this post was submitted on 09 Dec 2023
54 points (90.9% liked)

Ask Lemmy

26746 readers
2695 users here now

A Fediverse community for open-ended, thought provoking questions

Please don't post about US Politics. If you need to do this, try !politicaldiscussion


Rules: (interactive)


1) Be nice and; have funDoxxing, trolling, sealioning, racism, and toxicity are not welcomed in AskLemmy. Remember what your mother said: if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all. In addition, the site-wide Lemmy.world terms of service also apply here. Please familiarize yourself with them


2) All posts must end with a '?'This is sort of like Jeopardy. Please phrase all post titles in the form of a proper question ending with ?


3) No spamPlease do not flood the community with nonsense. Actual suspected spammers will be banned on site. No astroturfing.


4) NSFW is okay, within reasonJust remember to tag posts with either a content warning or a [NSFW] tag. Overtly sexual posts are not allowed, please direct them to either [email protected] or [email protected]. NSFW comments should be restricted to posts tagged [NSFW].


5) This is not a support community.
It is not a place for 'how do I?', type questions. If you have any questions regarding the site itself or would like to report a community, please direct them to Lemmy.world Support or email [email protected]. For other questions check our partnered communities list, or use the search function.


Reminder: The terms of service apply here too.

Partnered Communities:

Tech Support

No Stupid Questions

You Should Know

Reddit

Jokes

Ask Ouija


Logo design credit goes to: tubbadu


founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 

Okay hear me out and this may sound like the ramblings of a lune but i just thought the following.

Surely a perfectly flat tight sail would more effectively convert wind energy into forward momentum rather than a full sail which would first have the wind hit it at a slight angle pushing the sail in that direction rather than perfectly straight forward.

I realise there are practicalities in operating a very high tension sheet but this lives purely in the hypothetical realm.

Does this make sense or have i been drinking drain cleaner again.

Ta Lemmers....

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago

A lot depends on the angle you are heading relative to the wind and how strong and variable the wind is and how easily you want to be able to steer or hold your course.

The simplest case that I think you might be wrong is going down wind, especially in light air, you want the sail to catch the wind like a bag and direct it toward a central point to add all the vague forces into one direction instead of just twisting the sail one way or another. Like I didn't think you actually want the wind hitting the outer edges of the sail straight on as this would just move the sail, not the boat.

Stiff, even hard not cloth sails are useful to go into the wind at a slight angle, where they are optimized in shape like an airplane wing, and they even talk of the force generated as lift.