Discussion
Further information: Points of sailThe points of sail clarify the realities of sailing into the wind. One of the points of sail is "Head to Wind." A boat turns through this point on each tack. It is the point at which the boat is neither on port tack or starboard tack and is headed directly into the wind. However, a boat cannot sail directly into the wind, thus if it comes head to the wind it loses steerage and is said to be "in irons." Thus boats sailing into the wind are actually sailing "Close Hauled" (i.e., with sails tightly trimmed).
When one "sails too close to the wind" it is called "pinching." This phrase is also a colloquial expression meaning "to be reckless."
Read more about this topic: Sailing Into The Wind
Famous quotes containing the word discussion:
“Americans, unhappily, have the most remarkable ability to alchemize all bitter truths into an innocuous but piquant confection and to transform their moral contradictions, or public discussion of such contradictions, into a proud decoration, such as are given for heroism on the battle field.”
—James Baldwin (1924–1987)
“If we had had more time for discussion we should probably have made a great many more mistakes.”
—Leon Trotsky (1879–1940)
“What chiefly distinguishes the daily press of the United States from the press of all other countries is not its lack of truthfulness or even its lack of dignity and honor, for these deficiencies are common to the newspapers everywhere, but its incurable fear of ideas, its constant effort to evade the discussion of fundamentals by translating all issues into a few elemental fears, its incessant reduction of all reflection to mere emotion. It is, in the true sense, never well-informed.”
—H.L. (Henry Lewis)