Wind Direction Flashcards
What is True Wind?
True wind describes a wind that is not disturbed by the movement of the boat. Flags on a flag pole show true wind, the weather reporter on TV is reporting true wind.
What is Apparent Wind?
Apparent wind can describe the speed of the wind as your boat moves across the water. With the wind pushing your boat, in theory you eventually sail as fast as the wind and the apparent wind falls to zero. In contrast when sailing into the wind, the speed appears to increase and even the angle of the true wind seems to change.
When sailing and you steer your boat into the wind, this is called?
“Heading up”, or heading into the wind. This will help you pick up speed, or will be the first step in turning your boat via a “tack”.
When sailing into the wind, the mainsail and boom are nearly in line with the boat along the center, what kind of haul are you at?
Close hauled and heading into the wind, sometimes referred to as “beating the wind”.
When sailing downwind, and the boom is swinging out over the side of boat what is the danger in doing this?
An an accidental jibe can occur where the apparent wind can catch the back side of the mainsail and now the boom is suddenly swinging across the cockpit and passengers are at risk of being hit by the boom.
What is the term for steering your boat away from the wind, an action that often feels like you slowing down?
“Falling off”, this is necessary if your sails begin to luff and you’ve lost power. Falling off will re-catch the wind and fill your sail. This action continued, combined with hauling out your main sail will begin a downwind sail.
