First of all imagine you are on a motor boat on a lake with no tide or current in a flat calm.

How does a yacht travel faster than the wind. Steve Mould in a reaction video explained how a boat can travel faster than the wind at an angle but not really how it can end up further down wind than the actual wind speed. At some point the sail gets just too large to handle. Its pushing but theres also a part of this wind that is dragging.

On the opposite side a yacht can travel much further in optimum weather conditions when the engines dont have to fight against the wind and choppy waters. The vehicle employs a rotor connected to the wheels and does not have a motor battery or flywheel. Flying the boat on its foils foiling also has increased top speeds dramatically.

Some sailboats can even move faster than the wind itself. Yachts cant outrun the wind if its behind them. Once the boat reaches the same speed as the wind its impossible to go any faster.

ELI5 - How does a sailboat travel faster than the wind. The main reason for this increase is that Cup teams now race catamarans rather than the monohulls used in the past. The sail plan gets limited by the righting moment of your hull.

5 6 As the wind heels the boat over the hull pushes back with a righting moment. Normally has a large cockpit to store fishing essentials. The wind is fasterthan the boat so the air is deceleratedby the sails.

The wind is doing two things said Margot Gerritsen an engineering professor at Stanford. But with the wind blowing from the front the boat turns its sails into the wind by about 45. The result is that the boat moves forward.