
Sailing into the wind, or faster than the wind - signa11
http://terrytao.wordpress.com/2009/03/23/sailing-into-the-wind-or-faster-than-the-wind/
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hristov
The author does a good job of taking a complicated subject and explaining in
such a way that it becomes extra extra complicated.

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esspem
More simple explanation:
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sailing_faster_than_the_wind#Sa...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sailing_faster_than_the_wind#Sailing_perpendicular_to_the_wind)

And probably you can sail downwind faster than the wind too:
<http://www.flixxy.com/sailing-yacht-research.htm>

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yardie
Not bad but the author just makes it way complicated and sailing has been sort
of understood for a few thousand years.

Sails work not the way you learned in primary school, a broad sheet and some
wind (normally a fan) behind it. Sailboats have a headsail and the mainsail.
The headsail channels the wind into the mainsail and it generates lift, but at
a 90° angle it becomes thrust to a sailboat.

Want to go faster? Deploy the spinnaker (the huge bubble-like canvas) and it
lifts the front of the boat out of the water and reducing drag. You can
continue jibing but most people stop here because to change direction you have
to take down and reconfigure the spinnaker.

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sethg
The technique for sailing into the wind, however, is much less than a thousand
years old (unless it’s yet another trick that the Greeks learned and then
everyone else forgot until the Middle Ages). IIRC one of the first sailors who
knew the trick was executed for witchcraft when the authorities finally caught
up with him.

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adolph
I'm not a fan of the lateen rig, but it is very low-tech effective and has
been dated as far back as 300BC. See:

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lateen_sail>

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vlisivka
To gave momentum, you need to throw out something: air or water. If you need
to drive into wind, you can only throw out air to one of sides by sail and
compensate some energy by throwing some water to opposite side by fin.

Of course, you can use wind-powered generator and electric motor to drive into
wind by throwing water. With wind-powered generator and plain sail you can
drive to any direction.

(Sorry for my English).

