. Boat sailing in fair weather and foul. iX. np] BEATING TO WINDWARD, HERE is an old nautical truism tothe effect that a haystack will sailwell to leeward, but that it takes acorrectly-modeled vessel to beatto windward. It is easy to comprehendhow a straw hat thrown into a pond on its northerlyedge will, un-der the influ-ence of a briskbreeze fromthe north,make a fastpassage to thesoutherlyb ank . It ismore difficultto understandhow the samestraw hat, ifput into thewater at thesoutherly endof the pond,might be somanoeuvred asto make a passage to the northern ex-tremity of the sheet of water, t
. Boat sailing in fair weather and foul. iX. np] BEATING TO WINDWARD, HERE is an old nautical truism tothe effect that a haystack will sailwell to leeward, but that it takes acorrectly-modeled vessel to beatto windward. It is easy to comprehendhow a straw hat thrown into a pond on its northerlyedge will, un-der the influ-ence of a briskbreeze fromthe north,make a fastpassage to thesoutherlyb ank . It ismore difficultto understandhow the samestraw hat, ifput into thewater at thesoutherly endof the pond,might be somanoeuvred asto make a passage to the northern ex-tremity of the sheet of water, thoughthe wind continued to pipe from thenorth. This was, no doubt, a tough nutfor the early navigators to crack, andthe problem may have taken centuriesto Diagram No. under Varying Condi-tions of Wind. BEATING TO WINDWARD, 129 The paddle was naturally the firstmeans of propelling- a rude craft throughthe water, and the ingenious savage(probably an indolent rascal) who dis-covered that a bough of a tree, or theskin of a beast extended to a favoringbreeze, would produce the same effectas constant and laborious plying ofpaddles, was presumably hailed as abenefactor by his tribe. But this de-vice, artful no doubt in its inception,was only of avail while the wind blewtowards the quarter in which the desti-nation of the enterprising voyager the wind drew ahead, or dropped, theskin or leafy bough was no longer ofuse as a labor-saving contrivance, andthe wearisome paddle was necessarilyresumed. The primitive square sail of antiquityembodies the same principle as thatgoverning the motion through the waterof the modern full rigged ship, which isadmirably adapted for efficient beatingto windward. Or sailing against the
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjectsailing, bookyear1903
