A trend in the yachting industry is that of systems heavy vessels and my days of installing marine electronics (which I usually hated) have given me a perverse view on that. For example, I remember my boss telling me, "The owner wants a 12 inch do everything display in each of the vessels stateroom heads and a 20 inch do everything display in the master stateroom head." Then I think of the boats I've sailed and once we were beyond the 25 mile MARPOL limit it's, well, they don't call it the poop deck for nothing.
Instead of watching TV in the bathroom at night it might be dolphins stirring up the green phosphorescence for a diversion while doing the business.
Then there's this force that doesn't originate from the poop deck as far as I know, a force of nature that's occurred since our beloved Planet Earth got an atmosphere or when God blew air into Adams' lungs, a force we call the wind.
What a marvelous force, a gift from God perhaps. Indeed it's a gift from God if you've been stuck in the glassy doldrums for about three weeks and gone a little more than slightly mad and then there's that first puff off breeze, like water to a dehydrated person, a crumb of food to the starving. Then this force can seem like it was sent from hell when caught in a gale or hurricane and maybe there's something altogether unexplainable in those Santa Ana winds that drive many in LA bonkers.
An interpretation of Newton's mechanics might try to measure the time rate change of position of air molecules (the wind) with an anemometer or a reduction or increase in sail area and when in doubt let it out (the main sheet) unless you're racing. This moving air (the wind) when it hits a sail while going downwind a parachute effect occurs I guess. Then there's the foil (like an airplane wing) upwind and this force is still free and untaxed.
The birds ingeniously adapted to the air/wind/atmosphere early on and continue to be the masters of its use. We humans have needed to build boats with bedsheets hung out to dry and move the vessel and windmills because our women got tired? of pounding the corn with a mortar and pestle or maybe the beginnings of the industrial revolution had moguls seeing the women/people as more use as a cog in their money making machine.
It wasn't all that long ago that sailing was the only way to get across the big ponds (in the days before steamships and Boeing/Airbus) although recently I heard that Airbus is advising Americas Cup Defender Oracle. Yes, the big European airplane builder is advising the American team.
Too much wind or it blowing from the wrong angle (like directly ahead) can annoy. At times I've heard the hollow aluminum masts in the harbor sound like a poorly tuned church organ married to a dying cow or maybe it sometimes sounds like the artificial wind of a Hammond B3 blowing through a defective Leslie or the horrible sound is some poor trapped ghosts longing to escape and sometimes an ill wind can be the final straw punch that overturns the boat.
And yet some friends of mine recently sailed engine-less from Newfoundland to Iceland, powered by the magic wind. [here's a link to their blog- familiacoconut.com]
The magic wind can easily propel you and your sweetheart about the bay in say, a Rhodes 19 (I'm writing from 'Rhode' Island so I'm biased) as you both enjoy a bottle of wine.
The no-thought of sailing a sunfish is indeed no small miracle.
Naval architects continue learning more efficient ways to use the wind with an esthetically pleasing craft but even a bed-sheet or animal skin supported by a couple of sticks atop a hollowed out log canoe is beautiful, yes?
Fair Winds
Captain Bill
Instead of watching TV in the bathroom at night it might be dolphins stirring up the green phosphorescence for a diversion while doing the business.
Then there's this force that doesn't originate from the poop deck as far as I know, a force of nature that's occurred since our beloved Planet Earth got an atmosphere or when God blew air into Adams' lungs, a force we call the wind.
What a marvelous force, a gift from God perhaps. Indeed it's a gift from God if you've been stuck in the glassy doldrums for about three weeks and gone a little more than slightly mad and then there's that first puff off breeze, like water to a dehydrated person, a crumb of food to the starving. Then this force can seem like it was sent from hell when caught in a gale or hurricane and maybe there's something altogether unexplainable in those Santa Ana winds that drive many in LA bonkers.
An interpretation of Newton's mechanics might try to measure the time rate change of position of air molecules (the wind) with an anemometer or a reduction or increase in sail area and when in doubt let it out (the main sheet) unless you're racing. This moving air (the wind) when it hits a sail while going downwind a parachute effect occurs I guess. Then there's the foil (like an airplane wing) upwind and this force is still free and untaxed.
The birds ingeniously adapted to the air/wind/atmosphere early on and continue to be the masters of its use. We humans have needed to build boats with bedsheets hung out to dry and move the vessel and windmills because our women got tired? of pounding the corn with a mortar and pestle or maybe the beginnings of the industrial revolution had moguls seeing the women/people as more use as a cog in their money making machine.
It wasn't all that long ago that sailing was the only way to get across the big ponds (in the days before steamships and Boeing/Airbus) although recently I heard that Airbus is advising Americas Cup Defender Oracle. Yes, the big European airplane builder is advising the American team.
Too much wind or it blowing from the wrong angle (like directly ahead) can annoy. At times I've heard the hollow aluminum masts in the harbor sound like a poorly tuned church organ married to a dying cow or maybe it sometimes sounds like the artificial wind of a Hammond B3 blowing through a defective Leslie or the horrible sound is some poor trapped ghosts longing to escape and sometimes an ill wind can be the final straw punch that overturns the boat.
And yet some friends of mine recently sailed engine-less from Newfoundland to Iceland, powered by the magic wind. [here's a link to their blog- familiacoconut.com]
The magic wind can easily propel you and your sweetheart about the bay in say, a Rhodes 19 (I'm writing from 'Rhode' Island so I'm biased) as you both enjoy a bottle of wine.
The no-thought of sailing a sunfish is indeed no small miracle.
Naval architects continue learning more efficient ways to use the wind with an esthetically pleasing craft but even a bed-sheet or animal skin supported by a couple of sticks atop a hollowed out log canoe is beautiful, yes?
Fair Winds
Captain Bill
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