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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]
The top of a triangular sail, the head, is raised by a halyard, The forward lower corner of the sail, the tack, is shackled to a fixed point on the boat in a manner to allow pivoting about that point—either on a mast, e.g. for a mainsail, or on the deck, e.g. for a jib or staysail.
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 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).
Diagram contrasting course made good to windward by tacking a schooner versus a square-rigged ship. Sailing vessels cannot sail directly into the wind. Instead, square-riggers must sail a course that is between 60° and 70° away from the wind direction [76] and fore-and aft vessels can typically sail no closer than 45°. [77]
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 ...
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An optional adjustable tack-line can be eased to allow the tack to lift, enabling the sail to also lift and its shoulders to rotate for deeper downwind angles. Depending on the design and size of the boat, sail and position of the tack, asymmetrical spinnaker sheets may be led to pass between the spinnaker and the headstay or, alternatively ...