A sailboat moves through water using wind power. That power, however, isn’t the only thing pushing the boat. The long, flat keel submerged beneath the hull pivots upward with the movement of the boat to create a sideways force proportional to the speed and direction of the wind. This is called drag and cancels the forward winding force generated by the sails.
Aside from the keel, most sailing boats have a mast, rigging, sails and a helm. The helm controls the steering of the ship and is operated by the skipper. The mast is the vertical pole that supports the sails and rigging. The mast is usually made of aluminum to reduce weight and increase strength.
The sails are shaped like airfoils to generate lift. Two prominent theories explain exactly how the interaction of wind and sails generates that lift: Bernoulli’s theorem and Newton’s Third Law. Bernoulli’s theorem, also called the Longer Path Explanation, explains that air or water particles moving over a sail’s shape have higher and lower pressure on either side of the longer-path surface. This causes them to migrate from the high-pressure side to the low-pressure side.
Newton’s Third Law explains the counteraction to this motion by generating a resistive force proportional to the speed and direction of movement. This force is balanced by the component of lift provided by the sails and the opposing component of keel lift. For equilibrium motion, these forces cancel each other out to generate forward thrust.
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