Sails of Silver now sported the same line-up that had brought it to the height of its success, "Sails of Silver" has often been seen as embodying a different spirit from their classic albums of the 1970s. Prior to "Sails of Silver", the band had always performed songs written by other people, predominantly traditional songs, but also a few 20th century pieces, such as the two Brecht songs on "Storm Force Ten". But on this album they included several songs they had written themselves, including "Let Her Go Down" and "Senior Service". This was the beginning of a trend that continues down to
Forces on sails mainsail causes the stagnation line on the jib to be shifted forward and allows the boat to point closer to the wind, owing to higher leeward velocities of the air over both sails. Sails characteristically have a coefficient of lift ("C") and coefficient of drag ("C") for each apparent wind angle. The planform, curvature and area of a given sail are dominant determinants of each coefficient. Sails are classified as "triangular sails", "quadrilateral fore-and-aft sails" (gaff-rigged, etc.), and "square sails". The top of a triangular sail, the "head", is raised by a halyard, The forward lower corner of the sail,