I realize a sailboat can’t go directly at the wind (or maybe it can🤷🏽♂️) but for the life of me I can’t picture it going anywhere but where the wind is bowing.
Also, lets say you were in a round pond, could you sail to any point you wanted to in the pond with the wind blowing steady in one direction?
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in a typical ”Marconi” or “Bermuda” [you would recognize as a triangular shape sail] rig (not an old fashion square sail) the sail acts like an airplane wing and generates lift but pointing sideways (not up like an airplane) that force propels the boat forward.
often the shape of the hull helps, the deep keel (fin on the bottom of the hull) helps stop the boat from sliding [sometimes called skating] sideways across the water and moves it forward instead
a ”triangle type sail boat” {not square sails} can come to or point to about 30 degrees off the wind. this happens because the sails help channel the wind across the other sails.
square sail ships use some of the same physics but not as efficiently, they typically can point to about 70 degrees from the wind
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