Our sea water daily newspaper Fatigue, small or large, to hoist a sail for millennia is the sacrifice that man makes to ingratiate himself to Nature winds. This year, as more than forty years, Trieste has renewed the great sailing festival, called
Barcolana .
bays of this beautiful city that specchia nell'Adriatico, diventano per una settimana il libero proscenio di migliaia di vele, di decine di migliaia di marinai di lungo corso o solo per un giorno. Per tutti la regata domenicale è l'occasione per ritrovarsi, confrontarsi, chiacchierare sulla comune, grande passione della vela.
Nel gergo marinaresco vela sta per nave, “piegar le vele” significa finire una navigazione come qualsiasi altro lavoro, “far vela” equivale a partire, con un più intenso significato malinconico. “Andare a gonfie vele” è ancora in uso, a oltre mezzo secolo dalla definitiva sostituzione della vela con il motore sulle barche da lavoro, a testimonianza dell’efficacia figurativa di questo modo di dire. Have fallen into oblivion but most of the nearly thirty verbs related to the noun. If hoist or douse are quite well known, luff or terms are based on the sailors, and infer, rails, wall, cappeggiare, arms, are now unknown even to a sailor.
Quadra was the first form of sailing, perhaps leaves woven cane, then linen fiber, followed by hemp and cotton. The evolution of materials paralleled that of geometric shapes, triangular or trapezoidal, each with its own characteristics, with even better performance. Paintings, Latin, gaff, the third, only the simplest of the distribution of different sails on the boats were armed, more or less old. Marconi mainsail and jib, the most common today. Mainsail, staysail, steering wheel, cage, velacci, flock, controflocco, knife, a belvedere, and dozens of other names still were in use on the latest, large and fast transport ships. That sail is ancient history, a constant evolution of shapes, fabrics, techniques, a journey from the engine stopped working about fifty years ago, but maybe that will resume in a not so distant future.
The encyclopedic complexity of forms and techniques, adventures and stories, still dissolves safely into the simple, quiet pleasure of being carried by sailing from one port to another, to take the sea in complete harmony with nature, like birds in the wind. The sail up the bow to the wind, stands erect with the first strength, then you fucking sign depending on the route you want to keep the wind and sea conditions permitting. The boat as if by magic takes the right angle and begins to move the rudder from Appendix dead come alive, sensitive, essential. Then when the wind exceeds a certain intensity, the sailor knows that it is appropriate to reduce the canvas: reefed or replacing it with a smaller one. Hoist the sails and lowered, the slide garocci jib on the forestay, the following headline the luff of the mainsail, the sail of the gooseneck shaft runs in the third. In ancient harmony, like the wings of birds, the sails combine the best instances of the ship with the laws of the wind, bringing away people and goods, ideas and dreams.