Chapter 52

"Nothing more than that..." Luo Dacai, standing behind, saw his own vehicle-boat take the lead and gain an advantage, and began to mock Hong Tao again.

"No problem, no problem! The journey is still long!" Luo Youde was clearly much more composed than his steward, still comforting Hong Tao. In fact, he was now somewhat convinced that Hong Tao knew how to build ships. Although this small boat had a strange shape and its sails were also unusual, it was indeed very agile, not something a person who didn't understand shipbuilding could casually put together.

"Karl, those two are calling us idiots. What should we do?" Hong Tao ignored the two people behind him and carefully checked the overall condition of the new sailboat. After feeling that the ride was relatively stable, he spoke to Karl in German.

"They don't understand sailing. We still have two more sails to use. I've checked the hull, and the water intake is normal. Can we raise the jib now?" Karl held a position that was half army and half navy in his country; otherwise, he wouldn't have been leading the vanguard and been sunk by the enemy. Although he hadn't learned much from Hong Tao's sailing knowledge, he was completely convinced. Faced with an Easterner who could casually draw a map of the Mediterranean on the sand, it was impossible not to be impressed. If that map hadn't been drawn on the sand, Karl would have even wanted to secretly trace it, thinking that Hong Tao's map was more accurate than the royal maps of his country.

"Come on, let them see what a sailboat can do! If we win, this ship will be called the Karl, and you'll be the first captain!" Hong Tao was much more adept at convincing this German giant than the Song people. He threw all kinds of vague promises at him without a second thought. Karl fell for it immediately. At the thought of the opportunity to become a captain, he immediately sprang into action, spitting into his palms and pulling the ropes with all his might, raising the jib, which weighed several dozen pounds, by himself in just a few seconds. Then, like a big monkey, he jumped over the crisscrossing ropes and skillfully secured the jib to the forestay, not forgetting to give Hong Tao a thumbs-up.

"Oh, Brother Hong is indeed impressive! It seems the outcome is still uncertain!" Luo Youde couldn't help but praise Hong Tao when he saw another sail rise as if by magic and quickly find its direction. This wasn't just politeness. On the hard-sailed ships of the Song Dynasty, raising and adjusting the sails was very difficult, requiring the coordinated efforts of a dozen experienced sailors. Fixing the sail direction was a highly skilled task, one that only old shipwrights could handle. But Hong Tao and Karl had accomplished this task in just a minute. Even though the sail wasn't too large, Hong Tao's skills were evident.

"Watch out, the hull is about to tilt!" Hong Tao looked up at the wind vane on the top of the mast, then turned the rudder to the left and reminded Luo Youde and Luo Dacai.

"Ah..." Unfortunately, Luo Dacai still didn't trust Hong Tao and didn't listen. After the hull turned slightly, the strong side wind not only filled the two sails but also tilted the sailboat to the right by more than ten degrees. If Hong Tao hadn't been prepared and grabbed Luo Dacai, he would have plunged into the sea on the starboard side.

"This... this... lower the sails! Lower the sails! We'll capsize!" Luo Dacai was a seasoned sailor, and such a significant tilt without lowering the sails would have only one outcome: capsizing!

"Shh... don't panic, the best part is yet to come. Look, your vehicle-boat is almost caught up, right? Wait, I'll show you how my sailboat can speed up! Karl, go to the cabin and check. If there's no abnormality, prepare to raise the spinnaker!" Hong Tao hadn't experienced the thrill of cutting through the wind and waves in a long time. As the boat's speed increased, his blood began to boil. If he was going to win, he wanted to win beautifully. Two sails were enough to win, but they wouldn't fully demonstrate his shipbuilding skills. He needed to push harder!

"May the Goddess of the Sea protect us!..." When the large black spinnaker was also raised by Karl and slowly extended out of the bow, inflated by the wind like a big balloon, the sailboat's speed shot up instantly. The entire bow was pressed into the sea by the wind, then jumped up sharply, and the waves cascaded from the bow to the stern like a waterfall, drenching everyone on deck. The hull tilted to almost 30 degrees, with half of the bottom almost exposed, but it didn't capsize. Whenever the hull tilted further, Hong Tao would quickly turn the rudder to the right, turning the wind into a side wind, and when the hull returned to a more stable position, he would quickly turn the rudder to the left, causing the hull to tilt even more.

This technique was the forte of high-speed racing sailboat captains. Relying solely on adjusting the sail angles was too slow and time-consuming. As long as one could accurately grasp the performance of the sailboat and the changes in wind force, by quickly changing the sailboat's course, it was possible to maintain high speed without capsizing and without losing much wind force. Although the sailboat was swaying left and right, its speed was basically unaffected. In sailboat racing, when two sailboats approached each other and vied for the upwind position, this technique was used to maintain speed.

Could the Song Dynasty's sailboats do this? The answer was no. First, the sail area of Song Dynasty sailboats was too small to reach such speeds, and such operations were unnecessary. Second, the ships of this era had internal keels and no keel plates, making it impossible to tilt to 30 degrees without capsizing. Finally, the understanding of sails was different. The sails of the Song Dynasty were mainly downwind sails, meaning they could only achieve maximum propulsion in a downwind state. The competitive sailboat Hong Tao built was a side wind sail, which ran slower in a downwind state.

This principle, known as the Bernoulli principle, or the aerodynamic layout theory of aircraft wings, was currently known only to Hong Tao, assuming he was the only time traveler. When the sail is inflated, its shape resembles a vertical aircraft wing. When a side wind blows, the air flows at different speeds over the two sides of the sail, creating a pressure difference. This pressure difference is the most effective driving force of the sail, the force that can lift a hundred-ton aircraft. As long as the speed is fast enough and the air is cut quickly enough, the sailboat theoretically runs faster, though this is just a theory, as it also depends on the strength of the mast.

Vehicle-boat? In less than ten minutes, the vehicle-boat, which had been leading by three or four boat lengths, was already more than a hundred meters behind. The eight strong men were using all their strength, but they couldn't even catch the wake of the sailboat. They could only watch as this strange vessel with three huge black sails seemed to fly across the sea, getting farther and farther away. After another fifteen minutes, the vehicle-boat gave up the chase, turned around, and returned, admitting defeat. It was too demoralizing!

PS: If you're happy, clap your hands! While you're at it, give me some clicks, favorites, and recommendations. It's a small effort for you, but a huge encouragement for the writer...

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