Those of you already familiar with the rudiments of sailing can skip this post, but landlubbers may find it useful. I realize this will be very elementary for sailors, and perhaps incomprehensible for lubbers, but part of my reason for writing this is to exercise my ability to teach the material without using illustrations. If I get sufficient positive response from you guys, I’ll expand this theme into a second post on storm tactics and heavy weather sailing. If it is just boring you to tears, simply don’t respond and I will get the hint.

For purposes of this discussion, let us assume the wind is blowing steady from the north, 000 degrees. The compass has 360 degrees, so N is 0, E is 90, S is 180, W is 270, and N is both 360 and 0.

Running

If you want to travel S, downwind on a course of 180, then the wind will be behind you. This is the easiest point of sail to understand, the boat simply drifts downwind. The sails are trimmed in such a way that they are deployed as far from the centerline of the boat as possible to catch the wind. In a modern sloop rig, this means the foresail (jib) is allowed to balloon out, and the mainsail will be pushed out so the spar that is fastened along the bottom of it, the boom, is at right angles to the centerline of the boat. The boat is said to be running free, or running. If the wind is directly behind you, you may even choose to have the jib on one side of the boat and the main deployed to the other side, a condition called “wing-and-wing”. Or you can even fly a spinnaker, a specialized downwind sail rigged forward like a big parachute to drag you along as fast as possible.

You would think the boat goes fastest while running, but this is not the case. Indeed, sailors generally don’t like sailing directly downwind. The boat wallows in the waves, is hard to steer in a straight line, and can easily wander left or right, causing the foresail to spill the wind and the boom to violently swing across the deck to the opposite side, potentially causing injuries or damage (a gybe) and causing the boat to turn broadside to the wind and lose control. In light winds, this can be embarassing. In heavy weather, it can cause a capsize, or even send the boat straight to the bottom. Running in a storm is very dangerous since the boat’s speed is subtracted from the wind’s, you get the impression the weather is calmer than it really is. An accidental gybe can suddenly get you in real trouble, knocked down with wind and wave hitting you broadside. There are times when you may deliberately want to execute a controlled gybe, and steer the boat in such a way as to keep the deck under the boom, but this requires the utmost skill on the part of the crew, particularly in a stiff breeze.

Reaching

A boat is said to be reaching when the wind is coming from the side, or beam. This is the point of sail where the boat goes fastest, is easiest to steer, and is most stable. The sails are hauled in closer to the centerline until they work most efficiently. If the wind is more from the back (abaft the beam) its called a broad reach, if it is coming from forward of the beam, a close reach. With the wind directly on the beam it would be a beam reach. In our N wind example, you would be sailing a broad reach if you were on a SE or SW course. The wind is said to be “on your quarter”. A boat’s fastest point of sail is a broad reach. A beam reach would be the situation if you were traveling E or W. Incidentally, if the wind is on your left (when facing forward) the boat is said to be on the port tack (noun) and the sails fill to starboard. If the wind is on your right and the sails fill to port, its on the starboard tack. The act of switching from one tack to another is also called a tack (used as a verb).

If the wind appears to be coming from forward of the beam, the boat is on a close reach (because it is getting close to the wind). In our example, a boat traveling a course of 280 would be on a close reach, starboard tack. One traveling 080 would be close reaching on the port tack.

Pointing

In a close reach, the boat is traveling to windward,somewhat against the direction of the wind. However, no boat can travel directly into the wind. In fact, there are courses to the left and right of due N that a boat simply cannot go. Most modern racing rigs, optimized for windward sailing, can get no closer than 45 degrees off the wind, so in our example of a N wind, the courses between 315 and 360, and between 0 and 045, are simply not an option.

The hardest maneuver to master in sailing is making good time in the zone between a close reach and pointing (getting as close as possible) to the wind. This is also called beating, or beating to windward. A vessel that is pointing has its sails hauled in as close to the centerline as possible, to sail as close to the wind as possible, until the boat either starts to slow down unacceptably, or the sails start to luff (lose their grip on the wind, and begin to flutter). Any closer and the boat luffs, or stalls. Pilots will recognize that term, its the same principle. A sail is just an airfoil.

The faster a boat goes the closer it can get to the wind (until you get to that point, roughly 45 degrees E or W of N, where the sails start to luff. This is the most exciting time for sailors, the boat is carrying as much sail as it can, it is pounding through the water and heeling at an extreme angle, everything is taught and humming and dripping wet and the crew is working like demons to cheat the wind as much as they can, taking advantage of every little wave and roll and windshift to slide along that invisible wall of wind that says, “No Mas”. A boat beating to windward is close-hauled, its sails are hauled in as close as possible to the boat’s centerline. It is comparable to an aircraft climbing as quickly as possible.

Tacking

Sometimes the wind won’t let you go N, but you need to travel that way. You then have to tack. or come about, and put the boat on the opposite tack in order to zig-zag your way northwards. A boat that is tacking N is alternating courses between NE and NW. How often you come about depends on the circumstances.

To tack, you turn the boat into the wind from a point or close reach, let its momentum carry you across the wind, while you release the sails and make them fast on the other side of the boat. When the boat comes on the new tack, or new course, the jib flops over to the other side, fills up and helps pull you around, the main snaps over and fills and provides power, you trim the sails for max efficiency and proceed. It is a time when the skill of the skipper and crew is on display for everyone to see. A cleanly executed tack is a marvelous thing to behold; smartly done it is a crisp and elegant maneuver, with sails and lines thrashing about and the crew all assholes and elbows on deck. The boat slows momentarily, then heels, settles down on the new tack with no wallowing or oversteer, and begins to accelerate. You always lose ground while coming about, the trick is to lose as little as possible, and if you “miss the tack”, the boat is stuck facing the wind, unresponsive to rudder commands, and the sails flogging violently and destructively against the rigging. A boat stuck this way, into the wind, is said to be “in irons”, or “taken aback”. It is sailing backwards.

Wearing

When coming about, the alternative to tacking is gybing. Modern fore and aft rigs are much easier to tack, but there are still circumstances when you may need to gybe, particularly in light air, although it becomes progressively more difficult and dangerous in stronger winds. In the old square riggers, it was the only way they could come about. It was called “wearing”.

When wearing ship, you didn’t turn into the wind, you fell of the wind, rushed downwind from a beat to a reach to a run and then continued back on the new tack from run reach and point again. The vessel described almost a full 360, bringing the wind across the stern, with the wind helping the crew to keep the canvas off the spars and to drag the yards onto the new tack.