A Sailor's Important Relationship with the Wind

If you have ever spent any time water in a sailboat your interest in on or near the water, you have experienced a whole new world. Winds can whip up the water's surface into foamy waves in no time. Or lack of wind can leave the surface as smooth as glass. Out on the water in a sailboat your interest in wind and weather grows.

Your ability to accurately sense changes in the wind, its speed and its direction will improve as you learn to sail. This is an important change that will occur as you become a sailor. By Feeling the wind on your face you can tell its direction. Because your boat is so dependent on the wind, your ability to assess its direction and speed is important. In fact, the first step in learning to sail is to increase your sensitivity and awareness of the wind. I wish my first sailing instructor had impressed this point upon me. The most direct way to track the wind is simply to feel it. Your body, especially your exposed face, can feel the exact direction of the wind if you concentrate. Practice "feeling" the wind whenever you can. There is probably no more important first step in learning to sail.

Visual aids can be used to determine the wind direction. By looking at the water we can see waves or maybe tiny ripples. This water motion is caused by the wind and you can determine the wind direction by looking at the ripples which are generated at 90 degrees to the wind. Once you gain more experience, you will be able to assess the wind speed by looking at the water. For example, white caps begin to form on waves at 12 knots of wind speed. Strong water flow or current can also create waves.

Other visual signs include an chored boats which will point into the wind unless there is a strong current. A flag or wind vane on the top of a mast can show the wind; so can a flapping sail which will wave in the wind like a flag. On your own boat short pieces of yarn or cassette tape tied to the wire rigging can provide that critical wind information. The bottom line is that assessing the wind's direction is of utmost importance to sailors.

When you are just starting out you may feel as I did, so inundated with this new world of sheets and sails and bows and reaches, that it is easy to lose track of the all important wind direction. If this happens, relax, and just feel the wind on your face because a sailor's world revolves around the wind and you are going to become a sailor. In this book I will try to keep extraneous information to a minimum. Sure, in time you will learn a lot more than you do in your first few sails. But you have plenty of time and your goal is to learn to sail first.

The Sailor's Language


Your next step is to feel comfortable and at home on your sailboat. As anyone who has read Mutiny on the Bounty or Moby Dick knows, sailing has its own language—terminology that makes it easier to sail a boat. It will take some time before you are comfortable with all of these new terms. Don't force it or get too involved in learning every little name for every little piece on the boat right away. You want to sail the boat, not talk about it. With time and practice you will assimilate this new language and it will become your own.

We will now introduce the major words for parts of the boat and sailing terms that you will be exposed to on your first sail. They will become old friends soon, so just review them every so often until you are comfortable with them. You should know that every sailboat is slightly different in the way it is constructed and designed. You may find that the boat you are learning to sail on has its own special systems or parts that will vary from the generic boat we are using.

Parts of a Boat


Hull: The body of the boat Bow: The front end Forward: Direction towards the bow Stern: The back end Aft: Direction towards the stern Waterline Length: Length of the boat in the water Beam: Sailboat's maximum width Freeboard: Height of the hull above the water Draft: Distance from the water's surface to the bottom of the boat Cockpit: Inside of the boat where the crew sits Centerboard: A pivoting fin that can project down into the water to counteract the force of the sails, preventing side slip Centerboard Trunk: Housing for the centerboard Daggerboard: Same as a centerboard except it slides up and down a vertical slot instead of pivoting. Leeboard: Similar to a centerboard, mounted on the side of the hull Thwart: A structural cross beam in the cockpit Rudder: A movable steering fin at the back of the boat Tiller: The steering arm that moves the rudder Mast: The vertical main pole supporting the sails Boom: The hinged, horizontal pole supporting the bottom of the mainsail Forestay: Forward wire supporting the mast Shrouds (or side-stays): Side wires supporting the mast Standing Rigging: Forestay, shrouds, backstay Mast Step: Fitting in boat upon which mast stands Gooseneck: Hinged attachment point for the boom on the mast Chain Plate: Attachment point for shrouds and headstay on hull Hiking Straps: Foot straps used to lean out (hike out) over the side of the boat Buoyancy Tanks: Airtight compartments that provide flotation in the event of a capsize Hiking Stick: A tiller attachment allowing for easier steering from a variety of seating positions

