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Sail dynamics during tacking maneuvers
Tacking is a sailing maneuver that is necessary for upwind navigation. In this talk, I will introduce a sail membrane and vortex–sheet model, used to systematically characterize how a wide range of sail material parameters and tacking motions affects the sail dynamics during a tacking maneuver. I will focus on whether a given set of parameters will result in a “successful tack,” meaning that the sail will flip around to adopt its mirror-image shape, or if it will remain stuck in a metastable state that is close to its initial shape. I will also talk about slack sails and show that they are more difficult to flip.