The importance of using the wind

I just ran the Battle of Plymouth scenario, with me as the Dutch (as usual) and had the difficulty set to "High". This was a very difficult battle, at least in part to the wind direction, relative to the English fleet. A large factor, is that the English outnumbered the Dutch, and the English had several large ships. The English also had the wind, and that made maneuvering difficult for the Dutch, as they Dutch wanted to close, but wanted to maintain a course that would keep them both in line and at right angles to the English. I ended up having a large number of ships stuck with their bows directly into the wind.

I finally started maneuvering groups of ships, rather than the whole fleet. I finally started to make progress. Eventually, there was a tipping point, where the Dutch started to cause English ships to sink or surrender in large numbers, and then there only remained task of destroying the remaining English ships.

I finally had to individually maneuver Dutch ships to concentrate them on the remaining few English ships. ALL of my ship maneuvering was with "Destination Points". That is vastly superior to just setting a heading. I actually don't understand why that is so much better. I only have a good deal of experience that shows that it is (based on results). A friend had recommended it to me, and I immediately adopted the practice, after testing it.