Is there a maximum speed a sailing boat can travel?
Yes. But several factors can effect speed. As mentioned previously sail area, sail shape and waterline length are critical design elements that combine to propel a sail vessel to its maximum “hull speed”. Other factors like hull shape and smoothness, overall weight, ballast (weight in the keel to keep boat upright) will have some effect on speed. There are usually design tradeoffs such as lots of sail area, skinny hull shape and light weight works well downwind but not so good upwind and vice versa. Then there’s monohulls vs. multihulls (catamarans). Monohulls are displacement boats meaning they must push water out of the way to move forward whereas multis sit mostly on top of the water and have far less drag from water resistance (and thus much faster). The exception is when a monohull in certain conditions like high winds and big waves can overcome surface tension with the water and actually surf on top dramatically increasing speed (dramatic is a relative term here). All of this ass
