- Sails don’t catch the wind
- like parachutes
- but billow out a little
- to form a foil. Passing
- over the curved outside, wind
- has to move more quickly,
- which creates a zone
- of lower pressure
- that pulls the boat forward.
- There’s that—the science
- —somewhere between
- the technical requirements
- (of masts, sails, and rigging)
- and the mystery.