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A sailboat on three points of sail The waves give an indication of the true wind direction. The flag gives an indication of apparent wind direction. True wind can also be indicated by a fixed wind indicator (flag, windsock, etc., not attached to the boat or any moving object).
Consequently, a sailboat experiences a wider range of apparent wind angles than does an ice boat, whose speed is typically great enough to have the apparent wind coming from a few degrees to one side of its course, necessitating sailing with the sail sheeted in for most points of sail. On conventional sail boats, the sails are set to create ...
The points of sail clarify the realities of sailing into the wind. One of the points of sail is "Head to Wind." A boat turns through this point on each tack. It is the point at which the boat is neither on port tack or starboard tack and is headed directly into the wind. However, a boat cannot sail directly into the wind, thus if it comes head ...
For a sailboat, point of sail affects lateral force significantly. The higher the boat points to the wind under sail, the stronger the lateral force, which requires resistance from a keel or other underwater foils, including daggerboard, centerboard, skeg and rudder.
A sail is a tensile structure, which is made from fabric or other membrane materials, that uses wind power to propel sailing craft, including sailing ships, sailboats, windsurfers, ice boats, and even sail-powered land vehicles. Sails may be made from a combination of woven materials—including canvas or polyester cloth, laminated membranes or ...
Except for dinghy sailboats and multihulls, most larger sailboats (monohull keelboats) have lead or other heavy materials in their keel at the bottom of their hulls to keep them from capsizing or turtling. The LPS was a part of the Offshore Racing Rules and is used to measure how stable or seaworthy a sailboat is.
Even in sailboats running under engine, the self steering gear can be used to keep the boat heading into the wind to easily set or change sails (exception: sheet-to-tiller principle). As wind direction sensors are used a) a wind vane mounted on an axis being tilted more or less towards the horizon (wind vane self-steering)
The point of origin of net hydrodynamic resistance on the submerged structure of a boat, especially a sailboat. This is the pivot point the boat turns about when unbalanced external forces are applied, similar to the center of gravity. On a perfectly balanced sailboat, the center of effort will align vertically with the center of lateral resistance