אילן-מדובר על כרתים המפרש קיים מ6000 BC
History[edit]
Egyptian sailing ship, ca. 1422–1411 BCE
Main article: Ship § History
Archaeological studies of the Cucuteni-Trypillian culture ceramics show use of sailing boats from the sixth millennium BC onwards.[5] Excavations of the Ubaid period (c. 6000 -4300 BC) in Mesopotamia provides direct evidence of sailing boats.[6]
Square rigs[edit]
Sails from ancient Egypt are depicted around 3200 BCE,[7][8] where reed boats sailed upstream against the River Nile's current. Ancient Sumerians used square rigged sailing boats at about the same time, and it is believed they established sea trading routes as far away as the Indus valley. The proto-Austronesian words for sail, lay(r), and other rigging parts date to about 3000 BCE when this group began their Pacific expansion.[9]Greeks and Phoenicians began trading by ship by around 1,200 BCE.
Fore-and-aft rigs
Fore-and-aft rig and Lateen
Triangular fore-and-aft rigs were invented in the Mediterranean as single-yarded lateen sails and independently in the Pacific as the more efficient bi-sparred crab claw sail,[10][11] and continue to be used throughout the world. During the 16th-19th centuries other fore-and-aft sails were developed in Europe, such as the spritsail, gaff rig, jib, genoa, staysail, and Bermuda rig mainsail, improving the upwind sailing ability of European vessels.
The fore-and-aft rig began as a convention of southern Europe and the Mediterranean Sea: the generally gentle climate made its use practical, and in Italy a few centuries before the Renaissance it began to replace the square rig which had dominated all of Europe since the dawn of sea travel. Northern Europeans were resistant to adopting the fore-and-aft rig, despite having seen its use in the course of trade and during the Crusades. The Renaissance changed this: beginning in 1475, their use increased and within a hundred years the fore-and-aft rig was in common use on rivers and in estuaries in Britain, northern France, and the Low Countries, though the square rig remained standard for the harsher conditions of the open North Sea as well as for trans-Atlantic sailing. The lateen sail proved to have better upwind performance for smaller vessels.[12]