Sailing tips for new players.

@stem589 said in Sailing tips for new players.:

@y0ujerk said in Sailing tips for new players.:

Don’t sail into the wind. Make a zig-zag path to your destination if it’s directly upwind from you. I believe this is called tacking.

Unless they changed it, there's only a 17% difference in sailing speed going full with and full against the wind. (see YouTube)

While I'd like it if tacking provided more speed, you'll lose a race against someone sailing head first into it. :(

Tacking absolutely does keep you going faster into the wind than sailing straight into the wind. If you are loosing ground to someone sailing straight into the wind, you aren't tacking or jibing properly

@mdk-popinfresh said in Sailing tips for new players.:

Tacking absolutely does keep you going faster into the wind than sailing straight into the wind. If you are loosing ground to someone sailing straight into the wind, you aren't tacking or jibing properly

What kind of angle against the wind should you bounce between when tacking? I haven't been in a crew who could coordinate well enough for tacking as of yet, so I'm curious what the best way to do it is.

@cmm-solo I find similar (and probably faster) success in going half mast when you see the island title, then gradually raising even further.

(This was in a sloop where I didn’t have as much help with the sails as I’d like)

@mdk-popinfresh said in Sailing tips for new players.:

@stem589 said in Sailing tips for new players.:

@y0ujerk said in Sailing tips for new players.:

Don’t sail into the wind. Make a zig-zag path to your destination if it’s directly upwind from you. I believe this is called tacking.

Unless they changed it, there's only a 17% difference in sailing speed going full with and full against the wind. (see YouTube)

While I'd like it if tacking provided more speed, you'll lose a race against someone sailing head first into it. :(

Tacking absolutely does keep you going faster into the wind than sailing straight into the wind. If you are loosing ground to someone sailing straight into the wind, you aren't tacking or jibing properly

You'll have to test it out. IRL, tacking is the only way.

All I can speak to is the video I saw of someone sailing full with and full against, and the difference was 17%.

Tacking isn't likely to make up the difference between a straight line and 17% change in speed. (trigonometry).

Anchor turning should pretty much be used only if you are stopping anyway, it has combat use too, but I'm not sure I'd quite call that a beginner tip.
After practicing a bit you can go full tilt towards an island and 180 just off shore.
Though I've always taken more of 'full speed or no speed' approach to gaming.
95% of my sloop play I don't ever raise the sail, the other 5% I'm usually anticipating a ship attack.
Galleon depends on crew organization a bit more.

@kettlestick about 40° - 45°. If you are on a 2 crewman Sloop you will want to have the crewman on sails start to angle from full port to full starboard (or vise versa) as you begin your tack. Then you should crank your rudder to start your turn, hop off the wheel and help reorient the sail, and then jump back on the wheel to straighten out your heading to your next tack. A Galleon is a lot harder to do this effectively because of the three masts, and a much wider turn radius while moving at speed.

If you are making your tack and then going about adjusting your sail angle this will assuredly be slower then going in a straight line because you are not keeping your sails billowed. The two biggest takeaways are 1) to be adjusting your sails while your ship is turning 2) angle your ship just enough to have your sails fully billow (where it makes the sound) when they are angled full port or full starboard.

The frequency of tacking is something that will also change your "speed". This is dependent on your situation and surroundings. If you are in the wide open sea then a slower frequency will be faster but requires a wider channel. This is the biggest thing that will just require experience to judge, and based on what you are doing and where you would like to go.

@mdk-popinfresh Thanks that's all great information. So you basically start turning back as soon as your sails billow?

You do take hull damage when anchoring at full speed though, plus raiding the anchor takes like 10 seconds, how would you do that whilst raising the sails?

@stem589 said in Sailing tips for new players.:

@mdk-popinfresh said in Sailing tips for new players.:

@stem589 said in Sailing tips for new players.:

@y0ujerk said in Sailing tips for new players.:

Don’t sail into the wind. Make a zig-zag path to your destination if it’s directly upwind from you. I believe this is called tacking.

Unless they changed it, there's only a 17% difference in sailing speed going full with and full against the wind. (see YouTube)

While I'd like it if tacking provided more speed, you'll lose a race against someone sailing head first into it. :(

Tacking absolutely does keep you going faster into the wind than sailing straight into the wind. If you are loosing ground to someone sailing straight into the wind, you aren't tacking or jibing properly

You'll have to test it out. IRL, tacking is the only way.

All I can speak to is the video I saw of someone sailing full with and full against, and the difference was 17%.

Tacking isn't likely to make up the difference between a straight line and 17% change in speed. (trigonometry).

I did test it out. I'm assuming you're referring to this YouTube video?
Sloop Sailing speeds

Not scientific at all. He sailed about 4 seconds past where he started the clock for the return trip which narrowed the gap.

It would be easier to do this scientifically with the opposite approach, however, you'd need more than one person to effectively do so. That is; have someone zoom out fully on the map without touching it. Record video of the map while sailing in a straight line directly into the wind and directly with the wind. Use a fixed time that is long enough to have some measurable distance on the map. Take a screen capture at the two end point time codes and overlay them in photoshop or similar. Measure the distance traveled to determine a more accurate rate for comparison.

I've actually been contemplating getting my streaming computer setup again to stream this game because of how much fun I've had with it. If I do so I'll probably do the above myself with some friends

@kettlestick said in Sailing tips for new players.:

@mdk-popinfresh Thanks that's all great information. So you basically start turning back as soon as your sails billow?

No, that would be very frequent tacking. Your angle that you are sailing across the wind should be just enough for your sails to billow while they are fully angled (which should be right about 40° - 45°). You'll want to have a decently wide channel for it to be effective

@mdk-popinfresh couldn’t have said it better myself. If done correctly tacking on sloop or galleon is definitely a better idea. It’s how I escape people when I have cargo and don’t want to fight since most people don’t know how.