Now, what about wind strength?

On a really windy day, what would happen if you went outside with a large beach umbrella? It might pull you away, right? What about a smaller umbrella? Probably manageable. That is because the beach umbrella has more surface area to catch the wind than the smaller umbrella.

Well, a sailing ship is much the same. If she has too much sail area up on a really windy day, she can be pushed over. This is very dangerous. So the crew has to watch the wind strength very closely. When there's a light breeze, the crew will put a lot of the sails up. But in a heavier breeze, they will take in some of the sails. And in really strong winds, they will only have up a very small amount of sail area.

Let's look at a diagram of Pride's sails. Look at the number of sails that she has to put up or take down, allowing her to sail in many different wind strengths.