Point of sail

The principal points of sail roughly correspond to 45° segments of a circle, starting with 0° directly into the wind.

At the same time, the resistance to sidewards motion needed to keep the craft on course also decreases, along with the sideways tipping force.

The angle encompassed by the no-go zone depends on the airfoil efficiency of the craft's sails and the craft's lateral resistance on the surface (from hydrofoils, outriggers, or a keel in the water, runners on ice, or wheels on land).

To recover, that craft typically must return to its original tack and pick up sufficient speed to complete the maneuver.

[5][6] The span of the no-go zone depends on the efficiency of a sailing craft's sails and its resistance to sideways motion in the water (using a keel or foils) on ice or on land, typically at an angle between 30 and 50 degrees from the wind.

[11] Pinching occurs as a craft's point of sail approaches the no-go zone and its speed falls off sharply.

The higher a vessel that can point into the wind, the shorter its "course made good" to an upwind destination.

[4] Wind is flowing over the surface of the sail, creating lift (like a wing) to propel the craft.

[4] A sailing craft running more downwind than a broad reach cannot attain a speed faster than the true wind.

However, as long as it can sail faster than 1.4 times its dead downwind speed, the indirect route will allow it to arrive at a chosen point sooner.

[4] For a sailboat, point of sail significantly affects the lateral force to which the boat is subjected.

The higher the boat points into the wind, the stronger the lateral force, which results in both increased leeway and heeling.

Leeway, the effect of the boat moving sideways through the water, can be counteracted by a keel or other underwater foils, including daggerboard, centerboard, skeg and rudder.