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Tacking or coming about is a sailing maneuver by which a sailing craft (sailing vessel, ice boat, or land yacht), whose next destination is into the wind, turns its bow toward and through the wind so that the direction from which the wind blows changes from one side of the boat to the other, allowing progress in the desired direction. [1]
A tack is the windward side of a sailing craft (side from which the wind is coming while under way)—the starboard or port tack. Generally, a craft is on a starboard tack if the wind is coming over the starboard (right) side with sails on port (left) side. Similarly, a craft is on a port tack if the wind is coming over the port (left).
The points of sail clarify the realities of sailing into the wind. One of the points of sail is "Head to Wind." A boat turns through this point on each tack. It is the point at which the boat is neither on port tack or starboard tack and is headed directly into the wind. However, a boat cannot sail directly into the wind, thus if it comes head ...
If the destination is upwind but the sailboat goes fastest heading away from this direction, this poses a significant problem: how to choose tack headings with the best tradeoff between maximimizing speed and minimizing distance. The ability to define an efficient tacking route is an important issue in sailboat racing, and for recreational sailing.
The tack of a square-rigged sail is a line attached to its lower corner. [1] This is in contrast to the more common fore-and-aft sail, whose tack is a part of the sail itself, the corner which is (possibly semi-permanently) secured to the vessel.
A sailing vessel that is hove to is still, for the purposes of the collision regulations, on a defined tack. Therefore, unless other considerations dictate differently, it is helpful to heave to on the starboard tack, in order to be a "stand-on vessel", as per the regulations. [4]: 327
However, under sail on a given tack, the corner to which the spinnaker sheet is attached is called the clew, and the corner attached to the spinnaker pole is referred to as the tack. [20] Tack – The tack is the corner on a fore-and-aft sail where the luff and foot connect [8] and, on a mainsail, is located where the boom and mast connect.
Tacking or coming about is a maneuver by which a sailing craft turns its bow into and through the wind (referred to as "the eye of the wind" [56]) so that the apparent wind changes from one side to the other, allowing progress on the opposite tack. [57]