Sailing refers to the art of using a sailing ship or sailing boat in the water by regulating the motions of the vessel with the help of wind power, which in turn propels the sailing vessel on sail. Today, most sailing activities are recreational. People take to sailing just to enjoy the thrill of moving on water. Racing, day sailing and cruising are all part of recreational sailing.

Introduction
Let us try to gather some introductory knowledge about sailing. How does a sailboat move forward? Actually, the sailboat, propelled forward by the wind on the sails, has moved on a technology that  people have relied on for trade and warfare for a long time now. To this technology can be credited the construction of the great pyramids to Giza when stones were carried to Gaza from Aswan.

Physics Of Sailing
Where does the sailboat get energy for its movements? This energy comes from the relative movement of the speed of water and wind. If it is a calm day or if the water is flowing in the same direction and at the same speed as the wind is blowing, then the sailboat will not be able to move but only drift. This is because there will be no generation of useful energy need. To extract this energy during sailing, we place sail in air and hull in water so that we can manipulate the difference in motion.

What is Apparent Wind?
A little more in depth knowledge about sailing will confront the initiate with the term apparent wind. Air that touches the surface of the sail is not real wind. In fact, the flow of this air is modified by the speed of the boat. Aapparent wind is wind that touches the surface of the sail having a relative velocity with the sailing boat. The curved surface of the sailing boat is also very helpful in its movements. The air deflected by the curved surface produces a reactive force on the sail and rigs. Thus, the boat starts moving in the direction opposite to the deflection of the air.

Avoid Dirty Air When Racing
To those who want to master the art of sailing for the purpose of racing your sailing boat, get acquainted with dirty air. Dirty air is the air deflected by the sailing boat and it is air with lower energy. At the time of racing the sailor should avoid dirty air and try and maneuver his boat such that he can race and dirty air is used to propel the opponent’s boat instead.

This entry was posted on Friday, April 11th, 2008 at 2:19 am and is filed under Sailing Tips. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.