More sails = more speed??

[Seljuck]

That might be silly question... but does adding more sails to raft, increase its speed? I have 2 sails right now and I didn't see too much different vs 1 sail that I had before before..

[djehmli]

My raft is a 5 x 5 with 9 sails, it goes much slower than my 2x2 with two sails. My 2x2 I can get 2 , 2.5 full chevrons worth of speed. The 5x5 1 and a half chevrons is as fast as it will go.

Both rafts have banana sails. In fact I will probably reduce the 5 x 5 a couple of sails, maybe even 3 less as it hasn't appeared to make any difference.

[Thareen]

The bigger the raft, the slower it get´s.
Sails (even banana) only can compensate so much before the drag wins.
As dehmli stated, he/she/it/whatever pretty much maxed out the speed on what is possible on that raft, no matter how many more sails are slapped onto it.
The math is a bit wonky and could receive a second look at some point, but i would not put that on any priority list. 1 1/2 is still pretty good for that size.

[Seljuck]

Hmm then looks like 2 sails should be enough for 3x2 raft

[Thareen]

I kinda use a general rule of thumb. One sail every two base parts.
That´s just to keep in motion.
I have a current design which uses for now 11 base parts and has about as many sails.
1 1/2 is pretty much the best it could do.
2 sails on a 2x3 is underpowered in my book.
That one should still be small enough to get to a full 2.
Might even take not 3 but 4 sails.
Experiment.... a lot.
Everything bigger than that i would not be on amymore.

[Seljuck]

Originally posted by Thareen:

I kinda use a general rule of thumb. One sail every two base parts.
That´s just to keep in motion.
I have a current design which uses for now 11 base parts and has about as many sails.
1 1/2 is pretty much the best it could do.
2 sails on a 2x3 is underpowered in my book.
That one should still be small enough to get to a full 2.
Might even take not 3 but 4 sails.
Experiment.... a lot.
Everything bigger than that i would not be on amymore.

Thanks for clarify. I will definitely try it.

[djehmli]

Originally posted by Thareen:

The bigger the raft, the slower it get´s.
Sails (even banana) only can compensate so much before the drag wins.
As dehmli stated, he/she/it/whatever pretty much maxed out the speed on what is possible on that raft, no matter how many more sails are slapped onto it.
The math is a bit wonky and could receive a second look at some point, but i would not put that on any priority list. 1 1/2 is still pretty good for that size.

I am an old gamer girl, no worries.
Having used my 'pontoon' to make a cluster trip, I was happy with how stable it was, however, I will probably reduce it down to a 4 x 4. A bit too much wasted space.

[nextgengranny]

I haven't used anything larger than a 2Wx3L base, w/ two banana sails & two rudders attached, in some time now, including when I sailed to a new cluster, a trip which only lasted about five days.

In every other account I recall reading about, the trip has taken about twice that. I'm starting to wonder if that's related to using the sailing UI or possibly the "pass time" function, neither of which I did. It could be there's something buggy going on there; the fact that people can end up sailing backwards seems to indicate that something is amiss.

Edit: I was able to find a post describing my first crossing; I sailed a 2Wx2L raft, & the trip took four days, not five.