For context, though I hope whoever has the answer already knows this, a full rigged ship is a sail driven vessel with three or more masts that are all “square rigged” (the sails run perpendicular to the hull of the ship). Think basically any pirate ship in any movie.
Now, I have a rudimentary understanding of the tacking process, but I still feel like I am missing something. Everything that I’ve read online sais that they could sail something like 67 degrees sharp into the wind…what I dont understand is that in my head canon that still puts the majority of the wind force on the front end of the ship, so how exactly did they move forward and not backwards?!?
Please explain like I am a particularly stupid 5 year old, I have been trying to wrap my head around this for a project for months now and I am just not getting it.
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Answer. You don’t sail directly into the wind, you sail across it. Imagine the wind is blowing due East. If you set your sails correctly, and steer, you can go North and slightly West. After a while you re-rig the ship and go South and slightly West. It takes a long time and a lot of work. That’s why it was easier to sail down to the Equator, where the ‘Trade Winds’ blow east and west.
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