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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Steel_Wind" data-source="post: 5675565" data-attributes="member: 20741">I agree wit this, especially as it relates to the Age of Sail and penetrating a hull. Though masts and rigging were always vulnerable. It was possible to nibble a SOL to death by ducks, rather than chomp it in two as if by an alligator.Increased range of the SOL guns made that a daring proposition, however.Speed of movement and speed of handling are two different concepts. A smaller ship is more deft and with a decent crew, could usually sail closer to the wind and, at all times, was easier to maneuver.  Sloop rigged vessels can sail closer to the wind than a square rigged ship.That said, a bigger ship is a faster ship when running or on a reach. The maximum speed by a keeled sailing vessel (as distinct from a powered vessel or a ship which can hydroplane either by engine or by sail) may be obtained by this simple formula:Max Speed (in knots) = 1.34 x [square root of the hull's length of waterline (measured in feet)]This is a matter of physics and fluid mechanics caused by successive trailing bow waves; it is not possible to violate this law unless the ship can be made to plane out of the water at the bow. Go faster than that and your bow will start to nose into the water and WILL break apart the vessel.  If you are ever being towed by another vessel, this is why you stand near the bow with a hatchet to cut the tow line in case the idiot in front goes too fast.A larger ship is always, by definition, a potentially faster ship. The hull length in contact with the water is the critical element. (This is also why a catamaran or trimaran is potentially faster than a single hulled vessel).The great sea voyages of the Cutty Sark and the other great clipper ships at the climax of the Age of Sail were fast because they were long and had massively huge sail surfaces.</blockquote>

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