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Its actually the correct explanation tho. This article sucked by the way. It said "Any sailor worth their salt can tell you that a boat can travel faster than
by slowhand09 5y ago
Its actually the correct explanation tho.
This article sucked by the way. It said "Any sailor worth their salt can tell you that a boat can travel faster than the wind by cutting zigzag patterns; that's called tacking."
Any sailor worth their salt knows that is not true at all. This practically destroys any credibility on this topic by this author.
- fanf2 5y agobut it is true? https://newt.phys.unsw.edu.au/~jw/sailing.html https://newt.phys.unsw.edu.au/~jw/sailing.html https://www.boatdesign.net/threads/tacking-downwind-faster-than-the-wind.24761/ https://www.boatdesign.net/threads/tacking-downwind-faster-t...
- chongli 5y agoWhat's not true about it? According to Wikipedia [1] there are a bunch of speed records for sailing faster than the wind by tacking downwind. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-performance_sailing https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-performance_sailing
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- hend_daszweiter 5y agotacking is up wind by definition.
- tcpekin 5y agoI think it's just very poorly worded. Sailboats can go faster than the true wind speed, like in the America's Cup, and typically do it do it going upwind. The addition of tacking is not wrong, it is zigzagging upwind, but just very oddly worded.
- dahart 5y ago> Any sailor worth their salt knows that is not true at all. You sure? Take a gander at this article https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-performance_sailing https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-performance_sailing You’re right in the sense that tacking is not the word for sailing faster than wind, but it is true that sailors can tack faster than the apparent wind, and that professional sailors know that. The “apparent” part is an important part of the discussion that the quote didn’t include or clarify, but would be implicitly understood by the saltiest of them.