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Overview

               

In this project, we examine the kinematics of a simulated sailboat progressing upwind in a sinusoidally oscillating wind. The sailboat is modeled simply as a point moving at a steady state speed in direct proportion to the wind speed, and losing a fraction of that speed in a tack. Two methods of progressing to an upwind destination are considered and compared: The first optimizes the velocity made good (VMG) by tacking when the velocity made good on the other tack exceeds the current VMG by a given percentage. The second method makes use of fuzzy logic to determine the best points to tack and proceed toward the destination.