Quote:
Originally Posted by Greg
Yeah, that's it.
Then they hang staysails on every chunk of rope that isn't busy doing something.
Rose, the key thing about sailing into the wind is that the sail creates lift toward the direction you want to go (sort of) while the keel balances that force to keep you from going off all caddywumpus. It's sort of like how an airplane flies except that the wing is on its side and the keel does the job of the gravity vector.
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Stays'ls everywhere.
One and All. On the Foremast.
Fore-stays'l, bent to the forestay, runs from bow to the foremast futtocks, and top-mast step.
Inner-jib, from 1\3 jib-boom to top of lower tops'l.
Outer-jib, from 2\3 jib-boom to top of upper-tops'l.
Flying-jib, from jib-boom end to way up the top.
Even on a "tupperware" club yacht, the fores'ls or jibs, are actually staysails.
Rose, the "thing" about sailing full stop.
Is the wind only ever comes, from where you want to go.
Seriously, a sail generates drive, using exactly the same laws of physics that a wing uses to generate lift. The same mathematical equations are used, to calculate the amount of drive a sail produces at any given wind speed, as those used to calculate wing loading for an aircraft.
And yes, a keel is a very handy thing to have. On any kind of boat.
It makes you go straight, Ish. In a sailing boat it stops you sliding sideways in the wind. It bites the water and forces the drive from the sail, transfered down the mast into the keel, to push the boat forward.
Or backwards, because you can actually force your sails "flat-aback" into the wind, and be pushed backwards. Tricky though, easy to fall over.