Sailboats - Are They Automobiles?

"Matt Brown" (superfastmatt) 10/17/2019 at 12:30 • Filed to: Sailopnik, everything is an automobile

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When somebody says automobile, they are usually talking about those four-wheeled things with internal combustion engines. Most sailboats have an engine on board to move around the marina, and I think this clearly makes the sailboat an automobile. Wheels are not a requirement to be mobile. What are those things called that you use in the snow that kind of look like fat motorcycles? Snow mobiles . No wheels, still mobile. Mobility is the goal and wheels are simply an efficient way to become mobile on land.

If you preclude the engine from the equation, is it still an automobile? A sailboat doesn’t move under its “own” power, but it is still mobile. Just because it doesn’t carry a source of energy onboard doesn’t preclude it. Sure, it is pulling energy out of the air, but so is your car! internal combustion doesn’t work unless you have oxygen to complete the combustion, and where do you get that? The air around you.

“Sure, Matt,” you say, “but only if you’re going the same direction as the wind.”

Wrong!

You can sail into the wind, you just have to zig-zag 45 degrees into the wind. The sail acts as an airfoil, giving you “lift” towards the oncoming wind. It’s called sailing close-hauled, and it’s pretty great if you like throwing up over the side of a boat.

“But what if the wind is not blowing at all?”

It is basically impossible to not move in a sailboat; there is always going to be some current or gust or drift. Sometimes it is not an efficient or ideal automobile, but it is still an automobile. And if you have the anchor out? That’s the parking brake.

“But what if it is on land, and not in the water?”

What if your car is in the water and not on land? Then what?

Sailboats are automobiles.

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For Sweden > Matt Brown 10/17/2019 at 12:35

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Sailboats are air planes

I like cars: Jim Spanfeller is one ugly motherfucker > Matt Brown 10/17/2019 at 12:36

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then I guess shoes are automobiles too

Mercedes Streeter > Matt Brown 10/17/2019 at 12:37

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That headline reminds me of this, and now I hate you

Grindintosecond > Matt Brown 10/17/2019 at 12:38

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the equatorial winds suck.....not much there. South ocean though, theres nothing to stop the winds of Jupiter circling the planet!

Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) > Matt Brown 10/17/2019 at 12:39

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Good take, sailboats are definitely automobiles. But the only problem is where do you draw the line. By the same logic, a bicycle must be an automobile. One could even argue that a pair of running shoes were an automobile or simply that the Earth is an Automobile being powered by the Sun’s gravity. Are blood cells automobiles for nutrients?

benjrblant > For Sweden 10/17/2019 at 12:42

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airships?

Matt Brown > For Sweden 10/17/2019 at 12:42

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Water planes?

Airplanes are automobiles according to the Society of Automotive Engineers. 

Snuze: Needs another Swede > Matt Brown 10/17/2019 at 12:45

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HOT DOGS ARE SANDWICHES!

For Sweden > Matt Brown 10/17/2019 at 12:45

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boatplanes

RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > Matt Brown 10/17/2019 at 12:47

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Senseless nitpicking: the bond dissociation energy of O=CO in carbon dioxide and the bond dissociation energy of O=O in oxygen are nearly the same. The O-H bond in water vs. O=O is pretty similar as well. So, it’s not so much that the oxygen is bringing energy to the table as it is that oxygen is necessary for the energy on board to be released.

More to the semantics game - a sailboat may move under its own power as a non-traditional definition of “own power” and an unusual usage of “automobile”. In the same way that you could say a justice of the peace is actually a sheriff because he fills the position of a reeve for a specific shire (district). The word has developed beyond its etymology in virtually every use.

What’s really clear is that a sailboat isn’t a car. A Radio Flyer kind of is, though. Maybe .

Middle English carre, borrowed from Anglo-Norman carre, from Old Northern French (compare Old French char), from Latin carra, neuter plural of carrus (“four-wheeled baggage wagon”), or Gaulish origin.

Matt Brown > Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) 10/17/2019 at 12:49

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Every  physical object is an automobile except hotdogs.

MasterMario - Keeper of the V8s > For Sweden 10/17/2019 at 12:50

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But what are boat planes then?

For Sweden > MasterMario - Keeper of the V8s 10/17/2019 at 12:52

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boat planes are aqua cars.

