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 aerodynamics, the aspect ratio of a sail is the ratio of its length to its breadth (chord). A high aspect ratio indicates a long, narrow sail, whereas a low aspect ratio indicates a short, wide sail. For most sails, the length of the chord is not a constant but varies along the wing, so the aspect ratio "AR" is defined as the square of the sail height "b" divided by the area "A" of the sail planform: Aspect ratio and planform can be used to predict the aerodynamic performance of a sail. For a given sail area, the aspect ratio,