Rake

Rake refers to mast slant from perpendicular relative to forward and aft.  Generally, a mast is raked aft of plumb, although in many seas masts are raked forward.  Raking the masts of a sailing vessel, one step of tuning a rig,  ideally serves to balance the center of effort.   The rake here on Liberty Clipper is accentuated by the “perpendicularity” of the buildings over in Jersey City.  Foto taken in October.  Serious sailors and naval architects can talk at length about rake.

Pride of Baltimore II also has seriously

raked masts.  So does Spirit of Bermuda, as seen here back in September.  As do Amistad  and Amazon.

Ditto schooner America.

On power ships, stacks are often raked, although this seems to be  about style.  To rake or not is a “first chicken or first egg” questions of ship design.  Cangarda has a single raked funnel.  Earlier steam vessels appeared to have perpendicular stacks.

Buoys, on the other hand, should not be “raked” this much and on only one side of the channel.  Something amiss here is.

Unrelated:  Some three years back bowsprite took these fotos and gave momentum to my whatzit series.  Here‘s how that “short ship” looks today, just before a radical transformation into something “tall.”

Also unrelated but getting some attention these days, tugster ran this post of Giulio Verne six plus weeks ago.  NYTimes ran this story yesterday, and adds delightful onboard info.

I’m still in Georgia, craving salt water, completing unfinished blog posts when the spirit moves me.