The Effect of Crosswinds
07-27-15, 08:33 PM
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If you're a former sailor, then you recall that as your boat speed picks up, your apparant wind moves forward? The wind is on your beam, you improve sail trim, boat speed increases, and you look at your windvane to see the wind is now more towards your bow. Same thing on a bike.
07-27-15, 09:06 PM
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All sailboats make use of both true wind to push the boat forward and apparent wind which generates lift. Lift on a sailboat moves the boat sideways rather than up like in an airplane. It's because sails are able to double dip these two types of wind that they can go faster than the true wind speed in theory. This determines the shape of modern sails and the manner in which they are rigged. It's also why modern sailboats move fastest at some angle to the wind other than a dead-on tailwind.
Catamarans are faster than regular sailboats because they are lighter and have less drag- less drag because there is less hull in the water at any given moment. The grand daddy of fast is a foiling sailboat, because these boats have the least amount of drag of all sailboat types.
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