'Points' of Sailing

(Refer to this Diagram (Click on the word) while reading this page)

"Points of Sail" basically means the direction a boat is sailing with respect to the direction of the wind.

Sailing boats cannot sail directly into the wind. If you sail ‘too close’ to the wind the sails will flap and the boat will stop.

Beat: A beat is as close to the wind as you can get. With most modern sailing boats it's at about 45 degrees to the wind. On a beat the mainsail should be close hauled (pulled in as tight as possible so the boom lines up with the boat) and the daggerboard should be fully down.

You can move upwind by beating on one tack and then changing to the other. This is known as tacking. As the boat tacks its bow points at 45 degrees to the wind direction and moves to point directly into the wind and carries on moving until it points at 45 degrees to the wind direction, but on the opposite tack.

Close Reach: Anything between a reach and a beat. Mainsail and daggerboard are at positions between those described for these two directions.

Reach: Sailing perpendicularly (i.e. at 90 degrees) across the wind. The mainsail (i.e boom) should be at about 45 degrees to the boat and the daggerboard should be half raised.

Broad Reach: Sailing at a slightly downwind angle across the wind direction. The mainsail should be let out a bit more than 45 degrees and the daggerboard should be a bit more than half way up.

Training Run: Moving downwind, but not directly downwind. The sail no longer acts like a wing but more like a parachute, catching wind. The mainsail should be let out to 90 degrees and the daggerboard should be all the way up.

Dead Run: Moving directly downwind. The mainsail should be fully out to one side or the other – you should be holding the end of the mainsheet. It doesn’t matter on which side the sail is - on a dead run both sides are equally fast. The daggerboard should be fully up. When you're on a run it feels as if the wind has dropped; it hasn't, you're just traveling with it.

Running by the Lee: This is a training run with the mainsail on the windward side of the boat. The boat will still move forward but there is a danger of gybing accidentally. This can happen if a slight alteration of course to windward is taken or if the wind shifts direction slightly and gets behind the sail. The advantage of running by the lee is that it's faster than an ordinary training run.