Sailboats for Sale – Find Your Dream Boat

Everything about sailboats: types, how they work and technology

A sailboat is a boat with sails – simple enough, right? In principle, yes, but what sets the individual types apart, what's behind the different keel shapes, why do cats sail on two hulls, and why do some boats or yachts carry two masts?

What is a sailboat?

The name says it all: a sailboat is a watercraft driven by the wind in its sails. In modern usage, the term sailboat is also applied to sailing yachts. Today, only tall ships (e.g. the three-masted barque "Gorch Fock") or cargo sailing vessels are still referred to as sailing ships.
Sailboats are divided into two main categories: dinghies and keelboats, each of which can be built as a monohull or multihull.

How does sailing work?

Sailboats are pushed along by the wind when running before the wind (wind from astern) or on a broad reach (wind from the side, tending from astern). People have been sailing on this principle for more than five thousand years. Modern sail cuts and rig designs now also allow courses almost directly into the wind (close-hauled). As the boat moves forward, the wind generates a lift force across the sail. This is counteracted by the force of all the parts of the boat below the water. The opposing effect creates forward motion.

The sailing dinghy

The sailing dinghy is an open boat without a cabin, in which one or more centerboards, usually retractable, keep the sailboat on course when sailing close-hauled and prevent excessive leeway. Exceptions are dinghy cruisers (cabin and centerboard) or dinghies with a small cuddy cabin. When the boat heels, the centerboards also act as counterballast. Sailing dinghies can capsize (sails and mast on the water) and turn turtle (hull pointing upward, mast and sails underwater) for various reasons, such as too much wind with too much sail area, poor boat handling, or after a failed maneuver.
Most dinghies, however, can be righted again by the crew without any problem so they can carry on sailing. Modern dinghies have a bailing system that lets water that has come aboard drain away, for example after righting. Sporty monohull dinghies are mostly designed as planing dinghies. On older boats or on cruising dinghies, for example, the hard-chine hull shape is widespread.

Sailboats with a fixed keel

Sailboats with a fixed keel are often also called sailing yachts. On sailboats with a keel, the shape of the underwater hull (lateral plane) determines the amount of leeway when sailing. A distinction is made between keel-centerboarders (short keel combined with a centerboard), short-keeled boats and long-keeled boats.

The keel is largely responsible for the righting moment when sailing. That is why capsizes are less of a concern with keelboats. Even so, keelboats can also capsize or turn turtle in extreme wind and wave conditions out on the oceans. In most cases, though, they right themselves again afterwards.
Large offshore racing yachts are often fitted with a swing keel, which is swung to windward underwater to provide an additional righting moment. You can find a detailed definition of the various keel types here: keel types

Sailing at an Angle

When sailboats heel, the crew hikes out – either leaning their body to windward or hanging from a trapeze wire – in order to sail the sailboat as upright as possible. This increases the boat's speed (more of the sail area in use is converted into additional drive) and improves stability, because the heeling is reduced.

Sailboats for Every Purpose

Depending on their design, sailboats with a keel are sailed on inland lakes and rivers, along the coast, and even nonstop across the oceans and around the world. The interiors (cabins) of keelboats are fitted out more or less luxuriously and comfortably according to different needs (number of berths, galley layout, heads, etc.).
Today there are sailboats with a keel to suit every aesthetic taste and every intended use. The building materials are just as varied: wood, steel, aluminum, glass fiber, ferrocement, GRP, carbon, hemp composite, etc. You can find a detailed definition of the various sailboat types here: Sailboat Types

Multihulls

Open multihulls (catamaran = two hulls, which are called floats // trimaran = two floats and one hull in the middle) sail considerably faster than monohulls in all wind strengths, both as dinghies and as large cabin yachts. The reason for this lies in the narrower hulls or floats (less resistance in the water), of which ideally at least one float lifts out of the water while sailing.

The Future Has Foils

Modern high-tech sailboats for racing (monohulls as well as multihulls) are increasingly being designed to use foils. On these differently configured centerboards and rudders, the boats lift fully or partly above the surface of the water, multiplying their speed thanks to the reduced water resistance. In doing so, they often sail considerably faster than the true wind.