Outline of sailing

The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to sailing:

Sailing – the use of wind to provide the primary power via sail(s) or wing to propel a craft over water, ice or land. A sailor manages the force of the wind on the sails by adjusting their angle with respect to the moving sailing craft and sometimes by adjusting the sail area.

Overview

Sailing can be described as all of the following:

Exercise – bodily activity that enhances or maintains physical fitness and overall health or wellness.
Recreation – activity of leisure, leisure being discretionary time.^[1]
- Outdoor recreation –
Sport – organized, competitive, entertaining, and skillful physical activity requiring commitment, strategy, and fair play, in which a winner can be defined by objective means.
Transport – movement of people and goods from one location to another.
- Boating – travel or transport by boat; or the recreational use of a boat (whether powerboats, sailboats, or man-powered vessels such as rowing and paddle boats) focused on the travel itself or on sports activities, such as fishing.
- Travel – movement of people between relatively distant geographical locations for any purpose and any duration, with or without any additional means of transport.
- Tourism – travel for recreational, leisure or business purposes.

Types of sailing

History of sailing

Age of Sail

Types of sailing vessels

Sailboat
- Catboat
- Cutter (boat)
- Day sailer
- Dinghy
- Skiff (sailing)
- Keelboat
- Ketch
- Pleasure craft
- Sailing hydrofoil
- Sailing yacht (small)
- Sloop
- Yawl
Sailing ship
- Bermuda sloop
- Clipper
- Junk (ship)
- Ketch
- Sailing yacht (large)
- Schooner
- Sportsboat
- Tall ship

Parts of a sailing vessel

Hull configurations

Rigging

Rigging – apparatus through which the force of the wind is used to propel sailboats and sailing ships forward. This includes spars (masts, yards, etc.), sails, and cordage.

Types of rigs

Rigging components

Standing rigging – the fixed lines, wires, or rods, which support each mast or bowsprit on a sailing vessel and reinforce those spars against wind loads transferred from the sails.
- Backstay
- Bobstay
- Chainplates
- Forestay
- Ratlines
- Shroud
- Stay mouse
- Stays
- Turnbuckle
Running rigging – the components used for raising, lowering, shaping and controlling the sails on a sailing vessel
- Block
- Boomkicker
- Braces
- Buntlines
- Cleat
- Clewlines
- Cunningham
- Downhaul
- Earing
- Fairlead
- Gasket
- Gooseneck
- Gunter rig
- Guy
- Halyard
  - Peak
  - Throat
- Kicker
- Lazy jack
- Outhaul
- Parrel beads
- Preventer
- Spinnaker chute
- Sheet
- Topping lift
- Trapeze
- Traveller
- Vang
General rigging components
- Clevis pin
- Deadeye
- Shackle
- Windex

Types of Spars

Spar (sailing) – pole of wood, metal or lightweight materials such as carbon fibre used in the rigging of a sailing vessel to carry or support its sail. These include booms and masts, which serve both to deploy sail and resist compressive and bending forces, as well as the bowsprit and spinnaker pole.

Sails

Sail a device designed to receive and redirect a force upon a surface area. Traditionally, the surface was engineered of woven fabric and supported by a mast, whose purpose is to propel a sailing vessel.

Types of sails

Blooper
Course
Crab claw
Driver
Extra
Fisherman
Junk sail
Lateen
Lug sail
Mainsail
Moonraker
Parafoil
Ringtail
Rotorsail
Royal
Screecher
Skysail
Spanker
Spinnaker
- Asymmetrical spinnaker
  - Gennaker
Spritsail
Staysail
- Jib
- Genoa
Studding
Topgallant
Topsail
Trysail
Turbosail
Watersail
Wingsail

Sail anatomy

Sail material
- Dacron
- Technora
- Kevlar
- Twaron
Parts of a sail
- Clew
- Foot
- Head
- Leech
- Luff
- Roach
- Tack
- Throat
- Peak

Sailing vessel design and physics

Stability of sailing vessels

Sailing activity

Sport sailing

Sailing (sport) – using sailboats for sporting purposes. It can be recreational or competitive. Competitive sailing is in the form of races.

Types of races
- Fleet racing – involves sailboats racing one another over a set course. It is the most common form of sailboat racing.
- Match racing – racing between two competitors, going head-to-head.
- Team racing – also known as teams racing, is a popular form of dinghy racing and yacht racing. Two teams consisting of 2, 3, or 4 boats compete together in a race, all the boats being of the one class and reasonably evenly matched. The results of each team are combined to decide the winner
Race formats and sailing sport events
- Short course racing
- Coastal/Inshore racing
  - Swiftsure Yacht Race
- Offshore racing
  - Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race^[2]
  - Transpacific Yacht Race
  - Fastnet Race^[3]
  - Bermuda Race
  - Hamilton Island Race Week
  - Chicago Yacht Club Race to Mackinac
  - Governors Cup^[4]
  - South Atlantic Race^[5]
- Oceanic racing
  - Volvo Ocean Race (formerly called the Whitbread Round the World Race)
  - Global Challenge
  - Clipper Round the World Race.
Racing Rules of Sailing