Wind, trim, and the points of sail. Read this before your first long voyage.
The Controls
You sail with the same two hands you'd use for a real ship: one on the wheel, one on the sheets.
| Action | Touch | Keyboard |
|---|---|---|
| Steer | Drag the wooden wheel (bottom-right corner) | A D · arrows ← → |
| Trim sails (0° – 180°) | Drag the sail slider (right edge) | W S · arrows ↑ ↓ |
| Fire broadside | Tap FIRE | Space |
| Drop / raise sails | Tap DROP SAILS | Shift |
| Map, stats, settings | Tap SHIP LOGS | M · Ctrl · Tab · Enter |
| Board | Tap BOARD when close | B |
The first time you board, three yellow tutorial chips float over the wheel, the slider, and the FIRE button for ten seconds. After that you're on your own.
That's all you need to make way. Read on for speed.
Vessels You'll Sail
Brig. Two masts of stacked square sails, a jib forward and a spanker aft. Your starting vessel. Quick on a beam reach, agile in stays, a five-pellet bow burst and two cannons per side (fore + aft) for the broadside. Every voyage starts here.
Brethren Frigate. Three masts. After four islands liberated, the dockyards refit your brig into this. Two more cannons per side — four broadside guns total per side, same per-ball damage as the brig — twice the hull, slower to come about. The trade is in agility.
Vessels You'll Fight
Royal Navy Brig. The Crown's standard patrol. Same two-mast rig as your starter, two cannons per side. Spawns as the island guard around any unclaimed Crown island and attacks on sight.
Royal Navy Frigate. Heavy escort. Three masts, four guns per side, double the patrol brig's broadside weight. Defends Crown Cove at the heart of the archipelago and the most fortified satellite island.
What Actually Decides Your Speed
Two things, and only two, are under a captain's control:
- Point of sail — the angle of the bow relative to where the wind is coming from.
- Sail exposure — how much of that wind actually crosses the canvas, set by the slider.
Both terms multiply. A perfect heading with a slack sail gives half the speed a perfect heading with full trim does — and vice versa. You must solve both at the same time.
Point of Sail
The angle between the bow and the direction the wind is coming from. Approximate power values:
| Point of sail | Angle off wind | Relative power |
|---|---|---|
| Dead upwind ("in irons") | 0° | 0.08 — barely steerage |
| Pinching | ~30° | ~0.32 |
| Close-hauled | ~45° | ~0.61 |
| Close reach | ~60° | ~0.89 |
| Beam reach | 90° | 1.00 (peak) |
| Broad reach | ~135° | 1.00 (peak) |
| Running (dead downwind) | 180° | 0.48 |
Running dead-downwind is slower than reaching across the wind. On a run, the sail acts as a drag device only. On a beam or broad reach, it behaves as an airfoil and generates lift — much more efficient.
Pointing close to the wind is also slow on a square-rigger. A brigantine can't honestly sail closer than ~60° off the wind. Anything tighter pays a steep tax — at 30° you're barely making ground.
Sail Trim
There is no single "correct" sail angle — the right trim changes with your point of sail, exactly as it does on real water. The rule of thumb: sheet IN as you turn toward the wind, ease OUT as you turn away.
- Close-hauled (beating upwind): trim the sail in, near fore-and-aft. Set this tight, the sail works as an airfoil — the wind streams across it and lifts you forward (Bernoulli). Ease it out here and it just luffs.
- Beam / broad reach: ease the sail out partway (roughly halfway). Still an airfoil, and this is where you're fastest.
- Running (dead downwind): ease the sail all the way out to abeam. Now it's a parachute — the wind simply pushes the belly of the sail.
Practically: the further off the wind you turn, the further out you let the sail. The wind compass (top-right) plus the trim slider give you everything you need to find it by eye.
Read the cloth. Trim until the canvas on screen looks fullest and the speed gauge peaks. A flapping, flat sail is a luffing sail — you've trimmed wrong for your heading and you're losing the multiplier.
Sailing Doctrine
Reaching Top Speed
- Steer to a beam reach (90° off wind) or a broad reach (~135°).
- Ease the sail out about halfway for a reach — then fine-tune until the speed gauge peaks and the cloth is fullest.
- Both factors multiply. Half the answer is no answer.
Reaching An Upwind Target
- A vessel cannot sail directly into the wind. The no-go zone is roughly ±30° from the source.
- Tack in zigzags at close-hauled (~45° off wind). Each tack costs a beat of speed but it is the only way to make ground upwind.
- Each "TACK" or "JIBE" the activity ticker prints is a real wind-line crossing.
Reaching A Downwind Target
- Avoid running dead downwind — it's the parachute point of sail, and as you run away from the wind your apparent wind drops. Dead-downwind tops out near ~70% of your reach speed (e.g. ~10-11 kt vs a 15 kt reach). Broad-reach and gybe downwind instead of pointing dead at your target.
- Jibe in long broad-reach legs (~135° off wind). The total distance is longer but average speed is nearly twice the dead-run — the broad-reach captain arrives sooner.
Reaching A Target On The Beam
- Sail straight at it. The bow is already on the fastest point of sail.
Combat At Sail
- Stage upwind, attack on the beam. Sit upwind of the target, then turn down to a beam reach for the run-in. The beam reach delivers top speed and puts the enemy on the broadside, where the cannon mounts fire. A brig lays down two balls per side; a frigate lays down four — each ball at the same per-shot weight, the upgrade is the count, not the punch.
- Avoid approaching dead downwind. Speed will arrive slow, the bow guns are weak (a five-pellet burst at short range), and turning to break off becomes awkward.
- Disengage by turning through the wind. A clean tack returns the vessel to a beam reach in the opposite direction. A botched jibe in a low-wind moment leaves a captain stalled.
- Crown Cove sits at the world's center. The approach demands a beam-reach line where possible — the tack to take is dictated by whichever way the wind is blowing at the moment of the assault.
Stackable Speed Multipliers
| Source | Effect |
|---|---|
| Farm island claims | 1 + 0.15 × (sailLevel − 1) thrust per level |
| Grog Barrel pickup | ×1.4 thrust for 30 seconds |
| Powder Barrel pickup | No speed effect — affects cannon damage only |
| Trident of Poseidon (Cursed Cargo) | ×1.2 thrust for the voyage |
These buffs stack with the underlying point-of-sail × trim model. A fully-upgraded ship with a Grog Barrel active on a beam reach is the absolute peak — the right moment to pick fights or charge Crown Cove.
What The HUD Is Telling You
- The wind compass at the top-right shows where the wind is coming from, not where it's blowing to.
- The speed gauge (in knots, top-right) is your live read on trim quality. If you're losing knots after a turn, your sail trim hasn't caught up to the new heading yet.
- The activity ticker prints TACK when the bow crosses the wind line and JIBE when the stern crosses it. Real terminology, real triggers — those are the moments you can shave or lose seconds.
Fair winds.