Is it possible at all for a sailing boat to go straight into the wind? If so, how?

Question

If due West is zero degrees, due North is 90 degrees, due East 180 degrees, and due south 270 degrees, at what angle is the sail to be set at if the wind is coming from due west, and you want to go due west?

I would have thought it wasn't possible at all, but i've been told it was possible. When I pressed for an explanation, no satisfactory answer was given.

What if the wind is coming from due North and you want to go due West, at what angle is the best way to position the sail?

Forgive my lack of knowledge of nautical terms

Answer 1

It is possible! But is it a trick question hinging on the word "GO"

Into wind is the classic position to put a sailing boat for raising, lowering, tightening or loosening sails. A sailing boat will readily GO straight into the wind. Just point it up to the wind till the sails are flapping.

However, a sailing boat will not SAIL straight into the wind. The highest angle [full'n by] depends on the boat design. Best is about 35deg. Almost any sail boat can be 'full'n by' at 45deg

The rest of your question is a load of cobblers.
N is 000 or 360deg, E is 090deg, s is 180deg, W is 270deg.
Now start over

Answer 2

Okay, what you are trying to do is called "beating upwind". The way you do this is by steering the bow (front end) at a 45 degree angle to the wind. So if you are facing a wind from the north then you sail first northeast for a time, then northwest for the same amount of time. Each one of these legs is called a board and every time you change directions is called tacking. So every turn you will be veering 90 degrees from the course you were previously on. When beating upwind your sails will be close-hauled, meaning the sails will be parallel to the length of the boat. Care must be taken that you account for currents so that you are not blown off course.

When you are trying to sail west and the wind is from the north the best sail position is a beam reach, where the sail is at a 45 degree angle away from the wind.Think of the sail as the wing on an airplane. The wind needs to hit the sail so that some air goes on the outboard edge and some on the inboard edge of the sail This creates lift, just like on the airplane wing. But the keel on the boat (like a smaller wing on the underside of the boat below the water) creates drag, so that instead of getting pushed with the wind the boat moves forward. Does that make sense?

Answer 3

Your question as written would of course depend on whether or not said sailboat has an engine. A sail-boat under power can travel any direction regardless of wind direction.

However, I believe you want to know if a sail boat can "sail" into a direct wind. Simply put. NO. In General terms a sailboat can sail 45 degrees off the wind. So to travel due West. the boat must sail North-West for a distance. Then it must sail South-West for a distance and so on and on. The 45 degrees depends upon the boat. Some boats will perform better and some will perform worse. There are too many variables.

Answer 4

First of all due North is zero degrees magnetic. Due East is 90, due South is 180 and due West is 270? You cannot sail a boat directly into the wind because air flow has to created over the sails in order for the boat to move, this achieved by laying slightly off the wind direction and "tacking". If the wind is coming from the North and you want to go West you would turn the vessel in that direction and you would then be on a "beam reach" which is one of the fastest points of sail depending on the make of the boat. Bottom line its down to aerodynamics and the skill of the captain?

Answer 5

The Captain's answer became wonderful. the in basic terms component i'd upload is how the sail pulls the boat quite in route of the wind. The grand old crusing ships were "sq. riggers" they ordinarily ran till now the wind. In different words, the wind became in the back of the deliver and "blew" the deliver interior an same typical guidelines the wind became going. the famous "sloop" rig sail might want to be pushed too, yet to sail in route of the wind, the sail will change into an airfoil a twin of an plane wing status vertically particularly of horrizontally. The physics of the airfoil create raise. With the sail being vertical, the raise is directed ahead, horrizontal to the floor of the water. The sail is permitted to swing in this kind of way as to direct the raise more effective in route of the the source of the wind. The boat can sail effectively about 40 5 stages off the wind. because of this one might want to tack or zig zag 40 5 stages off the source to both part and finally flow a information superhighway income precisely on the wind. The boat could have travelled two times as far even as the vacation spot is strictly the position the wind is coming from.

