how does a sail boat move up wind?

Answer 1

With a kicker motor, a small motor usually 9.9 horse power.

Whem sailing the motor tilts up out of the water.

Answer 2

The sail shape is similar to a wing of an airplane. Instead of being flat like an airplane it is vertical. Maybe you have seen a wing of a plane and noticed that the bottom panel is flat and the top panel is rounded. It is largest in the front where it hits the wind and tapers to a point where the wind leaves the wing. The wind which moves along the bottom of the wing has nothing blocking it. The wind which moves around the top of the wing has to go up and over a big curved area. While it is doing this the wind creates a lifting force on the wing which tries to pull the plane higher.
Sails on a boat do a similar thing. If you notice, a sail is curved and fatter in the front than in the back. As the wind flows past the sail, one side allows the wind to pass easily, the other side forces the wind to move around the fat, curved part of the sail creating the same kind of lift an airplane wing creates. Since a sail is vertical, not horizontal like a wing, the lifting force of the sail and wind pulls the boat forward. To help keep the boat from slipping sideways there is usually another wing shaped device under the boat sticking straight down into the water. This underwater wing is called a keel, or board.

Answer 3

A sail is an airfoil, and airfoils work by changing the velocity of the wind around them. The easy way to do that is just to stick a piece of cloth up in the wind and let it slow down the air that tries to go through it. That only works more or less straight down wind, though.

Most sails work like an airplane wing. The air that goes past the sail has to "bend" around it (or else there would be a vacuum on the downwind side of the sail), and the sail (and whatever is attached to it) is moved in the direction opposite to the "bend" in the air (toward the "vacuum," as it were. If you angle the sail right, the force on the sail is "sideways" to the sail.

By itself this wouldn't help a whole lot. You'd just drift a little sideways as you drifted downwind. But then the shape of the boat comes into play. The keel of a boat acts as another "wing" (a waterfoil, you could call it). If you angle the boat right, with the sail trying to push it sideways, the keel "bends" the water it's going through, just like the sail "bends" the air moving past it. In this case, it bends it toward the stern. And as the water "bends" one way, the boat is pushed the other way.

Think of a glider, taking some of the force that's pulling it toward the ground and turning it into forward motion. The keel of the boat is doing the same thing with the force that the sail generates by bending the wind. The two together move the boat forward. And "forward" is a little bit upwind.

But only a little bit. The very best sailboats can sail maybe 35 degrees "off the wind" if everything is perfect. Most aren't nearly as good--45-60 is more like it. So you can't sail directly toward your destination if it's directly upwind--you zigzag toward it. This is what sailors call "tacking."

It's not very efficient. But the wind is free (when there is any). And for a long time the wind was the only way to push a ship any long distance, so people got good at it.

Answer 4

It works exactly the same as a planes wing. The curved aerofoil section of the sail makes the wind go faster over the back of the sail than over the front, thereby creating an area of low pressure towards the back of the sail - ie. lift.
The wind on the sail tries to push the boat over, but the weight of the crew prevents this happening, so the boat tends to then be pushed sideways.
The centreboard stops this happening so the boat moves forward. The faster the boat moves, the greater the area of low pressure.

Answer 5

A sailboat can sail within 45 degrees of the direction of the wind. So it tacks back and forth cross the wind . Say the wind was blowing directly from the North, 0(360) degrees. It goes first at 45 degrees and then at 315 degrees and back and forth. The wind slides off the sail, and the keel or centerboard keeps the boat from moving sideways so it moves forward. The wind behind the sail tries to create a vacuum so the boat moves forward , the direction of least resistance.

Answer 6

A sailboat can move up wind because the sail is not a parachute, but more like an airplane's wing. It generates lift along it's leeward surface (the side facing the wind), because of its' curviture. Sailors are constantly adjusting the shape and angle of the sales as the wind changes speed and direction to get the maximum lift. As the wind gets stronger, you make the sails flatter. Just like an airplane retracting its' flaps. There's a limit. A well designed sloop can go within 40 - 45 degrees of the wind. Which is why boats have to tack back and forth to go directly into the wind.

The Italian admiral Andrea Doria was excommunicated for daring to demonstrate this by sailing into the wind, which the papal authorities were convinced was contrary to god's law.... but I guess they were wrong.

Answer 7

It doesn't.. It Tacks across it.. zig -zaging to get ahead

Answer 8

By tacking.