It started with rowing, of course. Then some guy on the boat noticed that when he was drying his laundry on the line, that the wind pushed the boat along better, and the first sail was invented. (Just kidding!) An Egyptian vase found in an archeological dig dated from about 3500 B.C. pictured a boat with sails. Archeological digs have also found boats determined to be from about 2900 B.C. --So humans have been fooling around with boats (and sailboats in particular) for at least 5500 years!

It's been recorded from the Pharoah days of Egypt that Ptolemy the Third had sails supplementing his rowers (and he had a lot of rowers!) on his royal barges. He barged in pretty much whenever he wanted to and probably more frequently when the wind was in his sails!

While the Europeans were out fooling around with their boats and laundry on the masts (just kidding again)... the civilizations of the Pacific were also creating their own versions of sailing vessels. The ancient seafarers of the Pacific may have originated from Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, New Zealand, and other Pacific rim island areas. These folks populated the many islands of the Pacific--the Melanesians of Fiji, New Caledonia, and Papua New Guinea; the Micronesians of the islands including some of those in the Northern Marianas (Guam, Saipan, Rota, Tinian, Agupan, Agrihan, Pagan), Palau, Yap, Truk, Ponape, Enewetok, Kwajalein, and Majuro; and the Polynesians of New Zealand, Tahiti, the Marquesas, Bora Bora, Easter Island, and Hawaii.

When the Europeans finally stumbled over the various Pacific Islands,they were frequently surprised at the speed and gracefulness of the Islanders' sailing craft. Even though the Europeans (namely, the Spanish/Portuguese explorers) could get more than 10,000 miles per galleon --hey, I couldn't resist that!--compared to the lumbering, bottom-heavy galleons, the "flying proas" and "outriggers" and "giant catamarans" of the Micronesians, Melanesians, and Polynesians were truly technological marvels.

The ship's log and diaries recorded of Magellan's arrival on Guam in 1521 and then in the Philippines during the same year had all sorts of remarks about how fascinated and surprised the crewman were of the Islanders' boats.