Every sport has its own language, and sailing has more than most. Here is the start-line vocabulary, the points of sail, and the racing rules you will meet in your first few races, without the gatekeeping.
A starter set of the terms that matter most in SailMOB. The full glossary lives inside the game, where every term pops up right when you need it. Jump in and see them in action.
Port is the left side of the boat as you face forward; starboard is the right.
a boat on starboard tack almost always has right of way, which is why "Starboard!" is the loudest word on the course.
Windward is the side the wind hits first; leeward is the sheltered side the wind blows toward.
when two boats overlap, the leeward one usually has rights over the windward one.
Which side the wind is coming over. Starboard tack means the wind is over the starboard side; port tack means it is over the port side.
knowing your tack tells you instantly who has right of way in a crossing.
The roughly 45-degree wedge straight upwind where a boat cannot make power and the sails just flap.
steer in here and you stall. Bear away to fill the sails and get moving.
Sailing as close to the wind as you can while keeping the sails full and the boat moving.
your upwind gear, the angle you hold on every beat to the windward mark.
Sailing with the wind hitting the boat square on the side, at about 90 degrees.
usually the fastest, easiest point of sail.
Sailing with the wind coming from behind and off to one side.
fast and stable, and where an asymmetric spinnaker really lights up.
Sailing dead downwind, with the wind straight behind you.
often slower than a broad reach, because the apparent wind drops away.
The real wind over the water: the speed and direction you would feel standing still.
this is what the weather is doing, no matter how fast you sail.
The wind you actually feel on a moving boat, a blend of the true wind and the wind your own motion creates.
it shifts forward as you speed up, which is why you trim in as you accelerate.
A wind shift that swings against you and forces you to steer away from the mark.
get headed and it is often the cue to tack onto the lifted side.
A wind shift that lets you point closer to the mark without changing course.
a free shortcut. Stay on the lifted tack and ride it.
A patch of stronger wind moving across the water, often visible as a dark ripple.
spot them early and use them to accelerate.
The patch of disturbed, slower air a boat leaves downwind of its sails.
park a rival in your shadow to slow them, and stay out of everyone else's.
Velocity Made Good: how fast you are actually closing on the next mark, once your sailing angle is taken into account.
fast in the wrong direction loses to slower and pointed right. The HUD shows it live.
The line you can sail straight to a mark on your current tack without tacking again.
hit it too early and you overstand, sailing extra distance for nothing.
Turbulent, slowed air in the wake of another boat's sails.
sit directly behind someone and your speed bleeds away. Find a clear lane.
Tacking just ahead and to leeward of a rival so your bad air blows back over their sails.
one of the strongest attacking moves upwind. It forces them to tack away.
Staying between a rival and the next mark, or the wind, to keep yourself ahead.
the classic move when you are leading and want to stay there.
The boat with rights holds its course; the other boat has to keep clear.
starboard over port, leeward over windward. The whole fleet sails by it.
The circle three boat lengths out from a mark, where mark-room rights lock in.
whether your bow is ahead of a rival's the moment you reach it decides who gets room.
The room an inside boat is owed to round a mark, if it had the overlap entering the zone.
win the overlap early and you can lock a rival out of the rounding.
On Course Side: over the start line early, before the gun.
you have to dip back and restart, which can cost you the whole first leg.
A spin of the boat, one or two full turns, taken to clear a foul instead of being scored out.
costs a few boat lengths, far cheaper than a disqualification.
Trying to force in at the committee-boat end of the start line with no room and no right to it.
almost always ends in a foul. Do not be that boat.
Reading is one thing. Calling for room at the zone with three boats on your hip is another.
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