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
Fundamentally it’s useful to realize that what a boat really does is extract energy from the difference in the movement of the air and water and then use that energy to move itself.
The sail acting on the air and the hull and keel acting on the water force each to move more like the other.
This is why crazy stuff like the directly into the wind cart is possible.
It’s also why if the wind and the water are moving in the same direction at the same speed the boat can’t do anything, it just flows along with everything else.
And where you run into people saying very counter intuitive things like “a fast boat makes it’s own wind”
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