One among many of the salutory effects of Columbus’s voyage to America was that America was declared for Christian Europe. If Columbus had not gone (I know he was looking for a route to the East Indies), the Muslims with their superior technology back then — the astrolobe — would’ve discovered America and declared that hemisphere for Islam.
Didn’t North African muslims favor a Meditteranean galley type of vessel as opposed to the cog/galleon type sailing vessel. Not saying that they couldn’t make the voyage, but exploiting such a discovery requires vessels with large volume and good sea-keeping abilities.