A SAILOR

A sailor or mariner is a person who navigates water-borne vessels or assists in their operation, maintenance, or service. The term can apply to professional mariners, military personnel, and recreational sailors as well as a plethora of other uses. Etymologically, the name preserves the memory of the time when ships were commonly powered by sails, but applies to the personnel of all vessels, whatever their mode of locomotion.

Professional mariners hold a variety of professions and ranks which are fairly standard, with the exception of slight naming differences around the world. Common categories by department include the Deck department, the Engineering department, and the Steward's department. Mariners can also be categorized by status as a senior licensed mariners or unlicensed mariners.

A number of professional mariners have left the industry and led noteworthy lives in the naval services or on the shore. For example, Traian Băsescu, started his career as a third mate in 1976 and is now the President of Romania. Arthur Phillip joined the Merchant Navy in 1751 and 37 years later founded Sydney, Australia. Merchant mariner Douglass North went from seaman to navigator to win the 1993

Sailing is the art of controlling a boat with large pieces of canvas cloth called sails. By changing the rigging, rudder, and dagger or centre board, a sailor manages the force of the wind on the sails in order to change the direction and speed of a boat. Mastery of the skill requires experience in varying wind and sea conditions, as well as knowledge concerning sailboats.

Throughout history sailing has been instrumental in the development of civilization. The earliest representation of a ship under sail appears on an Egyptian vase from about 3500 B.C. Advances in sailing technology from the Middle Ages onward enabled Arab, Chinese, Indian and European explorers to make longer voyages into regions with extreme weather and climatic conditions. Improvements were made in the design of sails, masts and rigging, and navigational equipment became more sophisticated. From the 15th century onwards, European ships went further north, stayed longer on the Grand Banks and in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and eventually began to explore the Pacific Northwest and the Western Arctic.

Sailing boats with one hull are "monohulls", those with two are "catamarans", those with three are "trimarans". A boat is turned by a rudder, which itself is controlled by a tiller or a wheel, while at the same time adjusting the sheeting angle of the sails. Smaller sailing boats often have a stabilising, raisable, underwater fin called a centreboard (or dagger board); larger sailing boats have a fixed (or sometimes canting) keel. As a general rule, the former are called dinghies, the latter keelboats. However, up until the adoption of the Racing Rules of Sailing, any vessel racing under sail was considered a yacht, be it a multi-masted ship-rigged vessel (such as a sailing frigate), a sailboard (more commonly referred to as a windsurfer) or remote-controlled boat, or anything in between. (see Dinghy sailing)

Multihulls use flotation and/or weight positioned away from the centre line of the sailboat to counter the force of the wind. This is in contrast to heavy ballast that can account for up to 90% (in extreme cases like AC boats) of the weight of a monohull sailboat. In the case of a standard catamaran there are two similarly sized and shaped slender hulls connected by beams, which are sometimes overlaid by a deck superstructure. Another catamaran variation is the proa. In the case of trimarans, which have an unballasted centre hull similar to a monohull, two relatively smaller amas are situated parallel to the centre hull to resist the sideways force of the wind. The advantage of multihulled sailboats is that they do not suffer the performance penalty of having to carry heavy ballast, and their relatively lesser draft reduces the amount of drag, caused by friction and inertia, when moving through the water.