Ellen MacArthur wrote:
Oh fooey! This is getting hopeless..
Jeff, your just wrong! Your in irons. Your not going foward. The wind's
pushing you backwards. The sail is banging around in the middle of the boat.


Ellen, maybe the confusion everyone seems to be having with you is your
choice of words when trying to explain something. You leave so many
ambiguities in each of your problems that there are many choices that
can be right.

Take for instance the above statements. Was the wind blowing you
backwards, or were the sails limp? They are not the same thing.

If the boat was being carried by the current at 3 knots at a certain
bearing, and the wind was going 3 knots at precisely the same bearing,
the boat in irons would NOT be pushed back by the wind. The boat would
see no wind. See? But then, it wouldn't be in irons either, would it.

Yeah, yeah, I know - I'm reading old posts trying to catch up...