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 lift. As sailing craft are able to achieve higher speeds, whether on water, ice or land, the velocity made good (VMG) at a given course off the wind occurs at apparent wind angles that are increasingly further forward with speed. This suggests that the optimum VMG for a given course may be in a regime where a spinnaker may be providing significant lift. Traditional displacement sailboats may at times have optimum VMG courses close to downwind; for these the dominant force on sails is from drag. According to Kimball, "C" ≈ 4/3 for most sails with the apparent wind angle