How do you sail into the wind and keep moving?

[Zadira 45]

I really have no idea how to sail a ship properly. We do pretty good if the wind is behind or from either side but when we are heading straight into the wind, we are not able to turn our sails green. What is the trick to being able to keep the ship moving if you are heading straight into the wind?

[Goldfish The Builder 105]

Tack your sails in a zigzag pattern 

[UDO 361]

zig zag , or wait for wind to change your call ,

 

if im out and  about on my raft i just port back to base and try again in 30 mins the wind has usally changed to the correct direction by then .

[EndeavorZ 2]

If it's a raft, what you'll want to do is rotate the sail as much to one side as you can, once the "Wind arrow" reaches the back side of the Boat UI on the top right of the screen, the wind should catch, and then after about 5 to 10 seconds you will have to rotate it as much as it can to the other direction. You will be Zig Zagging.. (Almost in an S shape)

So if you are willing to keep adjusting sails, this is the way to go against the wind (on a raft).

Bigger boats is the same basically too, but you might not have to zig zag as much depending on your sail set up.


 Happy sailing!

Edited January 2, 2019 by EndeavorZ
Additional information.

[Zadira 45]

WOW! You guys have been very helpful.  I should have said that we were trying to sail our Brigantine. It is so scary to get out on the ocean and be surrounded by Ghost Ships and have the wind staring you in the face. Hahahaha!  Zig zagging will be our way of trying to get out of that situation. Thank you!

[archaegeo 192]

Handling sails catch the wind MUCH sooner than speed sails, so on a multimast ship having different sails helps a lot

For more on tacking though, see here:

http://lrsailingcenter.com/posts/sailing-upwind/