to add to the above, do NOT TURN when you first start rowing. Its near unpossible to row with the rudder any way but straight at a standstill (just started moving). Once you get moving, then you can turn. But turning slows you, so try to go in straight lines to row efficiently (such as it is). Also the controls are reversed in reverse, like a car.
Its possible to smack your boat with a weapon to get it moving, hit the mast facing where you want to go. This is not the best idea unless really, really stuck.

Tacking is a critical skill. To say it another way, its a vector zero sum game, like in physics. You go 100 feet left and 25 feet forward, then turn and go 100 feet right and 25 feet forward, then reverse it and go 100 left/25 forward.. and again... now you are 100 feet forward and in the same place relatively left and right... you only get a little bit of the component you in the direction you wanted to go, but its a lot faster than rowing against the wind if you have the space to do it. It wont work in small rivers.

Originally posted by jonnin:

do NOT TURN when you first start rowing.

You can't tell me what I can't do. You are not my real dad!

XD

In locations where we moor sailing vessels, we set 2 vertical core wood posts into the beach, a little less than a horizontal core wood beam apart. We then sail the boat between them until the bow is just past, then attach a horizontal beam to the 2 posts. The dragon figurehead will then keep the boat in place. Simple and extremely effective.

Jesus. Ok. Reading that, I have to interject with a basic tutorial of sailing in valheim because you sound like you really don't know what you are doing, and I'm not saying that with a scrap of ill will, or judgement. Read this post carefully, it WILL help you and make sailing in Valheim more fun for you.

You seem to already be aware of some of the mechanics, but forgive me if I start from scratch. If you humor me on this you might thank me later.

When you sit at the rudder (also used as a single paddle - this is no Kayak), you have essencially 4 gears: 2nd, 3rd, 4th and reverse. Two of those require wind. No 1st gear? Thats right, but I'll get to that.

If you paddle, (2nd gear or reverse) your character powers the boat (obviously), but just like in real life, your boat is still feeling the effects of wind, so paddling against it nets you 2h of getting nowhere, like trying to get a car moving in 2nd gear on a hill. (now the 2nd gear makes sense, yes?) A helpful note is that paddling backwards is stronger than forward so you can always use that to get you somewhere. Stronger, not faster. I believe that the developers have disabled the effect of wind for reverse so players would not get stuck on a shore and be helpless.
Point being, if you get stuck, go backwards.

Note: With a bit of momentum already in place, you CAN still paddle upwind. You just don't wanna. Also as a bonus tip, if you alternate between full sail and padding, you can turn your boat pretty sharply with decent speed.

Now for 3rd and 4th gear, including wind..

As in real life, the effects of wind on the boat does not work exactly as you'd expect on first glance. Wind from directly behind is *NOT* your best wind. Reason being aerodynamics, but I'll skip the science lesson and just focus on gameplay mechanics.
Top right corner of your screen you see wind direction with a circular, sand colored bar of various gradients with a wind icon showing which direction the wind comes from. What you might not know, is that in the brightest parts of the bar, the power of the wind on your boat is the strongest. Yes, about 90deg from port or starboard is the best wind you can have.
What you also might notice is that there is only about a 90deg angle straight ahead of the boat where you would not gain any wind to push the boat. ANYTHING other than that zone, would push your boat quicker than paddling (in any direction).
So, you turn your boat so the wind is just in that section --You zig-zag upwind and claim the land for the people of (insert name of country here) It is called "Tacking". Now you are on your way to the plains and riches (or prolly death, but who is going to speculate?).

BUT --HYPOTHETICAL SCENARIO--, your boat is stationery (call it Pen Duick - homophonic joke), facing full wind, and you will NOT get it moving with either sails or paddles for reasons already mentioned.. So you go backwards, WITH the wind, which gives you some momentum and also allows you to now turn your boat, which allows you to get some wind which allows you to move.


Now, to get to your original points: Why the boat has no anchor - I'm guessing it is because it is a game and the devs didn't want ro do the extra work to force the player to do the extra work, just to get the boat to stay put. Instead, you get an automatic handbrake when nobody is on the boat.
How you can fix it: Write a mod which not only codes the behaviours but also introduces the models and troubleshoot so it doesn't clash with other scripting..
That, or just accept that it isn't there -just like the 60 oars and oarsmen (average amount on a longboat) you would need to get your boat moving.

