Outline: A way of explaining why you stay with your boat in a capsize.

I’ve always wondered in that film Cast Away why Wilson wasn’t reachable by Tom Hanks in that famous man over board scene (and why people were getting emotional over a volleyball).

This is actually a really good example of why people end up chasing boats at the gybe mark in windy weather and it’s also the principle on which that underwater parachute like Sea Anchor works.

1. From a stationary boat at anchor, let a mark float away with the students observing.
   
2. Ask them what two things are moving the mark and what one thing is slowing it down. (Wind, Tide, Underwater Drag)
   
3. Follow the mark in the boat and throw over another similar one and ask why are they going at the same speed. ( The Wind, Tide, Underwater Drag are the same on each one)
   
4. Put a different size mark in with the first two.
   
   Ask why they move at different speeds. (Windage / Underwater Drag ratio is different)
   
   Have a mini tugowar onboard with a piece of rope. Call one team “windage above the water” and the other “drag below”. The Drag team just hold back and don’t pull. Explain how the wind and the water drag are always having this tugowar. Explain how the bigger the surface area or windage, the more people on the windage team and the faster it’ll be pulled across the water. The more surface area below, or Drag,  the slower it’ll be pulled across the water.
   
   If you can think of a simpler analogy I’d use it!
   

Another way to demonstrate this is to tie on a load of buckets to the back of someone’s boat when they’re sailing. They should feel the difference.

Here's some diagrams I made to help explain: