its my understanding that if the bernoulli principle was the sole contributor to our boats going forward, it would be possible to point the bows directly into the wind.
Do what????
Bernouli works b/c of pressure differential produced by longer/shorter flow paths created by varying angles of attack. IF enough pressure differential is not created to provide enough forward thrust to over come the drag, you go backwards.
Tami beat me to the C.A. Marchaj reference, but his book "Sail Performance" is awesome! I've got a copy somewhere around here.... It explains everything from basic wing/sail theory to square head shape and why they are better. The section that really sells his research (IMHO) is when shows vector addition of the forces on a sail and graphs of manometer tube readings taken from sails. It's not light reading by any stretch of the imagination, but worth it if your pocket protector is big enough.