Originally posted by jonnin:

you do have a paddle. 1 click speed forward or back paddles, with animation to show for it too.
you don't have an anchor because they didn't think it was meaningful to add it, I guess. Only the devs can say for sure, but its a clicky to do something that you would likely prefer automatic as-is -- no one wants to forget that and lose another boat.

um nope lol, my friend and I sat in dead water for literally half an hour last night, don't even get me started on trying to actually get to our destination, think we spent 2 hours just messing around in the water trying to maneuver the boat to get any meaningful gust of air

some parts we would accidentally beach the boat and get stuck, a paddle would've easily gotten us out.. but uh, yeah lol

keep in mind I am referring to the huckleberry fin raft, our other actual badass boat was way up river, these problems showed themselves quite often in our "log boat" lol

You should be able to get just about anywhere at row speed in a half hour. You don't need the wind to go places. It's just slower. Were you just sitting there with your sails still up and cursing your fate instead of rowing (which is speed 1 on the boat, rowing icon appears, sails rolled up) You're never really "dead in the water."

Originally posted by Zep Tepi:

You should be able to get just about anywhere at row speed in a half hour. You don't need the wind to go places. It's just slower. Were you just sitting there with your sails still up and cursing your fate instead of rowing (which is speed 1 on the boat, rowing icon appears, sails rolled up) You're never really "dead in the water."

I mean that's just using the rudder to move the sailboat, and atm we are trying it out right now and we are noticing is that it sort of moves side to side like at a snails pace, I do see the rowing icon now which is nice as I didn't know it existed until you mentioned it, previously we would put the sails up when we wanted the boat to turn, but I guess I don't know how to actually MOVE the boat with the rowing icon active, to actually move faster than a snail on ambien is what I would like as this is painstakingly slooooooooow



*edit we are moving, still quite slow but in reverse with that rowing icon active



just wish they would add paddles lol, I mean that's all I ask for XD, so we don't have to use the rudder to move along the dead wind or whatevs, there are so many other tools at our disposal, BUT and I mean BUT maybe I haven't gotten far enough in the game to see everything, because we just landed at the swamp area.

well I mean I think everyone is missing my main point, in which I mean..

why does the game NOT have an anchor, as vikings DID in fact use anchors back in the day, and also paddles, which I would love so so much, that was my main issue here, the lack of a paddle and or anchor

I do appreciate the replies but none of them seem to be addressing my question, sadly.

you do have a paddle. 1 click speed forward or back paddles, with animation to show for it too.
you don't have an anchor because they didn't think it was meaningful to add it, I guess. Only the devs can say for sure, but its a clicky to do something that you would likely prefer automatic as-is -- no one wants to forget that and lose another boat.

The trick to not having your boat stay put is:

A. Having nobody ON the boat, otherwise, yes, it will still do what you last had it do.
B. Parking your boat away from the ocean. By that, I mean a large enough distance from the actual ocean biome. It does not need to be the up a river, but just far enough into the shallows. You will always find a nice little bay of some sort. There will be no waves to throw it around. Job done.
Take this into consideration when building a dock or boathouse. It would make your life much easier.

Yes, when the boat is empty it will generally stay put. The exception is when you've run it up onto the shore. If it's on a significant slope it will go downhill, just like anything else. It will also keep its momentum when it hits the water, and might drift a ways.

There is an invisible anchor when you jump off the boat, which automatically stops it.
The safest place for a boat is in a storage box. Land on shore, smash it up and put it in a box.

I don't have much experience with multiplayer boat stuff but when I have after someone uses the rudder and everyone has jumped of the boat it comes to a dead stop. The only way the boat moves is from tides moving boat down onto a bank which makes it slide and get inertia to slowly move away. If players start jumping and running all over the surface of the boat then it can also gain inertia from that and start moving again. If you take hold of rudder and jump off, it will again bring boat to a full stop

There isn't. If you jump off and no one else is on the boat it basically stops moving and will remain there until someone gets back on.

I do remember back in the early days that this wasn't so. Had a boat or two disappear, but it is possible that storm damage could be a culprit, even for current patches.

well depending on the water we've had ours end up down quite aways, we even build a base around one and it would crash into our buildings.. obviously the waves are the culprit.

point is I've even watched a boat float away lol, jw why there was no anchors or something to STOP the boat









or mebbe an oar, that would be the bees knees