"I wonder if a sail shouldn't be consider "mechanical" propulsion though.
=|:-)
The mast and rigging are could be consider parts of a "machine" as well as
the
sail. A vessel under sail is certainly not human powered. Not sure how you'd
rate the horsepower!!!!! "

I believe that the hp is rated at the square of the wind speed with some
formula for the size of the sail, angle of attack, and some constant that
allows the engineers to fudge everything into working.

OK, so I didn't go to the reference books like I clearly should have, I am
not in school today. ;-)

Brian

Brian Combs wrote:
"I wonder if a sail shouldn't be consider "mechanical" propulsion though.
=|:-)
The mast and rigging are could be consider parts of a "machine" as well as
the
sail. A vessel under sail is certainly not human powered. Not sure how you'd
rate the horsepower!!!!! "

I believe that the hp is rated at the square of the wind speed with some
formula for the size of the sail, angle of attack,

[dynamically varying sail leech curvature, material stretch,
spanwise varying camber and angle of attack, laminar flow and
turbulence, boat speed apparant wind less actual wind, etc, etc,
etc, an impossibly inconstant equational computation, estimable
only, or comparable to a similar boat in similar waves and windage,
at similar speed, averaged over time, -tk]

and some constant that
allows the engineers to fudge everything into working.

OK, so I didn't go to the reference books like I clearly should have, I am
not in school today. ;-)
Brian

We are all in school, every instant.

A harness is not a machine, but a mere tether, attachments
attempting contol over an otherwise wild, uncontrollable beast of
nature, the wind, a current, a horse, whatever. A steering wheel is
not a perfectly tame motor, even if it is a machine (a string is a
machine?) controlling the direction of an engine, a controllable
mechanical work multiplyer, prime mover, or motor. Is an oar a
machine, or a harness, in which a man works, harnessed by his desire?

No Luddite government has any right to license all machines, any
more than it may license breathing, nor living itself. The "head
tax" was long ago declared illegal under the common law of the land,
don't forget. The descendants of Chinese railroad workers are
getting the ancient, illegal head tax back. They should get
interest, too, but that would break the government, as if it was not
already bankrupt.

Let's not forget, what started all this powerboat operator -
licensing boats hoopla about 5 years ago was supposedly to slow down
the PWC kiddy monsters, right? We all bitched about it. High power
to weight ratios combined with bad behavoir was to be the target.
It's a bad law. Guns don't kill, people kill, by their behavoir.

Regular tort law damage suits, nuisance regulations, and vigilante
action, etc. weren't able to regulate the kiddies any better than
their parents should have done but did not? Because the kiddies ran
away, and could, because they were not required to have large
numbered identification plates visible on the rear of their vessels,
much like the commercial highway trailers shielding the plates on
the tractors towing them without useable id plates that "Justice"
permits? Corporatism wins another one?

Citzens, unite! complain to the police every time you see a truck
without plates, follow them, point them out to police. Complain!
Demand criminal penalties! Press charges. Go to court, Testify! The
trenches of our revolution are not dug into any ground, but float,
ephemeral as words, all around each of us.

So now, some government department hot to generate more cash
turnover and more opportunities for GRAFT have decided to pass some
law that infringes on BASIC HUMAN RIGHTS by requiring a FEE illegal
according to the MAGNA CHARTA and now you all want to discuss wether
or not a sail is a machine, or is a motor an engine?

Is it reasonable to change the law of the land by legislating a
change in the meaning of words employed correctly in the past? It
is not lawful to make any thing that was not illegal yesterday,
illegal today.

You have become distracted from the real issue here, a tactic that
some government agencies are using to better and better advantage,
only because you let them do it. Still got beer and TV and pro
sports, and Don Cherry? Who needs justice, eh? Who needs freedom of
speech? Who, property rights? Who, freedom to think?

By God, I'll go down in a burning pool of Sterno before some
government gangsters tell me I can't live and eat, sleep and
defecate on my boat if I want to, or need to.

If I offend a free man, come to me and we will mete justice between
us. Failing that, show where I have caused you damages before a
magistrate, and he will send bailiffs to extract compensation from
me for you. Such is the nature of the only possible system of equal
justice for all. All other nonsense is tyrranny and oppression of
free men by him with the biggest stick. I will not stand still for
it! Verily, The American Revolution was fought to stop this kind of
bull****!

"The government", a hired bunch of administrators of our common
laws, does not own the salty ocean or the free running waters of
life. The public does. We, the public, have resolved that wereas
it is neccessary to protect us the public from rapacious merchants,
bankers and organised corporate gangs who limit their liability by
scurrilous means, there must be government administered regulation
of the use of the public's highways and waterways to defend the
right of the public to unfettered lawful use of the public's roads
and waterways, without hindrance, against abuse by powerful business
and corporations, who would otherwise chase the public out of any
area they want to monopolize for their own profit by threats, even
by death, another form of theft. The government has no right or
lawful power to demand fees in this regard from the public, and as
such, the logical lawful authority in the land (our God given
mouldering dead forefathers' bodies and souls who fought for freedom
and equality before the law) rightly and lawfully demands that we
overturn by force if neccessary any elected government
representative who has voted to implement plainly unjust laws.

If you don't do it, you have no right to call yourself a free man,
you are a pitiable slave to an illegal power structure specifically
disallowed in the spirit and letter of the Magna Charta and US
Constitution, which is a settlement of law that still and for
allways, undeniably determines in perpetuity the true path for
justice in a world where all free born men are equal under and
before the law. It's black letter law, governing the behavoir of
government civil servants and elected representatives. Defend it or
lose it to anarchy and tyrrany.

Winning it back will be harder than keeping it. Once it's gone, you
will want it back. It took 1000 years after Christ died to enact the
MAGNA CHARTA, and it has served us well for about 1000 years since.
Is the pen still mightier than the sword? Will the truth make
you free? Are you worthy of freedom?

It was, after all, a mob of honourable strong men, co-operating
together, who imposed the charter on a tyrranically governing unjust
king, demanding nothing more nor less than natural justice itself
for every free man, under threat of death to the king himself by his
abused and rightly rebellious vassals.

Fight for your rights, or die a slave. Perhaps our best defense is
to occupy the jails, eat the free food, write our books, refuse
taxes and plug up the 'justice system' so badly that even it sees
the error of it's way? File your objection, complaint and tort
demanding compensation for damages from illegal government actions
denying you the persuit of happiness rendering your boat worthless,
and punitive damages too, with the clerk of the local court, and ask
loudly about it's status in person every day, pounding on the desk!
You must demand justice, or you will not find it.

Me angry? Aren't you?

Terry K -A sailor. You dare tell me I need a license to safely sail
the seas? The waves on God's sea are my judges, none other. I am
liable in the extreme for my own stupidity, as is every man, and as
every corporation is not.