With the sails now sewn up and fitted with bolt ropes all round, they are ready to be attached or bent to the yards.
       To the less experienced model maker this may be somewhat surprising at such an early stage, as the yards are, of course, not yet attached to the masts. However, if you have a little experience in period ship modelling, you will know the reason: bending the sails to the yards is much easier to carry out if the yard and the sail are lying on the table before you, and you can turn them round and over to your heart's content. On the other hand, if you have to do this job with the complex ropework of the standing rigging and possibly even the running rigging in your way, you will find it well-nigh impossible.At a later stage the yards complete with sails are mounted on the masts. which job is no more complicated than fitting the yards on their own. On model plans the bending of the sails is generally either not shown at all, or if it is shown, then in most cases the method is inaccurate. In the drawings on the right you will see the four standard methods:
      1. Bending with a running lacing. This system was widely distributed in the early Middle Ages, and in the Mediterranean area in particular from there it was adopted initially for the lateen sails of the late 14th century, and at the end of the I5th century for the first, very small, topsails. Incidentally, large lateen sails were never attached with a running lacing, but always with separate robands.The running lacing disappeared completely from larger ships by the middle of the 16th century , but is still used to this day on small gaffed  fishing vessels and coastal boats.
      2. Bending the sails with robands. This was the usual method from ancient times onward, and was always much more widely distributed than the running lacing.This older system used short lengths of cordage tied to front and back of the sail; the rear end was then wound once round the yard, and the two ends tied together on the yard, just in front of the centre. This Wab the standard method until the beginning of the 17th century, after which time it remained in use in some areas of the Mediterranean, where it lingered on until the 19th century.
      3. In central and Northern Europe the start of the 17th century saw the introduction of a new method, by which several loops were passed round the yard and the head rope and then through the eyelets, before the robands were tied on the yard. There were two versions, one for the large sails of the lower and topsail yards, and a rather simpler one for the small sails of the topgallant and royal yards.
      4. When jackstays were introduced, in the first half of the 19th century. the sails were bent to the jackstays with either rob and hitches or a round turn and a reef knot.The earing cringles were lashed to the yard arms to prevent the sails pulling in towards the middle.The sail should be taut on the yard, without being stretched very tight; i.e. if you let it hang freely, there should be no folds. If the sail falls into vertical folds, then it is too loose, and the earings must be pulled somewhat tighter. If the sail falls into horizontal folds, it is too tight, and the earings must be loosened a little.