I ask because our tactician is having a noticeably hard time figuring out what to do. “Uh … no,” our tactician responds. “OK,” I say. “Let’s tack, then we can sort it out.” It’s not that he is doing ...

The Courant Institute's Christiana Mavroyiakoumou, above at Central Park's Conservatory Water, and the University of Michigan's Silas Alben studied how sails behave during a wide range of tacking ...