Questions on tacking into the wind

[Tingyun]

Could an experienced player help me out with a couple of questions?

Suppose I want to sail directly against the wind.

1) should I use about a 45 degree angle from wind, or try to obtain some balance between speed and angle, or pick the closest possible angle to the wind?

2) at what point during my tacking manuver should I go from full sails to battle sails? Should I wait until they are fully changed to begin turning into the wind, or start turning earlier?

3) I assume I should not employ no sails at any point?

4) how long into the turn should I wait before applying counterrudder? Until I am almost back to the correct angle, only after I have reached it, or should I overshoot a bit?

5) any tips on keeping a consistent tacking to both directions, so that I don't miss the island I am shooting for?

And additional questions:

6) if I want to travel to a place that is 30 degrees off from the direction wind is coming from, what is the best tactic? Do a tacking manuver but spend more time tacking in the direction that points closer to the destination, or something else? If so, any tips people use to spend the right tine tacking in each direction?

7) I know in sid meir's pirates the winds in the caribbean usually blow westward (something about that being the usual weather pattern), is that the same in this game? Or are the winds random here?

Thanks for your patience with my many questions. I really appreciate any advice!

 

[Pieter Boelen]

I'm not entirely sure of the answers here. Maybe somebody who has more experience with actual play can tell you.

The game doesn't like you sailing directly into the wind.
The Flying Dutchman is set up to do it best though.
But that required an extra in the SEA_AI folder.

Wind direction is random. I'd like it to be mostly from the East, but that isn't the case at the moment.

 

[Grey Roger]

Could an experienced player help me out with a couple of questions?

Suppose I want to sail directly against the wind.

1) should I use about a 45 degree angle from wind, or try to obtain some balance between speed and angle, or pick the closest possible angle to the wind?

It varies with ship type. Some ships can get closer to the wind than others. A ship with fore-and-aft rig such as a lugger will get closer to the wind than a ship with a lot of square sails, for example.

2) at what point during my tacking manuver should I go from full sails to battle sails? Should I wait until they are fully changed to begin turning into the wind, or start turning earlier?

You probably want to build up some speed before the tacking, so battle sails is just the intermediate stage between full sails and no sails.

3) I assume I should not employ no sails at any point?

Yes, because once you're pointing into the wind, or close to it (see point 1), the sails are pushing you backwards. So what you're trying to achieve is to keep full sail up until a little before your type of ship is going to do this, then get the sails completely furled as soon as possible, so that by the time you're facing the wind you have no sails up and can coast ahead until you're pointing far enough round to set the sails back and have them pushing you forward.

4) how long into the turn should I wait before applying counterrudder? Until I am almost back to the correct angle, only after I have reached it, or should I overshoot a bit?

Before you're back to the correct angle, otherwise you will overshoot. That's the point of counterrudder, to try to prevent overshooting.

5) any tips on keeping a consistent tacking to both directions, so that I don't miss the island I am shooting for?

If the wind is blowing straight in your face relative to the direction of the island you're trying to reach then you may want to consider going somewhere else for now, especially if you're in a square-rigged ship that can't sail even remotely into the wind. Otherwise, sail as close to the wind as you can in the general direction of the island, then turn and sail the other way a while to compensate. For example, you're trying to sail due west to reach Jamaica and the wind is blowing from WNW; I'd probably sail SW for a while, which would make some headway but leave me too far south, then I'd turn N to get back into position. (And hope that at some point the wind swings round so I can head a bit more toward W and a bit less toward S...)

 

[Tingyun]

Thanks for such a detailed write-up Grey Roger. I can't tell you how much I appreciate you being willing to generously spend your time to give me so much great information!

This is going to be very useful as I learn to sail better in game!