Sailing Downwind Appears To No Longer Be The Quickest Way Of Sailing!

[Guest Docterchese]

Hey all,

I was out in a sailboat today and noticed something interesting. It is quicker to sail about 20 degrees away from being directly downwind than it is to sail directly downwind .

Being a sailor in real life naturally I'd be able to pick up on this - real sailing boats sail fastest slightly away from the wind (technically called a "broad reach") opposed to going directly downwind. It looks like Wurm just stepped up a notch in terms of realism.

This diagram will help: (apologies that it is huge, IP.BOARD doesn't support enough BB Code to resize it though. Annoying)

This isn't bad news - when sailing I was getting about 18.5km/h when "running" and 19.5km/h when on a "broad reach." And if you look at the diagram, there are two ways to broad reach! In the southeasterly gale I tested the fastest points of sailing were sailing to the west and sailing to the north. This means there are now two ways to hit max speed, opposed to the previous one way when "running."

I also managed to test this in a cog and it had a similar behaviour: 33km/h on a "broad reach" either side of the wind and 30km/h when "running." However, I have only tested both boats in a gale, more testing is needed and in more wind strengths to verify all this.

Boats definitely did not do this before and I've played since 2011. I think this realism add-on may have surfaced along with the boat animations, or maybe with v1 since I haven't had much time to sail around until now due to the impalong and can't be sure. Or it could just be a client bug in how speeds are displayed though it seems like too good a coincidence for that.

Why do boats do this? (Warning: science content)

Boats do not sail fastest when sailing directly downwind due to the nature of how sails work. Sails are effectively aeroplane wings - with an area of high pressure on the "windward" side of the vessel and low pressure on the "leeward" side of the vessel, generating lift which is converted to forwards motion by the boat. This allows boats to sail partially upwind - "close hauled."

However, when a boat is traveling directly downwind - "running" - the sail stops acting as an aircraft wing and acts more like a kite. The sail is limited to being "pushed" by the wind - there is no pressure differential and so the boat cannot take advantage of this, limiting the boat to the speed of the wind. However, when on another point of sailing like a broad or beam reach, boats are "pushed" by the wind as well as having the pressure differential - effectively allowing them to go faster than the speed of the wind. The best sailing boats can travel sometimes over 3 times as fast as the wind - Google the "AC72 Catamaran."

When sailing upwind however, close reached or close hauled, boats are not pushed by the wind, instead relying on only pressure differential - making upwind the slowest of all kinds of sailing.

Don't be scared by complexity, I've sailed for 9 years and so it's unsurprising that I'd be very very fluent in this stuff. All you need to know is that Wurm now has two ways to sail fastest!

I may write up a wiki article about this and how boats in Wurm handle, would be good to pass on some knowledge.

This is very interesting on a whole, and it'll certainly change some of the tactics when it comes to in-game sailing travelling and races. Heck, I might be able to persuade a few nautical friends to try Wurm now that it has highly realistic sailing!

P.S., I hope I didn't just make a big post about something that has already been noticed

Edited January 18, 2013 by Docterchese

[Bladedancer 20]

That's pretty cool.

[Shrimpiie 3,665]

This is true for real life I believe

[belthize 438]

If true it's a good change. Most people think a sail is something to be pushed by the wind but it's really a wing turned on edge. The sail is pulled to the side of lower pressure so you're always fastest at an angle to the wind, it's air moving across the sail that provides lift in the direction of travel just like an airplane wing.

[Xallo 2,599]

I had always just assumed that the wind in Wurm was never perfectly straight, and it shifted in degrees, but when it got to a certain point, let's say from 330° to 30° (so, -30 to 30), it would say the wind is coming from the North. With that logic, if the wind was at around a bearing of East 45 Degrees South, or 135 Degrees from 0 (North), it would be coming from the Southeast, exactly.

[Hordern 2,177]

It's been like this for ages hasn't it? I noticed this about a year ago.

[ago 470]

it's been like this for ages

[Maozorz 127]

It's extra awesome to find out about the little touches of slightly intricate realism here and there.

Edited January 19, 2013 by Maozorz

[Klaa 4,872]

Someone has been on a boat!

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9iUjx4_X1qA

Use to play this everytime I jacked a ship. Now I just hum with an evil smile.

EDIT: Completely for a sailor skill, especially something involving timers to adjust tack, trim sails, and whatever.

Edited January 19, 2013 by Klaa

[Batolemaeus 182]

This is true for real life I believe

You haven't bothered reading the OP, have you?

Btw., Docterchese, the diagram you posted only works for modern sails. If you look at the models of the sail boats in the game, you'll notice that they use a different type of sail. I'd love to see the small sailing boat remodeled to use a modern yacht sail, allowing it to sail with pretty good speed even at 30° against the wind.

[Hordern 2,177]

This is true, with the sails used in Wurm, no one would be able to travel more than a few degrees in to the wind at best However,for the sake of sanity, I think we should allow that step of realism to slide

[Bagsecg 110]

aye, for a ship utilizing multiple sails or a variation of sails, or generally only those intended for more complex sailing than 'wind at back' generally broad reach is best. Which is evident by the ingame model and the name of the sail piece itself, triangular rig, which is always best used broad reach rather than running. like a small ketch or something similar.

Edited January 19, 2013 by Bagsecg

[Guest Docterchese]

It's been like this for ages hasn't it? I noticed this about a year ago.

Hmm, I had literally never noticed it. At least we might be able to understand it now!

[Archaegeo 136]

The nice part though is due to oars, you are never in irons

[Guest Docterchese]

The nice part though is due to oars, you are never in irons

Technically you are though as you go slower, and much slower in bigger ships.

[Archaegeo 136]

Right, but you are not at a standstill, even if 0 wind

[Wossoo 1,915]

Hello, sailor!

[Guest Docterchese]

Will be able to test this in a corbita soon. Would like to test in a rowboat too - because they don't have a sail they shouldn't do this.

Hello, sailor!

[media]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uWQ3ddPRNf0

Edited January 20, 2013 by Docterchese

[nuance 0]

I am a sailor, and I can confirm this checks out.

I am downloading this right now, and OP was right, I am checking this out purely because there are boats and wind. Can we set up different rigs (mod or otherwise)? I'd love to run a nice lateen-rigged dhow out there.

[Farmerbob 369]

[media]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uWQ3ddPRNf0

Wow, new Blacklighter Navy themesong complete with video!