It definitely isn't fast but it's not as slow as people make it out to be. The whole "I could set course and go make a sandwhich and come back and I'd still be sailing toward my goal" is a pretty big exaggeration.
You do need your sail equiped in order to move quickly, otherwise you're dead in the water and holding R makes you move forward at an insanely slow pace (so that you can more acccurately use the grappling hook to drag up treasure).
The particular user I was talking made a big deal out of how awful and slow the sailing was, but they finally admitted they weren't using the sail, they were just holding R the entire time. That's like walking in Mario 64 and never running.
You do need your sail equiped in order to move quickly, otherwise you're dead in the water and holding R makes you move forward at an insanely slow pace (so that you can more acccurately use the grappling hook to drag up treasure).
The particular user I was talking made a big deal out of how awful and slow the sailing was, but they finally admitted they weren't using the sail, they were just holding R the entire time. That's like walking in Mario 64 and never running.