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What this video covers

The commander of the Cisne Branco, the Brazilian Navy's tall ship, explains the vessel's sailing characteristics in an interview conducted partly aloft in the rigging. The Cisne Branco is a replica of a 19th-century tea clipper, built with a narrow, hydrodynamically fine hull designed for speed on broad reaches.▶ 0:10 Its square sails generate strong drive downwind but limit upwind performance; the commander puts the closest pointing angle at roughly 40–50 degrees to apparent wind.▶ 0:09 Cruise planning uses 5–6 knots as the baseline speed, though the ship has sustained over 14 knots under sail in favorable conditions.▶ 2:50 In strong winds, the crew reduces to lower, more robust sails to protect the rig.▶ 2:50 The lateen sails contribute meaningfully to upwind work and improve overall stability in mixed sail combinations.▶ 2:02 Host Adriano Plotzky climbs the shrouds to a yard, noting the increasingly narrow footropes and the need for gloves on the wire.▶ 4:18 The commander, who served aboard as a lieutenant on the ship's first crew and returned as commanding officer, describes the posting as professionally and personally transformative, citing the volume of voyages and the intensity of shipboard life.▶ 6:24

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