“Sailing is relatively cheap as fuel goes, but you’re at the whim of the wind.”
After reading the Patrick O’Brian series you get a feel for how much a sailing vessel was a the mercy of the winds. If the wind is blowing the wrong direction, you can’t even leave harbor, let alone get underway. And then there’s how many crew you need to man the sails. Modern health and safety can’t be too happy requiring sailors to trim sails during a storm.
It’s possible to tack upwind, but it’s not fast. Despite training to do it, I’ve never left a harbor or port under wind power alone.