Sailing – The History And The Science Behind It
For centuries man searched for a way which would provide him easier mobility and faster means of fishing, hunting etc. It was then that sailing was discovered. Today, sailing does a lot more than provide increased mobility. It is an exciting form or recreation and exercise. There are millions of sailing enthusiasts in the world today who spend a lot of their time trying to master the skills of maneuvering the sailboat in all kinds of sea conditions. And there are millions more who want to join in. But how does a sail boat move ahead? How did it originate? There are a lot of questions but no answers.
The Origin And Development
Though the first official reference about sailing in history books comes in the age of sail, sailing was said to have originated much earlier than that. The great stones of the pyramids were moved from Aswan to Giza with the help of sailing ships. Man was able to move about the 1000 islands of Polynesia thanks to sailing. But the real golden age of sailing started with the 15th century. It was in this time that the real commercial use of sailing began. Trade and commerce reached an all time high thanks to sailing. Humans began migrating to all corners of the world and their carrier was the strong and sturdy sailed ship, which battled many a storm and harsh weather conditions.
The Principle Behind Sailing
Sailing is the art of controlling the sailboat over the water surface. The energy required to drive the sailboat ahead is harnessed by tweaking the relative movement of wind speed and water speed. Hence, you will find that in days of calm when there is no difference in the speed and direction of wind and water, the sailboat simply drifts ahead. But on days when there is energy to be tapped, the sailboat extracts it with the help of the sail in the air and the hull in the water. Airflow is setup by the motion of the boat and this is used by the sail, which is nothing but an airfoil. If the wind alone was used to propel the sail, then it would simply drift ahead in the direction of the wind. Hence, a propelling medium like the keel or the hull is used.
Advancement
There were a lot more techniques applied later on to improve the performance of sails and to reduce the dependence on weather and wind conditions. The result was the development of vessels like the wind turbine boat and the autogiro boat. Nevertheless, of course, the thrill of controlling a sailboat through raw wind is unbeatable.
