Sailboat facts for kids
A sailboat, sailing boat or yacht is a boat that has sails. Wind blows against the sails, pushing the boat through the water. The word covers many kinds of boats, from small sailboards to large sailing ships. Usually, a sailboat has two sails: a mainsail and a head sail or jib. When the wind blows from behind, there can be used an extra sail, a spinnaker.
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Types
Although sailboat terminology has varied across history, many terms have specific meanings in the context of modern yachting. A great number of sailboat-types may be distinguished by size, hull configuration, keel type, purpose, number and configuration of masts, and sail plan.
Popular monohull designs include:
Cutter
The cutter is similar to a sloop with a single mast and mainsail, but generally carries the mast further aft to allow for a jib and staysail to be attached to the head stay and inner forestay, respectively. Once a common racing configuration, today it gives versatility to cruising boats, especially in allowing a small staysail to be flown from the inner stay in high winds.
Catboat
A catboat has a single mast mounted far forward and does not carry a jib. Most modern designs have only one sail, the mainsail; however, the traditional catboat could carry multiple sails from the gaff rig.
Dinghy
A dinghy is a type of small open sailboat commonly used for recreation, sail training, and tending a larger vessel. They are popular in youth sailing programs for their short LOA, simple operation and minimal maintenance. They have three (or fewer) sails: the mainsail, jib, and spinnaker.
Ketch
Ketches are similar to a sloop, but there is a second shorter mast astern of the mainmast, but forward of the rudder post. The second mast is called the mizzen mast and the sail is called the mizzen sail.
Schooner
A schooner has a mainmast taller than its foremast, distinguishing it from a ketch or a yawl. A schooner can have more than two masts, with the foremast always lower than the foremost main. Traditional topsail schooners have topmasts allowing triangular topsails sails to be flown above their gaff sails; many modern schooners are Bermuda rigged.
Sloop
The most common modern sailboat is the sloop, which features one mast and two sails, typically a Bermuda rigged main, and a headsail. This simple configuration is very efficient for sailing into the wind.
A fractional rigged sloop has its forestay attached at a point below the top of the mast, allowing the mainsail to be flattened to improve performance by raking the upper part of the mast aft by tensioning the backstay. A smaller headsail is easier for a short-handed crew to manage.
Yawl
A yawl is similar to a ketch, with a shorter mizzen mast carried astern the rudderpost more for balancing the helm than propulsion.
Hulls
Traditional sailboats are monohulls, but multi-hull catamarans and trimarans are gaining popularity. Monohull boats generally rely on ballast for stability. This creates two problems; one, it gives the monohull tremendous inertia, making it less maneuverable and reducing its acceleration. Secondly, unless it has been built with buoyant foam or air tanks, if a monohull fills with water, it will sink.
Multihulls rely on the geometry and the broad stance of their multiple hulls for their stability. Some multihulls are designed to be as light-weight as possible. They can be built with foam-filled flotation chambers and some modern trimarans are rated as unsinkable, meaning that, should every crew compartment be completely filled with water, the hull itself has sufficient buoyancy to remain afloat.
Keel
All vessels have a keel , it is the backbone of the hull. In traditional construction, it is the structure upon which all else depends.
Most modern monohull boats have fin keels, which are heavy and deep, but short in relation to the hull length. More traditional yachts carried a full keel which is generally half or more of the length of the boat. A recent feature is a winged keel, which is short and shallow, but carries a lot of weight in two "wings" which run sideways from the main part of the keel. Even more recent is the concept of canting keels, designed to move the weight at the bottom of a sailboat to the upwind side, allowing the boat to carry more sails.
Multihulls, on the other hand, have minimal need for such ballast, as they depend on the geometry of their design, the wide base of their multiple hulls, for their stability.
Mast
On small sailboats, masts may be "stepped" (put in place) with the bottom end in a receptacle that is supported above the keel of the boat or on the deck or other superstructure that allows the mast to be raised at a hinge point until it is erect. Some masts are supported solely at the keel and laterally at the deck and are called "unstayed". Most masts rely in part or entirely (for those stepped on the deck) on standing rigging, supporting them side-to-side and fore-and aft to hold them up. Masts over 25 feet (7.6 m) may require a crane and are typically stepped on the keel through any cabin or other superstructure.
Images for kids
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Sailboat on Lake Constance, Germany.
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Bermuda rigged sloop at Convict Bay, Bermuda, circa 1879
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See also
In Spanish: Embarcación de vela para niños
