An Introduction to Sailboats

A boat propelled partly or entirely by sails is called Sailboat or Sailing boat. A sailing boat, a wind-powered vessel whose sole or primary source of power comes from the use of sails to move atop and through water, is usually larger than small vessels but smaller than sailing ships. Sailboats come in different sizes, shapes, and types. For people who like to be near the water, sailboats provide a means of skimming over its surface.

Sailboats fall into three basic types based on their hull shape-Sailboards, Multihulls, Monohulls. You can classify sailboats with their fin also. Although a few exceptions exist, if the fin is fixed (not movable) and made of a heavy material like lead, it’s usually a keel. And if the fin is lightweight and retractable, it’s usually a centerboard.

Depending on their features, sailboats are called in different names including Sloop, Racers, Racing Sloop, Cruisers, Fractional Sloop Rig, Cat Rig, Catamarans, Cat Rig Racing Dinghy, Ketch, Yawl, Trimarans, Schooner, Schooner with Topsail, Daysailers, and Flying Jibs and Sqaure-Rigged Tall Ship.

A sloop is a sail boat with a single mast and a fore-and-aft rig comprising a mainsail and a single foresail. The term cruiser refers to sailing or motor yachts that were built for long distance sailing and offer enough comfort and space to live on the boat permanently. On a fractional rig sloop the forestay does not run to the top of the mast, rather it connects at some point below. A catamaran is a type of multi-hulled boat or ship consisting of two hulls, or vakas, joined by some structure, the most basic being a frame, formed of akas. A ketch is a sailing craft with two masts, both rigged fore-and-aft: a mainmast and a shorter mizzen mast abaft the mainmast but forward of the rudder post. On the other hand, yawl is a two-masted fore-and-aft-rigged sailing vessel similar to the ketch but having a smaller jigger- or mizzenmast stepped abaft the rudder. Trimaran sailboats are designed for fun, versatility, affordability and simplicity in sailing. A Schooner is a type of sailing vessel with fore-and-aft sails on two or more masts, the foremast being no taller than the rear mast(s). A daysailer’s wider hull adds stability, and its heavier hull is not as sensitive to weight shifts as a dinghy or board boat.

Sailboats, one of humankind’s earliest and easiest transportation inventions,  are mainly by the wind. These boats are invented thousands years ago when no one can even imagine a motor boat.  The invention of sailboats changed the entire course of mankind. These simple but useful boats were used not only as transport vehicles but also opene­d up new pathways for international trade, exploration and cultural exchange, which shaped the modern world. In the history of Native American culture, the arrival of the sailboat was most certainly and indirect turning point.

We can not determine when the first sailboat was built and cannot identify who built the first one. But archeologists say that Phoenicians and Egyptians sailed under cloth sails on single log and simple long narrow sailboats during 4000 BCE. Since then, sailboat technology has developed steadily to increase speed, ma­neuverability, comfort, safety and cargo load.