Trimming the jib on a bream reach

[Todd Smith]

Joe,

I got a couple of philosophical questions for you, because you seem so adamant about using True Wind to define a Point of Sail.

1) do you consider a POS a precise condition ?

I have always used terms such as "close hauled", "close reach", "beam reach", "broad reach", "downwind" as loose terms describing a range of apparent wind.
"Close hauled" and "dead downwind" are the only ones that have exact definitions.

The reason I use POS defined by apparent wind is that I use POS as a guide to discussing sail trim. Only any boat, the sail trim for a "beam reach" will be similar. But if we define "beam reach" as relative to the true wind, then on the slow boat I might have an 80 deg AWA ( apparent wind angle ) and on the fast boat have a 40 deg AWA. This would require very different sail trim.

2) Do you consider POS more as a navigation aid or a sail trim aid ?

Thanks
Todd

 

[FourPoints]

I have always considered POS to be a description of where the boom is positioned, or should be positioned for a given tack, which would clearly be in accordance to the AWD. Using my logic, any tack that equates to the end of the boom being over the boat cannot be a beam reach, it is at most a close reach, or more commonly close hauled. Conversely, any tack that required the end of the boom to be over the water falls somewhere between DDW and a near reach.

I know a near reach is not a commonly accepted point of sail, but growing up I was taught by my father (who back in the 70's did 2 single handed trans-atlantic crossings, and at least one trip south of the equator, so he's no idiot) that the points of sail were Close Hauled, Close Reach, Near Reach, Beam Reach etc. The "Close" meaning the boom is still over the boat, aka it's still "close" to the helmsmen, and a near reach is once the boom is over the water, but not too much, aka it's still near the helmsmen, but not close to him anymore. The definition of the transition from a near reach to a beam reach was always a little fuzzy...

2) Do you consider POS more as a navigation aid or a sail trim aid ?

I think the confusion has stemmed from the fact that he does use it more for navigation than sail trim, where the rest of us use POS to define sail trim...

And just for the record, US Sailing does define Point of Sail from AWD, not TWD

http://www.smallboat.sailingcourse.com/points_of_sail.htm