how sailships can sail upwind.

Question

I tried to google it and it left me very confused.

In: 306

Answer 1

The main way sails work, at least modern sails, is not by catching the wind the way a parachute does. Instead they work more like an airplanes wing. They create “lift” that pulls the ship along. Due to this you can sail at an angle to the wind pretty easily, actually 99% of ships are faster sailing at a slight angle to the wind than sail directly with it.