(image src: https://pixabay.com/vectors/sailing-diagram-points-of-sail-26589/)

The points of sail are named wedges of a pie oriented by the direction of the wind.   So if the wind is coming from the east, you couldn’t sail east as you would be In Irons and sailing north or south would have you on a Beam Reach.     There are no sailboats that can sail directly into the wind.   Modern sail and hull technology has improved our ability to sail close hauled up to only a few degrees off the wind.

If you drive by a marina or cross a bridge on a sunny day you will almost assuredly see scores of bermuda rigged sloops, the most popular configuration for recreational sailboats.    A sloop is a sailboat with a single mast towards the center of the boat.  The Bermuda Rig sail plan is when you have triangular sails fixed to the mast.    Each little variation changes things up; rig two foresails in front of the mast and your sloop is now a cutter for instance.

Each additional mast and where it’s located also changes the sailboat type.  A second shorter mast to the stern (rear) of the boat and you’re sailing a ketch or yawl.   Move that second shorter mast up front instead and you’re in a schooner!  Move the main central mast to the fore (front) and you are in a catboat.   These variants give you different handling characteristics in different wind and they all have their place.

The main difference in sailboat rigging comes down to square sails vs triangular/wing sails.   When sailboats were first invented square sails were the rage, they catch the wind and the more of them you have the more wind they can catch.  A fully rigged tall ship with 4 masts can hold so many sails!  With all of them deployed you can move downwind hauling a great deal of cargo.

Referencing our points of sail above a square rigged ship can sail on a broad or beam reach or running but not a close reach or close hauled.  If a square rigged ship wants to move upwind it needs to wait for the wind to change or engage in difficult manual means like kedging; using the anchor to drag the ship forward a few dozen yards at a time.

This is the beauty of the bermuda rigged sail.  Functioning like an airplane wing this sail plan works with the boats keel to pull the boat into the wind; bermuda rigged boats sail better against the wind than with it!  By tacking (sailing in a zigzag pattern) these boats can sail indirectly upwind.  The wind pulling forward on the sails wing shape instead of pushing against offers greater control and more safety for the crew as the boom swings during these course changes.  This was a major game changer for sailing ships and is the reason this sail plan dominates today;  as long as there is wind you can get to your destination.

The next generation of sailing ships like those seen in world cup racers utilizes an inflatable or fixed edge sail allowing for sailing almost directly into the wind, just a few degrees off vs the 22° or so you might get with your average sloop.   The closer these ships can sail into the wind the more advantage they have on different legs of a race so every degree is hard fought for.

boat speed is measured in knots (kn) and is fixed at  1.852 km/h.   Per wikipedia “A vessel travelling at 1 knot along a meridian travels approximately one minute of geographic latitude in one hour.”

Most vessels measure this via gps these days but the old school method was to drop a small piece of wood tied to a line with knots in it over the stern (rear) of the ship and count how many knots were payed out over 30 seconds.   This was remarkably accurate and reliable method of measuring a ships speed!

I’m including this because it’s something many people may have heard in popular culture and might want to know what it’s about.

Heaving To is a parking maneuver that works in all but the roughest seas.  Sometimes you want to stop your boat; maybe a man overboard or the navigator needs a celestial fix.

It’s different for each sail plan but basically you position your sails and rudder so that some of the wind pushes, some of the wind pulls and any forward movement causes the ship to turn into the wind, stopping that movement.  This effectively keeps the ship in place or moving forward very slowly.

This is one of the most delightful things I learned about sailing and knowing the why helps with remembering the which.    When the portugese were first inventing modern sailing, the ships did not have a rudder or helm.   Instead a person would stand off to the starboard (right) side of the stern (back) and use the steorbord, old english for Steer Board, which was just a long funny looking oar.   Because the steorboard operator always stood on the right when a ship would come to port they would always approach the dock with the clear left (port) side of the ship.   Over time these labels stuck so even though we no longer use a steorboard to steer our sailboat (we use a rudder) the names port and starboard have stuck.   To remember you can use the mnemonic

Is there any Port wine Left?

You may have noticed jaunty lines on the hulls of sailboats right about at water level.  Sometimes these are decorative or used to hide hull marks but most sailboats have at least one painted line called the waterline.  This line should exactly match the actual line of water when the ship is loaded and trimmed perfectly.  If your waterline is underwater your ship is overloaded.  If the waterline is underwater at the stern and above water at the bow you might need to shift cargo forward, etc.   Some commercial ships will have additional lines for the legal weight limit and such.

if you go to the hardware store and buy some rope to rig something on your boat, the moment you put it on the boat it ceases being a rope and becomes a line.  It’s said by old salts that the only ropes on a ship are on the ships bell and the life ring (and various other small non sailing exceptions).   If you call the line a rope other sailors will give you shit it’s part of the culture.

lastly, this isn’t really limited to sailboats and is mostly in fact commercial vessels but you might be interested in https://www.marinetraffic.org/marine-traffic a site where you can see a lot of real time ships traffic globally.  I learned about some amazing canals China had with this and it’s really interesting to track hurricanes and such by seeing where the boats go.  Sometimes you see some exceptionally brave or stupid captains that sail right through the hurricanes and it always makes me wonder what’s going on.