Yachts

A good analogy to this would be walking through an indoor room and feeling the "wind" on your face. The faster you walk, the more wind your feel. The apparent wind angle while sailing close hauled will be less that the true wind angle. A good, modern sloop can sail within 25 degrees of the apparent wind. An America's Cup racing sloop can sail within 16 degrees, under the right conditions.

Whilst sailing's invention is prehistoric, racing sailing boats is believed to have started in the Netherlands some time in the 17th century, whence it soon made its way to England where custom-built racing "yacht" began to emerge.

In 1851, a challenge to an American yacht racing club in New York led to the beginning of the America's Cup, a regatta won by the New York Yacht Club until 1983, when they finally lost to Australia II. Meanwhile, yacht racing continued to evolve, with the development of recognized classes of racing yachts, from small dinghies up to huge maxi yachts.