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:
“Type of the wise, who soar, but never roam—
True to the kindred points of Heaven and Home!”
—William Wordsworth (1770–1850)
“Sometimes apparent resemblances of character will bring two men together and for a certain time unite them. But their mistake gradually becomes evident, and they are astonished to find themselves not only far apart, but even repelled, in some sort, at all their points of contact.”
—Sébastien-Roch Nicolas De Chamfort (1741–1794)
“For half a mile from the shore it was one mass of white breakers, which, with the wind, made such a din that we could hardly hear ourselves speak.... This was the stormiest sea that we witnessed,—more tumultuous, my companion affirmed, than the rapids of Niagara, and, of course, on a far greater scale. It was the ocean in a gale, a clear, cold day, with only one sail in sight, which labored much, as if it were anxiously seeking a harbor.... It was the roaring sea, thalassa exeessa.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)