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 the sail (a straight line between the leading edge (luff) and the trailing edge (leech)). Net aerodynamic force with respect to the air stream is usually considered in reference to the direction of the apparent wind (V) over the surface plane (ocean, land or ice) and is decomposed into lift (L), perpendicular with V, and drag (D), in line with V. For windsurfers, lift component vertical to the surface plane is important, because in strong winds windsurfer sails are leaned into the wind to create a vertical lifting component ( F) that reduces drag on the board (hull) through the