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Sailing tips from a novice: - To get past captcha: Find N on the compass. That’s 0 heading. Now go clockwise and add 30 for every notch until you get to the ne

by gk1 6y ago

Sailing tips from a novice: - To get past captcha: Find N on the compass. That’s 0 heading. Now go clockwise and add 30 for every notch until you get to the needle. So 0 (N), 30, 60, 90 (E), 120, 150, 180 (S), ... 330. - Once sailing, find the wind angle. You cannot sail within 45 degrees of the wind. So if wind is coming from, say, 140 degrees, do not set your course between 95-185 or you will come to a stop. (Because physics.) - Sailboats are fastest when sailing 90 degrees to the wind. So if wind is 140, the fastest course would be 70 or 230. Just keep in mind that might not be the direction you need to go. - More wind = faster sailing.

ls65536 6y ago
Great tips overall, but if I may add a few additional points about this simulation... - The captcha can show notches in either 30 or 45 degree increments. I thought that the extra challenge of discerning between the two would be interesting, but it seems to be causing more frustration than I would have anticipated. Definitely lessons learned from the feedback here. :) - The fastest boat direction from the wind also depends on the wind speed, and this also depends on the boat itself. You can find a wind response polar plot for the boat modeled here shown on the site's help page [1]. [1] https://8bitbyte.ca/sailnavsim/help.html https://8bitbyte.ca/sailnavsim/help.html
- dylan604 6y ago
  I assumed that North would be 0 degrees, based on a scene from The Hunt For Red October "set course, 180" which was due south. A plot line from a movie with some accuracy in the real world. See kids, watching movies isn't all a wast of time. The 30/45 degree differences were not difficult to discern. At least you didn't go for odd angles (I would have been tempted).
littlestymaar 6y ago
> - Once sailing, find the wind angle. You cannot sail within 45 degrees of the wind. So if wind is coming from, say, 140 degrees, do not set your course between 95-185 or you will come to a stop. (Because physics.) > - Sailboats are fastest when sailing 90 degrees to the wind. So if wind is 140, the fastest course would be 70 or 230. Just keep in mind that might not be the direction you need to go. Sorry if this sounds rude, but this isn't how a sailboat works at all! I don't know enough english vocabulary on that topic to provide a detailed explanation but I'll try something anyway: First, the angle between your boat and the real wind isn't what matters: it's the angle between relative wind and your boat that does, this angle depends on the real wind and on your speed. The limit angle is about relative wind, not real wind, and it's not a fixed number: in depends on your vehicle (boat or other devices with sails like windsurf or iceboat) and how much “grip” it has on the water (or ice). Iceboats can have a really tiny angle for instance (few degrees). > - More wind = faster sailing In theory only, because at some point when wind gets stronger, you'll need to reduce your amount of sails to avoid breaking your ship. Also once again, it's the speed of the relative wind that matters, not real one, and that's how you can sail faster than real wind! (I don't know how practical this is with a boat, but with iceboats it's easy). Sailboat dynamic isn't that hard (it's mostly basic trigonometry) but it's pretty counterintuitive. Main takeaway, sails works like wing. Sorry for bad English.
- gk1 6y ago
  You are nitpicking details that don’t matter in this game. There is no “apparent wind” indication, only true wind. And the boat in the game is modeled like a regular sailboat, which means a typical 90-degree no-go zone.
  - xyproto 6y ago
    He sounds like he knows what he's talking about, in terms if real sailing. To me, that's more interesting than the navigation simulator.
- intc 6y ago
  I find this wiki article pretty good (includes some terminology like apparent wind etc.): * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forces_on_sails https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forces_on_sails In accurate modelling one would need to consider apparent wind, wave conditions, currents, drifting of the vessel, heeling, the hull type of the vessel, the amount of rudder is given to the vessel to keep it on it's course, effect of other vessel near by etc. Most of these parameters interact with each other. A complex problem I would say.
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
jeffreyrogers 6y ago
> You cannot sail within 45 degrees of the wind. You can get closer than this, but it depends on the shape of your sail and how large it is. The physics is not intuitive, but the sail is effectively a wing when pointing close to the wind, and it acts exactly like the wing on an airplane does to generate lift. The sail then deflects the wind roughly perpendicular to the chord-line of the sail, and by Newton's second law the lift is then opposite the direction the wind is deflected. As you get closer and closer to 0 degrees relative to the wind less and less of the force is directed parallel to the direction of motion, so the boat gets less and less efficient. Look at the sails of America's cup boats. Notice how they have a very high aspect ratio? It's so they can efficiently point close to the wind by generating a lot of lift. Now look at a glider. It also has a high aspect ratio for the same reason. Of course, in a glider (or airplane in general) the lift is keeping the plane in the air, while in a boat the lift is pushing the boat along. Edit: it also depends on the shape of your keel.

