I understand the basic concept for sailboats as the sail acts as an airfoil much like an airplane wing generating lift when air flows over it. But with square sails I can’t grasp how ships that had them ever got from point A to point B without always relying on downwind to move forward.
In: Physics
It is called tacking, you can alter how the sails “catch” the wind, so can push you from side to side rather than in a single direction Sails actually work best when the wind is on the “quarter” rather than directly behind them so all the sails are being pushed. By tacking you can slowly in general head into the general wind direction, but never moving directly into the wind.
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