Unlike in a gyn, which has three legs and is thus stable without support, stability in sheers (and in a derrick) is provided by a guy. Sheers comprise two upright spars, lashed together at their heads and their feet splayed apart. The heels of the spars are secured by splay and heel tackles. The point at the top of the sheers where the spars cross and are lashed together is the crutch, to which a block and tackle is attached. Unlike derricks, sheers need no lateral support, and only require either a foreguy and an aftguy or a martingale and a topping lift. Being made of two spars rather than one, sheers are stronger than a derrick of the same size and made of equivalent materials. Unlike the apex of a gyn, which is fixed, the crutch of a sheers can be topped up or lowered, via the topping lift, through a limited angle.

See also

References

Further reading

Category:Sailing rigs and rigging Category:Vertical transport devices

Biography

The winner of an Eric Gregory Award and the 1999 Vogue Young Writer’s Award, his first collection of poetry, The Blue Book (Seren, 2000) was short-listed for the Wales Book of the Year and the Forward Poetry Prize Best 1st Collection, 2001. His debut prose work The Dust Diaries (Faber 2004), a non-fiction narrative set in Zimbabwe, was short-listed for the Royal Society of Literature’s Ondaatje Prize and won the Wales Book of the Year 2005.

In 2004 Owen was Writer in Residence at The Wordsworth Trust and was selected as one of the Poetry Book Society’s 20 Next Generation Poets. Owen’s 2nd collection of poetry, Skirrid Hill (Seren, 2005) won a 2006 Somerset Maugham Award. 'Unicorns, almost' his one man play based on the life and poetry of the WWII poet Keith Douglas was developed by Old Vic, New Voices.

Owen’s first novel, Resistance' (UK Faber, 2007/ US Nan Talese/Doubleday 2008) has been translated into ten languages and was short listed for the Writer's Guild of Great Britain Best Book Award 2008 and won a 2008 Hospital Club Creative Award. The film of this novel, which Owen co-wrote, is due to go into production in Autumn 2010. In 2007 Owen collaborated with composer Rachel Portman onThe Water Diviner’s Tale, an oratorio for children which was premiered at the Royal Albert Hall for the BBC Proms. In 2007/8 Owen was a Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Fellow at the New York Public Library.

In 2009 Owen published the novella 'White Ravens', a contemporary response to the myth of Branwen Daughter of Llyr, written as part of Seren's series of 'New Stories from the Mabinogion. he also published an anthology of British landscape poetry to accompany his TV series of the same title, 'A Poet's Guide to Britain.

Owen has also written journalism and reportage for Granta, The Guardian, Esquire, GQ, The Times, The Financial Times, and a play for BBC Radio 4 about the WWII poet Alun Lewis, 'If I Should Go Away'.

Actor & TV Presenter

Awards and honours

Works

References

External links

Category:1974 births Category:Living people Category:Alumni of New College, Oxford Category:Alumni of the University of East Anglia Category:Anglo-Welsh poets Category:Welsh poets Category:Welsh novelists Category:People from Abergavenny