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The side of a ship that is towards the leeward is its "lee side". If the vessel is heeling under the pressure of crosswind, the lee side will be the "lower side". During the Age of Sail, the term weather was used as a synonym for windward in some contexts, as in the weather gage. Since it captures rainfall, the windward side of a mountain tends ...
To someone on a vessel, the shore to lee of the vessel is the lee shore, and since that is the shore the wind reaches first, to someone on the shore it is the windward shore. "Lee" historically means "shelter". Standing on the leeward side of the vessel, a sailor observes being blown towards an exposed shoreline by the wind.
Lift on a sail (L), acting as an airfoil, occurs in a direction perpendicular to the incident airstream (the apparent wind velocity, V A, for the head sail) and is a result of pressure differences between the windward and leeward surfaces and depends on angle of attack, sail shape, air density, and speed of the apparent wind.
Astern (adjective): toward the rear of a ship (opposite of "forward"). [9] Athwartships: toward the sides of a ship. [1] Aweather: toward the weather or windward side of a ship. [10] Aweigh: just clear of the sea floor, as with an anchor. [11] Below: a lower deck of the ship. [1] Belowdecks: inside or into a ship, or down to a lower deck. [12]
Conversely, a boat on an upwind course may find itself trapped in the dirty air of a boat immediately to windward. Right-of-way rules give priority to the leeward boat and can make it advantageous to be the boat without the weather gage, especially just before the start or when the boat to leeward can point higher into the wind.
Sailing vessels are unable to sail higher than a certain angle towards the wind, so "beating to windward" in a zig-zag fashion with a series of tacking maneuvers, allows a vessel to sail towards a destination that is closer to the wind than the vessel can sail directly.
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At all times a fleet advancing from windward was liable to injury in spars, even if the leeward fleet did not deliberately aim at them. The leeward ships would be leaning away from the wind, and their shot would always have a tendency to fly high. So long as the assailant remained to windward, the ships to leeward could always slip off. [7]