The Novice Sailing section is designed for those who are just learning to sail. At this stage we want sailors to understand how the sailing world works, rather than understand specific sailing techniques.
Novice Sailing (Understanding Sailing) is part of the guide: Understanding Sailing. This guide contains the following topics:
Novice Sailing
Ship Types and Specifications
Expert Sailing
Because the wind determines a ship's speed, sailors must understand the wind.
In order for sailing ships to move they must have wind. As you may have noticed when sailing around the Caribbean, wind only blows in one particular direction at a time. While this direction will change (usually about once every 15 minutes), the strength of the wind is always the same.
Sailing Upwind (towards the direction the wind is blowing) is bad. However, depending on your ship sailing with the wind directly behind you (Running) also may not be the best angle. Each ship sails differently, and checking the Wind Indicator is an easy way to see what angles will work best for your ship.
The Wind Indicator around your ship. Try to keep your ship pointed toward Green.
Surrounding your ship is a Wind Indicator, which shows you which direction the wind is coming from and how that affects your particular ship.
On the Wind Indicator are three colors: green, yellow, and red:
For novice sailors, a ship's speed and acceleration can be important specs to take into account.
Specs of a Dolphyn Ketch. The section that pertains to sailing is circled.
Each ship has various specs that affect how it feels to sail it. These specs can be found on any Ship Deed. You can look at any Ship Deed by checking in the in-game Help:
On the Toolbar click on the Options button Image:options.png. The Options window will appear.
On the Options window click on the Help button. The Help window will appear. You should be looking at the Home page of the Help menu.
Note: you may have to click the Home button on the Help window to return to the Home page.
This is essentially a speedometer for your ship. It shows how many knots your ship is doing.
Notice the Sailing specs of the Dolphyn Ketch. To determine how a ship will feel, two of the most important specs to understand are Max Speed and Acceleration:
A ship with a Max Speed value of 15 and an Acceleration value of 3 will feel faster overall than a ship with a Max Speed value of 17 and an Acceleration value of 1. The ship with the higher Acceleration value is able to ramp up its speed much faster, making the ship far more maneuverable and resilient to any errors its captain makes.
The yellow arrows circled on this World Map indicate currents. If you sail over the currents, your ship will receive a speed boost.
Also, you can only see currents that are nearby; currents not nearby will not appear on your World Map.
Sailing on the Open Sea is much different than the sailing that is done in combat. While many of the details we discuss in this guide are relevant to both types of sailing, many details are a bit different when sailing in Open Sea.
While a ship's Max Speed in combat might only be 16 knots (kn), its Max Speed on the Open Sea could be 60 kn. Acceleration will also be different on the Open Sea. Because of these differences, your ship may still go at a decent speed even when it's pointed in the red (Upwind).
We discuss Red Circles (AKA PvP Zones) in-depth on the PvP Zones page, but essentially Red Circles are areas surrounding ports where Player vs. Player battles take place. When sailing through these areas stay alert for opponents and try to keep your speed up by maneuvering as little as possible. If you have a higher speed, attackers will have a harder time catching up to you.
Sailing through the Open Sea can be time consuming, so we recommend looking out for currents (see the image to the right for more information on what currents look like). If you sail over currents your ship will get a bit of a speed boost for a little while. In order to keep this boost, you should continue sailing within 90° of the direction the current is pointing. That is, if the current is pointing northwest, then you can sail northwest, west, or southwest. Sailing over additional currents will restart the timer for the speed boost.
This diagram shows the wind (blowing in the direction of the red arrow) and the terminology associated with positioning a ship in relation to the wind.
The Sailing Terminology described here is used to indicate which direction a ship is pointing in relation to the wind.
Because sailing is a unique activity, our normal language doesn't quite fit. That is, we don't generally talk about turning to face 90° from the direction that the wind is blowing, unless we're referring to sailing. For this reason you may find Sailing Terminology useful when learning sailing techniques or when describing maneuvers to other players.
Here is a list of common Sailing Terminology: