positioned in front of the mast. Under the deck the shaft is controlled by a wormgear on a motor. This way is not prototypical, but for small models, with a lot of yards, there are a lot of advantages. The running rigging of the braces is rigged through eyebolts on each end of the yard. [the braces are dummies and joined behind the yard with eleastic to prevent slack.] I used this way on my model of the Pamir. ~ Andreas Gondesen

Sometimes, this rod isn't turned to rotate the yards, but is used to place the pivot points of all the yards on the same line which helps them move in concert when using braces.