All sailboats have a hull
The hull is (ideally) the floating body of a boat, and it can be made of a wide
variety of materials, including wood, fiberglass, metal, plastic — even cement.
The hull can be as small as a surfboard or more than 100 feet (30 meters) long.
You can get a good idea about how fast a boat is by how it looks. Just as you
can tell that a sports car will be faster than a golf cart, you can tell that a big,
heavy, wide boat with a short mast is a good cruiser but won’t break any
speed records on the water. Sailboats fall into three basic types based on
their hull shape, as Figure 1-1 illustrates.
Sailboards: These boatsare basically surfboards with a sail. Theycome
in many different sizes and shapes, depending on their intended use and
the skill level of the rider. Sailboarding is a great way to enjoy the sport
with equipment that you can throw on the roof of your car. For fun,
recreational sailing (as opposed to racing), we love sailboarding more
than any other aspect of our sport. For those of you who doubt the aero-
bic benefits of the sport of sailing, try windsurfing for an afternoon. We
promise that every muscle in your body will be tired afterward. For
more on sailboarding, check out Chapter 18.
Multihulls: Multihulls are boats with more than one hull (makes sense,
doesn’t it?). A boat with two hulls is called acatamaran;a boat with
three hulls, atrimaran. Multihulls, especially small, light ones, can be
thrilling to sail — with a little wind, one hull lifts out of the water, and
you feel like you’re flying across the water. (You can find out more about
sailing a small catamaran, often referred to as a cat[without the fur] in
Chapter 11.) Bigger multihulls (more than 30 feet, or 9 meters) can be
great cruising boats. Because of their width, they’re very stable and
Multihull
Monohull
Sailboard
Figure 1-1:
Three types
of sailboats:
sailboard,
multihull,
and
monohull.
13
Chapter 1: Ready, Set, Go: Time to Start Sailing
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