Research question

[u/Notrollinonshabbos]

Hello all, I am an amateur writer. My current novel takes place during the height of the napoleonic era. Takes inspiration from authors like O’Brian, Lambden, and James L. Haley. And while I understand most of jargon (thanks Falconer’s!) I’m lacking in operational understanding. I could really use a good in depth “how it works” for full rigged ships. I’m more visual than anything else. Studying sail plans is what helped a lot of terminology click. So books or better yet visual media that has a tutorial-esque feel. Anyone have any pointers?

[u/JPaq84]

Theres a game called sailwind. Buy it, get the rig, and use it to build whatever rigging the ship your novel will use.

Once you can sail in that game, you will 1000% understand better all the terminology and tactics of sailing will, with a far lower barrier of entry than esail or some of tje documentation mentioned here will present to you.

[u/Notrollinonshabbos → u/JPaq84]

I have sail wind. But my computer died before I was able to really get into it. So it’s definitely on the list of things to get into when I get a new pc built. And I do have some experience in modern fore and aft sailing. Which helped me with some mechanics and such. But I know there is different methodology that went into running a full rigged frigate. Also knowing to haul a line when someone else is calling the shots is one thing. But knowing what to set, take in, the various effects that each has on each other. It’s a much different beast than single handing an cat25.