A pleated mast coat after the Victory

9 October 2021

Herby63’s photos were exactly what I was looking for. I had already searched for photos of the Victory’s mast coat myself, but could not really find any. So I set to work replicating the mast coat from his last photo.

The second mast coat, of black pleated cloth

My version next to the example on the Victory

It is not entirely perfect, but for a first attempt I thought it quite decent. Making those pleats was quite a job. The fabric is lining fabric, which I dyed myself.

Now the big question: which is nicer? I had not made up my own mind yet. One option would be to make a different one for each mast, more or less as can be seen in the photos of the Victory.

The two versions side by side: on the left the pleated black one, on the right the brown one with notches

From a bit further away the coat looks a lot less massive

Herby63 preferred the second version because the notches of the wedges are less visible, and added a photo of the mizzen mast on the Victory’s poop deck. In general the top edge is fastened against the mast itself, at least on decks fully exposed to wind and weather. After that photo I made a small adjustment. The black smears on the mast are from the tarring.

The pleated coat after the adjustment, with the top edge against the mast

Koos and Pingu57 chose the right-hand one instead, the brown one: the notches may well be seen. Erik B and Stephan joined them, bringing the score to 4-1. I am not yet saying this is going to be a democratic process, but I find the reasoning behind why one is nicer than the other very interesting. Nice to see the difference: one wants to see the notches, the other does not.