um last i check the
clew it the part of a sail that is opposite the tack. clearly it haas another meaning here. i'm just asking out of curiosity...
also, i assume the rope is not braided, and that's whats causing the twisting.
to me it would seem a lot easier to bite the bullet and spend the money to get some good
line in there. Can you use Spectra? (more curiosity here, are fly systems supposed to be static or
dynamic?) for the quantities you be buying i'll bet you can get a reduce price.
A
clew is a square metal
block with ,typically, 4 to 5 "slot's" inside it. In each slot there is <typically> a small rachet device , similar to an ascender, which is spring loaded to allow movement of the
clew "up" the rope but not down. A
clew ,Typically, has a loop on th bottom side which is what you use to attach sandbags to.
http://www.tiffinscenic.com/html/stage_rigging.html
I did a google search on
clew and couldn't find a picture of one. If I can find one in a stagecraft
book I'll post it for you. The above link is to a short article whisch discusses some of the coincendence between
stage rigging and sailing terminology. When theatres first started to be riggd in what we think of as "traditional" Sailors were tapped to operate them as they had the best command of rope rigging. Terminology therefore made the journey with these early sailors. This is where we get terms like "
deck", "
Line" ,
Boom,
batten,
cove, bay,
etc.
etc.
it is also where we get the superstition of "no Whistling backstage", on ships orders were often whistled up to the rigging since a whistle carries better than words in a squall. So when Sailors were working as flymen backstage you didn't want to be whistling for fear of winding up with a sand bag accidently dropped on your head, or inadvertantly cueing a scene change.
A Hemp fly
system is called a hemp fly
system because it is rigged with Hemp. The use of any other kind of rope could have disasterous results. Hemp is much more static than other ropes. In a hemp
house, you typically have five hemp ropes running to each
batten. It's not like a double or single
purchase counterweight system you might be familiar with. On a
counterweight system your hemp rope, or spectra rope, is only moving the
arbor up and down and the
arbor is connectedd to the
batten by 5 - 6
wire ropes or cables. Since you keep the
arbor balanced with the load the rope doesn't really do any lifting, it only tilts the balance enough for the arbors wieght to kick in, or be over come. The cables on a
counterweight system are pre-set to desired lengths and is necessary you can lengthen or shorten them by means of the
toggle-bolt located on top of the
arbor or at the connectoin to the
batten. On a hemp
system each rope runs to the
batten individually. Imagine trying to pull evenly on all 5 ropes at the same time. the
clew helps distribute the down force of one rope to all the other ropes on a given
lineset <
lineset that's where where the name comes from, a set of lines for each
batten > to all of the ropes.
On a Hemp
system the counter weights are sandbags suspended from each
line or
lineset either by the
clew or a
sunday < I really want to know where the rigging term "
sunday" comes from. if anybody knows let me know> and therefore each hemp rope is exposed to much more stress than on a
counterweight system. Which is why it needs to be hemp not a synthetic.
Sorry for the punctuation and capitalization, I'm not use to my wifes laptop.
Hope that answers some questions and inspires you to do some more reseach about the history of
theatre. It's a really fascinating story.