An Optimal Control Problem Arising in Sailboat Trajectory Optimization

We formulate the optimal control problem for a sailboat that seeks to reach an upwind buoy, under the hypothesis that the wind speed is constant and the wind direction is a Brownian motion. The yacht moves in R² and the target is a ball of radius η ≥ 0 centered at the origin. The yacht can be subject to a tacking cost c≥ 0. We consider three control problems depending on the value of the parameters: the first one corresponds to the case η =0, $c=0$, the second to the case η >0, $c=0$, and the third to the case η ≥ 0, $c>0$. We define the control problems, and prove that their value function is finite. We guess the optimal strategy A^ for η ≥ 0, $c=0$. The process controlled by A^ has non continuous and unbounded coefficients near the origin, so the standard results on existence and uniqueness of a strong solution do not apply. We provide a proof using the Yamada-Watanabe argument.