[poconopundit]

Hey Openurmind,

You tackled the key question I had about the Viking vessels: how did they sail to windward?  Your link on this subject was excellent!

When I was a kid growing up on Cape Cod, a popular sail boat was the cat boat.

It was easy on a 14 foot Beetle Cat to understand the problem of sailing into the wind.  A catboat is designed to operate in shallow waters (for fishing or shellfishing) -- perfect for the relatively shallow Nantucket Sound and the many inlets on the Cape.

And because catboats have no keel and almost no draft, they are equipped with a retractable centerboard attacked to the hull by a simple hinge.  That was useful: if your catboat hit bottom (such as a sandbar), the centerboard was forced up with no damage to the boat.

You really got a feel for the forces at play in sailing to windward.  In a moderate wind, you could even raise the centerboard yourself and notice: the sail was full, but you were making zero progress going in the windward direction.

[Openurmind]

Good morning and thank you for sharing. Yep... I am all in with how the design principles and forces work. Mast placement, Sheet shape, Keels, Center Boards, Etc. It is a science to make a vessel handle well and make the best of the forces/counter forces involved.

Another interesting shallow draft vessel is used by the Dutch and they have swing down side Leeboards rather than a keel. Very cool innovation from centuries ago...

But for myself I am still trying to figure out the advantage of the Viking Steerboard and why they clung to it for so long. They obviously understood the principles and I'm sure they considered using a Rudder instead but they never did. I realize it can be lowered or raised for shallow draft reasons but it still perplexes me. There had to be an advantage of some sort other than just the draft issue.

[SunkenCiv]

Oooh, nice link!