MasterMario - Keeper of the V8s > Matt Brown 10/17/2019 at 12:52

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That boat in the second picture is gorgeous.

Also this boat is great. I love the “commercial turned recreational” look.

https://www.billyblack.com/marcato/g6cfasp12p61jo5pto894jggfygkrr

MasterMario - Keeper of the V8s > For Sweden 10/17/2019 at 12:54

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But...

For Sweden > MasterMario - Keeper of the V8s 10/17/2019 at 12:54

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That’s a boat plane

MasterMario - Keeper of the V8s > For Sweden 10/17/2019 at 12:56

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Chariotoflove > I like cars: Jim Spanfeller is one ugly motherfucker 10/17/2019 at 13:05

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Indeed.

Aremmes > Matt Brown 10/17/2019 at 13:06

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TRUE FACT: Sailboats are the OG autonomous vehicles. When Joshua Slocum sailed around the world he rarely touched the helm once he set it, and on one run he logged 2,000 miles without manning the helm. Try that with a Tesla.

CalzoneGolem > Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) 10/17/2019 at 13:14

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I feel like a bicycle is a manualmobile.

Matt Brown > Chariotoflove 10/17/2019 at 13:18

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Hah! well played.

Matt Brown > RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht 10/17/2019 at 13:20

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S ense less nitpicking is why we’re here; thank you for your contribution.

Thomas Donohue > Matt Brown 10/17/2019 at 13:32

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Boats and ships existed long before automobiles became a thing.

They don’t need, or want, to be called automobiles.

See also: Horseless Carriage

If only EssExTee could be so grossly incandescent > Matt Brown 10/17/2019 at 14:02

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By that metric, tumbleweeds and plastic bags are automobiles.

Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) > CalzoneGolem 10/17/2019 at 15:21

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Wouldnt a sail boat under wind power be a manualmobile then? Its not like you just put up the sail and off you go in whatever direction you want. It requires human input to make it work right. But then again all automobiles (unless self driving) also require some human input so it just depends on where you draw that line. A bicycle has gears and brakes just like a car, some often even costing more than a car!

Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) > Matt Brown 10/17/2019 at 15:22

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You’re a towel

CalzoneGolem > Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) 10/17/2019 at 15:25

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No, the wind is the power not you.

Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) > CalzoneGolem 10/17/2019 at 15:27

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What about a bike going downhill? Isnt gravity the power? And pedaling uphill could then be seen like doing the 45 degree upwind stuff in the sail boat. Where the wind is the equivalent to gears on a bike in that case. Human effort is required to constantly change direction in the sail boat just like pedaling and shifting gears on a bike. 

CB > Matt Brown 10/17/2019 at 16:27

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It’s a vessel.

Kumicho > Matt Brown 10/17/2019 at 17:32

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Sounds like someone has never been sitting on a sailboat surrounded by "air" and not moving due to a lack of wind... 

Poor_Sh > Matt Brown 10/17/2019 at 18:49

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But are hotdogs sandwiches?

Poor_Sh > Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) 10/17/2019 at 18:50

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No you’re a towel!

Urambo Tauro > Matt Brown 10/17/2019 at 19:07

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Honestly, I feel like “automobile” was always the wrong word for what we know recognize as its common usage. The word really should have been reserved for describing autonomous vehicles . What term should we have been using all along to refer to manually-driven cars in the meantime? Probably “motormobile” or something like that.

functionoverfashion > Matt Brown 10/21/2019 at 13:01

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Speaking of pedantics, I think the keel / centerboard / daggerboard has a lot more to do with how a sailboat goes upwind than the shape of the sail. The modern things they’re using in the America’s Cup are a whole different animal, but a traditional sailboat would slide directly downwind if not for the keel, regardless of the shape of its sail. 

Matt Brown > functionoverfashion 10/21/2019 at 13:15

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If I’m not mistaken, the sail generates lift a little bit forward and a lot to the side, and the keel counteracts the “a lot to the side” by generating a pure lateral force the other direction that prevents the boat from tipping over.

So the sail makes it go forward, and the keel prevents it from falling over.

functionoverfashion > Matt Brown 10/21/2019 at 14:47

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I believe you are correct on that