Discussion Groups / English Usage / January 2004

http://www.history.rochester.edu/Scientific_American/vol1/vol1n007/p1c1.htm

Lost Time never regained.
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[WRITTEN ON HEARING A PERSON REMARK THAT HE INTENDED "TO KETCH UP LOST TIME
WITH A WET SAIL."]
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When sailors, heedless of their duty, sleep,
Neglecting every favorable gale,
They'll find it hard their after-course to keep,
With a wet sail.

There is a tide in the affairs of men,
Which all should watch with carefulness to hail;
Once miss'd, it scarcely can be caught again,
With a wet sail.

And yet who wishes cautiously to live,
Fixing no hopes on phantoms which may fail,
Will not a chase to every object give
With a wet sail.

The swiftest do not always first arrive,
In war the strongest do not aye prevail;
The keep the golden means, nor ceaseless drive
With a wet sail.

Think not to eagerness alone is given
The happy mind which nothing can assail;
He's on the wrong track who would enter heaven
With a wet sail.

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Seems the practice of wetting sails to take advantage of the wind has been
known a while (though I'm not sure how it works and whether we need an
aerodynamicist or a physicist to tell us)
http://www3.teleplex.net/timonier/speaks/book04.html

<< The log records at least hourly adjustments to the sails, still seeking
any and every advantage. At dawn on the 19th, four British ships still were
in sight, but at least twelve miles distant. Not satisfied, Hull had his
crew begin wetting the sails with sea water brought aboard with fire pumps.
Constitution sped on, and at 8:15 the British were seen to give up, change
course to the north, and, Hull thought, probably return to their cruising
station off New York. >>

And in the US Civil War:

http://www.usigs.org/library/books/ma/Marblehead1880/Marblehead015.htm

<< The men were constantly employed in wetting the sails, and as the wind
filled them, and the speed of the ship increased, the stratagem had the
desired effect. >>
--
John Dean
Oxford
De-frag to reply

newsgroupreader@REMOVEcomcast.net spake thus:

I don't recognise the phrase, but I do recognise the practice.  As a
teenager I spent all my spare time sailing dinghies - teaching and
racing.  We used to throw water at the sails when the wind was very
slight.  I'm not entirely sure whey we did this - the behaviour was
learned from our elders - but I suppose it was to make the sails hang
more heavily and take the wind better.

There are issues around this.  Modern synthetic sails do not take on
water in the same way as cotton sails, so I guess whatever benefit
was gained would no longer work.  In very light winds, a dinghy is
heeled over hard to leeward to try to assist the boom to pull down on
the sail, and the sailors all crowd to the front of the boat to put
the bow down - this reduces the surface area in contact with the
water and so cuts drag.

When racing, throwing water at the sails was frowned upon as the act
of collecting water in a bailer could be construed as paddling.  You
certainly wouldn't collect the water in such a way as to paddle
backwards.

Okay, thank you.  But if a sheet (1) is wet, won't a sail be
likely to be wet, also?