Boating and Sailing.pdf - Moja ladja

The Points of Sail
Chapter 23: How to Tell the Main from the Jib: A Sailor’s Vocabulary
A sailboat’s heading in relation to the wind is everything in sailing. No boat can sail
directly into the wind, and going directly downwind is, surprisingly to initiates, not the
most efficient course unless you break out a special sail called a “spinnaker” (which we’ll
talk about in Chapter 26, “Handling Your Sailboat”).
The headings in relation to the wind have a set of names (doesn’t everything in sailing?)
that you will want to be familiar with. They’re shown in the following figure.
No Sail Zone
45°
Wind
Run
45°
Close-hauled
Broad reach
Close reach
Beam reach
The terms for the points of sail—the boat’s heading relative to the wind—are shown in this
diagram. Note that all points of sail crossing the wind are known as “reaches,” while the
point of sail heading into the wind at about 45 degrees or less to the wind direction is known
as a “beat.” Note, too, the position of the boat’s sails in each heading.
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