China's ancient sailing ship, how the technical principle of sailing against the wind

Ancient sailboats, when sailing against the wind, adjusting the angle of the hull and sails at the same time, can decompose the wind force of the upwind into two forces, one hull pushed to the side, the other pushed to the bow direction, the side of the force due to the resistance of the hull's draught is canceled out, and the other force pushes the hull to advance towards the bow direction.

Every once in a while, the crew changed the direction of the hull and sails so that the ship could follow a zig-zag course, which sailors called "stealing the wind".

Expanded:

Till the 1970s, the sailors called this method "zigzagging". p>Until the 1970s, most of the transportation along the coast of China was by sailboat. Walking boat is not afraid of the wind, afraid of no wind. Against the wind is to go the word, against the wind becomes the side wind, the greater the wind the better to go.

There are two sources of power for ancient sailing ships, one is the wind and the other is manpower. When it was windy or windy, you could sail with the sails up, but if you encountered a headwind, you would lower the sails to find a sheltered harbor to stop.

Manpower is used to keep sailing when there is no wind. So the sailboat can't move forward in the upwind condition, even the human power can't be changed. The first time sailing against the wind was realized was after the steam engine was applied to the sailing ship, which is what we call a ship.

References:

Baidu Encyclopedia - Law of Sailing Against the Wind