At the moment we're practicing a bit on a (sea) beach start without rudders. (we want to attent to the Round of Texel (NL) in June but haven't got many sea experience)

So when we start from the beach (at the moment the beach from our lake) we want to use the "power of the sails" for steering instead of the rudders. So we start with a closed jib, and a open main with the traveler in the far end corner. Wind is coming in 90 degrees on the beach.

Now I would expect the boat to float/sail away from the wind, but instead our boat luffs up against the wind (every single time, in whatever position we start)

What is happening here? Why doesn't this work out for us? The only way we can make it work, is with the help of 1 (loose) rudder