by gk1 6y ago

ls65536 6y ago

Great tips overall, but if I may add a few additional points about this simulation... - The captcha can show notches in either 30 or 45 degree increments. I thought that the extra challenge of discerning between the two would be interesting, but it seems to be causing more frustration than I would have anticipated. Definitely lessons learned from the feedback here. :) - The fastest boat direction from the wind also depends on the wind speed, and this also depends on the boat itself. You can find a wind response polar plot for the boat modeled here shown on the site's help page [1]. [1] https://8bitbyte.ca/sailnavsim/help.html https://8bitbyte.ca/sailnavsim/help.html

dylan604 6y ago
I assumed that North would be 0 degrees, based on a scene from The Hunt For Red October "set course, 180" which was due south. A plot line from a movie with some accuracy in the real world. See kids, watching movies isn't all a wast of time. The 30/45 degree differences were not difficult to discern. At least you didn't go for odd angles (I would have been tempted).

littlestymaar 6y ago

> - Once sailing, find the wind angle. You cannot sail within 45 degrees of the wind. So if wind is coming from, say, 140 degrees, do not set your course between 95-185 or you will come to a stop. (Because physics.) > - Sailboats are fastest when sailing 90 degrees to the wind. So if wind is 140, the fastest course would be 70 or 230. Just keep in mind that might not be the direction you need to go. Sorry if this sounds rude, but this isn't how a sailboat works at all! I don't know enough english vocabulary on that topic to provide a detailed explanation but I'll try something anyway: First, the angle between your boat and the real wind isn't what matters: it's the angle between relative wind and your boat that does, this angle depends on the real wind and on your speed. The limit angle is about relative wind, not real wind, and it's not a fixed number: in depends on your vehicle (boat or other devices with sails like windsurf or iceboat) and how much “grip” it has on the water (or ice). Iceboats can have a really tiny angle for instance (few degrees). > - More wind = faster sailing In theory only, because at some point when wind gets stronger, you'll need to reduce your amount of sails to avoid breaking your ship. Also once again, it's the speed of the relative wind that matters, not real one, and that's how you can sail faster than real wind! (I don't know how practical this is with a boat, but with iceboats it's easy). Sailboat dynamic isn't that hard (it's mostly basic trigonometry) but it's pretty counterintuitive. Main takeaway, sails works like wing. Sorry for bad English.

gk1 6y ago
You are nitpicking details that don’t matter in this game. There is no “apparent wind” indication, only true wind. And the boat in the game is modeled like a regular sailboat, which means a typical 90-degree no-go zone.
- xyproto 6y ago
  He sounds like he knows what he's talking about, in terms if real sailing. To me, that's more interesting than the navigation simulator.
intc 6y ago
I find this wiki article pretty good (includes some terminology like apparent wind etc.): * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forces_on_sails https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forces_on_sails In accurate modelling one would need to consider apparent wind, wave conditions, currents, drifting of the vessel, heeling, the hull type of the vessel, the amount of rudder is given to the vessel to keep it on it's course, effect of other vessel near by etc. Most of these parameters interact with each other. A complex problem I would say.

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]

jeffreyrogers 6y ago

> You cannot sail within 45 degrees of the wind. You can get closer than this, but it depends on the shape of your sail and how large it is. The physics is not intuitive, but the sail is effectively a wing when pointing close to the wind, and it acts exactly like the wing on an airplane does to generate lift. The sail then deflects the wind roughly perpendicular to the chord-line of the sail, and by Newton's second law the lift is then opposite the direction the wind is deflected. As you get closer and closer to 0 degrees relative to the wind less and less of the force is directed parallel to the direction of motion, so the boat gets less and less efficient. Look at the sails of America's cup boats. Notice how they have a very high aspect ratio? It's so they can efficiently point close to the wind by generating a lot of lift. Now look at a glider. It also has a high aspect ratio for the same reason. Of course, in a glider (or airplane in general) the lift is keeping the plane in the air, while in a boat the lift is pushing the boat along. Edit: it also depends on the shape of your keel.