Jessica Watson sails the world
Posted: Tue May 18, 2010 8:25 amhttp://www.adelaidenow.com.au/travel/ne ... 5867142138
Watson:
210 Days. 1 Boat, 1 crew (herself).
Megellan's Expedition:
3 years 27 days. 5 ships, 260 men (18 completed the trip, Magellan himself perishing).
I am not making a joke with the comparison, but merely mention some things that struck me about this story.
Unpowered sailing is a simple system. There have been few improvements in the actual methods of sailing. The priciples have not changed.
What has change of course are materials, what the boat hull is made of, the types of ropes and sails, the shape of the hull.
And the Navigational technology for navigation (GPS vs astrolabes, compass, cross staffs and sun dial etc, all pre-chronometer days, so no accurate measure of longitude)
All of this allowed a 16 year old little girl (with a heck of a lot of moxy) to do what took all those men and boats barely did ~490 years ago.
I find this striking because, as I said sailing itslef is a simple system. Flying, when broken down, is a little harder, but not much. The 4 forces, and the aerodynamic principles, and the an air frame to manage them. Thats all you need at minimum. Look at the Breezey RLU. Its the absolute basics of flying.
We have all heard/read/spoke of how fast aviation jumped from Kitty Hawk to Cape Canaveral in so short of time. If we have advanced sailing such that this gal can pull this off, then where will aviation be in 50 or 75 years?
Maybe I am being swept a little by seeing her success, a little in awe, even. But I have always that that is exactly what the spirit of exploration was supposed to do.
Watson:
210 Days. 1 Boat, 1 crew (herself).
Megellan's Expedition:
3 years 27 days. 5 ships, 260 men (18 completed the trip, Magellan himself perishing).
I am not making a joke with the comparison, but merely mention some things that struck me about this story.
Unpowered sailing is a simple system. There have been few improvements in the actual methods of sailing. The priciples have not changed.
What has change of course are materials, what the boat hull is made of, the types of ropes and sails, the shape of the hull.
And the Navigational technology for navigation (GPS vs astrolabes, compass, cross staffs and sun dial etc, all pre-chronometer days, so no accurate measure of longitude)
All of this allowed a 16 year old little girl (with a heck of a lot of moxy) to do what took all those men and boats barely did ~490 years ago.
I find this striking because, as I said sailing itslef is a simple system. Flying, when broken down, is a little harder, but not much. The 4 forces, and the aerodynamic principles, and the an air frame to manage them. Thats all you need at minimum. Look at the Breezey RLU. Its the absolute basics of flying.
We have all heard/read/spoke of how fast aviation jumped from Kitty Hawk to Cape Canaveral in so short of time. If we have advanced sailing such that this gal can pull this off, then where will aviation be in 50 or 75 years?
Maybe I am being swept a little by seeing her success, a little in awe, even. But I have always that that is exactly what the spirit of exploration was supposed to do.
