Points of sail describes a sailing boat's course in relation to the wind direction.
There is a distinction between the port tack and the starboard tack. If the wind is coming from anywhere on the port side, the boat is on port tack. Likewise if the wind is coming from the starboard side, the boat is on starboard tack. Except when head to wind, a boat will be on either port or starboard tack while on any point of sail. For purposes of the International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea and the Racing Rules of Sailing, the wind is assumed to be coming from the side opposite that which the boom is carried.
Read more about Points Of Sail: No-go Zone, In Irons, Close Hauled, Reaching, Running Downwind
Famous quotes containing the words points of, points and/or sail:
“He is the best sailor who can steer within the fewest points of the wind, and extract a motive power out of the greatest obstacles. Most begin to veer and tack as soon as the wind changes from aft, and as within the tropics it does not blow from all points of the compass, there are some harbors which they can never reach.”
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“The dominant metaphor of conceptual relativism, that of differing points of view, seems to betray an underlying paradox. Different points of view make sense, but only if there is a common co-ordinate system on which to plot them; yet the existence of a common system belies the claim of dramatic incomparability.”
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“Senta: These boats, sir, what are they for?
Hamar: They are solar boats for Pharaoh to use after his death. They’re the means by which Pharaoh will journey across the skies with the sun, with the god Horus. Each day they will sail from east to west, and each night Pharaoh will return to the east by the river which runs underneath the earth.”
—William Faulkner (1897–1962)