“The Physics of a Push-Me Pull-You Boat”, B. L. Blackford1978 (science)⁠:

The basic laws of mass, energy, and momentum conservation are applied to a novel wind-driven water craft. The resulting analysis is an instructive application of these laws, suitable as an undergraduate physics exercise.

We find a critical condition which must be met before the boat will accelerate against the wind, and we also obtain expressions for calculating the final speed.