This is the first ship I have built, and the instructions show the booms either angled or perpendicular to the ship. Which layout have you chosen and why?
Thanks!
Well, we likely need to sort out some nautical terminology. All the not-line “bits” that support sails are called “spars.”
The generally vertical spars are called “masts.”
The masts are “crossed” by spars called “yards” (the extreme end of which are the arms of the yard, and hence “yardarms”).
Masts may “step” spars via pivots or yokes, those are “gaffs” when at the upper end of sails, and “booms” when below. (To confuse things, “studding” sails are supported from “stun’sail booms” which run out along the yards.)
Now, to sail square sail rigged ships, you angle the yards around the masts, typically 45° to either side of the centerline (to sail very close to the wind, many of the yards can be swept past 45° until hard up against the rigging–this is exceptionally hard to model.)
There is a convention in ship modeling, not absolute, but a generality, that warships are not show with sails, and merchant ships sometimes are. If showing sails, you probably want to show the yards skewed to one side or the other.