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Tacking or coming about is a sailing maneuver by which a sailing craft (sailing vessel, ice boat, or land yacht), whose next destination is into the wind, turns its bow toward and through the wind so that the direction from which the wind blows changes from one side of the boat to the other, allowing progress in the desired direction. [1]
However, under sail on a given tack, the corner to which the spinnaker sheet is attached is called the clew, and the corner attached to the spinnaker pole is referred to as the tack. [20] Tack – The tack is the corner on a fore-and-aft sail where the luff and foot connect [8] and, on a mainsail, is located where the boom and mast connect.
A tack is the windward side of a sailing craft (side from which the wind is coming while under way)—the starboard or port tack. Generally, a craft is on a starboard tack if the wind is coming over the starboard (right) side with sails on port (left) side. Similarly, a craft is on a port tack if the wind is coming over the port (left).
Velocity made good, or VMG, is a term used in sailing, especially in yacht racing, indicating the speed of a sailboat towards (or from) the direction of the wind. [1] [2] The concept is useful because a sailboat cannot sail directly upwind, and thus often can not, or should not, sail directly to a mark to reach it as quickly as possible.
Points of sail and approximate apparent wind for a conventional sailboat on starboard tack. A point of sail is a sailing craft's direction of travel under sail in relation to the true wind direction over the surface. The principal points of sail roughly correspond to 45° segments of a circle, starting with 0° directly into the wind.
A sail plan is a drawing of a sailing craft, viewed from the side, depicting its sails, the spars that carry them and some of the rigging that supports the rig. [1] By extension, "sail plan" describes the arrangement of sails on a craft. [2] [3] A sailing craft may be waterborne (a ship or boat), an iceboat, or a sail-powered land vehicle.
True wind (V T) is the same everywhere in the diagram, whereas boat velocity (V B) and apparent wind (V A) vary with point of sail. Forces on sails result from movement of air that interacts with sails and gives them motive power for sailing craft, including sailing ships, sailboats, windsurfers, ice boats, and sail-powered land vehicles.
The ship is close-hauled and the sail is now controlled by the tack rather than the sheet. The tack of a square-rigged sail is a line attached to its lower corner. [1] This is in contrast to the more common fore-and-aft sail, whose tack is a part of the sail itself, the corner which is (possibly semi-permanently) secured to the vessel.