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JGWeissman comments on The Correct Contrarian Cluster - Less Wrong
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The article says: "It should be obvious that there's some way to go downwind faster than the wind, because as so many people pointed out, sailboats do it." Sailboats do not go downwind faster than the wind. I have gone downwind hundreds or thousands of times on many different types of sailboats, and I have never seen the wind indicators streaming behind me as I did so.
Tacking sailboats are going upwind, not downwind.
Well, that's obvious. By definition of "wind power".
The propeller is not at the same speed as the ground.
?
Sailing downwind faster than the wind looks and feels like sailing upwind. How often have you, when the tell tales are streaming aft, checked to see if a stationary flag was blowing in the opposite direction?
You could also have sailed on many kinds of boats whose hulls experience too much water resistance before achieving the speed of the wind to accelerate further with the power provided by that wind.