History Lesson

[Ross]

The method of building a boat depended on the resources and region. In the Nile valley reeds were the early material of choice. In the far north were only small wood was to be had, the style was skin on frame. No one knows how long the first Americans were building with birch bark. Dugouts were the choice where large timber was growing close to the water. Nobody knows what the builders of Stonehenge used to transport the stones.

 

[Day_Racing_Sails]

Square riggers could sail upwind centuries ago...

Sailing friends,
Square riggers could sail upwind centuries ago, probably BC, because it's not the restriction from the rig. This explanation will touch briefly on how to sail upwind with a square rigger and tacking or "tacking".

The square rigger alone will sail closer than 90 degs to the wind, thus upwind. The critical element is not the rig but the lateral resistance. The large sailing vessels of the 15th-19th centuries (hulls shaped like the Constitution) didn't have fin keels and would make leeway, but could sail closer than 90 degs. Smaller boats that had outboard leeboards could do much better. Nimbler boats (Vikings?) could sail upwind, not high, but upwind, and when putting helm down, luff the sail switching guy for sheet and sheet for guy like a spinnaker, and the sail would help take the boat out of a tack onto the new semi-close hauled course.

Larger square riggers that couldn't easily run the guy and sheets around to the other side would sail upwind and then jibe to the other upwind tack, about a 220 deg turn, by what was called "Wareing Ship". To Ware Ship was to do a jibe instead of a tack. I learned of this from a wise teacher aboard the "Boola Riki". There is a nice visual on utube if you search for "ware ship".

To address the notes from the ages about getting socked into a harbor due to wind direction, that certainly makes sense considering the not very high beating angles and the distance lost to leeward to ware ship. Obviously, it's only practical with long tacks.

May you have fair winds wherever you travel!

Sailing has, of course, been around for a very, very long time, but when and by whom was the first sailboat built that could sail upwind?

I read somewhere that the square-rigged ships of Columbus could not, and that sailing upwind was a relatively recent invention. But then I also read that Viking ships could sail upwind, and though I don’t know at what point in time when they were able to do that, Vikings were sailing to the new world circa 1100.

Then there were the ancient Greeks, who were master sailors; I can't believe they were at the mercy of the wind.

Just curious.

 

[RichH]

jtmcue - here's the Gaia, was 1991

Rich H- I know the Viking boat you spoke of-I think it was back in the 80's that I went to see its arrival in South Street Seaport in NYC and have a few pictures of it somewhere around here. Regarding Viking ships- I had also visited the National Geographic featured ship in Roskeld (spelling?) Denmark -I think the Norsemen did add large(removeable) daggerboards to the side of the ship to head up better.

here's the Gaia, was 1991:
http://www.gaiaship.org/twoships.html but it didnt have daggerboards nor leeboards and could point like a 'banshee'.

"GAIA is a replica of the Gokstad Ship, and it was built in the winter of 1989-90 in Bjørkedalen.
Sandefjord City received Gaia as a gift and have today Sandefjord as a home port.
The Gaia crew operates the ship.
GAIAhomepage is for the moment closed."

 

[jlynker]

Awakening an old thread (which was a good read in and of itself) to recommend another excellent read on the topic of Square Rigged Boats:
Two Years Before The Mast by Henry Dana.
On Amazon, the kindle edition is free:
http://www.amazon.com/Two-Years-Bef...RWKC/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1290495658&sr=8-3
As is Around The World Alone by Joshua Slocum
http://www.amazon.com/Sailing-Alone...WVU5XWC2&s=digital-text&qid=1290495718&sr=1-1

 

[Joe]

Awakening an old thread (which was a good read in and of itself) to recommend another excellent read on the topic of Square Rigged Boats:
Two Years Before The Mast by Henry Dana.
On Amazon, the kindle edition is free:
http://www.amazon.com/Two-Years-Bef...RWKC/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1290495658&sr=8-3
As is Around The World Alone by Joshua Slocum
http://www.amazon.com/Sailing-Alone...WVU5XWC2&s=digital-text&qid=1290495718&sr=1-1

Yes, both are classics.... however, Josh Slocum's "Spray" was a gaff rigged sloop... not a square rigger.

Slocum led a very interesting life before and after his circumnavigation. Here is the Wikipedia bio. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joshua_Slocum

 

[Steve Kamp]

Recently watched a National Geographic or Nova show where archeologists had rebuilt an Egyptian ship based on tomb drawings and exhumed TIMBERS (Not reeds). They rigged it with a square rigged main and sailed south in the Red Sea, duplicating an early spice route and authenticating trade between India and Egypt.

 

[ggrizzard]

Day, The attached link will take you to a definition of "Wearing Ship". There are other links found at Google that 'warehouse' this in detail.
http://www.seatalk.info/cgi-bin/nau...gi?db=db&view_records=1&uid=default&Term=wear