"FamilySailor" wrote in message ...
Maybe he doesn't know what apparent wind is. He could have been sailing
DDW,
thinking the wind was less than one knot, when it was actually 6 knots.

BB

We were beating into the wind. and the water was like glass. And you should
know that you could have a wind speed of 0.1 knots and it will move the boat
if there is no current opposing it.

No, I'll go out on a limb and claim that in a practical situation, 0.1 knots of
wind will not generate enough force to overcome the hull friction. At one knot,
the pressure on the sail is roughly a pound or two - but the force is
proportional to the square of the wind strength, so at 0.1 knots of wind we're
down to several grams of force.

Even if you could go at the wind speed (highly unlikely), that's only 600 feet
in an hour.

The speed of the boat is relative to the
speed of the wind. I guess most people would crank up the screaming
outboard, but we were there for a week of sailing and in no hurry.

I remember a regatta that was postponed due to lack of wind - we held "kinetic
races" using all the techniques strictly forbidden by the rules. Several
skippers were doing a few knots just by roll tacking viorously.

We had
all day to go from Echo bay to Center point. Most of the Macs cranked up
their engines and beat us there, but we sailed all the way. And sailing in
while others gave up, just makes you feel good about whole day. In the days
of old all they had were their sails.

And their oars.

As far as the captain making too many
tacks, well, I gave my advice once and did not worry about it. I was not the
skipper and it did not really matter. I was there to get away and sail. The
Mac that passed us did point that out to the skipper later that evening
though.