Answer 6

Most times the boat would sail either 040 degrees or 320 degrees and zig zagging back and forth between those two headings to go west. However there was an experiment that did work I just don't know how well. You don't use the sails you use the bare masts! The mast act as wings with a fast high pressure air forming on the west side of the mast and slow low pressure air forming on the east side of the mast this forms lift on a wing but in this case provides a pulling force on the mast thus pulling the boat due east. I saw this on the discovery channel but I can't remember the exact show. I think It was the great ships episode the marine propulsion or something like that. I hope this was useful!

Answer 7

Most of the answers already are on the button, you cannot sail directly into the wind, and tacking is the only option commonly used. The sail is reliant on aerodynamics, the sail acts in the same way as a wing on a plane. On a plane "lift" is achieved because the shape of the wing as it is forces air flow quicker over the top than the bottom, the faster air develops a lower air pressure on the top, so the higher pressure on the bottom causes the wing to go upwards, it's Einsteins theory of relativity, any force has an equal force in the oppossite direction, unless of course, in this cse you change the dynamics, and intefere with physics. Anyway, a sail is a plane wing on it's side, and the pressure difference on the sail causes the boat to travel in a direction controlled with the rudder, and the centreboard which prevents, or at least counteracts to a point, lateral drift, all boats drift actually and this is factored into navigation. I think your possible tale that suggested it is possible to sail into the wind, and remember initially I said the common way to travel towards the wind is to tack, is indeed as a previous contributor Brian suggested, was or is used by utilising bare masts. Now two points here, it is debatable if you are sailing, as there is no sail involved at this juncture. Secondly it was tried and worked to a point but was found to be fraught with problems. There is a TV programme around, and it was in fact the famous Jaques Cousteau who tried to develop a form of propulsion by modifying the main mast into a wind turbine, I think the boat he worked on actually had two masts, with the abscence of sails there was more room! as Brian mentioned, the air was drawn in at the front, then blown out the back with the aid of a wind turbine motor, and a well planned venturi system. The main problem was the sheer forces the equipment created, it did go forward and it did drive into the wind, direction was achieved by turning the mast to catch the wind at it's highest velocity, but many complicated forces created incidents of cracking, and failure of joints around the deck area where the mast was supported, in short it was a dangerous sortie into the world of alternative wind propulsion, but technically, and indeed practically it did work, it probably has been ventured into further somewhere, what with the progress being made in composite structures and new materials, advanced carbon fibres and so on, it may well catch on, and would be a quicker option than tacking a sail boat, and cheaper than propellling a fuel driven boat, or even ship. with the rising costs of fuels it would be a boon to the shipping industry if the system was developed to a safe and fully operational system.
Imagine a large ship having a number of these structures on board, used only in specific wind conditions, where on some parts of the globe winds are more or less incessant, and then fall back on fuel driven marine power when the conditions dictate. That would shave off a huge amount of fuel costs and consumption wouldn't it. sorry though, I'm pretty sure he patented it as well, he was a shrewd charecter., and a tough business man.

Answer 8

The answer to your question as written is no. You can not go directly into the wind.

If you want to go west then you have to tack. so southwest with the force of the wind pushing south on the sail you force the boat to go slightly west with the rudder.

then you reverse and go Northwest for a while and the angle of the sail pushes you north and you force the boat to the west wth the rudder.

It is not very fast.

But no, you can not go due west under sail with a west wind.

Answer 9

I can not believe that no one gave you the correct answer. You can sail as close as 45 degrees to the wind direction - period. That means if the wind is coming from 90 degrees - you can either sail at 45 degrees (90-45) or 135 degrees (90+45). You can sail any other angle except for the +/- 45 degrees from the wind direction by letting the sail out more. Hope this helps.

Answer 10

No, you cannot sail directly into the wind. You can travel upwind by tacking, which is zig-zagging across the wind direction. Most sailboats can sail at about 30 degrees or more relative to the wind. Sometimes, tacking is impossible if there is a strong current against you because then you can go backwards and don't make any headway.