You're not using the raft, are you?

The karve and especially the longship are definitely effective.
Except when you get surrounded by the thickest fog that drops visibility to zero and you're near Plains islands... I stop right there when that happens, and wait for the fog to clear.

Originally posted by umop-apisdn:

Originally posted by Shaken_Widow:

you don't want tail wind, that's slower than full wind to the sides.

No, it's not. Or rather, it is, but only by about 3%. Since sailing speeds are never higher than 10 m/s, that's a difference of less than 0.3 m/s. For comparison, it's less than 10% of the speed difference between walking and running.

"All wind directions from crosswind to tailwind end up being roughly the same (with the optimal wind angle being only ~3% faster)."
https://valheim.fandom.com/wiki/Boats#Sailing_with_the_wind

It's only recently that humanity has discovered how to sail faster with a crosswind than a tailwind; unfortunately, Viking longships predate that design evolution.

TL;DR: Anything other than a headwind generates forward motion at roughly the same rate.

if you're using the raft yes.

if you're using the karve or the longship the tail wind is VISIBLY slower than side wind.

it's not just 3% difference, idk where you got your numbers but it's literally enough for you to notice the difference and never want tail wind ever again.

also, the main reason it's slower is due to the force it's pushing on the ship.

it tips the ship forward and makes it sail into the water which makes it slower, the bigger the ship the bigger the effect it has.

which is why when sailing with the big boats you can literally see the difference, instead of being pushed nose into water and slugging along, the ship tilts slightly to the side and glides at cruising speed.

also, when sailing with a crosswind, you are sailing in the grooves of the water, which means no bobbing which means no speed deviation.

there's literally way more reasons why you should sail with a crosswind than any you could possibly say to convince me tailwind is fine.

the amount of bobbing alone with a tail wind is enough to make me not like it.

Originally posted by pastor:

Are there any better ways to cross the water between islands?

Yes, you may just swim anywhere using stamina potions(stamina mead?). Sometimes it is time consuming, but unlike boat it doesn't ruin map exploration. Of course you can't carry ore efficiently without sailing so you'll have to build new bases for metal processing.

Sailing is very effective. The raft is slow, the Karve in low winds is slow unless the wind is abeam and paddling is faster than or equivalent to tacking at wind speeds slower than 4. The long boat is always faster tacking than paddling at any wind speed.

The fair winds section of the boat is 270 degrees so 3/4ths of the time you'll have fair winds when you don't you tack which is keeping the wind on the bow in the fair winds section and then turning 90 degrees to catch the wind on the other side in a zig zag pattern which as I mentioned is faster than paddling most of the time.

Sailing is faster than sprinting an equivalent distance and much faster after you run out of stamina from sprinting and the boat has a cargo hold so it is the fastest way to transport ore or smelted metals.

Late game you get a forsaken power that always gives you fair winds when it active and its active for 5 minutes with a cool down of 20 minutes. If you have 4 players in your boat you can alternate and always have fair winds.

Once you can build portals you only ever have to sail to a new island one time (the first time) unless you want to move ore or smelted ingots. (Which will be changing with the difficulty sliders in the up coming patch.)

Originally posted by Shaken_Widow:

you don't want tail wind, that's slower than full wind to the sides.

No, it's not. Or rather, it is, but only by about 3%. Since sailing speeds are never higher than 10 m/s, that's a difference of less than 0.3 m/s. For comparison, it's less than 10% of the speed difference between walking and running.

"All wind directions from crosswind to tailwind end up being roughly the same (with the optimal wind angle being only ~3% faster)."
https://valheim.fandom.com/wiki/Boats#Sailing_with_the_wind

It's only recently that humanity has discovered how to sail faster with a crosswind than a tailwind; unfortunately, Viking longships predate that design evolution.

TL;DR: Anything other than a headwind generates forward motion at roughly the same rate.

I actually enjoy it. Used to own a small, old, cheap sailboat IRL. And I miss it terribly.
The landscape and sky in Valheim are gorgeous. I love to just watch the coast slide by, the fish jump, and the changes to the weather and sky.

