Cruising yacht to windward

[AngusMcDoon]

Which cruising yacht above 40 ft and currently in production can point at or better than 30 deg to the true wind?

Just done some vector sums.

Lets say the true wind speed is 12 knots, and boat speed is 7 knots. At 30 degrees to the true wind the apparent wind speed will be 18.4 knots, and the apparent wind angle will be 18.9 degrees. Not going to happen on any production boat I know.

30 degrees to apparent wind is good. 30 degrees to true wind will stop the boat.

I suspect that some people may not know this, but increasing boat speed when sailing upwind results in diminishing returns. Assuming that how close you can sail to apparent wind stays constant, then increasing boat speed means that your angle to true wind also increases.

This is particularly obvious in boats that sail a high proportion of wind speed. On my boat in flat water at 30 degrees to apparent wind I can sometimes get boat speed the same as true wind speed. But tacking angle in this case is 4 times the apparent wind angle, i.e. 120 degrees, before accounting for loss because of leeway, so may be 130 degrees in the end - not good by anyone's standards.

And as for ice-yachts that can sail at speeds multiple times true wind speed, they mostly just go backwards and forwards when sailing upwind.

 

[Duffer]

Assuming you do mean 30 degrees to apparent wind then look at Arconas and Dufour Performance range. These are close-winded but make comfortable cruising boats - so you can have your cake and eat it!