https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/api.php?action=feedcontributions&feedformat=atom&user=%F0%9F%A6%82xKCd%F0%9F%8C%80explain xkcd - User contributions [en]2026-04-15T05:31:24ZUser contributionsMediaWiki 1.30.0https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=3013:_Kedging_Cannon&diff=3572433013: Kedging Cannon2024-11-19T02:06:46Z<p>🦂xKCd🌀: To make the info fit the comic</p>
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<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 3013<br />
| date = November 18, 2024<br />
| title = Kedging Cannon<br />
| image = kedging_cannon_2x.png<br />
| imagesize = 740x259px<br />
| noexpand = true<br />
| titletext = The real key was inventing the windmill-powered winch.<br />
}}<br />
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==Explanation==<br />
{{incomplete|Created by a HEADCANNON - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br />
<br />
One can, in fact, sail upwind -- via the technique known as {{w|Tacking_(sailing)|"tacking against the wind" or "tacking"}}. But the comic presupposes a ship's captain who has never heard of or learned how to tack, and instead has invented his or her own method of moving a ship against the wind -- by repeatedly firing a "kedging canon", {{w|kedging}} being a technique of moving ship in a becalmed sea via, yes, hauling it via a rope or chain. Normally, kedging (or warping) is a rare enough technique that it's applied either manually, by throwing an object and then pulling against it (and often this uses surfaced objects to do so, like trees or reefs) for small ships, or by using a smaller boat to place the kedge anchor and then haul it in. But since the captain sees kedging as the only way to move against the wind, he has invented a cannon for the purpose of sending an anchor a sufficient distance from the ship.<br />
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The title text shows that the inventive captain has been doing this long enough to invent new refinements -- adding a windmill to the process to allow the wind itself to haul in the rope. Which in fact is a not dissimilar process (albeit far more laborious) to how tacking works, with the angled sail moving the ship sideways (and slightly into the wind) as it tacks back and forth.<br />
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==Transcript==<br />
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br />
:[A two-masted sailing ship is floating on the sea. Two tiny figures can be seen at the ship's bow.]<br />
:Captain: I hope someday someone invents a way to sail upwind. Using the kedging cannon just wastes so much gunpower.<br />
:[Close-up on the deck of the ship. Cueball is talking to the ship's captain, who is aiming a cannon containing an anchor.<br />
:Cueball: The ''what?'' Wait, do you not know how to sail upwind? Is that why your ship takes forever to--<br />
:Captain: Stand by...''FIRE!''<br />
:[Distant shot showing the anchor and its rope being launched out in front of the ship.]<br />
:SFX: BOOM<br />
:[The line becomes taut and the ship is dragged forward.]<br />
:SFX: Click click click<br />
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{{comic discussion}}<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]</div>🦂xKCd🌀