When I started sailing in game and ran into storms, I figured the sailing sim wasn't super detailed. But just for style's sake, I RPd it as if I were in a real boat in a real storm. Good thing I did. Was "hotdogging it" in a storm, launched my Karve off a wave like it was a skateboard ramp, and when I hit the next wave she took hull damage. O_O Okay, so your boat really can break up in a bad enough storm. And then I found out on the forums that if you screw up sailing in a storm (carry too much sail in a crosswind and/or catch a big wave on your beam {side}) your boat will capsize. This leaves you in the water, with the upside down boat slowly taking hull damage until it sinks. When you're caught out on the ocean in a really bad one, I suggest furling the sail and keeping the bow pointed into the waves.

But in the end, when you fight with headwinds, and fight your way through storms (or just beach your ship until it passes, and hope there's not a troll close by) and finally pull into your dock with 120 iron ore in the hold, that's really satisfying.

Hmm. . . was going to post a YouTube link to the song "The Dane-wife's Lament" (aka Widowmaker) from Kipling's "Puck of Pook's hill." And it ain't there. Need to dragoon my Lady Wife into recording it for my channel.

Ah, what is woman, that you forsake her,
and the home-fire, and the home-maker,
to go to the old gray widowmaker?

She has no house to lay a guest in,
but one great bed that all may rest in,
where the gulls cry, and the sea-birds nest in.

She has no strong white arms to fold you,
but the ten-times-fingering weed to hold you,
out on the rocks where the tide has rolled you.

And when the signs of the Summer thicken,
when the ice breaks, and the birch-buds quicken,
yearly you turn from our sides and sicken-
sicken again for the shouts and the slaughter-
you go down to the laughing water,
to look at your ship in her Winter quarter.

You forget your mirth, and all talk at the table,
the horse in the shed, and the kine in the stable,
to pitch her sides, and go over her cable.

Then you row out where the storm-clouds wallow,
and the sound of your oar-blades ringing hollow
is all we have left in the months that follow.

Ah, what is woman, that you forsake her,
and the home-fire, and the home-maker,
to go to the old gray widowmaker?

most time sailing, 90%, i enjoy padding because of seaserpent hunt (serpent stew) and don´t have problem at all

Honestly, I love sailing, taking the little rivers in-between lands, over the open ocean. I put up some viking music and just enjoy the vibes. It Valheim, take it slow and steady!

Rowing speed (speed one, no sail) is actually not too bad. You just think it's slow because the map is huge. Consider that the default and if the wind happens to help then take it as a gift.

And even if you cheat the stamina, swimming is definitely not better. You could cheat with flying by dev commands though. Or look for a seed that has most of what you need on one continent.

Yes sailing is very effective if you're trying to cross an ocean.

Also, for the N-th time: no, wind against you is not scripted. The weather/wind is static and predefined for every single day and identical for all playthrough. In *all* runs, the 2nd day is foggy in the meadow for example. Same for all other days. There is even a website that can give you the forecast for any day, with all the biomes and direction of the wind.

Considered sailing with the wind instead of trying to force a straight line the direction you "want' to go?

I suggest you look into tacking.

And yes, sailing it effective in game.

Sailing is the only way to get to much of the map, unless you happen to have a randomly generated map that has land all really close together.

Once you get anything better than a raft, it will typically be faster as well if you get any amount of wind behind you, and helps with some major runs for heavy stuff like metal as it has a hold on the ship that can store that heavy gear to help you transport it back wherever you need to go.

That said, it also can be safer at certain points with the raft to sail at a safe distance from land, and can get a decent speed in the right conditions.

I just watch youtube vids on my laptop while sailing and I try not to stress about it . I really hated it in the beginning now I just watch viking vids, not much else to we can do right now . I really do want complete sailing update, new boats ect.

you don't want tail wind, that's slower than full wind to the sides.

note how the sailing ui has a color change to the ring where you are using wind to sail.

the bright green areas of that ring to each side are where you get the most speed.

as for why it's always against you, it's because the winds change with time of day and are determined by the valleys you sail through just like in real life.

tides change, and with that the winds.

so at one part of the day you will notice the wind going away from your docks, and at another time will be heading back towards you.

this is why picking the time to sail is important, because if you start when the wind is against you you will have a bad time.