NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
From: Antoine Couëtte
Date: 2012 Dec 6, 18:42 -0800
Yes, Polar diagrams for Yachts are superb and very interesting to use ! I think that they were first introduced in the early seventies (maybe earlier ?) and there is a very nice study of them in a book called "Calculator Navigation" by Mortimer Rogoff.
You will generally see from such Polar Diagrams that most generally in order to reach a point fully downwind (assuming no current over the bottom), the direct track is generally not the shortest one time-wise !
Best Regards
Kermit
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