Originally posted by 10co SPARTAN 7274:

Longboat = Voyage from continent to continent. Super fast with fair winds. In foul winds, switch to paddle until winds pick up. However, the long boat is very hard to maneuver.

FYI even with foul winds and the lowest wind speed the longboat will still travel faster tacking than paddling. To keep from losing your momentum when tacking start the turn and then raise the sail. When you have fair wind again on the other side lower the sail again.

The Karve also tacks faster than paddling in foul winds in every wind speed except the slowest and it is equivalent to paddling in the second slowest wind speed. So about 80% of the time tacking with the Karve in foul winds is faster than paddling. There is no wind sock to tell you exact wind speed but you can get a good idea of wind speed by watching the clouds on the map view.