It is well known that a yacht can sail against the wind. The method used is called tacking.
This couterintuitively means that it is always better to have a wind in the opposite direction rather than a weak wind behind you. The worst case is no wind.
Can anyone explain how tacking works in the simplest way using physical laws and physical pictures?
This is like flying,. However it is not like you can go exactly against the wind, but in zig zag (tacking). The explanation in Wikipedia is fairly good and there are plenty of pictures in Internet. http://ffden-2.phys.uaf.edu/211_fall2002.web.dir/josh_palmer/nav.html
basic vectors. The wind generates a force against the hull through change in momentum caused by the sails. This force is both in direction of motion and perpendicular to motion. The perpendicular is taken up by the keel and the yacht leaning, the remaining forward vector creates motion. When the ship runs out of room ( i e land) or the crew get bored they then tack through 90 degrees, then tack back again and so forth. this generates a straight line path but of sawtooths. However tidal vectors must also be included to calculate the actual path.
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