Quote:Morten St George: It is reported, however, that sail-powered boats were better suited for crossing the Atlantic than oar-powered boats, i.e. the Vikings.
The Vikings had sails and oars. They weren't just expert ship builders, they were expert at embroidery and weaving at a very early time period. Very long strips of fabric were woven and them put together to create large sails.
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I haven't looked into how early they started adding sails, but the Danes own Greenland for a reason... the Vikings explored and then colonized it very early on.
Now look at the distance from Denmark to Greenland compared to the distance from Greenland to the New World. If they could get from Europe to Greenland, the distance from Greenland to Labrador was trivial in comparison and the Basque whalers sailed alongside many of the Viking whaling ships, so they most likely had been there too.
Their boats/ships generally fall into categories... there were the fishing and whaling fleets, the exploration/pillaging/get-into-Valhalla fleets, and the ships that were full of colonists. England was colonized by wave after wave of Scandinavians. Dublin was founded c. 8th century by Viking raiders and ruled by them for the next two centuries. The Angles were a southern Danish tribe. If you look at Denmark's geography, you will see that it is comprised of thousands of islands. It's not surprising they were early developers of sailing technology.
Quote:Morten: Boat size might not be critical. In the smallest of boats, during the same epoch, the Polynesians were able to cross vast distances in the Pacific Ocean.
Yes. Part of the journey was island-hopping, but there were nevertheless vast distances and it's an astonishing achievement.