apparent wind. you know how the wind feels stronger when you're running into it? well, as far as the boat is concerned, when you're sailing into the wind the wind IS stronger, which lets it sail a little faster. The faster you sail into the wind (actually, usually at an angle of 30-45 degrees away from straight into the wind) the faster the wind seems, the faster the boat can go, until performance factors limit your ability to accelerate further. Most boats sail slower than the wind, but some can sail faster, and some a lot faster.
The keel fell off
- Thread starter Jonny_B
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apparent wind. you know how the wind feels stronger when you're running into it? well, as far as the boat is concerned, when you're sailing into the wind the wind IS stronger, which lets it sail a little faster. The faster you sail into the wind (actually, usually at an angle of 30-45 degrees away from straight into the wind) the faster the wind seems, the faster the boat can go, until performance factors limit your ability to accelerate further. Most boats sail slower than the wind, but some can sail faster, and some a lot faster.
That's sailing into the wind. Everyone accepts that. The epic debate surrounds whether you can sail DDW (Dead Down Wind, meaning with the wind directly behind you) faster than the wind. It may have more forum posts than the airplane on a treadmill debate.
You're a pretty physics minded dude, so its not that I dont believe you - well yes it is. I can't see how that would be possible. If so, I'm using it to travel to Alpha Centauri
Sailing faster than the wind? I thought that it's was the wind that propelled you?
Syrup Beaver
pants log
that was on mythbusters recently. you actually can blow your own sail, sexual innuendo as a side effect.
Are there buildings on the boat? see, if jonny would have said that from the start...
a boat moves forward not because it's getting pushed by the wind, but because it's changing the direction of the wind. sails work not like a wind sock, but like an airfoil, generating lift. that lift makes the boat go faster, which makes the apparent wind seems stronger, and also makes it seem to come from closer to in front of the boat. the stronger apparent wind speed means the boat can go faster. (the change in apparent wind direction puts an upper bound on how much faster the boat can go until the sails will stall)
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