Sail and Control Terms


Jib: Front sail hoisted on the forestay Main: Primary sail set on the mast and boom Genca: A large jib that overlaps the mast Spinnaker: A balloonlike sail used for downwind sailing Head: Top of sail Tack: Front lower corner of sail Clew: Back lower corner of sail Luff: Front edge of sail Leech: Back edge of sail Foot: Bottom edge of sail Battens: Wood or fiberglass slats inserted into pockets on the sail's back side (leech) to help control sail shape Sheets: Ropes used to control the adjustment or trim of a sail (eg., mainsheet, jib sheet) Halyards: Rope or wire used to hoist sails on masts or on wire stays Lines: Another name for rope Cleats: Fittings of various~designs used to secure ropes Blocks: Rope or wire pulley Traveler: Adjustable system upon which the mainsheet block(s) can slide Fairlead: A block or eye used as a guide to fix the point of trim for a jib sheet Running Rigging: Movable rigging, including sheets, blocks, halyards, lines, etc. Outhaul: Adjustable system at back end of boom securing the main sail clew. Used to adjust the tension on the foot of the sail Downhaul or Cunningham: Rope or mechanical system near the gooseneck used to adjust the tension of the front edge (luff) of the mainsail Shackle: U-shaped metal device used to fasten sails and fittings Boom Vang: Rigging from the boom to the bottom of the mast that stops boom from lifting when reaching and running There, that's not so bad. Remember, it will take you some time to master this terminology. But as you spend time on the boat these terms will become very familiar. So let's leave these terms to review later and get on to what we are really here for?sailing. If you forget an item's name while you are sailing, don't worry about it. You will have plenty of time to learn these new names.

Sailing Terms


Let's go back to the basics ? the boat, the sails and the wind. In case you did not know a sailboat cannot sail directly towards the wind. But by using the lifting forces created by air and water flow over the wing- shaped sails and centerboard a sailboat can sail remarkably close to the wind. On average a modern sailboat can sail within about 45 degrees of the wind direction. This is a big improvement over the square riggers which had a hard time sailing any closer than 90 degrees to the wind. It is not necessary to understand how a sailboat can sail "upwind" (45 degrees to the wind) to be adle to get out there and do it. If you want to learn more about the physics of sailing, take a trip to the library. For the most scientifically inclined there are two books by C.A. Marchaj that explore the subject of the aerodynamic and hydrodynamics of sailing in great depth.

So let's start with the wind direction to orient ourselves and the learn the Points of Sailing. Close Hauled: Sailing "upwind" as close as possible to the wind (about 45 degrees) Reaching: A reach is any point of ail between close hauled and running. Reaching can be divided into three finer points of sailing: Close reach: Closer than 90 degrees to the wind Bean reach: Sailing 90 degrees to the wind Broad reach: Between beam reaching and running Running: Sailing directly downwind with the wind coming from straight behind

Points of Sail


On paper (depicted by a diagram,, the points of sail are easy to see. The challenge is to apply this diagram to the real world on the boat. This is when your ability to feel the wind will be very valuable. As you can see, there is really only a 90 degree sector bisected by the wind direction where you cannot sail a boat (no sail zone). Traveling in any other direction is possible and really quite easy. The main key remains to be aware of the wind direction. The easiest way I know to remember port and starboard is that the word "left" has fewer letters than "right" and so does its nautical term "port" compared to "starboard". To be honest, I have slipped back to using the words right and left on a boat. There is certainly no magic in their nautical counterparts. Port: left side (facing towards bow) Starboard: right side

However, there is one time when the nautical right and left come in handy. That's when we are describing upon which side of the boat the wind is blowing. This boat is sailing on port tack with the wind bowing over the left side of the boat.

As you can see from the diagram, a beam reach can be accomplished with the wind hitting either the right or the left side. To differentiate we introduce the terms starboard and port tack. There are a couple of tricks to determining what tack your boat is on. First is, you guessed it, by simply feeling the wind direction. If it is coming over the left side your boat is sailing along the port tack. Another aid is to see upon what side of the boat the sails are set. If the wind is blowing the mainsail and boom out over the right side of the boat, then you are sailing on port tack. Starboard tack has the opposite feature.