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In article <Xns96AFD54CC14DBinvininvalid@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
inv@xxxxxxxxxx (Tomi) wrote:
> Is it, that somewhere the wind always blows in certain
> direction in the morning and then in the opposite direction in the
> evening, for example.
I am far from an expert on sailing or metrology. However in some
areas you can rely on predictable wind patterns for 90% or so of the
year. The actual strength of winds may vary but direction is
predictable. Square rigs give the most sail area with limits on
sailing close to the wind that are greater than fore and aft rigs. The
best rig is a mixture of fore and aft and square sails that can be
easily varied to compensate for wind conditions. However this tends to
need more than one mast. Fitting masts is not trivial. The footings
have to be able to resist the loading of the rigging without pushing
through the bottom of the hull. Finding suitable mast timbers was not
trivial either especially before built up construction.
I cannot think of any post 17th century european single master that
used anything but a fore and aft rig. However these are all
comparatively small and the required sail area is far less. There is
no real argument that downwind, or on a quartering rind square sails
are best, hence the development of the spinnaker for yacht racing.
Ken Young
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