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    Re: The mathematics of tacking downwind
    From: Francis Upchurch
    Date: 2016 Jul 29, 11:24 -0700

    Brilliant stuff as usual folks.

    The racing sailors here haven't got time for maths , slide rules or computers. they feel the wind on their face and see the tide and somehow, by majic (inbuilt algorithms based on years of experience? they get it right and take the most efficient and winning tack. Aren't humans ( and no doubt many other species) so good at this kind of thing? We seem to be inherently good at "lining things up", in a geometrical sense, e.g arrows and javelins). All majic to me.

    In my sedentry cruising yacht, the Bygrave and Fuller 3 do the business. For racing, no way. Our brains already know how to do it from hundreds of thousands of years of hard evolution throwing spears at fast moving food.

    Keep up the brilliant intellectual banter. Keeps me young at heart!

    Francis

       
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