The real key was inventing the windmill-powered winch.
but how do you sail upwind?
As I understand (I’ll happily be corrected), the basic mechanism is that you want to align your ship diagonally off to the side, and the sails at a shallow angle so that the wind pushes you to the side (diagonally back and to the side, but the hydrodynamics of your bow resist the backwards component), so you gain some momentum. Then you turn into the wind to have that momentum carry you forward, sails parallel to the wind so it doesn’t push you back as much. Turn off to the side again (either back to the same side, or continue your turn to the other side) and repeat.
It doesn’t move you quickly, because it’s rather inefficient in transferring the wind’s power into opposite momentum, but it gets you moving at least a little.
You don’t sail directly upwind; sailboats can’t do that. You sail at an angle to the wind.
EDIT:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tacking_(sailing)
Sails are limited in how close to the direction of the wind they can power a sailing craft. The area towards the wind defining those limits is called the “no-sail zone”. To travel towards a destination that is within the no-sail zone, a craft must perform a series of zig-zag maneuvers in that direction, maintaining a course to the right or the left that allows the sail(s) to generate power. Each such course is a “tack”. The act of transitioning from one tack to the other is called “tacking” or “coming about”. Sailing on a series of courses that are close to the craft’s windward limitation (close-hauled) is called “beating to windward”.
I learned this when playing Valheim
Me too!!! Lol
This makes it a one-cylinder motor, right?
If so, it’s a one-stroke motor. Kinda, sorta, maybe :P
How much squidpower we talkin’ here
Only 8, one for each arm.
Nah. They need to push the gunpowder in from the “boom” side. We also count the “outs”. Anchor into the cannon is a separate step and cannot just be hung on the outside.
Boom, gun powder in, stick out, anchor in, stick out.
5 strokes unless we count a “suck” for cooling the barrel.
Thoughts?
Now that I think of it (far more than a silly topic actually deserves), I’m convinced it’s a 2-stroke mechanism. Loading and firing are separate stages of the normal operation cycle. Think of that like the two stages of a power cycle of a 2-stroke engine.
Piston moving up is like cannonball and gunpowder going into the barrel in the loading stage. Gasoline igniting and moving the piston down is like gunpowder burning and propelling the ball out of the barrel.
Oh, that is good!
