Point of sail
direction of travel under sail relative to true wind direction over surface
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. For many sailing craft 45° on either side of the wind is a no-go zone, where a sail is unable to mobilize power from the wind. Sailing on a course as close to the wind as possible—approximately 45°—is termed beating, a point of sail when the sails are close-hauled. At 90° off the wind, a craft is on a beam reach. The point of sail between beating and a beam reach is called a close reach. At 135° off the wind, a craft is on a broad reach. At 180° off the wind (sailing in the same direction as the wind), a craft is running downwind.
A given point of sail (beating, close reach, beam reach, broad reach, and running downwind) is defined in reference to the true wind—the wind felt by a stationary observer. The motive power, and thus appropriate position of the sails, is determined by the apparent wind: the wind relative to an observer on the sailing craft.
“Point of sail” enters the record as direction of travel under sail relative to true wind direction over surface. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Point, sail and direction can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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This entry incorporates text from “Point of sail” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.