How Does a Ship Sail Into the Wind
The wind fills the sail into the shape of a wing but because the sail is held fast at both ends the wind cant push it out of the way. When the sail forms into an airfoil it creates most of its lift perpendicular to the wind. Simply Let The Sail Out And The Wind Will Reattach To The Leeward Side Of The Sail Description From Nauticed Org I Sea Sailing Sailing Basics Sailing Lessons The boat can sail all the way through to northwest west south and east on the starboard tack or wind coming from the boats right side. . A modern yacht can get closer than 20 degrees to the wind the square rigged Brig sailing ship I used to crew on could do about 50 degrees on a good day. A square-rigged vessel could only sail approximately sixty degrees into the wind and so often used a shallow zig-zag pattern to reach their destination. The boat moves into the low pressure zone and is sucked forward. Its really a matter of how close to upwind th...