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"Peter Bennett" wrote in message
news.com...
On 21 Nov 2004 12:18:14 -0800, (Love a
Sheep) wrote:

I am learning to sail and have a few questions. I understand that the
sails can act either as an airofoil (lile an aircraft wing) or like a
parachute where the wind simply blows the sail directly. My question
is this. If the wind is ahead of the beam ie we are sailing windward
then I expect that the airofoil principle must always hold there
otherwise we would be sailing backwards!

True

However, if the wind is aft of the beam on say the starboard side then
surely we have a choice where to set the sails ie they can be on the
starboard side (ie the boom is pointing to the starboard side) where
they act as an airofoil or on the port side where they act as a
'parachute' - is this right or am I missing something. If so which is
best?

No. If the wind is from starboard, and abaft the beam, the sails will
not normally stay out to starboard, as the sheets are rigged to pull
the boom (and jib) into the boat.

It is possible with the wind very nearly dead astern to have the main
and jib on opposite sides - this usually works best with the wind
slightly to the same side as the boom. This is called "sailing by the
lee", and will lead to an accidental jibe if you let the wind get too
far to the same side as the boom (then you will find out why it is
called a boom :-( )

For either the slow, stupid, or stunned, it's called the boom boom.