I don’t get how this is physically possible if the direction you want to go is literally the opposite direction of the way the wind is blowing. How can it ‘push’ them the opposite way it is going?
In: 20
For an ELI5 I would go with this.
Imagine you have a sheet of plywood and you go outside on a windy day. If you don’t want the wind to rip it out of your hands you make sure an edge is facing the wind not the full sheet. If you put it on your head and tilt that edge upward just a little the sheet will rise up or lift off your head.
If you shift it off your head and hold it off to the side, keeping the edge to the wind but with the same small tilt, it wouldn’t pull you straight downwind but rather to the side.
Imagine you did that while wearing a pair of ice skates. You could lean your body weight to balance the pull from the plywood off to the side and you might get tugged a little bit with the wind to start with but as you gather speed you could use the edge of the skates to better effect and actually cut up toward the wind, albeit at a pretty big angle. It is only possible while you hold the sheet at that particular angle.
Of course if you turned you would have to do it with the wind not against it so you have head downwind for a short distance before edging up toward it again.
Here is it in action but with more efficient windwings rather than a sheet of plywood but the principle is the same.
A sailboat works exactly the same was but instead of a skate edge they use the keel and rudder to help cut toward the wind.
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