4 ms·

Dunno about grain mills, but sailers have long known about trade winds and the doldrums.

• pjmlp 5y ago
  Including the ability to develop sails that allow taking advantage of Wind in the opposing direction. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lateen https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lateen
  • dan-robertson 5y ago
    What is the relevance of sailing upwind to the doldrums (where there was little wind) or to trade winds (which reasonably consistently blew in the same direction as the trade)? Even the article you linked suggested that early modern sailors would change to a square rigging once they got out of the changing winds of the Mediterranean. So clearly there were some advantages to square rigs (perhaps they could be made larger than triangular or gaff rigs with technology of the time.) And it would likely be foolish to plan a route to beat up a trade wind even if you could sail close to it, as you would likely be much slower than following the winds. On contemporary boats, it seems that Bermudan rigs win as they can sail close to the wind and can also be large. But most people who go sailing today are not taking large ships across oceans so their requirements as well as their technology will be different.
    • pjmlp 5y ago
      Like polyglot development nowadays, naturally the best ones wouldn't bet their ship in a single technology.
    • jabl 5y ago
      > So clearly there were some advantages to square rigs They are generally considered to be more efficient in a following wind. Also an accidental gybe with a large fore-and-aft rigged sail can be a very dangerous affair.