The grommets for the deadeyes have been spliced and made and most of the thimbles have arrived. I have enough thimbles present to finish all the deadeyes for the shrouds and backstay.
The backstay deadeye is symmetrical, as the lashings will only serve to absorb creep throughout the life of the rigging. The backstay will retain the turnbuckle, allowing the screws to serve as the main tensioner rather than the pulley system created by the deadeye.
The lower shroud's deadeyes have slightly larger top thimbles to allow for more passes of the lashings to tension these stays. The stays will not have turnbuckles, so the lashings will be responsible for developing the proper amount of tension in the rigging.
The cap shroud and intermediate shrouds have significantly larger thimbles simply to accommodate more passes with the lashings. The lowers will only need around four passes to create an 8:1 mechanical advantage pulley system. The cap shrouds, on the other hand, need to develop a lot more tension and will require seven passes with the lashings. Seven passes would create a 14:1 pulley system which will provide plenty of tension to the rigging.
At this point, all the deadeyes, the backstay and the lower shrouds are completed. The only shrouds left to fabricate are the cap shrouds and the intermediate shrouds.
