Sailing the Arno: A Boat Across the Wind
The north-east wind fills the sail's belly f; the wind-rose, and the towns Signa, Lastra, Settimo
A single-masted boat under a full sail is drawn in red chalk, radiating lines about it standing for the compass of winds. The note explains that the vessel travels toward the south-east driven by the north-east wind, which gathers into the belly of the sail marked f. The wind-rose names libeccio, sirocco, greco and maestro fix the directions, while at the left the Arno-valley towns Signa, Lastra and Settimo are listed one below another. Faint landscape and grid sketches lie beneath, with further untranscribed marks.
On this page
Sailing across the wind into the sail's belly f
The boat is said to travel toward the south-east while driven by the north-east wind, which collects in the belly of the sail labelled f. The radiating lines set the heading against the wind. It is a study of how a sail catches and redirects the wind to move the hull.
The wind-rose around the boat
The drawing is ringed by the names of the winds: libeccio (south-west), sirocco (south-east), greco (north-east) and maestro (north-west), with the label f on the sail. These fix the quarters from which the air blows. They frame the behaviour of the wind on the vessel.
Arno-valley towns: Signa, Lastra, Settimo
At the left, three place names are set out from top to bottom: Signa, Lastra and Settimo, towns along the Arno west of Florence. They tie the sailing study to a real stretch of the river. Faint topographic sketches accompany them lower on the sheet.